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

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from intel forums

 

Wonder if the Sony bios will block non-factory wifi adapters like many HP laptops I worked on.

 

i believe someone already changed their wifi card out and has been working fine.

 

Guess I will order that wifi card tonight considering my laptop seems like it might arrive sometime this week. Now to figure out what SSD I'm going to order...

 

I'm also leaning towards the Intel 320.. just seems the most reliable one at the moment, without an insanely high price. I'm probably getting the 120GB version (€180). According to the official specs, the 160GB one is slightly faster:



Sata3 SSDs are way more expensive, and in daily use, you won't really notice the difference I guess.. it will all feel snappy enough. Only if you want the best of the best, and you're transferring files very often it will be a better choice perhaps.

 

this wait is killing me. i think i'll just order 2 ipads for portability. why 2 you ask? so i can multitask!

 

With my laptop reliability seem more important than for my desktop. I always have my desktop open testing random stuff so I'm used to stuff failing in it lol. My laptop I want to be carefree, but with really good performance. I saw a few reviews that rated the Intel 320 behind the X-25M and some reviews rate it super high. Might just get it and ignore all reviews due to it's attractive pricing with Intel's name on it.

 

LOL. I sold my gen1 iPad back in December for extra cash to put towards a new laptop. Finally found something worthy .

 

anyone use messenger bags? i have an STM one:



looking to see if there are any better ones out there.

timbuk2 would be nice, but not 150 dollars nice. i can buy like 149 mcchickens with that money

 

Hi all,
I am deciding between the SB vs. SC and to me it seems the SC (with bestbuy, USA) outperforms the SB on every count per dollar spent. Does anyone strongly disagree?

 

Yeah that's what I thought to, but I am Canadian and have been keeping my eye on this laptop pretty close and right now its 1459 or something for the setup he mentioned. Even with the spring200 it would be more then his mentioned price. If he is finding this price in Canada I would be buying, thats why I'm curious.

 

more like a couple of counts, alot of it is the same as the SB except for the HDD and ODD

I got my base SB for the same price

 

I've already got a USB adaptor but I'm just surprised that the mic/headphone socket doesn't seem to work. I've seen a number of reviews say that it's a dual socket so it would be good to find out if someone has definitively managed to get a headset to work with that jack.

 

Right. So for you the SC would be a better deal right? I am trying to see if there's a real killer difference between them.

 

sure, it's probably a better deal, silver laptop with a few hardware upgrades

yeah I would have considered it but i'm not losing sleep over my deal...mine's been in my possession for almost a month, price you pay to early adopt I guess...it's my first VAIO!

 

It's expensive, but I currently use this one.

 

Thanks for clearing that up! I wasn't sure what the difference but figured it was something small like that.

 

Never heard of them, but they do have some great looking bags, might buy one

 

Yea I would go for the SC. I never thought I would say this about something being sold at Best Buy but, it is actually a really good deal!

 

Please help, can anyone please tell me which sort of caddy I should use for my SB? I know it's about 9.7 mm height. If anyone done it, could you please post photos? I searched through newmodeus.com but still not sure whether I get a right one Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy(p/n OBHD9-SATA-SATA-B) Black, 9.5mm [OBHD9-SATA-SATA-B] - $42.00 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

 

i'm growing impatient waiting for the shipping email

 

Not sure if that will work or not. Here are some pictures of the one that is in the SB.

Sony VAIO SB Teardown PDF

Test it out and let us know

 

I feel the exact same way. I've bought plenty of computers over the years, but not one from Best Buy. That may now change.

 

Me too. I was really surprised how they are making a profit by giving all that at such a low price. Or just leads you to wonder how much of a markup Sony puts on its own site

 

probably subsidized nicely from those extras- Kapersky, WiMax, etc

 

+1, I can pretty much guarantee that they are still pulling a nice profit on it. But it is a nice change up on the everyday.

 

At least yours changed. Mine is still unbilled and still being built (8 days and counting.) The ship date is still estimated as April 12th.

All this from a March 8th order. I am about ready to cancel and go elsewhere.

 

I'm not sure if everyone has checked out all the multi-touch capabilities of the trackpad, but for those that don't know, the two finger swipe left does a page back and the two finger swipe right does a page forward in the browser. It's a nice way to get back and forth quickly while surfing.

I have never been a big user of the multitouch, but the browser tools are definitely convenient.

 

Me too. Just ordered an Intel 320 160GB and a 4GB Crucial chip from newegg. Can't wait!

 

You. Just. Made. My. Day.

I was really hoping this laptop had some kind of multi touch. I was treading the idea of moving the pointer to the back buttons. I tend to swipe back and forth really fast when browsing and using the 3 finger swipe on my MBP is such a time saver when using a trackpad. Excited to know this computer can do it too.

Does scrolling work with 2 fingers as well? If so, decently?

 

I figured that would help someone out. There isn't 2 finger scrolling, which I see as a good thing, as it always seems to $uck on Windows machines. What it does have though, and I actually like it better now than the two finger scroll, is when you scroll and reach the bottom you can keep your finger on the pad and do circles to keep scrolling down or up the page. It works perfectly and is very smooth. It is especially helpful on this forum where you have to scroll a lot!

 

I read about the rotational scrolling. I'm not a big fan of the side scroller to start with, but at least you don't have to lift and you can just move around the pad. I have become like a machine at using my MBP track pad. My friends in my IT classes are amazed when I out navigate their mousing skills with my track pad due to all the gestures. I have remapped the 4 finger swipes and corners etc. Hopefully I can get acclimated to this track pad.

 

I'm trying to consolidate some information on SSDs for the SBs on this post

YAY Canada, but if you're looking for something more "hip", check out superdry laptop bags

 

I just went with the Intel 320 160GB. Most likely same reliability of the well known X-25M. SATA 3 really doesn't offer much more in what I want out of a laptop. SATA 3 to my knowledge really only helps drives break the 270ish MB/s cap (with overhead included) and I have no reason to exceed those sequential speeds. All I want is the snappy response times associated with most SSD's. I have had my C300 on the Marvell controller in my desktop for a year and love it. Just wanted to give Intel a try this time around.

Thinking I might hold off on the wifi card though. Don't think its worth 25 dollars for what is most likely a marginal improvement. Really no use for the 5GHz imo. I have a switch under my desk and a 1Gbps line run to where my current laptop sits.

 

THANKS man, you know i was dieing to check that out.. well i'm sort of regretful to have ordered the blue and not the black now =/ but i'm still hoping that when i get mine i will think otherwise... although i must say it *seems* pretty and the dark outer shell also feels just discrete and sober enough while still maintaining the *original* touch..

 

So I called a Sony rep today asking about my order (i7 2620M, 500GB, 6GB RAM, sheet battery for ~$1250 because they screwed up the prices ) from April 6th, he basically said that there was some delay with parts because of the earthquake in Japan and that I can expect to have it by late April/early May at the latest. The ship date on the website still reads April 6th though, apparently they're having some trouble correcting it and its a bit buggy. Can't wait for next week to get here though!

 

i like their super dry classic gasoline shirts. but their bags are ok. too loud imo

 

Hey guys, after reading through all of the discussion, I have a question for the current owners out there.

I saw a review from the US Sony website that mentioned that the video-out was poor. He had the 6630m graphics card, and when he connected it to an external display, he mentioned horizontal bands displayed.

Can anyone replicate this problem or refute it? I'd like to know since I would be using an external display at home when I'm not taking the laptop out. Thanks for the help in advance.

 

Odd, the VPCSB190X CTO has gone up in price by $8 or so... 1269 to 1277 (6620M and i7-2620M config).

Anyone know why they would be?

 

blame obama

 

Yea, the back of the screen looks as nice as the black one. And for me, the deep purple on the inside is just perfect.. really looks much better in real life, trust me

 

page 100
i get a prize

 

i hate you simp. you took away my joy in my post

 

oddly enough, now i can get windows and office professional for no extra... and fresh start, and get 3 years on norton all for no extra... it ends up at 1259 after all those extras

i think their system is broken, i should buy now

 

Thanks benny, well you and Sony staff say no, nutal says yes...



PS anyone planning on putting linux on it?

 

Mine is also from March 8th, also still not delivered (Netherlands). Latest info I got is that I should expect it around Easter. But they offered me to choose anything within 50 EUR from their website as a gift, which I think is fair after promising 4-5 weeks delivery.

 

I've seen on some laptops that this function can be turned off and on in the BIOS. Maybe worth checking.

 

Nice one!

Can you post a link please for the RAM, I want to upgrade the SB I just ordered with the extra 4 gig but have no idea what type of module I should get. Thanks!

 

This one should fit.

 

it is a huge improvement in my condo environment, I routinely see 12+ networks in the 2.4GHz band which has caused enormous interference