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

please do so officer, thx!

 

Would replacing the ODD with a newmodeus bracket and ssd/hdd void the warranty?

 

I love these questions. No one has to know you switched them out. The only way they will know is if you sent it in with the HDD tray in. Just enjoy it and if you have to send it in for any reason just switch it back out with the ODD.

 

Oh duh that makes sense. So what if I wanted to have an SSD and an HDD. Would it make the most sense to put the SSD where the HDD is and then put the HDD in the tray? I want to run the OS and programs off the SSD.

 

it would make sense yes, since the sata 3 ports are the port 0 and 1, and those are the ones available for the HDD, the ODD is only a sata 2 port

 

it would make sense yes, since the sata 3 ports are the port 0 and 1, and those are the ones available for the HDD, the ODD is only a sata 2 port

 

haha. Yea, I would probably put the SSD in the HD area and the HDD in the ODD area... sheeze, letter jumble there.

Have all your OS and important stuff on the SSD and all your other stuff like music and movies and .... on the HDD. And if you ever have to take the HDD out you wouldn't be messing up your OS install.

 

be sure to choose a spinning hard drive when you CTO your sb. if you go with a sony factory-installed SDD, you're going to have problems swapping that out because sony uses proprietary connections.

i read somewhere that data transfer rates are limited with the ODD SATA connection (someone correct me if i am misinformed). so save yourself some coin and opt for a 5400rpm hard drive, instead of the meanest/fastest one your find.

 

Can any of you tell me if the SB has a mic-in?
Also, what about connecting two external monitors with something like the Matrox Dual Head or any other way to do that?

Thanks!

 

jsmills thanks for posting the photos of the white SB, it looks great. I was expecting the top case to look more silver but it looks pretty much white in your pictures. The top case looks as silver as the keyboard in the pictures Sony has released.
It will be a toss up between a white SA/gold SA for me. I will go and see them both though before i make my purchase.
Being the owner of a white TT with a silver keyboard i know that silver keyboards appear to wear out less than black keyboards. Still, you can just get a keyboard protector.

Does anyone know what the BD drive is in this laptop? For Sony to offer it for £150 compared to £500 what they were charging for the BD in the Z UJ242A makes you think. It must though be a 9.5 drive.

 

Sony online Chat couldn´t even tell me the speeds of the BD writer unfortunately.

Where did you see a gold SA btw?

 

That actually looks like a european model and not exactly what we are going to get. More than likely the US model will be like this one:

White SB Pictures

Just click on the blue links to see the pictures. I like the look of the white inside quite a bit better than the silver. Oh well, I still like it better than the black one so I'm not totally unhappy.

 

The mic-in is shared with the headphone jack.

 

I live in the EU but wouldn't hesitate to purchase abroad if i couldn't get the laptop that i wanted where i live.

This is an EU white model. It looks more or less like the pictures in the link that you posted. I do much prefer the white top chassis than the silver one.
VPCSB1S1E/W (VPCSB1S1E/W, VPCSB1S1E/W.G4) : Technische Daten : VAIO & weitere Computerprodukte : Sony

May be the pictures aren't the most accurate representation.

poma this a prototype of the SA but it's only exactly that. The looks might change a bit when the final version is released.
YouTube - Prototype VAIO Laptops

I do prefer an all white model though.

 

Does that mean you can't use an external mic and headphones at the same time? (Is there literally only one audio jack on the laptop?)

I've looked through the pictures and I can't find an image showing the jack anywhere.... where is it located on the chassis of the lappy?

Thanks

 

Since the SB uses the slim form factor BD drive, I would assume that it's the same as the Z. The Z uses a UJ242 drive and after doing an eBay search for the drive, I've confirmed that it's a 4X write drive.

The headphone jack is behind the ODD. You can see it here, in the back corner:
http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Shot-1_SB-Model.jpg

To answer your question, there is literally one audio jack on the laptop. You'd have to use a mic/headpone combo set up such as the headphones that come with the iPhones. There might be an adapter out there that can split that jack into a mic in and audio out jack but I am not sure if such a thing exists.

 

I just noticed on the Canadian SB CTO site that the free upgrade to the better i5 has now been changed to a $100 charge. I'm going to call them up and notice them of this.

 

Its's a UK model and it is silver inside. The silver colour under dim light does look darker but under bright light it lightens up. The HP next to it is a silver top so it offers a comparison as to the lightness of the silver.

I would prefer all white but i suppose it wouldnt be overly practical. I dont mind the silver now.

 

i think sony canada has revised their sb CTO to reflect more realistic prices (which is what i originally pointed out). i just built one identical to the spec i ordered over the phone 2 days ago it came out to be $558 more.

 

EDIT: Generic's got it:

I'm sure there is an adapter for that but I'm not sure. it's is on the side with the ODD all the way to the left.

 

Has any of the owners tried to run the computer without the battery pack inside. I wouldn't want to ruin it by having it inside all the time, as I did on my old Toshiba...

 

I seriously suck at waiting! Come on SONY! Ship it out today!

 

My order that I placed on April 29th for a CTO SB changed from "Your VAIO is being built" to "Payment Processed". I'm assuming this is a good sign that it's going to ship soon as they said they don't charge your card until it's ready to ship. It has an estimated ship date of April 12th and I got expedited shipping, so I'm crossing my fingers it ships by tomorrow so I can have it early next week.

 

Did they send you an email for that or did it just change to "Payment Processed" on the website? I have the same estimated ship date so I'm definitely hoping I have mine by early next week, also got the expedited shipping.

 

It's just changed on the website...they said I wouldn't get another email until it shipped with a tracking number. Also, the warranty also changed from "Processing" to "Order Complete" so I'm crossing my fingers that it's shipped before tomorrow.

EDIT: Also the Order Status on the Order History page of my account was changed from "processing" to "complete". These are all good signs that it should be shipping very soon.

 

Ok well I am definitely jealous! :cry: I'm sure mine will change soon though.

One question though if you don't mind listing it, what was your configuration? What color?

 

4B (4GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
Microsoft® Office 2010 Start Info for details.)
White
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional
AMD Radeon™ 6470M GPU (512MB VRAM) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology
CD/DVD Player / Burner
Standard capacity battery
320GB Hard Disk Drive
Fresh Start No additional AntiVirus Software
Adobe Bundle (Free -$448 value)
13.3" VAIO Display
Intel® Core™ i5 2520M processor (2.50GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.20GHz

 

Ha that is my exact build as well.

 

You guys aren't going with the i7 + 6630?

 

+1, i did

 

No, the main reason is I really don't need the extra power for any reason. Also that it is a $300 upgrade kind of backs up my decision. Also with the i7 you are going to get quite a bit worse battery life, which is important to me.

 

doesnt the cpu automatically throttle down depending on usage? so for basic tasks like browsing, both cpu's would be clocking in at the same? the only diff is that i7 has a higher top end for cpu-intensive processes like photoshop etc. someone confirm?

 

Their power profiles are set differently, the i7 has more cache and generally uses more power than the i5 but obviously has more processing power. Check it out on hothardware.com, they break down all the differences, advantages/disadvantages.

 

Photoshop certainly doesn't need an i7.

Heavy video editing, yes. But Photoshop or light video editing? Nah.

 

Same thoughts here. Maximize battery life over performance. Else I would have gone for CTO. Although I did read a review saying the new i7 saves more power than the new i5.

 

actually a higher binned processor usually gives more battery life, thus the i7 usually gives more battery life than the i5, specially if the OEM i5

 

Yeah for some reason despite the faster i7, it's supposed to consume less battery power. Impressive that Intel could pull this off. Not enough to vote with my dollar though.

 

if you dont need the added power or the gpu, it makes little sense.

 

hear hear! Need more battery life though. I remember my old SR with it's measly 3hr(if I'm lucky) battery life. Sony has come a long way since then.

 

I like the physical graphics card switch, I don't like the idea of Optimus deciding when the graphics card should be used, and I don't want to have to configure it manually application by application. IMO having the switch is better and easier to access than through software.

 

Anyone running a selfbought SSD with the SB? I am trying to decide between ocz vertex 3 and intel ssd 520 series both 120gb. And maybe the Intel 320 with 160gb.

Any recommendations or problems with the sb?

thanks for any hints

 

Yup, now I can finally use this thing: www.hitechreview.com/uploads/2009/12/SteelSeries-Adapter-for-mobile-devices-1.jpg
Too bad it's white

 

Can anyone let me know how these are for moderate gaming with the 6630? Does it overheat? I can deal with a little bit of fan noise while I am playing games.
Also for anyone from Canada, is the CTO on the website now working? Will the Spring200 Coupon work for it?

If this thing will run newer games without burning up I think I might go for this instead of waiting for the Acer 3830.

 

5300$ US???

VPCSB190X Sony Vaio S Series 13.3" inch Laptop i7 SSD | eBay

 

I own a sandforce controlled SSD, a corsair F120, and I would sincerely avoid a sandforce controller like the plague as of now. They had firmware issues from the start and still have, leading me to hangs and crash here and there.

I will either go for the intel 520 or the 320, whichever is cheaper, why? you are not going to notice the difference in speed.

I would also advise on getting a HDD caddy so that you wont be constrained by the size of SSD, which I am (mine has 120g), and I dont have music or films in my SSD, only docs and programs

 

It's brand new and it currently takes at least 10 days till your laptop ships from Sony... and that guy is obviously a moron!

 

For me, the real reason for choosing the SB is the 6630M. Since the Intel graphics has similar performance to the AMD 6470, it makes little since to go without a 6630M.

 

That is why they offer the choice Unlike you I have no real reason for a dedicated GPU, don't game, don't really use any intensive programs. Basically just online surfing and movie watching. But it's always nice to have the option to use one and the 6470 has plenty of horsepower to do anything I need it to.

 

Can anyone who has the VPCSB1AGX, i.e. the i7, 6gb ram model, tell me on how the ram is configured, i.e. 2x3gb or 4gb+2gb? Thanks.

 

It's most probably 4+2