Lenovo Y560 (59-051026) Or HP Pavilion dv6 3124tx?

P

pritesh

Disciple
Hi,

I am planning to buy a laptop in the range of 50K for
1) Installing VMWare player and installing at least two instances of RHEL 6 Beta server and test/play around
2) Scripting
3) Watching Movies and an occasional game ( I am not much into gaming).

I have been through the reviews on Technenclave and find equal weight-age given to Lenovo Y560 and Dell XPS 15. Couldn't find here anything about HP Pavilion dv6 3124tx.

Thing is, the Dell XPS 15 is kinda out of my reach with the price tag of 65K.

Which one would you guys suggest ?

How's Lenovo Y560 build quality ? Has anyone who owns one here found any issues/problems? I googled and found the Big Pointer problem and Dancing Ant display problems...

Does it heat too much ?

How about HP Pavilion dv6 3124tx ? Has anyone used it here ?

I will really be thankful. Please do help.
 
HI there

My friend owns a HP dv6 3123tx , and for what I have seen , its a very balanced laptop (CPU,GPU,looks). Build wise HP dv6 is far superior to Lenovo Y560. Also, the screen quality , although 768p is brighter compared to Lenovo, and even the default 768p screen in XPS15. The switchable graphics functionality is good and somewhat configurable using the drivers provided by HP (though Nvidia Optimus in XPS is better) . The CPU area does get slightly hot under load but I think thats acceptable. The battery life is not good, at most 2-2.5 hrs web browsing/music playing

My advice : Wait for a month if you can, all major vendors are putting out their Sandy Bridge parts (Dell,HP,Sony,Lenovo) Although the performance difference between i5 2410M and i5 480M/i3 390M is going to be negligible, still SNB CPU are expected to much more power efficient, plus the new laptops will have USB 3.0 and newer gen graphics cards (in case of Radeon's)
 
XPS 14 with i7+2GB Graphics+4GB RAM is at 52K ... Check dell Site...

BTW Dell XPS 15 is from 50K(with i5)
 
Hi Tao and Teja,
Thank you for the reply. I thought that all i7/i5 processors are called Sandy Bridge. But apparently thats not so.

Googling for Sandy Bridge brought up a page for "Sandy Bridge Recall" stating there is some bug in Sandy Bridge and Intel is planning to recall it. An article by Information Week that pulled up in search says that Intel is planning to suspend shipping these out. So I am in a kind of a fix here. Just type Sandy Bridge Recall in Google and you will find a lot of articles talking about it. Does this mean that the current Intel Core i5-460M processor that ships with most of the laptops has that flaw ?

Tao, how many months it has been since your friend is using the HP dv6 3123tx ? I've heard that typically, the HP Laptops work fine for a year or max year and a half and then they suddenly start developing issues/problems. Strangely, most of the forums I have been to, do not speak highly of the HP Laptops. I was thinking of the Lenovo because, 1) It seems to be a good laptop at that price and that config 2) I used to work for IBM once and had used the ThinkPad T42 and though I understand that the Y series is completely different, I am expecting some good quality stuff from Lenovo.

One more thing is, I plan to buy an extended warranty so that including the 1 Year warranty+2 Years extended, the Laptop will be covered for 3 years. Add to that the cost of MS Office and AntiVirus and I am looking at 55K.

Actually I started off with 40K, but understood that for what I need, I need to extend my budget. 55K is the absolute rooftop for me.
 
Y560 had some screen issues when it was launched last year. I am not sure idea if it has been rectified but Lenovo did release some BIOS updates for it.

If you are not into gaming, there is no reason for you to go for the Y560. Its build-quality is below average.

Sandy-bridge laptops are round the corner & this is not the right time to get a laptop. So wait.
 
The chipset bug is there in newer 2nd gen Intel Core Processor's chipset (the HM65/67 in this case) It doesnt affect the older systems which are currently available.

dv6 3100 series was launched here sometime in January this year IIRC , so yes my friends laptop is quite new.

Also, I would not compare Thinkpads with the Ideapad line, simply because enterprise-class stuff has different priorities , and durability is one of them ;) But if you are getting a good deal with extended warranty, Y560 can be taken. Thing is, I havent spent more than 10 minutes with a Y560 (which was at the Lenovo showroom), and I found the build and finish to be sub par (had visited HP and Sony showrooms before it, hence)

However Y560 shouldnt be your choice if you're not seriously into gaming.

I would again say wait if possible, and get a faster processor like i5 2520M w/ HD6490M or GT525M and that'll suit your needs better
 
Hi Tao, Thanks for the reply.

Well, what I found from googling states otherwise as far as the Sandy Bridge Issue is concerned. I am ready to wait..No issues on that....

pauldmps also suggested the same thing. And thanks both of you for suggesting that I should wait. I browsed a couple pages on this forum and checked out the Y570 series that should be launched in India by next month or so ( I Guess) and was pretty impressed. These have got the Sandy Bridge and the build quality seems better (Atleast in the videos, but I could be wrong)

Thing is, If I wait, and get for example a Y570 , and thats got the SB bug in it then I'll be in a mess.

I just want to be sure that the new line that they are gonna come up with wont have the bug. Any ways I can check that ? Please let me know.
 
Deep16, thanks man. I thought I read somewhere that the Second Gen have the bug...not sure.....Another thread where I had posted the same question, Ankit said that the new ones that are gonna come out are bug free....I have asked there how do I ensure that I dont end up getting a laptop that has the SNB they could not recall back.
 
u didnot need to worry.... the snb laptops that r released till now r with the sata fault... so they hav been recalled... but the fun part is as in india all line up refreshes comes delayed so snb laptops were not released till date... and only usa counterparts r facing this recall issue....

now if u buy from india then u need not to wrry as snb's will come bug free when they will b launched..
 
Deep16,

Thanks a zillion. That was one good and clear clarification.

Yups, I am gonna wait for few more days like all you guys said. Just called up a dealer near my place in Pune and he says he is gonna have the Y570 out in next few days, probably next 2 weeks or so....just like how pauldmps and Tao said that the SNB series should be out by next month.....So I guess I should have it in a couple more days. Any suggestions about Y570 ?

Have been through a lot of forums, but this is one genuine forum, with genuine techies giving sound advice.

Darn good thing I did by logging in here and registering first before I bought the laptop.

Its only here that I learnt that I should wait and I shall follow your advice guys.

You all rock.
 
The Y570 has pretty decent specs. GT-555M is indeed a great GPU. Only if it is priced right. Do you have any idea on launch date ? The Z570 is already available in India.
 
Hi Pauldmps,

I spoke with a dealer in Pune, he said he would give me the price of it by next week and it should be available in a week or so....

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

Hi,

Googled up for the price of the Y570. It should be around 45K as per india-server.com
 
The dealer said that the i5 version should cost me about 50K, but he will get me the price in a day or two.

The 45K price mentioned above is from india-server.com but they haven't specifically said that its for an i5.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

Hi Pauldmps,

Not sure if its ok to post a link here, hence did not post it earlier, but I saw a couple other threads where they have put links so here it is.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 Review - Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 Laptop/Notebook Technical Specifications, Features & Price in India
 
It is supposed to replace the existing Y560s so I expect the prices to be the same with it. In that case, the i3 would be 45k, the 15 50k & i7 about 60k.

The NVIDIA GT-555M GPU is definitely better than ATI HD 5730 present in the Y560
 
Hi,

The Y560 with i5, 4 GB RAM etc was for about 50K, So I was guessing the Y570 should be around the same cost. Guess the i3 would be about 45K, and the i5 would be about 50-55K...hopefully. I am just praying it wont be more than that....cause I got a limit on my budget and I dont want the i5 to overshoot it....Hopefully.
 
^^ Even the i3 would suffice if you cannot afford the i5. Pay more importance to the GPU than the CPU - it gets outdated much faster.
 
Hmmm, Well I am not much into gaming. Main thing I need is good processing power so that I can play around with atleast two versions of RHEL6 within VMWare....
 
Back
Top