Lenovo laptop for PR?

[PatrickLA_CA]

So finally after a long time of wanting to buy a laptop that I can use both for work and PR, I ordered one and I need your opinion on have I done the right choice and will I be able to play PR SMOOTHLY and even more, and how well will it perform in some more modern games.

I'm talking about a Lenovo Ideapad Z710.
Specs:

17.3" Full HD screen
4th Generation Intel Core i7-4700MQ Processor (2.40GHz 1600MHz 6MB)
8GB RAM DDR3
1TB HDD + 8GB SSD (Hybrid)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M 2GB

It costed me around 780 euros which is a bit less than what I had planned to give for a nice laptop so I really need to know have I made the right choice. I'm still waiting for it to arrive so I haven't tested it in PR yet

[ConscriptVirus]

I have a similar laptop except with a 750m which is essentially the same as your GPU but slightly faster. I can run PR fine on all high @ 1080p. Things may get slow in some areas of maps, but most systems will be slow too.
You should be able to handle BF3/BF4 fine on medium settings. This site gives a rough idea at what type of performance you should expect from games:
NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M - NotebookCheck.net Tech
(scroll down)

[PatrickLA_CA]

Well I don't really play modern games such as BF3/BF4, I'll stick to PR and War Thunder/WoT mostly so I guess I'll be fine, thanks for the review

[ComradeHX]

Why not get a y510p?

[PatrickLA_CA]

Because that's the only decent 17" Lenovo laptop available in my country
I'll have to order it from somewhere else and wait for some time plus pay for delivery and maybe even customs tax.

There were some other nice 17" laptops but everyone advised me to get Lenovo over HP, Acer or Asus. The only thing I am concerned about is the graphics card, I think the rest is pretty decent. I wanted to get an additional 128GB SSD drive for OS and programs but apparently this model doesn't have space for two storage drives.

[ComradeHX]

Because that's the only decent 17" Lenovo laptop available in my country
I'll have to order it from somewhere else and wait for some time plus pay for delivery and maybe even customs tax.

There were some other nice 17" laptops but everyone advised me to get Lenovo over HP, Acer or Asus. The only thing I am concerned about is the graphics card, I think the rest is pretty decent. I wanted to get an additional 128GB SSD drive for OS and programs but apparently this model doesn't have space for two storage drives.

If you are concerned about Graphics card; you should not get anything below 750m(which is mediocre as it is).

[Psyrus]

I wanted to get an additional 128GB SSD drive for OS and programs but apparently this model doesn't have space for two storage drives.

Why not go for the 128GB SSD, then have an external HDD for your data/movies/etc on USB3?

[LITOralis.nMd]

You can swap out the DVD drive for an Ultrabay:
This is just two examples of third party manufacturer of Ultrabay for the Z710:
2nd HDD / SSD Caddy Lenovo IdeaPad S510, S510p, Z710 [OBHD9-SATA-SATA-BU9] - $38.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks
and
Amazon.com: Generic 2nd Hdd Ssd Hard Drive Caddy Adapter for Lenovo Ideapad U510 Z710 Z710a Thinkpad W540: Computers & Accessories

The ultrabay allows you to add a 2.5" HDD or SSD into the DVD drive slot.

Note that Lenovo makes an official Ultrabay for the Z710, and myriad Chinese manufacturers make knockoff clones, some of which have VERY slow read write speeds. From my own experience buying and using knockoff Lenovo Ultrbay caddies, It is definitely worth putting your SSD inside the notebook and moving the 1TB to the Ultrabay for this reason.

[LITOralis.nMd]

Also, you can then still use the DVD drive by buying a knockoff DVD USB drive enclosure, this is just an example,

http://www.amazon.com/External-Enclosur ... +dvd+caddy

That way you can still use a DVD to install a program to your 1TB drive that is in the DVD Ultrabay slot.

[PatrickLA_CA]

They told me about ultrabay but I didn't want to swap out the DVD drive, but having an SSD inside with an external HDD is a good idea, I will see if it hasn't left the warehouse yet and make changes to the order.

Thanks

[IINoddyII]

If anybody is srs about buying lenovo kit pm me - I think IBM employees still get a discount which can be used by 'friends'.

I love you all like brothers..... some like the brother I used to punch in the guts for being a pita.. but still with love.

[LITOralis.nMd]

Noddy, IBM employees get their discounts on geographic based part supply systems. The shipping from AU to Macedonia would probably wipe out any savings.

Source: I live near IBM HQ in White Plains NY and have been using this discount through friends fr 20 years.

[PatrickLA_CA]

Yeah, he's right, the shipping would cost more than the whole thing, I really appreciate that you offered that though.
Anyways, discount is not a problem, I got a discount from a cousin's friend who got the laptop straight from the Lenovo supplier for the whole country.
Bad news is that it already left the warehouse so I can't make any changes to it, I should have it in a couple of hours, but I'm considering to do the change Litoralis suggested, maybe next year altogether with a new graphics card, I think it is possible to replace it.

[DesmoLocke]

I live near IBM HQ in White Plains NY and have been using this discount through friends fr 20 years.

Jelly.

[PatrickLA_CA]

Alright so I got it a couple of days ago and finally installed everything and I tried PR.
I can run it on all high on solid 50 FPS which is great, I've never had a similar experience on PR because I could play up to a max of 25 FPS on my old PC so now it kinda feels different
The only problem I had is with the F4 button because Lenovo has programmed it to work as a Fn key even when function keys are disabled so it closes any application open even without pressing Alt, but I've contacted Lenovo and they told me it only needs a small BIOS update which is great.
As you guys said, in some parts of some maps the FPS lowers a bit but it runs great. Thanks for the help, I guess thread can be locked now

[Daxt2]

One of my friends has a lenovo(not sure what model) but it runs rome 2 on high graphics. He said he got it for a little under a grand.