Lenovo Y510p Replacing Hdd On Ssd

Lenovo has launched the IdeaPad Y510P line of gaming laptops. The name of the novelty shows that the laptop has something in common with the IdeaPad Y500 model and even more. Notebook Y510P has a nice design and functionality of its predecessor. But, despite the outward similarity of both laptops, the inside of the Y510P is significantly different from the Y500. The laptop received a 4th generation Intel Core processor (Haswell) and a new discrete graphics card, the NVIDIA GT 750M (in the tests we put another GT 750M graphics card in an additional compartment and they worked in SLI mode). After such an upgrade, the Y510P received a significant increase in performance and, naturally, increased in price. A model in this configuration costs about 1600 and finally left the budget and mainstream categories. Is an increase in productivity worth the money? Let’s try to answer in this review.

The tested Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P has the following specifications:

• Display. 15.6 inches, resolution 1920 x 1080, gloss;
• CPU. Core i7-4702MQ 2200 MHz;
• Two NVIDIA GT 750M graphics cards (each has 2 GB GDDR5);
• RAM 16 GB DDR3;
• Storage subsystem. 1 TB HDD (5400 rpm) and 24 GB SSD;
• Wireless Modules Intel Centrino N-2230 and Bluetooth 4.0;
• Dimensions 36.8 x 24.2 x 2.5 cm;
• Weight. 2.8 kg;
• Battery. Lithium-Ion, 6 cells;
• Recommended cost in the basic configuration 1330 (in the considered conf. 1600);
• Warranty. 1 year;
• OS Windows 8 64 bit.

Assembly and design

The appearance of the case of Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P almost completely repeats the Y500. The laptop has a brushed aluminum cover. The lower half of the body is made of thick plastic. The display surrounds a glossy frame.

The dimensions and weight of the IdeaPad Y510P make it much lighter and more compact than laptops in this class. Gaming laptops with a 15-inch display weigh an average of 3.5-4 kg. So, the IdeaPad Y510P is quite compact and mobile. The durability is excellent. the result of the combined use of plastic and metal in the chassis design. The lid is slightly sagged when pressed, but the image on the display is almost not distorted. In general, the laptop will transfer transportation perfectly.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P offers the user a set of ports that will satisfy the needs of almost all categories of users. The images below show all laptop ports.

Left side: VGA, Ethernet, HDMI, two USB 3.0 ports.

Right side: headphone and microphone jacks, two USB 2.0 ports.

Using the same chassis design, as in the case of the Y500, Lenovo retained the functionality of the so-called ultrabay. This additional compartment is located on the right side of the chassis. Thanks to this, the user can connect various additional components. In this case, an additional NVIDIA GT 750M graphics card was connected to the Y510P through the bay. But you can also choose a fan, HDD or optical drive.

It is worth saying that the versatility of this compartment is somewhat limited. Only certain Lenovo accessories work with it, and other cards and other components will not work with it. This is a serious limitation on upgrading laptop components. In principle, the replacement of components is quite simple: you can replace any component or battery.

Display and speakers

Notebook Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P has a display with a diagonal of 15.6 inches and LED backlight with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The display gives a clear image and rich color, partly due to the glossy finish. In general, it is good for watching movies and running games.

The display offers large viewing angles vertically and slightly smaller vertically. The glossy finish, as always, is susceptible to lighting conditions and attracts dust and fingerprints. However, in conditions of normal indoor lighting, there are no problems.

Lenovo equipped the IdeaPad Y510 with a pair of JBL speakers, which are located above the keyboard in the right and left corners. Their power is enough to fill the middle room with sound. In games, the sound is clear and bass is even distinguishable.

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard is made in the style of Chiclet and has a red backlight. The keys are square in shape and are located at a certain distance from each other. Using the keyboard is convenient, the keys have a normal course and return, quickly returning to their place. Lenovo claims that the Y510P keyboard will not let gamers down in games and will ensure accuracy and speed of clicks in the midst of gaming battles.

The Y510P touchpad is quite spacious and runs on synaptic drivers. It is a pity that there are no physical analogues of mouse buttons. Instead, the keyboard has just a small marker at the bottom, which defines the boundaries for left and right mouse clicks. The surface has some depression in the touchpad area. Fortunately, the touchpad handles multitouch gestures quite normally.

The Y510P touch panel does not create any problems during operation and well records all clicks and carries out positioning. Although for some, a smooth rubberized surface can create difficulties when performing certain tasks, for example, highlighting part of the text.

Powerful specifications of the laptop allow you to perform almost all tasks and run any application. Web surfing, text editors, Excel. The IdeaPad Y510P handles all of this effortlessly. The laptop has enough memory to work with many applications at the same time without loss of performance. In this test, the laptop was also equipped with two NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics cards, so graphics processing was not a problem for him. The second graphics card in SLI provided a decent performance boost.

Y510P allowed to run BioShock Infinite at maximum settings and provided an average fps of 30 frames per second. Testing was also conducted in Call of Duty Black Ops II, which has SLI support. At maximum settings, the Y510P laptop provided 87 frames per second. In general, Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P allows you to run all modern games, but the performance gain from the second GPU will be noticeable only on those that support working with SLI arrays.

The Y510P has a 1TB hard drive along with a 24GB SSD. This small solid state drive contains an OS, which improves performance and reduces boot time. True, with an SSD of such a small volume, you should not expect a significant increase in speed. After all, all the programs and data are still contained on the main hard drive.

The following laptops were chosen as rivals for the IdeaPad Y510P:

Benchmark wPrime (the lower the value, the better the result):

PCMark 7 is a relatively fresh test that allows you to evaluate the performance of the system as a whole (the higher the value, the better the result):

3DMark 11. benchmark with which you can evaluate the performance of the graphics subsystem (the higher the value, the better the result):

Crystal DiskMark utility is designed to determine the main characteristics of drives (left SSD, right HDD).

Heat and noise

The fan of the Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P laptop is located on its left. Like other gaming laptops, it can not be called quiet. A weak hum comes from him, which stands out a little from the general background. The sound from the Y510P is enhanced when the laptop performs intensive tasks. In this case, heat is removed efficiently, although at some points the surface of the Y510P heats up quite strongly.

Battery life

To test the laptop’s autonomy, the PowerMark benchmark was used in the Balanced power mode. This testing includes emulation of viewing web pages, working in a text editor, watchings and running games. This creates conditions as close to real as possible.

Test results in the PowerMark benchmark (the higher the value, the better the result):

Notebook Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P worked until it turned off (up to 5% battery limit) for 2 hours. This is the lowest result among gaming laptops with a diagonal of 15 inches. With such a short battery life, the user will have to constantly have charging and a power outlet at hand.

Nice design, compactness, mobility and relatively low cost Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P make it a very attractive purchase. The laptop that was being tested had two NVIDIA GT 750M graphics cards in a bunch of SLI, 16 GB of RAM, and a fourth-generation Core i7 processor. This selection of iron allows him to cope with almost all modern applications.

The Y510P weighs just 2.8 kilograms, which is very small for a gaming laptop. Unfortunately, the overall picture is spoiled by the short battery life. In all other elements of the Y510P, at least there are no complaints. It is worth mentioning that productivity gains from adding a second card should be expected only in games that support SLI. Of course, there are more powerful laptops on the market, but they cannot boast the same price / performance ratio as the Y510P.

Pros of Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P

• Light weight for a gaming laptop;
• Universal ultra-compartment for installing various components;
• Good performance at a reasonable price.

Cons Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P

• Very short battery life.