Official 2012 Sony S Series Owners Thread

Are you calling them tomorrow to ask for a replacement? I think I'm going to call and mention the headphone as well as the noise my S15 is making and request a new laptop.

 

That's what a lot of people are planning to do. See how-to guide here:
Sony Vaio S15 Disassembly and ODD Replacement Tutorial - YouTube

Upside: With SSD, the Vaio S just screams, really snappy and responsive. And you have the storage of the HDD.

Downside: You have to disassemble the entire notebook to replace the optical drive. It's not terribly difficult, but it's also not for the faint of heart. No one's reported a problem but you could potentially pull something too hard or screw up the reassembly, and you've of course voided the warranty, so you'd have to call up Sony pretending the defect was there from the beginning. Not likely, but a little scary.

 

Heya. Thanks for replying. So I'm on the website and I've got loads of choices to make with the customization. Which would you recommend for the Processor(i5 or i7?), Graphics (1 or 2 GB?), Hard-drive and Memory?

I do watch loads of movies but am not really into games. I open many tabs at a time. I have a Toshiba Canvio 1TB External hard-drive that stores my songs and other data but wouldn't mind getting the 500GB memory. Kinda lost as to what to choose. Any advice?

and btw, the website states that it comes in black. But I'm bent on getting the gold one (available for the Premium series only). Have they even officially launched the S series? Youtube doesn't offer much on them though.

 

Hi everyone,

New to this forum and a proud Sony S13A user.
I have a factory SSD RAID0 setup....yeah, I know.....Company paid for it...
Here are some readings from CDM3~
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 990.780 MB/s
Sequential Write : 528.983 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 475.672 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 410.634 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 20.378 MB/s [ 4975.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 52.089 MB/s [ 12717.0 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 326.260 MB/s [ 79653.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 205.716 MB/s [ 50223.6 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 23.0% (51.0/221.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/06/27 16:41:02
OS : Windows 7 SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

 

I disagree, I think the $50 is worth it for the 3320M, as the 3210M lacks the following features:

Intel vPro Technology
Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)
Intel Trusted Execution Technology

Cpu freq of 2.5(3.1) vs 2.6(3.3) (turbo)
3210 also has a lower max GPU freq of 1.1 vs 1.2

 

are there any white caddy's ? and what hard drives do you recommend ?

 

The color of the caddy doesn't matter, as the bottom plate of the laptop will cover it. You can't see the caddy at all unless you fully disassemble the laptop.

 

but the sides of the caddy is black and my laptop is white, because im putting it in the dvd drive

Add a 2nd HDD or SSD to Sony VAIO S Series laptop - YouTube as u can see it has a black side.

 

Here are some basic models available on amazon:

S13A Black (Premium model) ($1199.99)

http://www.amazon.com/VAIO-I5-3210M...8&qid=1340854357&sr=1-9&keywords=vaio+i5+3210

Specs:
Sony SVS13A12FXB, Internal Lithium Polymer Battery (4400mAh), AC power adapter, Power Cord; Pre-installed Software - Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit, Microsoft Office Starter, Kaspersky Internet Security 30-Day Trial Offer, Sony Creative Software (Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum, ACID Music Studio, Sound Forge Audio Studio, 1-Year Limited Warranty
Intel Core i5-3210M 2.50GHz Dual-Core Processor with Turbo(R) Boost Technology up to 3.10GHz
6GB DDR3-1333MHz RAM (12GB max.)
640GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive

S13 Non Premium model (Black)

Amazon.com: VAIO I5-3210M 2.5G 8GB 750GB DVD 13.3IN WL BT W7HP BLK SLOT LOAD: Electronics

Sony SVS13118FXB, Internal Lithium Polymer Battery (4400mAh), AC power adapter, Power Cord; Pre-installed Software - Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit, Microsoft Office Starter, Kaspersky Internet Security 30-Day Trial Offer, Sony Creative Software (Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum, ACID Music Studio, Sound Forge Audio Studio, 1-Year Limited Warranty
Intel Core i5-3210M 2.50GHz Dual-Core Processor with Turbo(R) Boost Technology up to 3.10GHz
3MB Smart Cache
8GB DDR3-1333MHz RAM (12GB max.)
750GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

If you want you could go to J&R and use amazon payments:

S13A Silver !!!
Sony VAIO® SVS13A12FXS 13.3" Notebook PC - Silver in PC Notebook Computers | JR.com

S13A Carbon Black
Sony VAIO® SVS13A12FXB 13.3" Notebook PC - Carbon Fiber Black in PC Notebook Computers | JR.com

 

Has any played SWTOR on their laptop? How does it run? Which processor do you have (the reason I ask is I have an old Sony z12 and it maxed out my processor 100% during game play)

 

Ok so i have read every single page of this thread since I ordered my S15.5 a week ago and I have a question that no one has asked. And if someone did I really do apologize for missing it. But back to the question, when configured with two raid0 ssd's like Tim Bear's (which really does preform quite well), where does that second ssd go to still leave room for an odd drive. If sony can fit in two ssd's, is there any reason we can't fit both an ssd and an hdd without removing the disk drive? and possibly using something like intel smart response with a cheap ~$60 ssd? just a though if anyone has any input on it

 

are there any white caddy's ? and what hard drives do you recommend ?

Add a 2nd HDD or SSD to Sony VAIO S Series laptop - YouTube

and i believe in the newer version it doesn't matter but is there a video on how i can take out the dvd drive and put in a hard drive. also on the new ones does it still have a hole like the dvd drive?

 

Sony does the RAID 0 setup by using a proprietary 2-in-1 drive, both drives are "stacked" in a single package to fit in the drive bay and use the single SATA ribbon cable connected to that bay.

Why do you need a white caddy? The 2012 models are all slot-loading drives, so if you replace the ODD, there's still going to be the black, felt-lined slot on the side of the laptop, and the caddy is hidden behind that slot, never to be seen.

 

Thanks Croak that makes sense. And if those bench numbers are correct, what voodoo does sony work to get a 990MB/s read

 

Can someone take a screenshot of the Dolby Home Theater v4? I wanna see the difference from v3 in the SA/SB series

 

Has anyone tried SWTOR on their S13?

 

You could select that during your built but IMO it's not worth it. $280 extra for a 128gb SSD, albeit RAID 0 is nice, is still a lot. Instead, I use that money to get the samsung 256gb plus 8gb ram stick and still have leftover cash. the samsung will not be fast like the raid configuration from sony but its way faster than a spinning hard drive.

 

My S13 Premium arrived Wednesday morning. I swapped out the hard drive for a Samsung 830 256GB SSD and installed a Crucial 8GB DDR3 1.35v memory stick (for a total of 12GB). I know a video was posted showing how to upgrade the S15, and I know the S15 and S13 are very similar, but would people be interested in detailed, step-by-step videos showing how to upgrade the memory and hard drive on the S13? If so, I might be able to put something together over the weekend.

I did a clean install of Windows 7 Pro 64-bit and installed only the drivers required for the laptop to function properly, along with the Nvidia 301.42 drivers using the .inf hack.

Initial impressions - the laptop boots to a usable desktop in about 10 seconds, and Adobe Creative Suite applications (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, etc.) open in 2-3 seconds. Swapping out the hard drive for an SSD made a world of difference.

I haven't had time to install or test any games yet, but I'm hoping to do so over the weekend. I initially plan on installing Dota 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and Team Fortress 2. What games do people want to see tested?

 

Now I placed my order for a S13P in Gunmetal and with 2 GB of VRAM (I know it most likely won't do anything, but I rather pay the 50 bucks extra for no use than sit there in 7 months when some new game pops up where the 2 GB would make a diff). I'll install a Samsung 830 256 GB SSD and a 8 GB stick of RAM once I get it.

The biggest problem is that before ordering they said 2-3 weeks wait, but when I placed the order it had moved to 3-4 :/.

 

most definately

 

4 more days....

Any news on the written review of the S13 on Mobiletechreview? Loved the video and reading the review would ease the waiting ^^.

 

Hmm, I'm not getting the 10 second boot speeds that other people are with, my Samsung 830. More like 17-18 seconds. My install is completely clean, w/o any of the Sony bloatware, and only the most essential startup programs.

I only have the the i5 though, but I wouldn't think that'd make such a big difference when booting.

On a side note, I do get an error in Samsung SSD Magician when running Performance Optimization:
Performance optimization is completed.
One or more errors were encountered. Refer to log file for details.

I didn't think much of it because stuff is working fine and super fast, but when other people are getting a 10 second boot, I'll definitely be looking a bit into that.

 

We have the exact same configuration, mine goes from button push to desktop in 10 seconds consistently. I did turn off GUI boot, so maybe that's it?

My drive also gets that same error though, wonder what it is

 

Yeah the S15 I just ordered wont ship until 07/10. When I was building that one I also built a different one and had two in my cart at one point and the second one had a bogus ship date in august

 

Oooh, I did not turn that off. Of course! *slaps my forehead*

I don't know if I should rest easy or get really uneasy, now that the error is confirmed elsewhere, haha!

 

I was wondering how the screen is on the new S series. I have seen the new T series and the Z3 series and I am loving the screen.

How is the new S compared to the SA2?

 

Can anyone with a 13 inch SE from the UK please tell me the keyboard layout that you received?

I'm ordering from Sonys UK website and I want to make sure that the keyboard is a "UK" English keyboard not an "International" English keyboard. I can only find pictures of an international layout.

Does it have a double-height enter key, a "£" sign on the 3 key and the backslash on the left hand side?
Cheers.

 

My S13A is getting further delayed.
Ordered on the 20th, payment was received by sony on the 26th.
Started production on the 27th.
Today I received an email telling me it most likely will be shipped between 09.07 and 14.07.
Hope this other people better estimate when they will receive their notebooks.

 

Haha thats insane now we know for sure that the S13 can indeed do SATA3.
Its probably just a BIOS issue, maybe there is a way of seeing if the BIOS from your computer is different than the one from computer with factory HDD...?

 

Decided to have a chat with the Sony sales guy - very helpful. He confirmed that the laptops come shipped with a UK keyboard.

I decided to place my order there and then - turns out the sales guys can do discounts (and prioritize the order slightly but not sure how true that is).

Managed to get the core i7 upgrade for free although I did order a docking station as well. Went for the Premium S13P in Carbon Black in the end.

Just got to wait now (and buy an SSD and RAM stick). Happy days.

 

I'm getting tired of using a borrowed computer, and so I'll definitely order my vaio S today. Even though I'm in love with the silver S, I really need the upgraded display and am going with the premium S in gunmetal.

My last question before purchasing is about the gpu. I've heard that there are a few different versions of the 640m le, some with different clock speeds and number of cores. I was wondering if the difference between the 1gb and 2gb cards for the SA is only the vram and nothing else. Because I'm a programmer and plan to begin programming using CUDA really soon, the number of cores really matters to me, and wanted the opinion of someone who knows the nvidia card well. I know not many people here chose the 2gb vram but the extra memory might be useful to me at some point in the future.

 

I was wondering if anyone from Canada has ordered a S13A from sonystyle.ca?

 

I got my Z from sonystyle.ca a couple of years ago. Everything went smoothly and they do offer many discounts. For example, there is a $100 coupon available now for a >=$1000 configuration.

 

As far as I'm aware the only gpu option is around 1gb vs 2b memory - nothing else. I went for 2gb because it was a relatively cheap upgrade and I wanted the best possible gaming performance.

Petrov.

 

I've ordered before from them, but this was 4 years ago, I asked about the S13A since I am curious if the screen is a premium one and not a standard vaio plus. There is no concrete information on the website.

As for the coupon, that is awesome news, do you have the code for the coupon, I could possibly use it and then add the sheet battery to lower the price.

 

I just thought of something. My initial idea was to throw in a 8 GB stick of RAM in the machine when I get it to get the total of 12 GB. But I just realised that it would mean that the Vaio will not be running at dual-channel will it? So it would be smarter to just get a 4 GB stick wouldn't it?

 

The coupon code is SONYSAVE (good until the 30th). I believe you can apply it if the total is over $1k no matter how you reach it. But I was only playing with upgrades to the S15 so you'll have to try.

 

Awesome, great, hopefully the coupon will work, cheers.

 

Hi,
I read some user reviews about new VAIO S 15.5 talking about how fan is load and speaker is bad.
Is that true?

 

I think anyone who has a loud fan may have a faulty unit - I very rarely hear the fan on mine and when I do its more of a woosh than a whine However, I hardly play games and finding it hard to push the CPU with what I do.

Internal speakers aren't great but I've owned 4 laptops and not had one with decent speakers. They are good enough for skype chat for example but anything that requires bass, plug in some headphones or some decent speakers. Its a compromise - lightweight and compact or good speakers (which is why deep old CRT TVs always sound better than their thin LCD replacements)

 

It's true? I'm form italy and i want to say if italian websites really offer the 640M as the gpu when customising, instead of the 640M LE

 

I have a week old UK S15. Device Manager says I have a GT640M LE

 

It will.. dual channel doesn't mean that the RAM sticks need to have the same capacity

 

The written review will be out by tomorrow. We've been swamped with products so it's taken longer. And I wanted to test everything possible before posting the full written review (it's done well!).

 

Hey rohandhruva.
Do you have a source for that? I know that a few years back dual channel didn't work if the two slots were filled with different sizee.
Don't know if this still holds true.

Looking forwards to the review @ Lisa

 

I confirm that the GPU is only 640M LE for all country and all configurator

 

oh, so the caddy's still have that black whole but u just cant put a cd in there, also do u know a link where i can get one?

 

If the written review is as good as the video review it's definitely worth the wait.

 

Aw, that wasn't it anyway. Did you update the SSD firware? (Because I didn't).
EDIT: NVM, SSD Magician tells me it's the latest firmware.
Also, I count from I press the button and until the circle has completely disappeared from the cursor. The desktop is loaded well before that.

Ooh, so the blue ones are USB 3.0!

And I thought the lone black one on the SVS13 was 3.0, because it had a lightning bolt ='D bwaha

 

So what's the meaning of that lightning bolt?

Maybe it means that is the only port that outputs power.. this wuold mean that external USB 3.0 HDD without power cable are not supported.

But my guess is that it means that it's the only port that outputs power when the laptop is off.