About to pull the trigger on the Y50, but I have a few last questions

I have decided I want the i5 because they are cheaper, cooler, and not going to be much weaker than the i7. I do not want the 4k screen, because I heard it is locked at 48fps (can somebody confirm these don't have the 4k screen), and I will most likely replace the screen anyway.

[The version with the 8gb SSD is $999 on new egg]( Lenovo Y50 - Gaming Laptop - Newegg.com)

[The version without the SSD is $879]( Lenovo Y50 (59428533) Gaming Laptop Intel Core i5 4200H (2.8GHz) 8GB Memory 1TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2GB 15.6" Windows 8.1 64-Bit - Newegg.com)

Is it worth paying 120 extra for the 8gb SSD? I've been considering getting the one without it and buying a separate SSD to replace the HDD, which would cost about 200 I think.

The screen is supposed to be bad, but as long as it isn't the 48fps one, I might find it acceptable. If it's really bad, I can replace it for cheap.

The last question I had was about stuttering while playing games and random shutdowns. I've heard some people mention this happening, but I wanted to know if it is a widespread problem or if it has been resolved.

Also, with the release of the new nvidia cards, can I expect the price to drop significantly in the near future, or is this a good enough price to jump on now?

Thanks for the help!

 

Get the one without the 8gig SSD and replace it with a bigger SSD for almost the same price

 

Will there be a space inside the laptop where the 8gb SSD would be where I can add my own SSD and keep the HDD in there? From the guides I saw, it sounded like people were replacing th HDD with an SSD, but if I could add an SSD instead of replacing, that would be ideal.

 

It is NOT a dedicated 8GB SSD. It is simply a 1TB standard HD hybrid drive that can cache up to 8GB. Honestly, after years of SSD use, it sucks. I got mine on newegg when it was around 850 a few weeks ago, and I finally gave in and ditched the hybrid drive and replaced it with a proper SSD. It went from being slow to boot, load games, shutdown, to being like a higher end gaming laptop. I am totally happy with the i5, and I say this coming from many years of i7 use. It is just not a noticeable difference in any games I play or anything else I do using the laptop.

I would not spend 1 cent extra to get the hybrid drive because I would highly recommend either replacing it, or just using a normal HD since it wasn't any faster in my opinion.

 

Oh okay! I understand now! Now I just need to figure out what the optimal size for an SSD would be. I have a 1 TB external harddrive that I can keep at home with most of my media, so I will probably stay with 256-512 GB.

Have you had any problems with random shutdowns or stuttering while playing games?

 

I haven't had any issues like that since putting in the SSD. I did have some odd issues like a 3 min cold boot time, and I never did figure out why. People said it takes a few reboot cycles to get the right files cached so it helps the OS boot and run faster. Honestly after a couple weeks and probably 100+ reboots I never saw any increase in boot speed.

I used clonezilla to copy the partitions over to the SSD and I never had any more issues so I can only blame the slowness on the stock hybrid drive, not the Windows install. The win 8 "fast startup" is about 6 seconds now, which is awesome IMO.

 

That's a relief! I just ordered the Y50 i5 with 1 TB HDD for $879 and a Crucial MX100 512 GB SSD to replace the HDD for $210. For $1090 total, I think I got a great machine.

 

not sure whyd you get a dual core over a quad, if money was a issue I understand as for heat my i7 4710mq never goes above 60c full load

 

Yeah, think about it. This processor is NOT replaceable. So, if 2 years from now you wish you had the i7.. well that's all it can be is a wish. Also maybe in 2-3 years from now, your Y50 is still trucking along, but only with a dual core i5 instead of the quad i7. I would rather spend more and get the i7.

 

The i5 4200H and i7 4700HQ literally have the exact same Themal Design Power (TDP) of 47W. You'll see no difference in temperatures with the dual core chip, it'll just be slower.

 

When it comes to comparing how hot processors run, there are more things to take into account than just the TDP.

My i5-520M has a smaller TDP than my 4700MQ, yet runs much hotter.

 

This seems false. Ive disabled cores on my quad, it runs significantly cooler using only 2 or 3 cores.

How much TDP the socket supports might differ from how much the CPU actually uses under max load, but this will still depend on clocks and undervolting.

 

Consider the fact that the i5-4330M has the same base clock and a 100MHz higher boost clock than the i5-4200H and is only 37 watt TDP..... I would assume the i5-4200H is rated at 47 WATT TDP so that it can maintain boost longer.

It MAY have the capability to get to the same temperature as the i7, but it will take far longer and is not seen in real world results from what I have read.

Throttling does not seem to be an issue with the i5.