I know most of you are thinking "a laptop? get a gaming PC instead!", but since my wife and I need 2 computers and we only have one right now (and a crappy laptop), getting a PC would mean a new monitor, new desk and peripherals and also would require a lot more space in the apartment, so so it would cost a similar amount of money as a laptop.
I was looking at Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 ( http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=81912&promoid=1488#Specifications ) and it seems like a great deal. According to benchmarks it is a really fast laptop, especially for the price and it has 1080p screen, which I'd like to have, coming from 1366x768 resolution... But since my knowledge about computer parts comes mostly from internet and no real experience, I'd like to hear some opinions from you, people that have a lot more hands-on experience with recent/gaming machines. One thing that concerns me is that I read about unlocking BIOS on it is something a lot of people do, but is it that bad even without unlocking it? What would be the cons of having it stock?
Short version:
Is this a good gaming laptop and/or would you recommend something better/faster in the same price range?
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=81912&promoid=1488#Specifications
Personally, I'd go with this one:
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Battalion_101_W350STQ_Gaming_Laptop
It comes with a GTX 765M, which is based on the GTX 650-Ti (768 CUDA Cores). Much faster than the GTX650M in the Lenovo, and much better suited for 1080p gaming. I can tell you first hand that the GTX 650 desktop part (both mobile and desktop parts have 384 CUDA Cores), even OC'd to 1159MHz, isn't quite enough to push 1080p with some details. I usually have to drop settings to about medium-low to get fluid gameplay. It also ups the CPU to haswell, and there is currently a sale with storage (personally, I'd get the 750GB 7200RPM). It should come out to about $1091, so it's a little more initially, but it's significantly faster, and comes with Grid2.
I think you're missing the fact that Lenovo comes with 650m in SLI and the laptop you linked to comes out at $1,158.00 with shipping included, before tax. That's a bit more than I'd like to spend and I haven't found anything that would be faster than 2x650m's in a low 1000$ range.
Honestly, I don't mind lowering resolution when playing games, I just want the 1080p for when I'm not playing (I'd use the laptop for multimedia/coding/everything), but is there anything that could surpass an SLI config of this Lenovo? I don't mind if laptop is 17", if that means the price is lower (rarely the case though).
P.S I'm in Canada
You could go with sager/clevo. xoticpc.com do great deals, and I have found a laptop you may be interested in: http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8230-clevo-p151sm1-p-5840.html?wconfigure=yes
of course there are the 17 inch version that will set you to $1327 here: http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8290-clevo-p177sm-p-5838.html?wconfigure=yes and http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8270-clevo-p170sm-p-5913.html?wconfigure=yes
(the difference is the p177 is the 'bling' version, it is personal preference if you want the flashing lights)
Although these are base configuration it does offer a single gtx 770m within the low $1000 range, and I have looked at the specs and the gtx 770m beats the sli 650m by around 2000 points in 3Dmark11, which is pretty impresive.
hope this has helped!
Wow, those are indeed nicely spec'd laptops and they look good too! Unfortunately, the shipping is 55$ and it's puts it around 200$ above the Lenovo's price. The 17" don't seem to offer any performance boosts over the 15", so Idk if I'd pay an extra 200$ for a bigger screen, it all adds up quite a bit...
I think I might save up some more money and possibly get the Sager/Clevo, got the xoticpc bookmarked, you were very helpful! :)