wah... that one is the old set....
should be 1 msata port in y500..

the reason why mSATA & SSD price is almost the same bcos of the usability of mSATA... there's no need to replace the current HDD when installing mSATA compared to SSD... besides, mSATA can be used as a cache drive, means no need to reinstall/migrate OS into the mSATA...
there's should be noticable speed difference between mSATA & SSD, but if you look clearly, there's different type of sequential read/write. the normal one that you mention (500 vs 175) is usually applies for large file.. instead, there's another sequential (4K) that is used for smaller files, which usually applies for os stuff that actually affect the normal daily usage...
and yes, both mSATA & SSD are better than hdd in term of speed, temp etc.. except price
as for whether the price is worth or not, it is usually depends on the user and the machine itself... for example, y480/580 can use both method, either mSATA/HDD + ODD combo or SSD + HDD combo but for y400/500 they better go for mSATA/HDD bcos the standard caddy isn't appliable to both laptop. so, if they wanna use SSD, they have to remove the HDD & probably change them into external drive. besides, i dun think that y500 user wanna sacrifice their SLI configuration just for SSD/HDD combo

well yeah.. official malaysia set doesn't come with one... you have to get it separately

i dun think that currently local y400 have sli unit yet

Fuuh... today is 2nd last paper for my exam.... After this paper, I'll update the user lists & reorganize the 1st page...

better buy external dvd drive.... save the hassel of changing the ultrabay just to open disc

Updated the user lists.... if there's anyone that i've missed.. pm me later
other post will be also reworked later...
just wanna confirmation, Y580 is really EOL now or approaching EOL status?

more option available to tweak, and remove wi-fi card whitelist in y580

Are you using latest nvidia driver?

the latest one fixed it iirc

no one can perfectly answer for longer lifespan question....
there's a lot uncertainty involved in that one

what version is it?

there should be paypal option i believe.... if there's still no paypal option, try screenshot it and contact again Microsoft

go to pc settings -> general -> remove everything and reinstall windows (for disc-less)
or you can just get iso online and reinstall as usual, given that you knew your serial

i dunno much but probably u can try clean update nvidia driver first.

intel gpu/nvidia optimus disabled bcos it may incompatible with sli....
for now, there's no 3rd party caddy since the usual caddy is impossible with the dual bay slot

incompatible with y400/500

I'm assuming that if you did backup with current system, it backups stuff including your installed programs, docs, video, musics stored etc....
Currently, what's your disc used space? If its match or approx same with the total capacity used (58*4.7=272.6) then the current system backup does really backup everything stored in your laptop.
Usually I just did factory default disc as it's less hassle.

what for?
well, basically it's up to you... if you're thinking 1.5tb external is enough then probably kinda fine to swap totally your hdd with ssd.
unless you're really dependant of dvd, i would strongly recommend use ssd+hdd combo rather than sell your 1tb hd

answering your 4th & 5th question before, since you're using the old unit (blu-ray with 1tb hdd), you definitely have w7hp preinstalled instead of win8
there are many ways of migrating, cloning stuff from your hdd to ssd, but you could also just prepare factory default disc via one key recovery and just recover your OS files to your ssd
if you prefer to migrate/clone, i believe someone posted the steps before, either in this thread or previous thread

as for mSATA, i really couldn't answer it 100% as some said y580 bios lock it = no cache option => only as drive while some said can be used as cache

on a note, the preinstalled w7hp key is different from one that provided on the bottom.. this is because by default, fresh factory laptop usually installed with oem volume key.

new version of 3dmark has been released....
y500 users, go benchmark it
http://www.geeks3d.com/20130205/quick-test...mark-available/

manada.... y500 is FHD la