Question 1

in general, do laptops with DVD/RW drives read CDs, (I need to install Mic Office 2007 via CD)?

Accepted Answer

Yes. All dvd and blu ray players are backwards compatible from their generation back.

Question 2

will this laptop play back web video with no shudder?
I want a laptop than is for stream Hd content.

Accepted Answer

The laptop is definitely fast enough to play 720p video, though it doesn't have the resolution to play full HD. 720p is standard HDTV resolution and should work fine. Also an external monitor should support higher resolution (true HD).  Finally, connection speed determines much of the "shuttering" in streaming video. If you don't have at least a 5Mbit connection, it doesn't matter how fast your pc is, video will still chunk up. Hope this helps!

Question 3

I'm not computer literate. Can games be loaded on this unit? Was thinking of this for my wife. Looked at Chromebooks but not what I had in mind. want something for surfing the net and also playing games on and arts/crafts.

Accepted Answer

Games like Facebook games will work fine, and games that generally aren't very graphically demanding will work fine. Newer games like Elder Scrolls Skyrim, Battlefield 4, and other large "view distance" and pretty graphics games will not run smoothly.

However, for stuff like Farmville and Candy Crush, it's overkill lol.

Question 4

Can I upgrade the video card in this product?

Accepted Answer

No, the graphics are actually on the processor die itself.  With a laptop upgrading graphics isn't something you really want to venture into later on.  I suppose you could buy a whole new processor but that gets tricky on a laptop in regards to power consumption and cooling.  It would be far better to just get the right one the first time around.

Question 5

What RAM upgrade options are there for the Lenova G505.  It came with 4GB.  What type of RAM is needed for a second 4GB?  Ahat about replacing with two 8s?

Accepted Answer

Any 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM. I installed this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231471

Question 6

free upgrade to 8.1?

Accepted Answer

yes, but first you have to update everything else (ie windows updates) so that the upgrade to 8.1 feature shows up in the store automatically

Question 7

Screen size?

Accepted Answer

15.6", read the title.

Question 8

Im thinking of buying this for my son ,would it play starcraft on it?

Accepted Answer

The processor is not a real powerhouse as far as computational power.  It is going to be similar to a Core i3 in that regard.  However, the graphics solution being a Radeon 8400 will be superior to the Intel integrated solutions.  That said, Minecraft I believe is more CPU intensive and a little less graphics intensive due to having massive amounts of things happening at once and large calculations involved.  That is the nature of a Strategy game versus say, a First-Person Shooter.  In the end I would carefully check the requirements that the game lists and use that a your guide.  Also know that minimum requirements will make the game functional but the play experience will be poor especially as a computer gets more cluttered over time.  You should aim more for using the recommended requirements as your base.

Question 9

does this model have a touch screen?

Accepted Answer

No.  The mouse-pad does have two-finger scrolling functionality though.

Question 10

Has anyone tried to use this laptop with Minecraft?  (Thinking about it for my kids for Christmas)

Accepted Answer

My 4 year old laptop can handle Minecraft pretty well, and since this is a lot newer and better I am sure it can handle Minecraft very well. One thing to note is that Minecraft is very ram intensive, This laptop comes with 4gb of ram which is good, but if desired could be upgraded (on your own) to have 8gb of ram. Also another user mentioned their son playing the latest Call of Duty game, Minecraft is much easier for a computer to run than Call of Duty and if they could run the newest Call of Duty at all, I am sure it will run Minecraft wonderfully.

Questions & Answers