Official Sony SB/SA/SC/SD Series Owners' Thread

Can anybody confirm, that the audio jack can be used as audio out and mic in, by using such an apdater .
Thinking about getting a new headset and it would be good to know if i have to get one with usb.

 

Thanks benny90. Two more

Disk SATA is SATA3 (6GBps)?
Also According to this photo ( https://picasaweb.google.com/117558...IWcr4ndUQ&feat=directlink#5591672811268558450) the Rev. is B2. I thought B3 were the fixed ones or not?

 

If you would've read the whole thread (ok it's starting to get a bit large ), or the other threads, you would've known that the new B3 batch isn't identified correctly in those programmes. And yes, it has a sata3 connection.

DPD doesn't deliver on Saturdays I guess?

 

Cool thanks!

 

It should be pretty ready to upgrade the ram, just find the right ram and plug in. The original 4 gb is soldered into the mb so it would be difficult to change that. where you importing from?

 

Quick question for anyone who has purchased the slice battery....

On the CTO the choice is only for the regular battery or the slice battery. When you choose the slice battery, does the laptop come with both? (14 hours of battery life), or does it come with only the slice (7 hours of battery life) with no regular battery?

Thanks

 

seriously?! yes it comes with both batteries

 

they wouldnt ship a laptop without the internal battery intact, yes the battery is internal, you need to go under the hood to take it out

 

The reason I'm asking is below:

Clearly sony reps have no idea what they are talking about...

 

GT 540M is faster than the 6630M since 6630M is slower than the 5650 and 6550 that was in the . Only downside is the possible higher temp of the nvidia vs ATI and lacking linux compatibility.

 

Where did you saw more benchmarks from the 6630m? The only one that I saw gave a clear advantage for the 6630m as I stated before

 

this happens to be the case with many manufacturers my favorite experience is having a Best Buy salesperson try and sell me one item over another because it's "really cool"

 

Still downloading CoD:BO / Batman AA but picked up SC2 for last mission - loads of mobs to test the 6630M / i5-2520 and found
Native High = smooth 50-60fps,
Native Ultra = 30-40fps, sometimes dips below 30fps which you can notice

In smaller custom games Ultra should be more playable but High gives sufficient balance of speed and detail.

Magicka ran well at high, both of these tests have me downloading loads in the background which may impact the performance slightly.

Will try out CoD:BO / BFBC2 / Batman AA this evening, got BBQ now

 

Excellent, I've been looking for this info forever

 

Ok guys, I've had a very quick run-through of a handful of games with 6630M and it's fine with all games smoothly:

SC2: High Native resolution runs fine (50-60fps)
CoD:BO: Native 2-4xAA runs smoothly
BFBC2: Native Medium is smooth (50-60fps) High seems bit less balanced in scripted events
Batman AA: everything maxed 60fps
Magicka: everything maxed smooth

Hopefully will download some more games over the week (TF2, L4D & L4D2, Bioshock, etc) but initial impression is that new i5 & 6630M should be fine for 720p and probably 900p for quite a while.

 

Thanks! Looking forward to playing some SC without lagging

 

How long does it take to ship from China to North America on average?

 

Its not at all lesser than the 5650m, I cant play SC2 on high with those kind of fps

 

I downloaded the bios update, but it's still loud when I try to play games. It's a really nice laptop, I wish it wasn't so loud. Also I think I may have a defective product? Anyway returning it, and going to look at the ones offered at the sonystyle store, if it's fine there, might just be the one I got. If not, going to get the x220 when it comes out. Does anyone know where I can buy the x220 now?

Thanks

 

Thats pretty unfortunate. Before the update the thing sounded like a newfound SB jet fighter taking off, like seriously. I was updating Windows and was thinking to myself that there is no way I could deal with that kind of noise. But now it only ever makes some noise when I have been doing intensive work for at least 10 min.

I'll take a look at what BIOS I'm running and report back.

Thats pretty funny right there, they really have no clue lol. But yea, the battery is internal and the slice is external. The laptop will always come with the internal battery.

Sorry to hear that man. I'm not sure as like I mentioned mine doesn't make much noise at all.

 

Only took 2 days to get half way around the world for me, China to the east coast of the US. I got expedited shipping though.

 

Is that not including with laptops?

 

For the CTO's it is but you have to click on it to get it. Otherwise it will ship regular shipping. I don't know if you ordered one, but for anyone, if your not sure which one you got, just go to your order info on SonyStyle and it should say.

 

I have been checking my order only to the point where it says open and paid balance etc. There my order says "Processing" but when you click the order number it says "Your VAIO is being built". Also my shipping says "INCLUDED" and no where mentions standard or expedited. The Sony chat rep ordered it for me since I was getting the 5% discount through him and he told me when I asked him that it was expedited for all CTO's.

My order was placed 4/14 with ship date of 4/25. Maybe it will build faster haha.

 

The 6630m review I linked a couple of days ago suggested up to 20-40% more powerful than 5650m, however SC2 is supposed to be quite CPU-bound as well, so the benefit of the SB-dualcore kicks in here as well.

My gut feeling is this will do casual people fine up to 900p, however enthusiasts will still be looking at 555M+ / 6770m+ for full eye-candy at 900p/1080p

 

I have the 6630M and with COD Black Ops fan is on but just low/medium fan. Definitely not an issue. I am running almost everything max and native res at 1366x768. Zero lag!

However, when I loaded up BF2 BC with pretty high settings the fan was very high almost the entire time. Definitely loud for that, but for MW2, it was just audible. I have it on Speed settings and high performance. Thermal control is balanced.

I ran 3DMark06 and got a score of 7484. My M11x the highest I got with GPU overclock was 6900 range.

 

I finally got my SB with 2620M. Decided to go for it even after the brainless customer service center people in indonesia told me 4 times detailed in email that vaio purchased in indonesia wont have IRSP and guess what. inside the box, i came across the booklet which mentions IRSP and i registered online. If i knew the customer service in indonesia are specialized in misleading potential buyers, i would hv gone ahead and purchased the EB last nov than going for asus G51.

 

i bought my sony vaio sb ....very tiring coz when i get the first unit, i get dead pixel...

i straight went back the shop and change to new one.....check almost 1 hour there, test keyboard, port, screen, speaker, odd, etc.

by the way, can i take out the battery and use the notebook by plugin the adapter?

 

Luck of the draw...good thing it's still within 15 days or so to return/replace.

Am curious on this as well. The manual states not to do it or it may cause a malfunction. Anyone brave enough to do it? Or is the warning also given in older vaio laptops with the external battery?

 

U-S-A!
U-S-A!
U-S-A!

 

Just ordered an Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 WiFi card to replace the Intel 1000 one. Welcome back 5GHz band!

 

I'm Thinking about buying the Sb1, but i'm worried about the heat. I've had a R630 but had to return it because of heat issues.

I had to run a vm with windows 7 on my windows 7, and while installing visual studio in the VM my CPU core got up to 89°C.
When i ran prime it took 20 seconds to get up to 95°C and I had to end the test because the temp kept on rising.

I know these small form factor notebooks will get hotter when combined with a normal CPU, but I don't really think these temps are normal when the cpu load is less then 50% thus making the exterior untouchable.

Has anyone with the SB ever tried running a VM or other (normal) cpu intensive task and monitored the temperature?
I'm not planning on running games (maybe occasionaly) so temperatures while playing games don't really bother me.
But I really need to know that I can thrust the notebook on a daily basis as it is going to be my main computer that I'll have to use for my IT studies.

Thanks

 

Sorry haven't monitored heat with specific software, but I can play games with this on my lap, the far right corner gets warm and the rest remains cool under stress. Under basic usage the whole body is nice a cool to the touch.

I've tried out the screen on train journey back - the semi-matte works like a charm. It was very sunny and I placed the laptop directly in the sunlight and with 80-100% brightness (left it on 100%) the image looked clear and unaffected.

In addition, using this on speed mode & 100% brightness for 30 minutes only used 10% of battery watching a DVD (How I Met Your Mother). That's near 5 hours that I expect it could last DVD's which I'm very happy with considering it was 100% brightness.

Downloading BioShock 1&2 and will Install DeadRising 2. I expect all of these will be high or maximum quite easily at native resolution so will probably hold off testing games (and start playing).

I'd imagine the only things which might challenge this system are DX11 games, but I don't think I have anything to play about with for that.

My short experience of this so far is very positive:
1) When doing basic tasks it's quick and quiet (and easy to move around)
2) Has no glare and good horizontal viewing angles so good for watching movies with friends on the go
3) The power to do any intensive CPU / GPU tasks such as encoding or playing games.
4) Very light, easy to carry about and keyboard is good

I would rate this around 8/10 with the minus points being:
1) weak blacks (can look grey)
2) could be slightly better colour gamut but this is sufficient
3) low res webcam in UK version (think 0.3MP)

and subjective minus points on design:
1) I think they could have made smaller bazel
2) Would prefer no DVD drive and space used for making chassis smaller (to accomodate smaller bazel) and more airspace for cooling

 

Phew, I just about read through the whole thread, I hope I haven't missed any possible answers to my questions...

I'm thinking of getting an SB now in the UK as opposed to an Acer timelineX 4830TG (i5 + Nvidia GT540M) in a few months time in Malaysia.

Pros for the SB include weight (about .5 kg lighter), manual gfx switching (as I'll probably be using Ubuntu a lot) and matt screen. Also I can get the SB fairly soon in the UK as opposed to wait and try and find the Acer in the couple of days I'm going to be in Malaysia.

Cons for the SB are PRICE (!!) double the price you can get the 4830TG in malaysia (approx £505) for similar specs... If you valued the 4830TG and SB similarly you could probably fly out to Kuala Lumpur buy the Acer and fly back for less than it costs to buy the Sony in the UK.

With that in mind, I've got a couple of questions:

1. Has anyone installed Ubuntu on the SB? Any problems with the gfx switching? Can you use the physical switch, or do you have to choose which gfx in some system settings?

2. Does the SB have a 'sleep n charge' style facility?

I asked the guys at the sony centre if the SB could charge while off and they pottered off to find the guy that 'knew' about the SB and he said categorically not! So can anyone confirm that you can charge an mp3 player from a usb port while the computer is off?

3. I don't play modern games because I have a pos computer. I'd like to though and I'd like to be able to dabble in video editing, or 3d mapping and a bit of CAD for fun and for games. I'd like to be able to play flight simulators like X-plane on decent settings as well. Is it worth upgrading to an i7 for this or will the 6630M be holding it back? I though the best bang for buck choice the Intel® CoreTM i5-2410M 2.30GHz ? How about Intel® CoreTM i5-2520M 2.50GHz [+ £ 50.0 ]? Or would even the i3 option be enough?

4. Serious question: what's the point of the finger print recognition and TPM stuff? I love the idea of it, sounds very futuristic and cool to brush your finger over it to log in and to use passwords etc (I'm guessing that's what it does), but is it really secure? I'm guessing that your serious windows hacker can get access to those passwords if they nick your computer no? Also is this well integrated with ubuntu? (not much point using it on windows if there is no protection on ubuntu...).

5. Is it worth getting a faster and larger HD? I have a lot of music and films and other data (1TB plus) so I'll never be able to fit it all on anyway. But I was wondering if a 7200 Rpm made any noticeable difference in speed in the real world and for what kind of usage. Also are larger drives noticeably heavier? Maybe the best way would be just keep the standard 320GB, 5400 rpm and buy an external 1TB for storage that I can take with me/leave at home when necessary.
Thanks a lot for any info!

 

Silver with a Black keyboard is EXACTLY what I want. I'm pretty happy about this. I wanted a "mini-FW" (see my avatar pic of the FW) and I think this is it -- only better!

I've been away for a few days so haven't caught up yet on this thread. Are there any down-sides or negatives to this BestBuy SC unit that I might not be aware of vs the regular Sony SB unit?

Thanks!

 

Its heavier.. only one i can think of.. and you can check the SC thread for pics and stuff (i also consider the SC to be uglyer than the SB)

 

I was thinking about doing this although the 5GHz band on my MBP seems to be worthless. It connects to it so I assume even though its a 2008 machine it has 5GHz internally. My router is the dual mode with 2.4 and a 5.0 on sepearate SSID's so it must be able to use it since it finds and connects to the 5.0.

Let me know if that wifi card extends range or speed at range etc.

 

how much cost? how hard is it to get at the existing card in the laptop? I bought a damn USB adapter for exactly this, didn't know you could swap cards in these laptops

 

Hypothetically speaking, whats the no brainer purchase price for the SB?

Lets say that I could buy an SB for $900cad with bluray burner, slice, 4gb, 500gb, 6630, i5-2540... would I be silly to still think about picking up a 3820/ wait for 3830 and not pull the trigger on this Vaio SB??

 

How do you plan on getting the SB for such a good price? If I could get it for that price I would pull the trigger in a second.

 

Yes, that would be extremely silly.

 

whle playing dragon age II/Fallout new vegas, my temps reach around 80-83 degrees for both cpu and gpu. i tried playing in a non-airconditioned room and temperatures where about the same.

As long as it doesnt reach 100 degrees, its okay and so far it hasnt reached 90, which is even better.

 

Wow...that's quite a price for such a lappy. How are you getting such a good price?

But yeah, that's my quandary right now. I would totally spring for it at that price, WITH the slice, blueray, somewhat better graphics card, and new gen processor. I'd almost say its a no brainer.

 

indeed it would be silly.

SB

Screen is better
GPU is better
Processor is better
Quality construction is better
That for an added cost of 180

BTW where are you getting those prices? I want one badly!

 

I'm just basing off of notebookcheck.net and the benchmark #s of the 3820GT vs SB seems to be higher and the benchmarks of the 4830GT is higher than that of the 3820GT.

 

Will let you know once I actually have the computer. I have to make an order phone call tomorrow.

 

basically you dont know what you are saying. dont say it.

 

Less than $25. Just takes one screw and your set, just plug in the antenna leads that are there and your good to go. Very easy to do.

 

you would think for only 20 dollars intel would include that card in there with the premiums we pay for the sony name already.

 

i guess i'll try and start the SB series fresh install instructions.

as this is my first sony...what controls the hotkeys on the vaio? on thinkpads they have their own utility/driver for that, i would assume the vaio would as well.

or if anyone did a fresh install, input would be appreciated