Best bang for the buck gaming laptop?

[fuzzybabybunny]

Would it still be the Lenovo Y500 series with the built-in SLI nVidia cards?

 

[stateofmind]

no, the newer Y510p

but you might want to wait for the upcoming Lenovo Y50 with an IPS display and probably a GTX 860M which is currently an unknown with a guess on a gtx 765m rebrand, maybe with some improvements (like the desktop GTX 750 vs GTX 650)

Competitors might also be available

 

[nwo]

CyberpowerPC Fangbook Evo HX6-110 Intel Core i7 4700MQ(2.40GHz) 8GB Memory 1TB HDD 15.6" Notebook Windows 8.1

or

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p (59388313) Intel Core i7 4700MQ(2.40GHz) 8GB Memory 1TB + 8GB SSHD Hybrid Drive 15.6" Notebook Windows 8

Personally, I would go for the CyberpowerPC because it has a single GPU which is almost as powerful as the dual GPU setup on the Lenovo. That way you don't have to worry about SLI scaling.

Here is an MSI GTX 765M laptop for $50 more:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152406

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

made into a new post

 

[jefeweiss]

As of right now the top spec model Y510p is on sale for ~$1,200 with coupon code CARNIVAL at Lenovo.com. That $450 off, making it even more attractive on a bang for your buck basis.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

As of right now the top spec model Y510p is on sale for ~$1,200 with coupon code CARNIVAL at Lenovo.com. That $450 off, making it even more attractive on a bang for your buck basis.

Isn't the Y510p always like $1200 though?

 

[stateofmind]

around $900 for the I5 SLI version and around $1000-$1050 for the I7 version

 

[jefeweiss]

Hmm, I guess that isn't that great a deal from Lenovo.

That thing is dirt cheap for what you get, although I'd be concerned about ongoing driver support, etc. I've had problems with Optimus support over time from Asus and I'd hate to think what SLI would do to that.

 

[DooKey]

At $1199 this Cyberpower is a steal. I have one myself and it's a great gaming laptop.

It's based upon an MSI chassis.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834198037

 

[stateofmind]

At $1199 this Cyberpower is a steal. I have one myself and it's a great gaming laptop.

It's based upon an MSI chassis.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834198037

compared to the regular price - yes. Compared to the Clevo chasis - no. They are not as good with thermals as the Clevo. The difference is not that big, especially if you can arrange for an OS

+ the Y510p will be faster for gaming

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

I just picked up a y510p from newegg, this model:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834313740

I already dropped in a Samsung Evo 840 and I have 16gb of crucial CL9 ram on the way. The build quality is pretty good, The cooling, though, well....

I was not able to get it to throttle under any circumstances, including prime95+ furmark. However, it was in the 90's. I ran the latest 3DMark suite from the demo, which forces the non-benchmark demos and monitored temps. CPU varied from 60-75, the 755 on the same heatsink was around 70 and the ultrabay 755 varied from 70-84. All acceptable, imo. Although I'd love to crack this baby open and repaste the thing, a few people around the internet have done it and say their temps are significantly improved.

 

[stateofmind]

You should use nvidia inspector to limit the temps a bit - You can set them to be lower and it will automatically undervolt the GPUs

You should also limit the CPY to 2.4GHZ constant if you ask me. It won't get much over it anyway, under 3D load

 

[Enigmoid]

I just picked up a y510p from newegg, this model:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834313740

I already dropped in a Samsung Evo 840 and I have 16gb of crucial CL9 ram on the way. The build quality is pretty good, The cooling, though, well....

I was not able to get it to throttle under any circumstances, including prime95+ furmark. However, it was in the 90's. I ran the latest 3DMark suite from the demo, which forces the non-benchmark demos and monitored temps. CPU varied from 60-75, the 755 on the same heatsink was around 70 and the ultrabay 755 varied from 70-84. All acceptable, imo. Although I'd love to crack this baby open and repaste the thing, a few people around the internet have done it and say their temps are significantly improved.

That is pretty good. Laptops are always warmer than desktops.

 

[Dannar26]

I have a y410p. This thing gets real hot under load...

 

[nwo]

+ the Y510p will be faster for gaming

That cyberpower laptop is a steal! GTX 770m + 16GB of RAM + quad core i7 for $1200!? Wow!

A single GTX 770m is only 14% slower than GTX 755m SLI, even if you get full SLI scaling with the GTX 755m SLI. It will also probably draw less power and run cooler since it's a single GPU and you won't have to worry about scaling/SLI issues.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-770M.88995.0.html

 

[phantom404]

That cyberpower laptop is a steal! GTX 770m + 16GB of RAM + quad core i7 for $1200!? Wow!

A single GTX 770m is faster than GTX 755m SLI, even if you get full SLI scaling with the GTX 755m SLI. It will also probably draw less power and run cooler since it's a single GPU and you won't have to worry about scaling/SLI issues.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-770M.88995.0.html

Am I looking at that wrong or does that link you posted show 755M SLI 14% faster then the 770m?

I have the Y510 and love it. Only games I've tried so far are Guild Wars 2, dota2, WoW, SWtoR and Tomb Raider..all ultra settings and they run great! The left and right sides do get pretty warm where the video cards exhaust their heat. Love the overall size and the build quality of the laptop.

 

[nwo]

Am I looking at that wrong or does that link you posted show 755M SLI 14% faster then the 770m?

You're right. I read it wrong. 755m SLI is 14% faster than the 770m according to the link I provided earlier.

 

[Dannar26]

Well, don't go with Lenovo. The cd tray popped out and never popped back in. It's a literal fight to get this thing to hook into the wifi on base here. It has inconsistent boot times. Sometimes it takes forever, when it's normally pretty snappy. And now the USB ports have stopped functioning since I tried to attach a card reader.

The overall build quality is quite cheap, and the system gets hot easily. When it wants to work, it works well. But it often doesn't. I have only had this laptop since February, and have used it sparingly since I am in military training. The times I do use it are frought with problems. Thank god I've got my galaxy S 4. How is it this tiny little cell phone is more reliable than a full on desk top computer.

No matter. Who here has advice on how to return this thing? I'm beyond the return period, and I don't feel like struggling with it. Here in training, it's nit easy to ship it to and fro until they get it right...

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

Well, don't go with Lenovo. The cd tray popped out and never popped back in. It's a literal fight to get this thing to hook into the wifi on base here. It has inconsistent boot times. Sometimes it takes forever, when it's normally pretty snappy. And now the USB ports have stopped functioning since I tried to attach a card reader.

The overall build quality is quite cheap, and the system gets hot easily. When it wants to work, it works well. But it often doesn't. I have only had this laptop since February, and have used it sparingly since I am in military training. The times I do use it are frought with problems. Thank god I've got my galaxy S 4. How is it this tiny little cell phone is more reliable than a full on desk top computer.

No matter. Who here has advice on how to return this thing? I'm beyond the return period, and I don't feel like struggling with it. Here in training, it's nit easy to ship it to and fro until they get it right...

Where did you buy it from? I got my y510p from newegg and I am a Premier member, so I sent it back free of shipping and am not paying a restocking fee. How long have you had the laptop?

My initial benchmarking and testing was totally wrong regarding temperatures and throttling.

I sent mine back because Lenovo really screwed up the "thermal engineering" on this model. less than 2 minutes of prime95 to throttling, less than 2 minutes of furmark to throttling, both of them together throttled very quickly. And the ultrabay 755M would heat up to 97 degrees in real games, like Metro 2033 and Diablo 3. Not to mention the heat that rose out of the keyboard while idle.

I'm hoping the y50 was designed better, because just like the y510p, there isn't another laptop that has everything I want in one package and costs less than $2000. They've got two fans and two heatsinks for one GPU and the CPU, instead of a shared heatsink/fan for GPU/CPU and a seperate heatsink on the SLI GPU. Only reviews will tell once they release it, though. And that 4k screen had better be IPS, if it's Pentile I think I'm going to go burn Lenovo's corporate HQ down.