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

Test 1: PCI-E 2.0 x 16 @ 4 2.0 (used cinebench)
Test 2: I assume you meant disabling the ATI card? When I did that, the screen went dark for a second, flickered as if switching between a couple display modes, then went back to the normal resolution. The same thing happened when I reenabled the ATI card.

 

Guys, do you feel there is ANY difference between the Z1 and Z2 screen quality ? I know there is no major difference as it uses the same panel but is there any minor improvement/decline ?

 

I've my new Vaio too!

At first, i make a backup of SSD. When i try a "Fresh install" from the Win7 Ultimate SP1 disc i don't find the disc. I tried the latest driver raid from Intel and doesn't work.

At the moment, i don't find drivers in Sony Spain and the drivers from Sony USA (for RAID) doesn't work. Anybody can help me with a driver link?

FYI: I'm using a Samsung UltraSlim DVD-R USB. No PMD

 

Test 1: perfect!!! As we thought ... Sony implemented the former technology of Thunderbolt upgraded to SPL by Intel..

Test 2: no, you have to disabel INTEGRATED gpu, not ATI one. We want to understand if ATI uses integrate GPU to render the image for the laptop screen or if it uses its own DP port directely/DLVS. So try to disable integrated gpu

PS. there would be also a third test, with AIDA 64 http://download.aida64.com/aida64extreme180.exe, where you have to go to DISPLAY -> MONITOR -> MONITOR PROPERTIES -> INPUT CONNECTORS: we'd like to know which input connectors are supported. That would be the last problem we want to solve.

 

So I did that and the screen went blank and stayed blank. Rebooted the laptop and it came up in what appears to be compatibility mode - 800x600. Got an error saying that it cannot find the ATI card. The card is there is device manager though. When I go to re-enable, it says it needs to reboot. So I will reboot and report back.

EDIT:
Holy crap that reboot was fast. I'd just turned my head to grab my phone and pull up the engadget app. In the time it took me to grab the phone, unlock it, click on the engadget icon, and pull up a story, I was hearing the windows chime. Anyway, screen is back up to normal - though brightness was at the lowest setting.

 

^ so it seems muxless... thanks!! And if you want, do also the third test (I edited the previous message) but if you want don't worry, I can do that when my Z will arrive.

*******************************************************************************************************************

I spoke with Nando4 and in his opinion:

So, if you want, you have to run a benchmark like vantage on the internal screen, with the external disabled.
Then you have to do the same with the external display activated and the internal one switched off.
Finally we have to compare results/values

 

Anyone have any experience with Amazon.com and returning a laptop that was opened? Thinking about trying the Z2...

 

Under monitor properties, there isn't an entry for input connectors.

 

^ maybe since I see AIDA 64 from a desktop things are different.. I'll take a look one my old laptop..

EDIT: in the same tab/page tell me the producer and the model name of the display... I'll seek what I need from that.

 

How much bulk does the sheet battery add to the unit?

 

Yes, bought a sammy series 9 and had problems and returned it to amazon. As long as you are in the 30 days it is not really an issue. Got credit on creditcard only a few days after they received it.

 

Amazon is great with returns. That's one reason I'll often buy from them even if it's a bit more expensive. That and the free 2-day shipping with Prime.

 

Any restocking fees?

 

Amazon quotes 15% restocking fee for laptops while sonystyle online looks like does not charge u a fee if u return all the packaging

 

I think Amazon charges a 15% restocking fee if you open a computer, unless it had problems. The only place that I can think of where you can buy a new laptop, open it, and then return it (when it doesn't have any problems) is Costco, as long as its within 90 days (before it was 6 months....but you can imagine what people did then).

 

So has anyone had success doing a fresh install of Windows 7 on the Z2?

 

I received my Z2 a couple of days ago. My thoughts so far :-

keyboard - nice to use, wouldnt even have realised that there is less travel unless I had read about it.

fan noise - I have the I7 and it is a non issue for day to day usage - surfing , office apps etc

track pad - I dont like the way it merges into the buttons, ie there is no tactile way to know when you have reached the bottom of the usable area. I found the trackpad unresponsive but came across the settings to increase the sensitivity and it is great to use now - especially the two and three finger options (pinch to zoom, rotate, continuous scrolling with gestures etc)

Sony support - I wiped the PC and put Win7 Enterprise on it. Disappointed that there is no driver support on the Uk web site yet. I have everything up and running but would have liked some 3G software to manage the connection better than Win7 can do out of the box..... As others have reported there also doesnt appear to be a way to enable fast boot if you wipe the OS

USB - having the power cable and two USBs at the right hand side is a bit cramped - more USBs would have been a better choice.

Speakers - weak but not that bothered

HD screen - I seemed to struggle with the brightness for the first day - not sure why but I am happy with it now. It does seem a little darker than my Vaio TT21 that I came from... However I am now very happy with it. I changed Windows 7 DPI to +25% which makes it much nicer to use even though I am used to working off small screens normally.

Battery - too early to say but battery life seems good.

Extended battery - I like that you can charge it separetly. It is not too bad to connect/disconnect but still a tiny hassle.

Premium Carbon case - this picks up finger marks really easily.. wish I had gone for normal black

Wireless - I have one small issue here. I have 802.11n 5ghz access points. I have yet to get it to connect faster than 54Mbit even though all my other devices can connect at 150Mbit and 300Mbit...... I have enabled 5Ghz support and N support on the card.....

build - i was worried about the reports of a flimsy screen- particularly after having my TT21 screen crack on me..... I have no complaints on the Z2 build quality and you do not pick it up or open/close the cover thinking you need to be extra careful.

Ethernet port - beware the ethernet port cover - it looks llike it should pull out - but it just pulls down ever so slightly and then the ethernet cable can be plugged in - actually a nice design but I bet they get a few returns when these get broken when people think they should move more!

fingerprint reader - I have struggled with some laptops where you catch this all the time.Not had a single issue with the location.

performance - what can I say.. it is quick!

 

apart from no 3G software support and not being able to control fast boot I didnt have a problem with Win7 Enterprise SP1.

 

"fan noise - I have the I7 and it is a non issue for day to day usage - surfing , office apps etc"

What about watching a 1080p file , or using a photo editor ?

ps: there are more drivers on the US sony site

 

I really wish they had a retail configuration with 1600x900, 256GB HDD, and more than 4GB RAM with the PMD w/Blu-ray. I have 8GB in my Z137GXB, which I upgraded myself, but I understand the RAM is now soldered to the motherboard...Not sure I really need 8GB, it was just cheap so I went for it. I don't want to regret only having 4GB down the line...I guess I could always get a CTO version, and wait 2-3 weeks...I don't want 1920x1080 because of the small screen size and also for gaming performance at the native resolution.

Y2J

 

fan noise - I havent given the machine a good workout yet - but i just loaded FishIE Tank and set it to 1000 fish. The fan noise is noticible when it is working hard but drops back to silent within 10 secs of closing the window. 1000 fish @48 frames a second without a PMD was pretty impressive.

Driver support - the 3G software that may work from the US website has a dead link at the moment..... these can be region specific

 

Does anyone know how I can boot from a USB-drive or an USB-ODD? (for example installing Windows)

 

Just upgraded my unit to windows 7 ultimate. Later (maybe tomorrow), I will clone my entire hd, then look at absorbing the recovery partition into the C drive. Or turning it into partitions for linux.

 

you can change the boot order in the BIOS

 

Thanks for that. Makes me feel better about getting the normal black.

 

I already made a clone of the entire hd as well, and was planning of doing the same thing with the recovery partition. But if I want to recover it (for some reason), or my own fresh install, I need to be able to boot from USB.

 

can we please stop calling a program or a software as an "APPS" it is really hurt my brain.

TIA

 

Ah ok, but how do I get into the BIOS ? I've tried pressing [DEL] on startup, but didn't get me anywhere

 

Some side by side slide from a japanese website (several notebooks mostly sony)
???????????:Zシリーズ

 

Try pressing F2

 

Wow, you hurt really easily

 

F1 didn't work, but F2 did the job

Thanks

 

I did wonder if you would read my post before or after the edit

 

Maybe I'm just being silly and confused but don't we want a multiplexer to push more channels of data across the fiber cable between the laptop and the eGPU?

 

^ No need. With the same optical fiber (ONLY one optical cable) instead of using four lasers, we can use for example 8 lasers to achieve 100 Gb/s. In that case there would be enough bandwidth to reach 8X 2.0.
With 12 lasers we would be able for 150 Gb/s and reach 16X 2.0 PCI-E bus.
Still, we could use different modulator e detector to increase infrared data velocity per each laser channel. For example, it's possible to achieve with a single laser, a bandwidth of 25 Gb/s or 50 Gb/s.
Obviously, costs rise up!

 

Thank you zboot!

 

But that's what it is, an application. I'd been using the term app long before apple conceived of an app store.

 

Hey,

I've posted some pics here: Picasa Web Albums - Z - Sony Vaio Z2

and a quick review on my blog here: http://weethomas.wordpress.com

Sorry about the initial pic quality. My camera was at school in my desk - was totally surprised this morning by the Fedex guy showing up.

 

Does sonystyle charge restocking fee if purchased through website?

 

I still kinda like the blue...

 

I'll may be countercurrent but.. I think that I'll use my Z2 with 256GB 3rd gen.. not in raid 0.

I'm not sure, but I'll do some tests to see how are differences:

sequential write/read it'll be cut in 2 obviously, but it's not important at all in my opinion..
It's more important random write/read 4K... and in that case response time it's the mean parameter. I think response time it's higher with raid controller activated.
I'll do some benchmark with both configuration... when it'll arrive

 

Neat. Your information has been pretty telling so far, I'm interested in finding out more about the LightPeak implementation's capabilities. I'll post up anything I find too.

Should this also be posted up on the ViDock for Z2 forum aswell? Should a new forum be made up for this project?

 

Forum?? Do you mean thread??
There's already the thread I created some days ago.. I think it's sufficient at the moment.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/600942-vidock-4g-light-peak-z21-possible.html

I have to do some modifies at the first two posts but, I'll wait for Village Tronic to tell me if they want to hack PMD (but they'll have to buy on their own the laptop.. difficult)

 

Um, the Sony website says "Products must be returned in the original packaging. Shipping and handling charges are not refundable. Damage and missing part restocking fees may apply." on the site, so I guess that means they can charge you a restocking fee if they want.

 

I kinda want to be able to boot it in 14 secs though .
Also, were you able to get RAID1 working after the reinstall?

 

Not sure how you get that. Damage and missing part restocking fee isn't an arbitrary restocking fee. That is a fee charged if you return the laptop damaged or with missing parts. You can't expect to get your full money back if you returned the Z sans PMD can you?

 

Hi Crystal,

I was thinking the same, unless one does alot of large sequential reads
or writes (e.g. loading huge files or many files sequentially), raid 0 may not necessary improve performance. Most of my work is about MS Office,
Email, Surfing etc and these are generally small read & writes. I was thinking
of breaking the raid and have one drive for Apps and one for data (when
mine arrives!) It would be interesting to see the stats though.

 

It makes sense.

For me, I prefer not turn off raid 0 to use 1 ssd for win 7, the other one a 40% for another OS and the 60% still for Win

 

I'm travelling in VA and decided to stop in at the Sony Style store at Tysons Corner. I wanted to see if they had the Signature brown SA so I could check it out and possibly buy while waiting for a gold Z to be released in the US. They had the brown SA and it was just too tacky looking and a huge fingerprint magnet. The keyboard framework and palmrests are textured and look cheap.

I got a bonus, though: the store received their new Z2's in today, and had the $1999 base model and the $2999 signature model in premium carbon. The Z is beautiful and stunning looking, booted in 16 seconds, felt good to type on, and is amazingly light. I actually liked the 1600x900 screen better than the FHD screen (lighter and easier for these old eyes to see), but both screens are beautiful.

Bottom line is I walked out of the store with the premium carbon Z, i7-2620, 6 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, FHD screen. The manager told me that I was the first person to buy that particular model at the Tysons Corner store, so I have a bit of notoriety in my own mind for 15 minutes or so.

I'm posting to let everyone know what kind of deal I got at a store: $2999 for the computer, free case, and the $200 off deal when buying a PS3 (which I didn't think was available to me because I'm not a student). I'm going to sell the PS3 to get a bit of my money back. The case is one of the standard S series models with the fur on the inside, and I liked it because it will fit the Z with the slice battery attached. I had to ask for the case ("I'm ready to buy Mr. Salesman if it comes with a case..."), but the request was readilly approved.

I could have gotten any of the standard web discount deals as well, such as the 10% off when buying 2 accessories and the 3 year warranty.

I'll turn on the computer later this evening to make sure it works, and will play with it more when I get home tomorrow evening.

 

Congrats! I hope you enjoy it. Do let us know your thoughts once you've had a chance to play with it a bit.