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

Nylon Protective Sleeve for 13" MacBook Pro : Products By Incase

Expensive for just a sleeve and neoprene material suits my use better.

 

this in case is 30. similar to the be ez

http://www.google.com/products/cata...=X&ei=PYquTe2OE5P6sAO6s_TmAw&ved=0CCgQ8gIwAg#

 

Tried that one and it's a bit loose and too plain looking.

 

Got it working to, with this and some improvisation.
All buttons work including the stamina/speed switch

Sony eSupport - VPCSB1AGX - Software Updates & Drivers

I used this installation order(don't know if it will help someone else but it worked for me):
- Sony shared library
- SFEP Driver
- Setting Utility Series
- Vaio Event Service
-radeon registery patch from the support page
-Intel GMA HD drivers from the intel site
-AMD Radeon™ HD 6470M / 6630M and Mobile Intel® HD Graphics

Some of the drivers might be to much, but it works like a charm with no errors

 

Are these all the official drivers of sb?

EDIT! for all sb models i mean. will this work for VPCSB16FG?

 

Available models in the UK

The Sony web site has model VPCSB1X9E/S. Several retailers have a model VPCSB1V9E/B.CEK. The Sony support website says that this second model is not available in the UK yet John Lewis has it in stock but Amazon says it is not released until June. Telephoning the Vaio pre-sales support was not helpful as they have no knowledge of the VPCSB1V9E model even though Sony must be supplying it widely!
I want the VPCSB1V9E as it is available at a discount and has a better spec but have not been able to confirm exact specification and warranty and am reluctant to buy a model that Sony denies exists!

Is it a case of the various parts of Sony not talking to each other? Can anyone shed any light on this conundrum for me?

 

I think so, because my configuration is different from the one selected on the sony support site and it works it should be no different for another SB.
These drivers are not specific to any hardware exept for the radeon driver wich should work on both versions of the graphic card.

The VPCSB16FG is the exact copy of my configuration except for the color and windows PRO, so you should have no problems.

ps: The usb 3.0 is powered while the notebook is off (some people where asking this)

 

<<< Excited!

My card was officially charged late yesterday even though my status at sony is still payment processed. My guess is it shipped out yesterday and I'm just not getting the email as usual. If not, it must be shipping today.

 

It's a useless try, the exposed hw is different. The notebook is almost fully supported under linux with the patches I wrote (you can find all that you need here: http://code.google.com/p/vaio-f11-linux/issues/detail?id=6), but, to gain full support, a tester is needed (there are still a few things to be understood).

 

bought one from Case Logic, was about $22

 

the link returns as invalid, and yes we know its different, good thing to know that most things are workings though

 

Fixed. http://code.google.com/p/vaio-f11-linux/issues/detail?id=6
Testers are welcome, both for windows (helping the development) and linux (verifying everything works correctly)

 

my card was finally charged last last night, early morning.
hopefully i get a shipping email soon

 

BAZINGA!!!!

 

Mine finally got charged too. Status is Payment Processed, no shipping information.

All I know is this laptop better be worth the over a month and a half wait.

 

glad to hear bro. have you tried calling them to get something out of such a long wait? especially since they haven't been communicating as to the reason for the delay and no updates?

 

A note: as I don't seriously follow this thread (I read it occasionally), if you want to test or contribute please write there, not here.

 

Which Case Logic did you get? I tried one at Fry's and it was a bit loose.

On the extremely cheap side of things, I'm looking into this.

12 Notebook Sleeve - Black - Laptop Sleeves - 12 Notebook Sleeve - Black 12 Notebook Sleeve Has an

Will update if it fits well or not.

 

Would the Sony neoprene 13" case fit the SB? I still have one at home from my old SZ.

 

Micro Center - Case Logic 13.3" MacBook Pro Laptop Sleeve PAS-213

the "regular" 13.3 sleeve is no longer available, but they charged me the price for it...$24.99 (not $22, sorry)

 

I've been searching high and low, for Reviews with 6630m for the SB!

Notebookcheck has very little on it. Basically I want to find out the 3DMark 06 and Vantage and real world performance of i7 + 6630m.

I'm debating if I should get a SB or the new M11x R3. The later has 540 but an ULV i7... Somehow I am scared that it won't cut it for when Battlefield 3 and Skyrim rolls around!

SB looks quite solid, but I wonder if 6630m is downclocked like 330m in Vaio Z was. Strange that no review units were shipped with 6630! You would think Sony would unleash their most powerful versions of their product to impress reviewers with numbers!?

 

The SB is a much better product.

The 6630m, is better than the gt 540m by a 10% margin.

The cpu is a full blown not the ulv kind

The build quality is better, since the r3 appears to not have the new hinge design, aside that its lighter

 

No biggie. It's now 29.99 so good buy there.

Checked out the sleeve being sold by ambitronic and for the price, it looks pretty good and the neoprene material is good enough to protect from scratches. The 12" isn't available and probably wouldn't fit so I tried the 15" which surprisingly isn't a bad fit at all. A bit loose but the design of the case makes it look not so.(flat edges) Neoprene cover feels stiffer than the body and is closed with 2 velcro straps. Fits in my backpack just fine. Price is a kicker...$5.45 + tax. Found my case.(yeah I'm cheap)

 

I see. Can you confirm that the 6630m is not Underclocked in the SB then? Is the numbers on notebookcheck a realistic pinpoint? It hovers around 7000-8000 in 3Dmark 06 according to them.


In my mind that seems the highest we can expect right now from a <-13'' Subnotebook, and it should at least be able to run games coming out later this year, fluently at lower settings!

???

thanks!

 

Ok, lets begin:

The AMD 6630m, is already a lowe clocked version of the 6600/6700 series, being it composed of the 6650 and the 6730, all those models carry GDDR3, the 6750 and 6770 carry GDDR5, the clocks and the memory are the variations.

The 4670m that I have, can play games fluently at 30+fps on high settings, according to the benches already posted in this thread there is an improvement for me around 15-30% depending on the games, so, yes it will retain the capability to play games at the lower res that is available.

Now I wouldnt trust completely on notebookcheck, they have a bias for nvidia. Aside that the methodology is not the best that we can call it standard, not even good, just standard.

Another thing is that 3dmark06 is of little value these days, being it more CPU dependent than gpu, vantage and 3dmark11 are more reliable, not that they serve for anything aside from bragging rights

On a side note the only usual thing that they get right is the specs of the cards, that is one thing that is reliable

 

for my i7 6630, got a 3dmark06 of 7536

 

Thanks Femke, that's two people on this thread saying there is power to the usb 3.0 when off and sony centre in the uk and benny90 saying there isn't...

Maybe it's a country thing... I'm guessing benny90 is in the US and nutral and Femke are in the Netherlands and ? Germany maybe? I wonder if anyone in the uk could check if the USB 3 port can charge while the laptop is off... Coji perhaps?

Great to know there's possibilities on the linux front, I'd test if I had the laptop, but I don't and am lazily hoping that everything will be sorted out by the time I get one...

 

In addition, windows performance index is a 7.9 for both the 6630 and i7 so I'm assuming its a pretty good balance. It's great for starcraft 2, but it will get hot. It taxes the fan a lot more than the integrated graphics and the battery life drops by like 30-40%, even if you're not doing anything graphics intensive.

 

I got a US CTO and I just tried the usb 3.0. It is not powered while the computer is off. I tried it while the sb was plugged in and while it wasn't. Didn't make a difference.

I forget who asked, but I tried playing Toy Story 3 blu-ray the other day. Played smooth as butter right out of the box (using the preinstalled powerDVD)

 

we can see that its a pos, I got 7188 3DMarks with my 2 years old config

CPU: P7350
GPU: 4670m GDDR3

re run on high performance mode and got 7246
http://3dmark.com/3dm06/15648206?sh...6/15648206?key=YkvTsJbrCMTt9TZbJWBFdRuM6fzaaY

 

Here's the thing, you've been claiming 6630M > GT 540M, but everything I've seen stated otherwise. From other posts, we're seeing mid to low 7000s for benchmarks with 3dmark06.

Benchmarks with 4830TG with a i5-2410 gets a mid 8000 score with 3dmark06 in native resolution.

And since you say 3dmark06 is more CPU dependent, than it should give an even greater advantage to the SB with 6630 + i7, but the SB still scores lower. So I just want to know where you're getting your information from rather than just brushing it off and stating what you've stated as fact without anything to back it up.

 

Would you be able to run 3dmark Vantage and 3dmark11 for our reference? Thanks!

 

I had emailed the first time a while back and was told the delay was due to high demand. I called another time and they gave me BS. Finally the night before my status changed I threatened to cancel my order and I have not heard back (about 48 hours ago.) I guess they don't really care because they charged my credit card

I could call again but I am not sure what that is going to get me at this point (tracking info?)

 

Here is the one I have. I got it for my previous computer but it works obviously great for this one as well. I went with this one as it has room to put the A/C adapter if needed and is nice and slim. The inside is also very plush and soft. It's also a way better deal than the Incase one as this one is only $20 on Amazon. It fits pretty tight but there is a only a little gap in the top, like maybe half an inch, so its a pretty nice fit. But for what I use it for it more than gets the job done.

Case Logic 13 Inch Notebook Sleeve

 

Gonna try the usb 3.0 port later when it's off but it's probably the same. As for bluray playback, that was me. Just to confirm did you try playing it using speed mode and it worked fine?

 

Thanks for the tip. Already got one from ambitronics. Works well for my needs, looks the part and doesn't break the bank.

 

Yea I like that it is only $20 for a very nice case, I wasn't going to spend $40 on one when I could get one just as good for half price.

 

Also, just picked this up today:

Fantom Drive 2TB USB 3.0 External HDD

I have the 1TB eSATA and USB 2.0 that I used with my old computer as it had an eSATA port on it. I obviously wanted to get a USB 3.0 drive for the speed as USB 2.0 is really slow. I really liked that one so I decided to go with the same company and get the 2TB US 3.0 onee. It was the absolute best price available for any type of USB 3.0 external HDD by quite a big margin. It's also pretty slick looking, being as it is all aluminum and black!

It's currently on sale at TigerDirect and their clone CompUSA for $99. I had a $10 off coupon for CompUSA so ended up getting it for $89, which is the lowest price I have found for this drive yet.

You can't even build yourself one for cheaper!

 

apr 20 - order status still saying "processing". sony canada phone rep says they're waiting to hear back from their production dept in china about a status update for my order. he also mentioned that last week, they experienced a parts shortage for the laptop. they expect to hear back about the new status of my laptop by apr 21 or apr 25 due to holidays. he confirmed my cell phone number as the "priority number" to get a hold of me.

 

Regarding the information on the HDD Caddy, this is what I got from Newmodeus

Woo hoo!

 

Sweet! Hopefully they can turn that 60 days into 30!

Definitely looking forward to this!

 

thanks for the update. unfortunately newmodeus never got back to me

 

i wont link to you, they are in the thread right after you started asking about the performance of the 6630m, and yes the gt 540m is still slower.

The resolution is supposed to be the standard one, 1280*800 or 1024*768, if we all put our resolutions we wouldnt have a standard. I would advise you to read something about benchmarks.

Im not in the mood for all this.

 

what is the best 4Gb ram i can buy?
my local store guy wants me to buy a transcend one since he doesn't like Kingston's out-of-stock BS, do you think i should get an OCZ/Corsair or something???

also ca some one tell me the latencies of the transcend 4Gb?

 

just dropped in the Intel Centrino Advanced-N Wireless 6200, works lightning fast in the 5GHz band

 

For part one, I have always known Crucial and Kingston to be the best reliability for laptop RAM. I have a lot of gamer friends that swear by OCZ and Corsair though too for desktop RAM anyway. FYI, I bought a Crucial stick from newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148344&cm_re=crucial_4gb_ddr3_1333-_-20-148-344-_-Product

Part 2, most likely depends on the stick. Most companies make varying speed and latencies per part number. Like you can buy a DDR3-1333 in CAS latency 7, 8, or 9. Price just gets more expensive as you go down and voltage tends to go up to run those tight times. This more or less applies to desktops in a greater deal as laptop RAM is less common. Also, higher speed of DDR3 usually has looser(higher) timings sometimes in excess of CAS 9. Gamers usually want low CAS as a priorty.

 

Don't make me spend another 30 bucks to get an upgraded wifi card lol. I'm already dropping 300 on a SSD and 40 on RAM for a laptop that is brand new.

Must....have....moaarrr!

 

i won't be gaming.
so you think in a Transcend VS Corsair choice, i should pick the 2nd?
i mean real world difference can be noticed?

in the transcend site it only shows one stick of 4Gb which is CAS9..

 

Yea it was on speed mode. I didn't try it on stamina, but I bet that would probably work fine as well.

 

I would probably grab the Corsair of those two if same price, but everyone has their own opinion based on what has failed on them and etc. Given the laptop isnt ultra high end, you will probably not find a real world difference. Changing latencies and things are what overclockers do to squeeze every last ounce out of a part. The extra 4GB of RAM making 8GB won't even give much real world bonus to the average user either. Only when using RAMhog tasks will the 8GB shine. I am only getting it because I do a lot of VM work which just tears the RAM pool up.