The Right Tool for the Job: A Lenovo IdeaPad Y560p

Last summer (2015, not 2016), I had a job to do. My son was going into the 7th grade and needed to carry a computer with him pretty much every day. The alternatives up to that point was to check out an ancient ThinkPad X61, complete with 1Gb of RAM out from school, or carry his 6+ pound, ThinkPad T500. So it was pretty obvious that those weren't good options! As you can see, I came up with a different answer in the form of an X220. It had an i5 "Sandy Bridge" CPU, 4Gb of RAM. Pretty good for $59. I put in another stick of RAM to get it up to 8Gb and installed a 120Gb Intel SSD in it and he was set to go. 

A year later..... this happened. Our school system decided that they'd issue and mandate the use of Chromebooks. BYODevice..... dead and gone. So, now a-days, I often see my son trying to play Minecraft or Terraria on the 12.1" screened X220. Even though, those games aren't particularly taxing to the integrated GPU of the Sandy Bridge i5, it was definitely not an optimal solution. 

So, over the course of the last month, I've been researching gaming machines that were a few years old..... along the lines of the "Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge" era. There was of course, the quintessential gaming machines of Alienware such as the M14x and the less expensive Lenovo IdeaPad "Y" Series among the ones I looked at. I set a budget limit of $300, so that eliminated all the Razer Blade machines and most of the newer Alienwares as well. But I was still interested in those, since on occasion, an older model can be found (often needing a little work) in the high $200. However, it was the Lenovos that really interested me. While I'm very familiar with their ThinkPad line, I'm the exact opposite on their consumer machines. What I found was that they've developed a decent reputation on selling capable gaming equipment at reasonable prices. There's no multi-colored keyboards and air vents, or super-cool MacBook looking machined aluminum cases, but they did bring the goods in the hardware department.

Although I had originally started looking at the IdeaPad Y500 and Y510p (I'm an optimist), I came across a Y560p on eBay that just wasn't getting any love! It's bidding price sat at around $50 for a long time, until it finally edged over $100 at the end. I paid $102 with $12 shipping. So for less than $115, I have my son's next machine. What is it and why did I hone in on that model, other than for the price that is....

When examined; it's not particularly remarkable for a 2010 machine. It wasn't impossibly thin like the Razer, or crazy cool looking like the Alienware. It did have some chops on the hardware front though:

• Intel i7-2630QM "Sandy Bridge" CPU
• DDR3 RAM 1333 up to 8Gb
• AMD Radeon HD 6570 GPU with it's own 1Gb of memory
• 15.6" WXGA (1366 x 768) display

Those specs are decent, with the exception of the screen resolution maybe, but there's a little something that's hidden under the skin which really helps. If you look closely at the motherboard up at the top, you'll see 2 PCIe/mSATA sockets. One is not only full-sized, but capable of taking mSATA devices.....

Which means this! I like using mSATA spec'd SSD storage. It allows a machine to have the benefits of solid state storage for things like the OS while keeping a traditional mechanical hard drive in the 2.5" SATA bay for mass storage. The smaller ones like this 128Gb Micron can often be found in the range of $25-35. That'll make the machine feel snappy while not having to spend a lot of money on buying a bigger (eg. 256Gb, 512Gb) SSD. 

Warts? Sure..... I don't like that there aren't USB 3.0 ports, really dislike low-res monitors in general or the shiny plastic deck. Otherwise; it's pretty OK. It's going to be my son's computer anyway, not mine!