SINGAPORE — Laptop gaming has never truly attracted me: The graphical power versus cost ratios always deterred me. Having a more spacious desk or being able to game while travelling may seem tempting, but to have something that’s both powerful yet affordable seemed like a pipe dream.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 is a 15.6-inch laptop that aims to change that. Touted as “multimedia focused”, the Y500 comes powered with an Intel Core i7 2.4GHz processor, 8GB RAM and a 1TB hard disk, and the full-HD display is powered by the NVidia GeForce GT 650M DDR5 2GB — offering lots of storage and power for the road warrior.

It also comes with something extra: The ability to add a second graphics card.

The Y500 features a DVD drive that you can swap out of the UltraBay for an additional graphics card.

Swapping from drive to graphics card involves removing the battery first — a confusing process for first-timers (I’d nearly wrenched out the drive by force) — and once the second card is in, that’s when the full power of the Y500 is unleashed.

You do need to plug into a wall socket with a much larger power brick — that’s quite a bit larger than most — when running on two graphic cards though; battery power alone will not be able to let you maximise the cards and will run out pretty fast, but the laptop is still mostly portable. And while you won’t be able to run games like Battlefield III on the highest settings, the dual graphics cards do allow you to have an experience that’s rather satisfying.

Tiny laptop speakers, lacking in bass, tend to be a big grouse of gamers and people looking for the multimedia experience. However, the Y500‘s JBL speakers that use Dolby Theatre V4 provide robust audio whether I’m gaming or watching a movie, especially as they look like normal laptop speakers.

The black chiclet-style keyboard works great for gaming when you’re mostly focused on the WASD keys for movement, however, the included number pad is cramped which takes a little getting used to.

At 2.7kg, it appears that truly portable PC gaming isn’t going to be that convenient on the Y500. Plus you need to be tethered to a power point for a satisfying gaming experience for newer, more graphics intensive games.

The Y500 is not going to give you the best gaming experience on a laptop, but it does provide pretty good power in dual-card mode that comes with great sound at a reasonable price.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 retails at S$1,999, which includes a Samsonite backpack, an additional NVidia GeForce GT 650M graphics card and two AC Adapters.