Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 Laptop: i5 3230M 2.6GHz CPU, 6GB DDR3, 1TB HDD, Dual NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M SLI, 15.6" LCD (1920x1080), Backlit Keyboard, WiFi N, 6 Cell, Win 8 $900 + Free ship

Quote from missgord : i hate anyone who makes a new computer without a solid state drive

Unless you are going to pay a premium for that MSata SSD companies going have to make a profit somehow.

how is this a deal? DUAL GPU... must have like a 45minute battery life.

Don't see this as a deal. Sorry.... and I love to game.

I have a 670m... I wonder which is faster?

Quote from joshuaNH : how is this a deal? DUAL GPU... must have like a 45minute battery life. Don't see this as a deal. Sorry.... and I love to game. I have a 670m... I wonder which is faster?

From the benchmark I saw 650m SLI is faster than 670m, but if games have poor SLI profile or none at all then 670m. Poor SLI profile will bring poor results and no SLI profile only utilize 1 gpu.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVID...953.0.html

Quote from RiceyFighter : Unless you are going to pay a premium for that MSata SSD companies going have to make a profit somehow.

Whatev, there are 256gb ssd's all over sd for like $160, so i refuse to believe they're worth the ~$400 upgrade price that most computer manufacturers are charging

Quote from RiceyFighter : From the benchmark I saw 650m SLI is faster than 670m, but if games have poor SLI profile or none at all then 670m. Poor SLI profile will bring poor results and no SLI profile only utilize 1 gpu. http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVID...953.0.html

I have an Asus BEAST 17.3"... i7 3rd gen, 670m, two harddrives (OS on SSD and the other is 1TB), all this for 870.00 about four months ago (purchased befoer black friday).

I just don't see this being a deal.... sorry.

I purchased this laptop around Christmas -- important information below!

There is a major touchpad problem with the Y500. There is a ~100 page thread on their forums about it here [lenovo.com]. Basically, the touchpad on certain models randomly fritzes out and becomes totally unusable, and the solution is almost always to reboot.

This problem may or may not be fixed, but even after Lenovo acknowledged the hardware problem, they continued to ship units known to be defective.

The touchpad is also generally crap. It is the cheapest feeling piece of plastic you coud imagine, and the click action is loud and unnatural, like the board game Trouble. You can even feel the touchpad bend as you press down. It also has about a millimeter of give to it that makes it emit a tapping noise every time your finger lifts and then lands again as your navigate with the clickpad.

This device does not support Optimus. Even though the computer does contain both the nVidia card and the integrated Intel card, they've totally bypassed the Intel integrated card. You cannot utilize Optimus to save power and you cannot use WiDi because of this.

The keyboard is nice enough. The screen is better than some I've seen on other recent laptops, but it's still way worse then my Dell Studio from 5 years ago. The display cannot tilt back very far, and the hinge is more flimsy than I'd like. The speakers are the nicest I've heard on a laptop -- even beats the new Dells with their separate subwoofers. I'm sure there are better, but these are very nice.

Battery life was about 5 hours on normal usage.

I think there's only one USB 3 port -- keep that in mind.

The overall build quality is a bit shoddy. The touchpad, the hinge.... The lid on mine doesn't close evenly -- there's a slight gap on the left side. There's also a bend in the machine which is noticeable when the lid is close and leaves a gap in the middle. I can't tell if that's intentional or just poor workmanship. There's a seam that runs along the top of the base (the keyboard area), which attracts dust and crumbs and I've heard the gap in the seam increases over time.

Overall, it's good specs for the price, if you get one with a working clickpad. If you can live with the worst clickpad you'll ever use, and if the small things (like no Optimus, bad display hinge, mediocre display quality, and only a single USB 3.0 port) don't bother you, then it's a good laptop.

I'll try to answer any questions you might have.

Quote from missgord : Whatev, there are 256gb ssd's all over sd for like $160, so i refuse to believe they're worth the ~$400 upgrade price that most computer manufacturers are charging

That is different, that is using the hard drive sata port for SSD. Most manufacturers will use MSATA SSD then put in a hard drive for additional storage.

MSATA SSD are extremely expensive compared to SATA SSD.

For those that keep talking about the processor being a problem.. Stop. It won't affect gaming. (maybe 0-4 fps), not worth the extra $150 for an i7.

Quote from randomchaos : For those that keep talking about the processor being a problem.. Stop. It won't affect gaming. (maybe 0-4 fps), not worth the extra $150 for an i7.

Wrong. That processor will bottleneck on CPU intensive games. For GPU intensive games it won't matter. You might see a hit on major RTS game and several newer games like Mechwarrior Online.

I give the battery life 10 seconds.

Quote from jpalmerlee : I bought a similar model, the 580, and I bought a new SSD... I had so many problems trying to get the OS over I just ended up using a different Windows 7 key. I'd advise against it if you want to use the OS that comes with it.

Quote from jpalmerlee : UEFI . Basically did not like it at all, and the OS is some "OEM Version" that can't be activated on anything else. They include NO installation CD or material, so basically you can only restore from Windows 8 itself. OEM Windows 8 is worse than Windows ME! I I cant believe I said that.

Quote from dubleo : Can't you use an Acronis imaging program or something similar and clone the HDD and restore it onto the SSD ( and then do the SSD optimizations)?

Quote from mxhoang : What issues did you have in migrating the OS? Serial keys?

For anyone considering buying a Lenovo Windows 8 laptop, then replacing the HDD with an SSD and wanting to move Windows 8 over, I recommend you read this thread here [eightforums.com] to do it. That is the "official" solution that we found when I made a thread here [eightforums.com] and realized that there didn't exist a solution for my problem yet. That was due to the newness of Windows 8 though. However, it's still a pain to deal with, and the problem stems from Microsoft not giving us the installation discs.

Man. The amount of ignorant rant and complains on this topic is pathetic. You do not get a gamin laptop for long battery life but never the less, this has 3 hrs battery.

mSata aren't extremely expensive.
http://slickdeals.net/f/5837034-C...-Superbiiz

And i5 is more than enough, games are not cpu bound. Unless you need to transcode video or do some serious number crunching, you don't need an i7. It will only make the battery life shorter.

As for build quality, Y series isn't the premium line so don't expect it to be great.

is the i7 good deal too? no one seems to be mentioning it.

This is the cheapest Gaming laptop ever...

Always plug in while gaming