Lenovo Y50- sshd and brushed aluminum

[BlueNostromo]

Hey guys, just purchased a Y50
1080p
860m 2gb - i7 4700hq
8gb ddr3 - 1tb sshd

1. Will i see any performance gain from an sshd over a hdd for game load times and system "snappiness"?

2. Has anyone found a way to deal with brushed aluminum?! I'm not a fan of how it picks up fingerprints. Matte clear coat maybe? - sorry if that sounds dumb.

3. What do you guys think about the Y50 as a school productivity and gaming machine?

 

[Witchdoctor]

I bought one for my son four years ago

he is graduating in December.

While I was disappointed with the gaming performance of then a top end mobil GPU, if memory serves it was a 570M

It did the job at conservative settings on the gaming side. Now pretty much useless for newer games

boots in 13 seconds and yes was pretty snappy , still a great unit to this day for productivity type work

I am a believer in the Y50 series and the price point they hit. Certainly a sweet spot , next stop 2K for a ROG or MSI gamer

Brushed aluminum, get over it, better than my plastic Think pad

 

[sobe]

I have a Y50 I picked up earlier this year and it has been superb for my uses for productivity as well as playing GTA V and other titles. I plan on swapping the 1tb sshd out for a 500GB Crucial BX100 here shortly though.

 

[BlueNostromo]

The one i purchased should have the 860m inside which should do much better at gaming

 

[sobe]

Yep, I have the 860M model myself and it does fine for the latest titles for me as a mobile platform. The only downside is the screen quality is kinda, well, its crap. Good thing is you can change it out rather easily for an IPS screen which I am looking at doing for my Y50 Touch model. I don't use the touchscreen anyway, so I'm sure there's a way to get a screen to fit fine.

 

[BlueNostromo]

I'm not much of a screen junkie. Idk if the one i bought is touch but thatd be sweet

 

[Witchdoctor]

Sure you will be happy with it

 

[BlueNostromo]

Thinking about a vinyl wrap. I wish they did the soft touch rubber/plastic all the way around like the Asus G series

 

[BlueNostromo]

Does any one know if a matte clear coat would work for brushed aluminum? Or should i be asking a case modder's forum

 

[sobe]

You can use whatever coat you'd like, the question is, is that what YOU like? That's the only real concern when modding something.

As for the inquiry, you can use whatever wrap for it be it plastic or aluminum.

 

[BlueNostromo]

Well I believe I would like a matte clear coat, as long as it will stick fine and what not! Just wondering if anyone knows how well it will adhere

 

[BlueNostromo]

ALSO! Last question and Ill stop giving you all notifications. Do you guys think it would be worth it to get a WD Black2 Dual Drive over the sshd, or should the sshd make the OS & programs like my internet browser snappy and quick to respond? (This is coming from someone who has an all SSD based PC.)

 

[sobe]

The Black2 uses a 120GB SSD and a 1TB 5400 drive that are simply "mated", when you first install the drive all you will see is the 120GB SSD, you use a driver found on WD's Black2 product/support page to "unlock" the 1TB mechanical portion of the drive. An SSHD uses cache whereas with the Black2, you get an actual SSD alongside a 1TB HDD. Purely my opinion, but I see more benefit from a drive like the Black2 than an SSHD.

Keep in mind of course that the SSD will not be as fast as other drives currently found on the market, but in regards to snappiness, should be near unnoticeable between it and an mainstream SSD.

 

[Dlaw]

In my opinion, the only upgrade that would be worth it for you as far as the storage drive is concerned, is to actually get an SSD. I can't imagine the Dual Drive would really be worth messing with (the SSD part can't be all that great, right?), and the hybrid drives aren't nearly as responsive as an SSD would be, especially considering boot times and infrequently used programs.

-Edit-

I unless I'm missing something with the WDB2.

 

[sobe]

The issue is that the Y50 has a single 2.5" slot for storage, so for what you get the Black2 offers a lot in a small package that works great for laptops. Personally I plan on throwing a Crucial BX100 500GB in my own simply because I prefer the brute speed of SSD, but for around $130 an 120GB SSD + 1TB HDD in a 2.5" package is pretty nifty giving you the best of both worlds for a lappy like the Y50 which only has room for a single unit of storage.

The SSD of course is slower than say picking up a Samsung EVO unit or a Crucial BX unit, but the speeds are similar to those found on a Crucial M500, but the added bonus of having 1TB of HDD space as well.

 

[BlueNostromo]

I looked it up and i believe the read is around 380mb/s and write is 150mb/s. Not too bad - between an intel 320 and 520