In Thailand and the laptop I took (old Vaio) started to die, HDD on the way out, failing memchecks on memory errors etc.
So I went in search of something that would not break the bank, be a suitable upgrade, play some games and be available in Thailand. Don the Lenovo Y460. My spec - 500Gb HDD, i5 540M, 4GB Memory, 14" (1366x768) LED, Mobility 5650 (Switch-able) Win 7 Ultimate 64bit.
Picked the unit up today (along with a load of freebies and a really nice Lenovo case) got Win 7 installed which took all of 30 minute and started to build/configure it.
This thing is a beast and I love all the little aesthetic touches such as the illuminated 'ideapad' branding on the palm rest. It's well put together, the keyboard has GREAT feedback and the multi-touch touchpad is nothing short of perfect.
I have 3 minor gripes about the overall physical design that the location of the right hand side USB ports and the charging port. The latter is on the right and the USB ports on the part of the body closest to you...a bit of a nuisance when you plug in a mouse, you could use the other side but my laptop mouse comes with a short cord. The third thing is that the Fn and Ctrl keys are swapped, I am going to see how I get on and if I get used to it, if not there is a modified BIOS which swaps them around. Not the end of the world.
Performance, well - it flys. The 540m is a killer chip and the Radeon Mobility 5650 has taken everything in it's stride. Bad Company 2 in native res (1366x768) with 1xAA and 2xAF with everything at medium not only looks great on the screen but is smooth as silk.
Anything on the Source engine runs great and well, I doubt there is much other than the absolute latest Dx11 games you might need to run a mix of med/low.
Overall I am very very pleased for what works out to be £600 laptop in the switch-able graphics 14" sector.
If anyone has any questions then fire away.
So I went in search of something that would not break the bank, be a suitable upgrade, play some games and be available in Thailand. Don the Lenovo Y460. My spec - 500Gb HDD, i5 540M, 4GB Memory, 14" (1366x768) LED, Mobility 5650 (Switch-able) Win 7 Ultimate 64bit.
Picked the unit up today (along with a load of freebies and a really nice Lenovo case) got Win 7 installed which took all of 30 minute and started to build/configure it.
This thing is a beast and I love all the little aesthetic touches such as the illuminated 'ideapad' branding on the palm rest. It's well put together, the keyboard has GREAT feedback and the multi-touch touchpad is nothing short of perfect.
I have 3 minor gripes about the overall physical design that the location of the right hand side USB ports and the charging port. The latter is on the right and the USB ports on the part of the body closest to you...a bit of a nuisance when you plug in a mouse, you could use the other side but my laptop mouse comes with a short cord. The third thing is that the Fn and Ctrl keys are swapped, I am going to see how I get on and if I get used to it, if not there is a modified BIOS which swaps them around. Not the end of the world.
Performance, well - it flys. The 540m is a killer chip and the Radeon Mobility 5650 has taken everything in it's stride. Bad Company 2 in native res (1366x768) with 1xAA and 2xAF with everything at medium not only looks great on the screen but is smooth as silk.
Anything on the Source engine runs great and well, I doubt there is much other than the absolute latest Dx11 games you might need to run a mix of med/low.
Overall I am very very pleased for what works out to be £600 laptop in the switch-able graphics 14" sector.
If anyone has any questions then fire away.
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