Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

hi does anybody know when f series will be available to buy in ireland? or where can I find this info?

 

https://www.sonystyle.ie

 

It's obvious that many can be bothered by this issue but it's not my case.

I think like the wrestler , I'm not going to play crysis with the battery power, more likely I'm going to use it wireless during travels, typically waiting at the airport or in similar cases and then I'll be surfing/mailing home.

For power use I'll plug it up.

This is obviously referred to my use that I think will not be affected by this issue.

 

How about a quick video or photo editing on a remote location photo shoot to show to the talent? Who wants to do that at 930Mhz as reported by uzun?

I don't care if the battery last only 1 hour with an un-crippled CPU, it should be my choice.

 

thanks wii

 

Hi All,

I'm new to the forum as well as to Sony Laptops. Always owned Dells but have watched quality drop over the years. I recently purchased an F series laptop and it should be here early next week. Just wanted to thank all the members of this forum for their information and experiences which helped lead me to my choice.

Regarding the issue of throttle drop when on battery power, this one caused me some concern, but I would like to think that if enough of us state our opinions to Sony Customer Support, maybe they'll bring the issue to tech support and release a BIOS update to fix the issue. I for one would love a BIOS setting that would allow me to make the choice between performance and power saving, as I do sometimes run my laptops unplugged for short amounts of time. Seems like something that would be easy for Sony to implement should they choose to put resources into it.

Thanks

Mike

 

I'm wondering if the i5 version since having lover tdp and swithcable internal gpu may not have this 'feature'

That would be a good pro for keeping it instead of going to the 'dark side..'* , still I'm very tempted in swithcing, I can't wait to se the differences in colours, screens and performance to decide to make the jump.



*the premium black of the i7 versions

 

Sony, a Japanese company, is going to give itself the lesser-spec'ed models?

Of course, the Japanese models are going to be better. The American market FW always had its product features lag behind those of the Japanese and the European markets. I see the backlit keyboard, if it is indeed not on the Japanese models (which, literally, remains to be seen), as a booby prize for the Americans who don't appear to be getting the better premium screen.

Also, I'm not an engineer, but it seems that power issues are involved in a lot of the complaints on this forum concerning the American models. Since the power bricks, Hz, etc. are different for 100V vs. 220V environments, there are all sorts of issues that may be in play different from the standard 220V 50Hz models.

 

I intend to buy this laptop for my programming learning, my work is almost outside, exactly is in my school (ability to use adapter is not high) so what I do need is performance and then long battery life (lower priority) but the core i7's purpose is contrary to my need.

 

Interesting that Futuremark themselves describe those scores you generated with F series as belonging to 'a rather old computer'...

 

Isn't the Dell doing the exact opposite of what a person would want ? Why throttle, when plugged in ? And then go all out on battery ?

Agree totally. And I believe this should be easy enough to provide. Also, I personally have not checked thoroughly around the various options but can someone who knows a lot about these things verify that such a choice is not already available in the Vaio F ?

Bottomline, I love the fact that the computer goes full throttle when plugged in. I intend to keep it plugged in, when doing serious work, anyway.

I can live with the situation where throttling happens when running on battery, since I will mostly be doing web-surfing and things like that, on battery, anyway.

 

Hi, I'm new on the forum and I'm from France, where the F series will be available in one or two weeks.
I do a lot of writing with Word, and also use Photoshop for photo-editing. I don't play games. So I guess the i5 vaio will be good enough for me.

My concerns are about fan noise : is the i5 machine quieter than the i7 or does it have the same constant fan activity ?
Silence is very important for me.
Is a FW a better choice ?

thanks

 

If silence is a factor you'll have to look elsewhere unfortunately. My experience so far is that the fan works pretty hard to keep the i7 cool.

 

I just got mine delivered, and I immediately heard the "noise". However, the internal fans seem to be running pretty quietly. My biggest disappointment is with the screen.. it doesnt appear to be LED (darker than my 2006 e1705 inspiron) and the glare is actually awful (Sony shouldn't be allowed to market it as "antiglare"). Btw, i got the gt330m with the "premium screen".

 

You can make the screen brighter by taking off the ambient feature. You have to go into the Sony Vaio control panel and disable it. I don't have it in front of me right now but if it says (auto) when you turn up/down your brightness then the feature is on. I don't know why Sony would gimp their screen brightness out of the box.

There is a work-around for the noise in this thread as well. Your fans will kick in once you do something more intensive.

 

can somebody post a link or mention an app/prog for me to run these system checks on my own unit. im not *that* much of a tech guru when it comes to this stuff. i want something i can screenshot and send in my email to sony to let them know about this throttling business as well =)

 

It seems pretty hard to find good screen+ power+ good quality + silence.
I thought that processeurs i5 or i7 would bring more power with less heating, than Core Duo.
Am I wrong or is it due to the VaioF itself ?

 

When all 4 physical cores (and 8 threads) are going all out, it will generate heat.

However, for lighter duty stuff, the new i5 processor (comparable to the Dual Cored Core 2 Duos) and the i7 processors (not directly comparable to the older Core 2 Duos since this is a Quad-core with 8 threads) are designed to shut down cores and hum along economically, using only the ones that are needed, and operate at a lower clock speed (thus generating less heat and consuming less power than the older Core 2 Duos).

The newer generation of processors, thus brings something called "scalability"...with the ability to scale up and scale down the processing power needed (and thus power consumed and heat generated) based on the processing load being tackled.....or at least that is the theory.

 

It definitely has the first 3, so I can live with the noise. Plus when the machine is ready for lift off I have my headphones on so I can't hear too much.

 

I asked this question in the Z thread and thought I'd ask it here. I'm pretty depressed by my F experience. I'm in the process of returning my F11. It's just been so buggy for me. Sometimes it bogs down and won't video...sometimes it will. The BIOS was reset, unnecessary programs removed and this morning again, it slowed to a crawl. I really wanted to like this machine but I just can't justify putting any more time into a machine that's only 6 days old. In addition the fan noise can get very loud and now I've learned that they've throttled down the i7. I'm wondering if the i7 is worth the hassles and whether I should just get a great deal on an FW or current generation Z. Your thoughts?

 

Thanks for your clear explanation. So, can I expect to have my Vaio very quiet when working with Word + Firefox, and a more noisy when using Photoshop ? I don't care about noise with photoshop but writing is my full time job !

 

Sounds like you got a lemon. I'd say that outside of the fan noise this machine is great and maybe you should exchange for the same model? Things happen.

 

How has fan noise been for you?

 

One thing we used to do in the 1980s with 3/4" portapacks, or ENG sets with camera and recorder, is have a handbag for separate power with a lead-acid battery. The recording could keep running for several hours instead of requiring a battery change with each one or two 20 minute tape(s). With my old Eurocomm laptop I did the same thing; since it was 9 volt in I could use a rechargeable nickel-cadmium pack, that would last 12 hours or more.

The F-series requires a 19.6 volt input, that is exactly what is provided by a 12 volt and 6 volt lead acid battery in series, though charging would be awkward. Or better would be a 12 volt battery through a car battery cigarette lighter power supply. A modern battery in something like a camera case would not be much of a burden for all-day operation of the laptop, say to do video editing in a coffee shop.

As an advantage, not only is there much longer operating time, but the system will run cooler because, lest we forget, the internal battery itself gets very warm under use. That last point may be one reason why the laptop is not allowed to run full-tilt on the internal battery, since it already has to deal with both CPU and GPU heat.

An external power supply can be a battery, it will still look like "AC power" to the laptop.

I know I for one will be making a battery pack pretty shortly, since I WILL be using the F11 in the field, a distance from any AC outlet.

 

I find that the fan noise level is not bad at all when running these less CPU intensive tasks/applications. The noisiest component thus far is the Blu-Ray player. All is good after applying the "semi-permanent" fix to stop the high pitched squealing.

 

That is exactly what I am finding. Lighter duty tasks have very little fan noise but heavier duty tasks are noisy when the fan is going all out. I need to also state that even though the fan is noisy, the noise is still FAR less than my even more noisier HP/Compaq 8710W.

But I guess you need to make the decision yourself, after experiencing it first-hand, since these things vary from person to person.

 

I know that when an Image processing batch-run is on, the fan runs strongly and with a lot of noise. However, at other times, the fan noise is very reasonable, especially when surfing wirelessly etc.

Having said that, in a comparison with my HP/Compaq 8710W, the same image processing batchjob that used to take hours to do, is now powering through in just minutes ! Amazing what those 8 virtual cores (4 cores/ 8 threads) are capable of.

 

As I replied in the other thread, yes, this definitely sounds like a lemon. Mine does not have any of the problems being described here. I would just get it replaced with a different unit and if that too has issues, then go for a different brand/product.

 

How does the F perform on battery power while playing a DVD? Does the throttling cause stuttering or any noticeable difference than on AC power?

 

Does anyone know if the core i5 processors have these same issues?

Thanks Jan

 

I might just take that suggestion. Thanks.

 

Nope. Played Blu-Ray on battery power as a test...played just fine.

 

Thanks. I ordered mine yesterday. I guess I'll give it a try.

 

I played a Blu-ray disc (Mask of Zorro) on it (while on battery) and absolutely no performance degradation. Simply brilliant !

 

So when the machine throttles on battery power, does it reduce the cores too? Because single core 996MHz or whatever it was sounds pretty darn slow...

 

Does the fan blow hard when running itunes?

 

Hi! Is the vaio F11 noisier than the... Xbox 360 ? I was quiet convinced to buy it but omg I'm scared now

 

I wouldn't be scared. The first reports on the F were that it is relatively silent. Of course the fan makes noise when you are pushing the CPU. This also depends on how you are using it. When having the laptop on your lap it will make more sound then when seated on a nice flat table. Also, it depends on configuration. It is also possible to configure the laptop for maximal performance where all cores will continuously run at maximum.

I would expect at least most cores to be completely powered down most of the time for regular desktop usage. Also, it depends on the OS how efficiently the work is scheduled over processors. In case of inefficiencies in this area in that are it is probably more Microsoft to blame than Sony.

It will be intersting to see the difference between OSes. When my F arrives I will turn it into a dual boot machine running windows 7 and opensuse so I can compare what the differences are, and will report back here.

 

Ok, thanks for your answer.
Oh and is the F11 good enough for recent games ? Actually I guess the RAM and processor are not problems, but what about the graphic card ? I don't really know the 330 M GT but it doesn't seem to be an EXCELLENT component

 

my good friend...that WAS the theory. But as of yet I have yet to find a laptop with the new i7 chips in it that run cooler and longer than c2duo machines in the same basic chasis. If it were that easy they wouldnt be dropping the drives out of other models or expanding the chasis to accomodate the heat of overclocking the chip.

 

Although there aren't any extensive performance tests, the gt 330m is rumored to be a faster clocked gt 240m, which maintains the power envelope of a gt 230m.

Basically, it should have similar (or slightly increased) performance in relation to the mobility radeon hd4650 on the vaio FW.

There are some youtube videos of the FW playing a tweaked version of Crysis with medium to high settings and getting a decent framerate at 1280x720.

There are also some videos of other laptops with the gt 240m playing other fairly recent games (such as mass effect, nfs: shift, L4D cod 4 and modern warfare 2) at seemingly reasonable framerates. In none of the videos did the games appear to be stuttering or laggy (in some cases, even with FRAPS recording).

Don't expect, however, to play very demanding/future games at highest setting at native resolution (1920x1080) (mind you there are very few laptops that can do this). For casual gaming (Sims 3, etc) this laptop should be fine.

This card should be able to handle most games well - if you ever find a game running slowly or lagging, make sure to check that AA is off (if you're playing at native resolution - on a screen this small at 1080p it's not very likely that you'll notice the AA much anyway) or just turn the resolution down. 1280x720 is not THAT bad, especially on a 16" screen.

I got an e-mail from Sony that mine was under construction yesterday . I'm hoping that this can run BFBC2 when it comes out, so fingers crossed

 

u should be fine... I have played everything full screen with AA off and everything else pretty maxed. The only game that was a little slow was borderlands for me. Games like COD and Mass Effect and L4D run perfect. So if the 330m is slightly better than the 4650 (mine is actually underclocked) in my FW you should be good to go.

 

Can someone show a screen shot of the Windows Experience Index fresh from the box or after a fresh install? Preferably from the Best Buy version

 

Alright!!!
finally got my F!! It's the grey version.
Basically the lid is grey.
The rest is silver. It ooks exactly like the FW silver finish.
I'll post more pics once i get back home.



edit:
ok ..gotta try this upload again

 

umm...sorry, how do I upload? it's asking for a script prompt under insert image. Pic is on the desktop. is there a specific way to type the string?

 

When you post a message, you can find an insert image icon up in the editor... Poste some detailed pics, i'm waiting for them for a looong time

 

When on battery power the 720QM cpu runs at 930Mhz for all cores, and nothing you do will/can change that. If you have the 820QM the cpu is stuck at 1.2Ghz. This slows down all CPU and MEMORY operations.

Practically speaking you can still play DVDs, you won't notice a difference. I played back some High Definition AVCHD encoded video files and they still played fine. The only thing you will notice considerable slowdown in are graphically intensive games, video rendering, or any operation that takes like 10 mins or more to complete, those sorts of things.

For spreadsheets, email, word processing, video playback etc, even throttled, the F series seems to work fine on battery power, although it is in fact running a lot slower, in general when running most apps you wont notice a difference.

 

Received my F11 this morning

For those Canadians concerned about how long the free shipping my take over the $40 express shipping, mine took just 4 days to get to Calgary and in fact arrived on the expected ship date. Save your money.

After 30 minutes, count me in that camp that is so far satisfied, although if it were not for this forum I would be quite concerned about the whine and be worried I had a lemon. Appreciate the sharing of experiences, thoughts and fixes on that. The fan I noticed first at start up, but that quieted down somewhat and did not find it distracting. Certainly less so than the 10 inch fan I'm using on my desktop right now

My last notebook was a PowerBook G4 aluminum, and while that was quieter, had better dimensions (only slightly wider for the 17 inch, thinner a slightly less deep), and looked nicer from the outside - this is such a step up I can't complain.

Hopefully get a chance to install Ubuntu this week for a dual boot and to share my experiences there.

 

Let's try this again

 

Waiting for infos on that

Karmic 64?