Need help optimizing a new laptop - Lenovo IdeaPad Z570

carlcon

I just got my Lenovo IdeaPad Z570 (See here) today and am already greatly impressed.

Saying that, I've upgraded from an awful Fujitsu box that had something like 1.7Ghz, 1GB of ram, and no graphics to speak of, so it's not hard to impress me after that.

Anyway... I'm not used to having this kind of quality at hand, so I need to know how to make the most of it.

I don't need to save power, it will be plugged in 99.999% of the time I use it, so I just want to have maximum performance at all times. Any tips for making this happen?

When playing a game, I don't want it to hold back on cpu, I want an all-out onslaught on gameplay when I'm playing. Whether it's a game with no graphics like Football Manager, or a game that requires 3d rendering, I want to see this laptop at its best. (Particularly for Football Manager; I just want to process through data in that game as quickly as it allows).

I've already changed battery settings so I'm now destroying the environment in order to run faster.

Also, if you can guide me to the best free essential downloads, that would be great too.

Cheers.

carlcon

To add; I've just checked out some DVDs and online streaming and the images are kind of grainy compared to my old laptop. Is that just "how it is", or can I fix that?

Voodu Child

carlcon wrote: »

To add; I've just checked out some DVDs and online streaming and the images are kind of grainy compared to my old laptop. Is that just "how it is", or can I fix that?

Most 15.6" 1366x768 panels i've seen are garbage, grainy with very visible dithering, so there's probably not much you can do. Obviously try different playback software and settings to see if it helps.

Regards maxing performance, just put Windows in High Performance. There's not much else to do. People recommend all kinds of services tweaks etc but tbh Win7 doesnt have much bloat.

Update your graphics drivers from Nvidia's website. Make sure you don't have a virus scan, disk indexer or defragmenter scheduled to run while you are gaming. If you've got a bloaty anti-virus suite, get rid of it. I recommend MSSE.

Gwynston

carlcon wrote: »

I just got my Lenovo IdeaPad Z570 (See here) today and am already greatly impressed.

I would like to know how your experience with saveonlaptops.co.uk was?

I was thinking of buying a similar Lenovo from them, but wasn't sure about their delivery options (still waiting for a reply to my email query). Their Delivery Info banner popup includes Ireland in the £9.95 delivery region, but when I registered an account, the address info seemed to be all UK-postcode-orientated with no obvious "Country" field.

Did they just deliver to your Irish address with no problems?

carlcon

In the post-code section, you just enter "IRELAND", and it gets here fine. I ordered on a Monday and it arrived that Friday. Someone else on here also ordered on the same day and said they had it as early as Wednesday.

Buying laptops or other bulky items online isn't something I do often, so I can't compare them to anyone else, but I will say I had absolutely no problems with them, and don't see any reason to buy from any other online laptop company.

In short, I'd use them again without thinking twice.

DConway

I ordered with them yesterday morning,it arrived this afternoon. I had to speak with them before ordering, couldn't recommend them enough. Great customer service.