Official Sony VAIO F Series i5/i7 owners thread *Part 3*

I just installed the bios update for my F11S1EB. Everything went smooth and the system shut down after the install. Curiosly after the bios update my temperatures seems to be lower by 4 degrees. Before the system was at 55degrees CPU and 50 GPU and now it is 50 CPU and 46 GPU and I am in the same room same location nothing changed.
The fan runs at 3240 RPM and the computer is in power save mode. I will keep you posted to see whether the change in temperature is consistent throughout the day.

 

Remove the check at "Be alltid...".

 

I dunno why Sony_made it so difficult but many of us tried several utilities to try to see the actual fan speed on the F11_and_F12 to no avail. I stumbled upon Everest Ultimate v5.50 & at last can see it which is cool when running benchmarks or tweaking some stuff. My older Everest showed zip and BTW SpeedFan caused system freeze on my F.

While pricey considering that free utilities like SIW 2010, CPU-z, GPU-z, HWMonitor, etc reports similar info except for the fan, you can get the free trial version here (they don't mention the limitations of the trial): EVEREST Ultimate Edition v5.50.

You can select which hardware you want to monitor (as well as customize the text labels, text size, etc) in the > File > Preferences > OSD Panel (hardware monitoring) and in Alerting in case of overheating of the mobo, CPU, GPU & drives and also if the fan rpm drops below 2500. It uses only 69 MB of memory when running in the background, that's cheap for peace of mind. Screen captures of the OSD panel on my desktop as well as the thresholds I chose for Alerting considering the 100c max operating temperature of the CPU & 105c of the GPU.



Note that you can't control the fan speed which is a good thing in my opinion as the powerful machine needs cooling.

The fan on my F i7-720QM & GT 330M runs from 2740 rpm up to 5640 rpm as I observed so far. The temperatures above are about normal @ idle with 5 programs running & about 25 tabs opened in Firefox, in a room @ about 22-24c and the back of the laptop propped-up with a piece of wood 2cm thick to help natural underside ventilation and provide a more comfortable keyboard angle IMO.

As posted previously, this is with running 2 utilities simultaneously to stress both CPU (with Everest > Tool > Stability Test > CPU > kicks in Turbo Boost & makes all 8 threads run @ 100%) & GPU (free Furmark > Stability test > all options selected > Custom size set at 1200 x 900 to be able to see the OSD) @ 99% for 20 minutes w/o propping the back of the laptop (labels before customizing the text):



If you know about a free utility that shows real time fan speed for the F_Series, please post the name.

*****

 

One thing I don't yet understand about this laptop relates to a game I play in my free time called Dofus. (It's a really slow paced MMO not unlike WoW, but.. quite different). Anyway, both the old (flash), and new (flash+air) versions have the same odd issue on my Vaio that boggles my mind.

When plugged in, the game runs fine; if I get on a freaky overpopulated map the fan will start to kick (because something like 500+ tiny swfs will be open), but otherwise it's fine - I could run 8 clients if I wanted to (I've tested 6 for laughs myself), with NO LAG AT ALL. Could watch some 1080p youtube and do a render or two with no lag!!

Unplug the power brick and all hell breaks loose! I can't even get 1 client to run without lag, and then I have to knock the flash quality to low. I used to think this was obviously the processor running at 930mhz, but even at 930mhz the game takes about 6% CPU and maaybe 20% on a really crowded map.

Memory speed? I dunno.. GPU? I just can't find the issue. It totally boggles me!

The only reason that bothers me is it's the ONLY task I can think of where my Vaio misbehaves..

 

cpu throttles down when running on the battery so thats probably why

edit: just read the rest of your post..i dont know in this case sorry

 

Go Deutschland. Go Alemania. Go Germany! I've come in early to work to watch Brazil and Netherlands. Using ESPN3 for live steaming on my F.

 

Nice. They dont stream outside USA.
What USB capture device do you guys would recomend for our F series?

 

Never understood the desire to do this. Slingbox, some sort of wireless devise makes sense to me, but why would you want your TV feed onto your computer? If there are two shows/games going on simultaneously, and the computer monitor could show a different channel than what is being projected onto the TV- this I can understand. Maybe I do not know the full capabilities of a USB capture device.

 

My F12 seems to have shipped... 25 days early! It shipped on July 2 (Sony estimated July 27) and it will be here on July 5. I can't wait!

 

Back with the statistics. I played two hours of Dirt II and the temps seem to be the same before the update: CPU around 69 and GPU around 67. The fan varies between 5200 and 4xxxx but usually it dropped to 3300 for a few seconds. Will try some more games and I'll post the results.

 

I just phoned to check on mine (ordered a day earlier than you) but I am still July 20. The rep said they had grey unit stock on hand so perhaps that is why yours was ready sooner. Did you order gray? If so that might be a tip for those that need a Canadian CTO order faster and don't care about the colour.

Looking at your older post, the other differences in our orders appears to be that I went with the Blu-ray burner, 8 GB memory, Win 7 Pro and 2 years of Norton.

 

Slingbox for a laptop seems to be the only legit option, because I wouldn't wanna be lugging around a USB doohickey

Why wouldn't you want the grey one? It looks a nice shiny silver. The "black" one tends to look kinda weird xD.. just the other night I was showing a friend and he first thought it was a Gateway FX because "there's so much orange" --- "that's the picture dude!" .. hahhaha.

It looks really nice in public for some reason, minus the finger prints all over the lid. LOL!

 

The difference may be the reason, but I would think they have Blue-ray drives, memory and software ready to be assembled and installed. Mine is black as well.

I got an email from Sony this morning at around 10AM EST with a FedEx link to track my order. I live in southern Ontario, the GTA specifically. Hopefully you gets yours gets shipped within the next 1-2 days and they didn't make a mistake in my order (which would explain why it shipped so early).

 

Just did a little playing around with Everest. Really too much information for my brain to process at the moment.

A quick benchmark I ran for funsies. Truthfully, these numbers don't mean much to me but others may find it useful.


This may be more interesting. Took this shot right after a benchmark so a little hotter than normal but +-2 degrees C would be my average temps. Chrome, Live Messenger, Everest and WMP going.

My CPU fan speed is averaging 3000 RPM. The GPU fan is reporting at constant 100% if i remember correctly, both are cooled by one fan hence this reading?

Haven't heard anything bad about the BIOS update so far so I'll probably flash that later and report back if there are any significant changes.

 

So I received my F12 a few days ago, and I have to say I am impressed and satisfied with it, and probably keeping it. The screen is gorgeous, and the build quality sturdy. I love the grey color as opposed to getting it all in black and glad that I chose it over the black when I kept deciding; it really looks like a Mac! Performance wise, I see a huge spike from my 6+ year old HP laptop. Gaming performance is ok, but I would have liked to see a more powerful GPU than the 330. My only other complaints would be a higher resolution webcam, the ability to turn off the power button light since it's just a waste of energy, and rubber supports on the bottom of the AC adapter cause it almost easily slips out of my tables.

I'm just glad I waited because when I saw all the F11's go out of stock and be discontinued, I knew something was wrong with it, which was confirmed when I read the massive half-million F and C recall. I didn't purchase it when I had the chance to, and the F12 comes just a few weeks later with its fixes.

 

I made some mesures too.

I dont think these numbers will remain the same in the next summer here (dec-mar).
Its winter and temperatures didnt rise above 25° C lately.
Today, 23°, sense 23°

Running Everest and Furmark simultaneously, for about 20 min.
I'm very please with these results after upgrading de BIOS, although before that I dont have a clue.

However, the cabinet's botton left corner became uncomfortable hot, just above de HDD.




Thank you Joe Bleau

 

Duna, thanks for the data. My ambient was probably 27C or so to compare to yours.
Some more data: I originally said my fan was very quiet. When I first boot it turns out to start int he 2400rpom range when the cpu/gpu is just 40-43C. There is more whoosh at 52C /3100RPM area where I spend most of my regular usage, 15% usage on cpu is my typical. Yes, GPU fan always reports 100%.
Generally I have no concern in the heat department so far.
For the capture discussion: I am coincidentally playing with a hauppauge 950q usb tuner dongle that came with nero liquidtv. it does atsc and qam for us. Will let you know how it goes.

 

xcougar,

My FAN start from 2400 and rises to 5340rpm at the end.
It has been noiseless until now, never showing the past complains in this thread.

But when I stop the test it was almost screaming, the poor thing.
It was a torture.
I doubt these stress conditions will ever be reproduce in my use of the machine in daily bases. I imagine that the only similiar conditions will be a high definition encode process, that I know, could take more than 4 hours ou so. I have my desktop for that.

About the cabinet heating, it was unconfortable to keep my fist there, not burning.

I would like to know about your hauppauge, dropping frames, video/sound synchronisation, standart or HD video, etc, although I need to look for a ISDB (japanese) system device.

 

Hello Syin,

It looks like you're going through the same mess that I've been through. I haven't been on this forum for a few months, and was looking up info on the recall and noticed your post. I've posted the same screen comparisons with old laptops and movie stills that demonstrate the same washed-out and inverted color on the Vaio. You will only waste your time here as a certain forum member here who seems to be online 24/7 ready to stamp out criticism of Sony will only question your camera, whether you've skewed the angle, brightness etc (and show plenty of graphs, polls and charts to prove it). It’s been difficult learning to live with the bad screen, especially with all the time wasted and when an official Sony service tech has looked at it and seriouly said that the effect is totally normal. Anyways, I’m still a little bitter about the screen as you can tell but I’ve decided to live with it and not waste any more time.



http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...s-owners-lounge-part-2-a-317.html#post6151719

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...es-owners-lounge-part-2-a-76.html#post6002670

 

LOL. wow ... thank goodness for speaker phone! It's funny though, their website says they're open until 8 PM :S. I just called now and they're closed! I thought they would have been closed yesterday. I'm not so worried about the price hike. As long as I can get a discount like others on the site.

 

Guys, we know that you can't wait to join the F_Series owner's club but please spare us the blow-by-blow details of the delivery process! Where is the truck now?

*****

Everest v5.50 F_Series Data

Cool, I would like to see data before and after the BIOS update. Sadly I found Everest & it's fan monitoring after I already did the upgrade.

"The GPU fan is reporting at constant 100%" - That's normal as there is only 1 system fan & heatsink connected to both CPU & GPU in the F as you pointed out, it's just a place holder. I guess that if they would have chosen 0% as default, people would have freaked out.

The system monitors the CPU, GPU & motherboard temperatures & the highest temperature determines the cooling needs and consequently the fan speed and volume of air that needs to be evacuated. I cropped this photo by jacksjw (more internals photos in the #1 post on page 1 of this thread):

You are welcome.

If the ambient temperature is warmer, the F's temperatures may rise a bit but mostly the fan will run faster to compensate. Raise the back of the F with any object 2cm thick & you will see that the fan works less to keep the F at a given temperature. It extends battery life, reduces the fan's wear & tear but also makes the F more quiet.



"However, the cabinet's botton left corner became uncomfortable hot, just above de HDD.." - I checked the palmrest during benching, it was warmer than usual because CPU & GPU running full out but not so much IMO.

"...but usually it dropped to 3300 for a few seconds" - You mean as reported in the OSD panel? That's an Everest quirk refreshing the fan rpm data, mine does that to. If the fan would really drop from 5200 to 300, you would hear the pitch change. Try looking at the graph on the Cooling Fans tab, it's pretty constant:

BTW you can change the range of the rpm & temperatures in Preferences to make nicer graphs: I chose 2500 to 5000 rpm and 45 to 100c. You can also change it on the fly with the slider on the right side:

Come on, please stop spreading FUD. It's NOT a "massive half-million F11_and C recall" , it's a simple DIY BIOS update download & installation that takes 2 minutes at most. Please read: VAIO_Recall Baloney, BIOS & CMOS posted a few pages back: "39 laptops divided by 535,000 multiplied by 100 = 0.007%" so .007% of the laptops were affected in the real world so far.

I temporarily changed my avatar in honor of that recall baloney!



FYI no F11_owner ever reported overheating neither in this F owners thread nor in the two older ones. We are talking about ZERO reports out of 20,000 posts. Go to the_XPS, new_MacBook Pro and the Envy_15 & 17 threads to see hundreds of posts by owners reporting overheating & incomfortable shell & palmrest. Use the nav bar on the very top of this page to get there.

*****

Thread Usability: Help!

Guys, if you could include Everest in your post title to make it easier to spot, I would appreciate. In fact for all posts, one should use Go Advanced or Quote & type a significant title instead of the lazy Post Quick Reply to make this thread much more user friendly as well as help the internal search engine giving better search results.

 

Maybe you are skipping all the posts made by some happy F11_and now by new_F12 owners just a few pages above yours. Yes, as shown in the F11_downers display poll, some people are not happy with their display. Note that more are. 159 votes @ the present.

BTW F12_owners, have you voted here? Poll: What is your opinion about your VAIO_F12 Display? (6 votes so far).

My reply to syin's photo besides this post about it:

Some questions:

1- Both at max brightness??? So what if the F is brighter than the_LG, would that explain the over-exposure? Why not set both to the same apparent output brightness?

2- "LG... the task bar is dark grey" - So how come it's blue on the photo?

3- - "_Sony... the task bar is light grey" - So how come it's pure white on the photo?

4- Why not set the two taskbars to identical colors so we would have a reference about the brightness adjustments on both displays?

I believe syin when he says that the blacks are blacker on his_LG but hopefully he means when set at the same brightness level & not when both are maxed out! This said, his photos are skewed, period.

Now yes, you may have been unlucky with a subpar display on your_F11 but that does not mean that it's the case for everybody else. I welcome comparisons made with some kind of minimum scientific approach. That's why I always try to support my claims with some data, benchmarks, references, screen captures, photos & quotes. It's time consuming but that's how my mind works.

Maybe you missed this post?

 

You still didn't answer...where did you find out July 1st was the last day for the free 740?

Who else got discount on which site

The website says 7PM weekdays. You called on a weekday.

US ppl got discount. CAN ppl didn't. The only discount is 20% off on ACCESSORIES and free express delivery. You make me confused.

 

Another thing about the display is I notice a very high pitch, constant noise when the screen is on. The noise is gone immediately when I turn off the screen with the "DISPLAY OFF" button, and comes back as soon as the screen is on again.

 

I never had any problems with my F (model VPCF111FX), but I installed the update anyway, my model is included in the affected model list, so I don't want to take any chances.
Now, one thing that really worries me is the power supply "flickering" issue. I'm on my second power supply (exchanged the first one, thought it was defective) and I feel like this thing is gonna short circuit on me any second.

 

This was discussed a few pages back. First, find out if the sound comes from the speakers or from where you can read_SONY on the bezel.

You could plug in headphones. You can also play with the brightness setting, if the sound changes or disappears, you may have a bad CCFL inverter & need to return, exchange or have the unit repaired.

If so, you may be the third user reporting a buzzing inverter.

*****

A/C Adapter LED Flickering?

LED flickering is normal & was explained several times before.

 

Upon further testing, it looks like the noise is there if
monitor is on && brightness <= 6

That means there is no noise if
monitor is off || brightness == 7 || brightness == 8

plugging in headphone or muting didn't have any effect on that noise.

BTW another thing I noticed is that while changing brightness from 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc, I can see a clear jump in brigtness. However, I don't see any changes going from 7 to 8, as if 7 is already max.

 

So far everything is pretty sweet about the laptop. The power is impressive and the screen is brighter and sharper than my old Acer Aspire 3000 I just gave to my parents. I do not hear any sort of whine coming from my monitor, speakers, mic or the hard drive. The only thng I hear is the slight running of the fan since I am currently running Windows update again. When I am just surfing the net, this thing is pretty quiet!

A few issues I have come across:

1. The BLU RAY ROM drive gave off a buzz saw sounding noise when I was installing Microsoft Ultimate 2007 from the DVD. It seems to occur when the drive is spinning as fast as it can. I can hold the plastic face/cover of the drive near the eject button and it mutes the noise. Is this normal or not? See the attached zip file, which includes the 3gpp audio file since NBR wont let me upload it on its own.

2. The Vaio Care updater keeps failing to respond when I start the machine. It tells me, when I run Vaio Care that there is an update for the Updater. I try to run it and it seemingly does nothing. I have downloaded it directly from Sony's support website and I will try it in a moment to see if that fixes that issue.

EDIT: Removing it, the reinstalling the software fixed the issue!

3. The stickers were difficult to remove! They, thankfully, left no residue when I finally did remove them from the laptop. And for those who are interested, no BLU RAY sticker on my machine.

I have not applied any color profiles to my machine or gone through the unification post, as I have been busy installing software to get my laptop in full working order. It sucks that I have two final projects to complete and over 3 papers to write so I plan on doing more testing when I can make time between homework assignments.

If you have any questions you might like me to answer, software to install to get the specs, etc; I will try to get to them as soon as I can. I plan on working on one paper tonight and try to get another finished tomorrow once I wake up.

 

Hmm... just got back from dinner and now I hear the noise even at highest brightness. Also, the noise seems to be loudest at all 4 edges of the screen (trying to put my ear close to the laptop to find out)

 

Secret on removing stickers:

Get a piece of paper, slide it alongside the edge of the sticker until it catches underneath the edge, then keep sliding and you should be able to get the paper all the way across (underneath) the sticker with no residue or any such problems. In fact, the sticker should be pristine

For some reason I forgot this method on my 2nd F11 and ruined all of my stickers except the intel + nvidia ones. Yes, that includes the Blu-Ray sticker, sorry folks! I can't stand stickers on my laptop!

 

BBC News - Sony_Vaio laptop in mass 'recall'

I don't know, but I think half a million would be considered massive, and an issue.

 

Read this post & call_Sony: F_Series Noise Caused by LCD Inverter & DIY Replacement.



It's a rare but not uncommon problem. Hopefully there is not a pattern here as 3 F12_owners reported this problem so far. Maybe a faulty batch of inverters? Good luck!

 

From the post I linked to that included a link to the original press release instead of media parroting & deforming in the echo chamber: official VAIO_Recall press release by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in cooperation with_Sony:

The press release says to go to your support page & simply download the update, NOT to pack & ship back your laptop.

A recall for me means that you need to return your unit for repair or exchange/refund. This problem is solved @ home by the user with a simple download & update that took me about 2 minutes to run.

It's a simple run-of-the-mill BIOS update, not a "recall" otherwise the Dell_XPS and both Envy_15 and 17 got recently "recalled" as they also had BIOS updates to solve overheating issues that a much larger percentage of these owners had.

What is your definition of "recall"?

In the much more sensibly titled NYT article: Sony_Offers a Fix to Prevent Vaio_Laptops’ Overheating:

So 39 laptops divided by 535,000 multiplied by 100 = 0.007%.

Everything is relative.

*****

 

My Vaio's inverter is pretty noisy too when you don't run the screen at full brightness.

Also, your inverter shouldn't be buzzing at full brightness. If it buzzes at a lower brightness level, that's not cool but it's normal. At full brightness, if you're still experiencing buzzing you need a new inverter.

Last thought: I run my laptop's battery down pretty much daily, so yea.. if I were to have experienced that "glitch" I would've seen it by now. The only thing I dislike about how the Vaio heats up is how there's a warm spot to the right of the trackpad. :\ Like the most uncomfortable place to do that!

 

To save permanently, via analog baseband video, any programs or movies that are on your Satellite or cable provider's PVR. Except for hacks available for earlier Tivos (and an iffy method for some Dish network boxes) there's no way to save the program stream directly. I use Hauppauge HDpvr for HD to the F11, and a Hauppauge HVR-1250 for the Q9450 desktop. The Hauppauge USB Live-2 seems to be getting some good reviews. I've also used ATI boxes and cards for capture. All in all I have some 3200 movies made to DVD or H264 captured from TCM and others. (yes, a three and a two followed by two zeroes. I've been using a computer to save movies for a LONG time...)

 

You haven't been reading, there's no firggen' recall, just some know-nothing panicked hype, and a for-real bios update. I am delighted with my February-build F11 which has been running flawlessly. The F11 wasn' withdrawn because "something was wrong with it." ALL manufacturers have Refreshes every few months on ALL their notebook computers. Regardless.

Overheating has NEVER been reported for the F11. A few users have said their laptop has gone to Hell in a handbasket with display inversion, squeaking keyboards, and all sorts of rude noises emanating from their F11, but the rant ALWAYS concludes with "at least the system runs cooler than (XYZ) laptop."

 

Joe, this is why many readers question your motives, whether you're a shill for Sony or some such. I posted in that poll that my display sucks, because it DOES suck, if ANYONE looked at my F11's screen they would say "My God, that Sucks!!, yeech, how can you look at this thing, it sucks so bad I feel my eyeballs are being gobbled up by the meany VAIO monster" (that is also reputed to make off with children who have eaten too many Smarties and give teenage girls zits just before a Prom) -- because it IS awful. Like Triton's and others.

Those who post that they are HAPPY with the display are happy because the display does NOT suck, they did not get one of the many bad displays. It is NOT "Shooting angles, background colour, ambient lighting, shooting angle, lens aperture, shutter speed, shooting angle, the declension of Mar's orbit, the size of Obama's pimple, or shooting angle." A screen shows shading and inversion because it HAS shading and inversion, a screen does NOT show shading, in a photograph, because it does not HAVE shading.

And you know these pictures are accurate because the users who say they have a good screen, then post a picture which exaggerates the shading a bit, as a photo will, shows that there is a bit of quite normal lightbleed at the bottom, but otherwise good contrast over the whole screen; the pictures posted by users who say they have a BAD screen show a dark area in the middle, reduced contrast at the bottom, and a hint of negative image in the dark areas or "inversion" because that is PRECISELY what the VIEWER or USER of the laptop is actually seeing.

 

There's no recall, or half a million,ftwo thousand, or of 39. There IS a BIOS update, that's it, Period.

 

The drive quietens down after a month or two of use.

 

ahhh the impressive sony screen buzzing! my fw i remember suffered from it greatly!

 

Though my F series laptop has never ever suffered from over heating

and for an icore 7 it runs prety freeking cool at touch!

i use it on my lap sometimes and have never noticed the bottom hot or any part of it.

i went and used an hp envy icore 7 at bestbuy to demo around with and that thing was buring up !

 

Hi,

The model number on my laptop is F127FDB and not F1290 like on the sony.ca website. Does anyone know the differences between the two?

 

Joe Bleau's post recommended using a really great utility called Everest 5.5 which shows you all kinds of very useful information for your laptop. You guys should check it out.
+1 for the recommendation.

I'm posting my temperature sensor readings as reference for the F11/F12 thread . It did get hot and peaked at 92 degrees celcius (Furmark Graph) and then averaged around the 80's but after 5 hours of Furmark's 1.8.2 Multi-GPU test at 16x MSAA the computer cooled down quite amazingly fast within 2 minutes of shutting down the stability test. (see temps below) I was curious about testing this out since i've done quite a few 3ds Max 2010 renderings that completed in +20 hours using resources at 100%

Even at those temps, the laptop still felt cool all around with the palmrest feeling mildly warm. Only the direct vent area was hot.

EDIT: Also, one observation I had was that both Furmark and Everest stability tests did not ramp the fan RPM all the way up and sound loud the way it did when I had the Fan @100% issue that needed a CMOS reset.

Now that Joe Bleau posted a fix for it will I test that observation just for kicks? Hell No!!

Everest V.5.5 Sensor Readings:

**Tjmax Core CPU temperature (CPUID Section): 100 Degrees Celcius
**Non-overclocked GPU
**Laptop on a glass table with no obstruction to the vent.
**Updated BIOS from Sony's website


Sensor test of computer in idle.

Sensor Properties:
Sensor Type Sony VAIO (ACPI-M2)
GPU Sensor Type Diode (NV-Diode)

Temperatures:
Motherboard 60 °C (140 °F)
CPU 58 °C (136 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #1 59 °C (138 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #2 59 °C (138 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #3 59 °C (138 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #4 59 °C (138 °F)
GPU Diode 60 °C (140 °F)
Hitachi HTS725032A9A360 37 °C (99 °F)

Cooling Fans:
CPU 3720 RPM

Sensor test during mild computer usage (internet browsing, several applications open but unused and minimised to taskbar)

Sensor Properties:
Sensor Type Sony VAIO (ACPI-M2)
GPU Sensor Type Diode (NV-Diode)

Temperatures:
Motherboard 61 °C (142 °F)
CPU 60 °C (140 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #1 59 °C (138 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #2 59 °C (138 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #3 60 °C (140 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #4 59 °C (138 °F)
GPU Diode 61 °C (142 °F)
Hitachi HTS725032A9A360 37 °C (99 °F)

Cooling Fans:
CPU 4140 RPM
GPU 100%

Sensor test of computer at 5 hours into Furmark's 1.8.2 Multi-GPU stability test

Furmark settings:
Stability test checked only
1280x1024 resolution
16x MSAA
Windowed mode

Sensor Properties:
Sensor Type Sony VAIO (ACPI-M2)
GPU Sensor Type Diode (NV-Diode)

Temperatures:
Motherboard 90 °C (194 °F)
CPU 83 °C (181 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #1 84 °C (183 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #2 82 °C (180 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #3 82 °C (180 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #4 82 °C (180 °F)
GPU Diode 91 °C (196 °F)
Hitachi HTS725032A9A360 35 °C (95 °F)

Cooling Fans:
CPU 5880 RPM
GPU 100%

Sensor test 2 minutes after closing Furmark's 1.8.2 Multi-GPU test

Sensor Properties:
Sensor Type Sony VAIO (ACPI-M2)
GPU Sensor Type Diode (NV-Diode)

Temperatures:
Motherboard 56 °C (133 °F)
CPU 56 °C (133 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #1 59 °C (138 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #2 57 °C (135 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #3 59 °C (138 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #4 56 °C (133 °F)
GPU Diode 58 °C (136 °F)
Hitachi HTS725032A9A360 36 °C (97 °F)

Cooling Fans:
CPU 3420 RPM
GPU 100%

Everest Stability Test with standard settings (at 10+ minutes)

 

Today I learned what the Sony VAIO symbol represents:

 

Since when does IO mean digital? IO = input/output lol ... or sometimes even 1 and 0 depending how it's looked at meaning on/off in binary.

VAIO is a sub-brand for many of Sony's computer products. It was originally an acronym for Video Audio Integrated Operation, but since 2008 amended to Visual Audio Intelligence Organiser to celebrate the brand's 10th year anniversary. ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VAIO

 

F127FDB is a retail model, and F1290 is the generic number for the CTO series. How do you like the 127FDB? I see that Staples in Canada has the 127FDB on at $100 off. Futureshop.ca is now showing the F127FXB in stock, although none of the stores in Ontario show it in stock yet. The difference between FDB and FXB is that the FXB is the unilingual English version, and I think it has the US keyboard, rather than the bilingual keyboard. All the US F12 retail models have the X. Future Shop is showing a price of $1499.99

 

OK. Did a real world test using Everest 5.5 and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction set @ 1280x720 high setting and played for 30mins...



Think you could play all day and those figures wouldn't change.

 

I can't find that post anymore. I think it was on redflagdeals but can't find it anymore ... sorry! About the discounts, I've been reading that people call in to order the laptop to get a discount from the rep instead of CTO online. Maybe you're right ... it's only for US customers only and not Canadian customers. Sorry if I make you confused.

BTW, copy+pasted from sonystyle.ca:

Shop Sony Style Direct!

Call Us Toll Free at: 1-888-289-7669

We are open Monday to Friday 9:00 - 20:00 (Eastern Standard Time) Closed on National Holidays

If you didn't know already "20:00" = 8:00 PM. And "Closed on National Holidays" ... well that was Thursday and they're STILL closed today! Why? I don't know. Now *I'M* confused!

 

Just out of curiosity; when does the keyboard light up? Does the sensor detect sunlight or any kind of light i guess what im asking is - is the keyboard lit up a good chuck of the time or is it something that only happens when its pitch dark?

My black Vaio should come in about 2 weeks anyone else have it in black or am i black sheep >.>

 

unfortunately i cant really comment..the laptop is with my parents who bought it for me in canada (im in a different country)..im going to get a chance to play with it come august however i told em to use till then to see if theres any problems etc. and ill let you know how theyre getting on from what they tell me

I was lucky with my one theres only one left with the specs i wanted and that was in montreal..when i was looking to buy my one the ones at futureshop and best buy were the same price but with much lower specs and they were the older models as well and if i wanted to order online i wouldve had to wait till the 3rd of august..the one i got from the sony store is the $1500 one in futureshop same specs same price..