Official Sony VPC-Z2 (VAIO Z 2011) Series Owners' Thread

Just got this notification: J&R

Which means Brick and Mortar stores will getting their preconfigured models very soon, if not, now for those interested in acquiring their Z2's by this method.

 

For those wondering about the fan noise, the sound level from about half a feet from the left side of the laptop on the table is about 46 dBA. Just for comparison (when my house AC started, it raised the background level to about 60 dBA, effectivly masking the sound of the fans. So the laptop generally is really really quiet. When I started the fishietank program with it on 1000 fish, the fan noise did pick up to about 70 dBA, which is noticeable from where I am sitting (again this is with the meter half a feet away from the fans on table level). The sound level at my ear with the fan full running is about 45 dBA. The general sound level from the laptop is below 125 Hz (so not a high whine by any means), with the peak sound level generally around the 80 Hz range.

Edit: Okay, so I decided to try and play a game which really got the fans cranking. I turned on the meter at the same location on a desk and it was registering almost at 90 dB! which then I knew something was not right. Apparently the exhaust from the fan was directly blowing on the mic of the meter which explains such a high level at a low frequency. So I picked up the meter to year level, and at the fan going full blast, the sound level was about 55 dBA at ear level with the majority of the sound level between 2-8 kHz.

 

^ sorry but there's something out scale... old Z1 reaches MAXIMUM 54 db at 15 cm from side vent. And we know it's one of the most noise laptop. It's really impossible to reach 70 db in full load and 45 db in idle... are you sure your sensor is ok?

EDIT: still at ear level ( at least 30 cm) it seems to me too much..

 

Use a USB Key to Install Windows 7?Even on a Netbook

 

What is the noise base line ? ie sound level in the room when the laptop is off

 

I wonder how many blue units will sell. I don't have the balls for it.

 

There was a lot of talk about this in the Z1 topics, but I still don't know the answer:
Will TRIM work if you break the RAID array?

 

^
No it won't work.

 

sorry for pushing my question, but it hasn't been answered yet.

 

Thanks for the link, ComputerCowboy. Installing Windows from an USB key is already "standard practice" for me for some time . I was struggling to get the USB key booted on the Z2, but got it working now.

After a fresh install I experienced the same, no option for fast-boot. All drivers from the sony website do install without problem. I didn't pay much attention on the installation order, and didn't install all of the Sony software.

Even without fast-boot it's still incredible fast (well, at least for me ). I haven't noticed any significant time difference between fast-boot and normal boot, its ready to go after ~15sec.

 

Do you mean RAID1? By default the Z2 uses Raid0 - this worked fine during and after the install.

There is an option in the BIOS which is enabled by default that hides the Raid0 config from the operating system so the OS sees 1*256GB drive rather than 2*128GB drives.

 

I am awaiting my z2 in the mail any day now, and after reading many of the posts here I noticed many of you are installing fresh starts of windows 7, so I have a couple of questions regarding this; why? Is it to eliminate bloatware? What specific Sony drivers do you then find it useful to download and install onto a fresh windows 7? I have done this with several other CPUs over the years but I am just curious why so many here seem to be doing it with their new z2's? If anyone can help me out with this I would really appreciate it!

 

Does anyone recommend a specific sleeve or case for their z2 so far, and does anyone have an opinion on whether the sheet battery adds too much bulk, or is it pretty minimalistic?

 

Personally, I am licensed for Windows 7 Enterprise. So I bought the cheapest option from Sony (home Premium) and then installed my licensed version.

It also removes the recovery partition freeing up some extra space on the SSD

You really need to go through the complete set of Sony posted drivers and tools - especially the Vaio control center etc.

 

Case - I am waiting for VGP-CKZ3 (VGPCKZ3, VGPCKZ3.AE) : Technical Specifications : VAIO & computing : Sony to be released.

I have the sheet battery - It is pretty discreet but you do know it is there! For an extended battery it is a very good design.

 

I don't know how many db. If you're doing light work (music, browser, ...) the fan seems power off but if you're stressing the CPU like videogames, virtualising, video codify, ... the fan spins louder and it's molest. In other orther i was playing Duke Nukem Forever with fan spining crazy but the machine rests a moderate temperature. Other laptops burns if you touch it, and the last Z with Nvidia ¿raises 90º? I read it on this forum.

¿A "Fresh Install" is a format and install all new without bloatware from Sony? I tried it from a DVD reader (USB plugged) and the Win7 installation doesn't recognize the disk drive. ¿I need a driver?

 

I had the same thing with an USB flash drive in the USB3.0 port, something like "drivers not found for an external cd\dvd station". After plugging it in the USB2.0 it worked without any problem.

 

OMG! It works now! Thaks a lot

 

For those interested in battery life, here is my usage today so far:

(standard i5 CPU, 128GB SSD, standard battery, 30-50% screen brightness (auto), Wifi off and using a plug-in USB modem)

I've left the charger at home and have been using Excel, Word, and IE9 since 9am this morning. The laptop has been practically in constant use (no sleep) with maybe 3 or 4 occasions where I've taken a phone call and the screen has turned itself off. It's 12.20 now, so the laptop has been going for 3hrs20mins, and it's showing 52% battery left, estimating another 2hrs57mins.

Seems like at this rate the battery will last me till about 4.30 this afternoon (I'll put it to sleep for about an hour at lunch). Quite the improvement over my X, which would tend to die in and around lunch time if I forgot my charger.

Wifi probably takes more power than the USB modem, yes?

 

the 70 db is due to the sensor being pointed at the vent and the exhaust blowing on it and I don't have a windscreen. But basically under normal load, the fan is really quiet, It's actually not noticeable over the background level. The fan is on however, as you can feel a slight amount of air movement when you put your hand over the fan intake.

 

I have a blue unit scheduled to arrive on 16-Aug. I've never tried to get creative with laptop color before. So I am a bit nervious.

FYI, I ordered on 7-Aug. Obviously US shipping times are pretty quick at this point.

Robbin

 

I just got my hands on the store model of the Z2 and noticed that the trackpad feels like rubber. I thought it would be glass with the design under some kind of glass film. Still waiting for mine to arrive....

 

I saw the "Blue" unit yesterday in store...It's not blue...It's most definitely purple!

 

A few questions for owners and those who have ordered from Sony online...

1. When do they charge your credit card?

2. Has anyone bumped the resolution on their 1920x1080 screen down to 1600x900? Does it look blurry? I am most worried about this for my occasional gaming.

3. Is 4GB of RAM sufficient for the next few years or should I get more?

Trying to decide between a CTO version or a retail version...

Thanks,

Y2J

 

Hi I just got my Z217 today, is there some problem with my speakers because the maximum sound level is not that high and the sound quality seems to be pretty bad...

 

1. When do they charge your credit card?
I used another method

2. Has anyone bumped the resolution on their 1920x1080 screen down to 1600x900? Does it look blurry? I am most worried about this for my occasional gaming.
It looks quite blurry (the text/fonts). I don't know how games will look

3. Is 4GB of RAM sufficient for the next few years or should I get more?
I think so, but that depends what you want to do. I got 8GB, just to be sure and because you can't upgrade the ram yourself.

"It's not a problem, its a feature"

But yea, your not the only one, I got the same with mine. They are pretty bad, especially when you turn up the "volume". The speakers are the only things I don't like. But I don't really care, I'll use my in-ear plugs anyway.

 

It's not a problem. Z21 has very bad quality speakers. That's it.

It won't work. But there's no problem since there'e collector garbage function that avoid the need of trim. It has always functioned very well on these samsung ssds.

Anyway, received the email: delivery at my address on 16 August.

 

The cobalt blue is more like purple. And it looks great. Trust me, you will not regret it.

 

Me too. That and it's a business laptop for me, so it shouldn't be too flashy... I think I'll be happy with black.

 

I thought TRIM doesn't work in with SSD in Raid arrays. Trim will
work in a raid array if its not part of an array (i.e. standalone).
So breaking the Raid and having it as a JBOD set of two drives would
actually allow Trim commands to get through. But I am not an expert,
anyone can confirm ?

Intel RAID driver adds pass-through TRIM support - The Tech Report
ACHI and Raid with SSD and Trim. Please Help - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

 

^ that's possible if that SSD supports TRIM command. But a lot of SSDs which support TRIM command, don't support Garbage Collector function and vice versa.

By the way, since these SSDs support Garbage Collector, TRIM command becomes useless, since GC by samsung is very good..

 

Hi Crystal,

I thought Trim & GC usually work hand in hand together. Some articles that
seem to say so as well :

TRIM vs. garbage collection
TRIM - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I wonder if the gen3s are Samsungs. I just placed an order for my Z2
with Gen3s .

 

It's possible, what I mean is that companies sometimes avoid one solution for the other one.

 

Good to know. I'm looking forward to seeing the real thing soon!

 

Guys, does somebody know if TNT works even on Saturday and Sunday? Cuz my order has already shipped from Thilburg in Netherlands to Monza in Italy, They told me for delivery on 16 August (since 15th it's holiday).. but ... who knows... maybe tomorrow... XD

--------------

EDIT: it's on a plane from EINDHOVEN.. so it'll arrive in the night. I dicovered that TNT Monza (which is not really in Monza but in a near little town... 3 km away from home XD) works on Saturday Monday.... gnam gnam, maybe tomorrow morning XD

 

Mine is built, shipped and due to arrive on Tuesday.

All good. But the weird part is, they still haven't charged my credit card.

 

^ strange... they usually charge before bulding start.

 

In my 256Gb G3 I have the following disk(s)

The model/type are: Samsung MZRPC256HADR-000S0
Revision/Firmware: CXM03S1Q​

 

Yea, RAID1 was what I meant.

That seems easy enough...so the only problem is fast-boot then. Thanks.

 

Yeah. They did a pre-auth when I ordered, but since then, nothing. I have checked and re-checked my online statement.

 

Nice, sorry didn't notice it before. Give it some time, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Village guys want to get a Z2 on their own, curiosity leads to playing leads to a ViDock

 

I actually like the feel of the track pad, gives a little more tactile feedback (coming form a guy who usually avoids track pads at all costs).

 

I have the same experiences so far about the boot times. It seems like a better trade off to me to have more Internal Storage area over a recovery partition (I always make an external recovery media for each of my machines).

IIRC you need the recovery partition to enable "Fast Boot", hence why I probably won't use the feature after playing with it/ clean installing.

 

I just got mine in this morning, surprising since it left Japan yesterday; guess since they have 12 hours on the US it's always possible.

Couple of things:

The Black IS NOT Black. It has a hint of a deep deep navy blue. Comparing it to my Motorola Droid X the Z2 is not black. BUT I actually really like it. Has a very old school IBM feel. It also makes allot more sense why they choose to make the internal color option an obnoxious purplish-blue color.

The 1080p screen looks real legit and very bright (people were concerned previously).

QUESTION: I pulled up the "Windows Task Manager" while creating the recovery media (you know to play and all). Windows seems to think that I have 4 cores, why is that?

 

Hyperthreading

 

Because the processor has hyper threading enabled. So it's 2 physical cores, but 4 'virtual' cores.

 

^ HT technology... it makes 2 physical cores into 4 logical cores. It grant more performance for multitasking, less performance for heavy single or dual thread applications.

Damn, we answered at the same time XD

 

^ I figured but never used one of these newer Intel chips with Hyper-threading. Thanks guy

 

I just got my Z yesterday here in Hong Kong and of course already having a problem !!!

Anyone experience battery problems?

My battery is irregularly not charging when plugged in, Sometimes it charges and sometimes it doesnt, the battery is not draining but its not charging , very strange indeed.

Any ideas?

When it functions it seems its taking very long time to charge it. Anyone knows the "official" charge time, or did someone test charge times? Need something to benchmark against.

 

My unit was in Fedex's hands before the charge hit my card. They shipped overnight (US time) and did the charge sometime during the day. I wonder if there is a delay while Sony US gets into the office?