Dell 15R vs Lenovo Y580

Radeon962

Senior member
Jan 1, 2005
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Looking for a laptop for my son for college. He wants a 15.6” and does not have an issue with the 1366x768 resolution. He plays games, but pretty much just Shogun 2 and similar type games. No real shooter type games, so I would think that the HD 4000 integrated graphics would be fine for these types of games, but not positive.

These are two that I have been looking at. Obviously the Y580 is a stronger machine

Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 - $849 (direct from Lenovo)

15.6" 1366x768 LED; Intel Core i7-3610QM 2.3GHz Quad-Core Ivy Bridge; 8GB RAM; 500GB HDD; DVD burner; 802.11n + bluetooth + gigabit; Windows 7 Home Premium; NVIDIA Geforce GTX660M 2GB; webcam; 6-cell battery; 1yr warranty; USB 3.0

Dell Inspiron 15R - $649.99 (Costco)

Intel Core i5-3210M (3rd Gen) 2.5 GHz; 8GB DDR3; 1TB (5,400 RPM); 8x DVD; 15.6" 1366x768; Intel HD Graphics 4000; Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 + Bluetooth 4.0; 10/100/1000 Network Card ; Integrated HD 1.0MP Webcam with Digital Mic; Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); MS Office Home & Student 2010 Full Version; 6-cell Lithium Ion Battery

Lenovo charges tax is most locations, so I’m assuming tax is a wash and shipping is free.

Dell is from Costco so there is the ability to return for 90 days pretty much no questions asked at my local store. Dell includes Full Version of MS Office.

Lenovo is Core i7 and has the GTX 660M.

Neither has SSD, but could upgrade either. Is one easier to swap out the hard drive than the other and/or could I add an SSD.

Just looking for some thoughts on others who may have picked up the 15R or Y580 and what your opinions may be.

The Y580 seems like slightly overkill as a low or reasonably price gaming laptop seems like an oxymoron assuming that the HD 4000 graphics seem to be reasonable to run most games on reasonable settings at 1366x768.

Thanks, Bill
 

xapo99

Member
Jun 14, 2012
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www.thelucidnutritionist.net
I buy stuff from Costco here in the UK too, the convenience of being able to wade back in and change it if there is an issue is so good, it is sometimes worth paying more for. Seeing as Dell are notoriously bad for meeting delivery dates, getting one from Costco is a good idea anyway.

If you can find one an Acer 5755G with the 'older' i7 2370QM CPU and 630M is a good machine, likely to be discounted...

Plus because the resolution is a limiting factor the 630m still performs very well, I OC'd mine to '550m' speeds and it plays BF3 on medium settings with 40fps. However, my friend with a similar Acer but with an i5 only gets 30 fps so the quad makes the difference in that game.