Official Sony Vaio CW Core 2 Duo Series Owner's Thread

If you really don't do much gaming, then I think you would be happy with the P7450 G210m combo. If the extra money is not a concern, then I say go for the extra CPU and Graphics Power...which is more future proof and it is always nice to have the extra power when you might need it down the line. I really don't think you'll see much difference in Battery life with either CPU or GPU combo...the CW does not have what I would call Stellar battery life anyway, as compared to something like the Asus UL80vt with 11 hours of battery life.

 

Well, I actually forgot to mention it, but the speakers in the cw are very disappointing, they are extremely low volume... I was doing some cycling on the home-trainer while watching a show on the cw with the volume on max and I had trouble hearing what was being said...

Now that I think about it, i'm slightly disappointed by the screen as well, my old vaio was brighter and offered better viewing angles.

About the battery, I haven't actually timed it, but I think you'll struggle reaching 4 hours no matter what power settings you choose, I reckon you're likely to get about 2.5-3 hours regularly if you use power saver

 

^^ Hey MclarenGorilla

I noticed in your post that the configuration you ordered is the same I am looking for.

Since battery life is important to me (at least 3.5 to 4 hours), can you tell me with your config how long does a full charge last?

Thanks!

 

The BB model

 

Does anyone know if the VGP-AC19V30 adapter is compatible with CW?

 

Thanks for your input. This may seem crazy, but I'm deciding between the Inspiron 14 and the Sony CW.

* $800 @ dell.com for Inspiron 14z: weaker processor, loud speaker, questionable video card, GREAT battery life
* $800 @ Best Buy for Sony Vaio: powerful processor, soft speaker, bluetooth, great video card, weak battery life, N wireless capability, bluray drive
* (Or if you can somehow convince me, and it'll be hard, to not need an optical drive, then I have that third Dell option for that's a mix of the two)

The biggest factor for me personally is the processor, speaker volume, and battery life, in that order, though all are important in some ways.

 

On Battery, as I keep saying, I am getting nearly 4 hours with light usage, and I frequently use it on battery.

By the way, I am not sure if "battery drain" is actually happening. Say, booting it after carrying my CW for while, battery meter says 93%. However, it stays in 93 % for, say, more than 20 minutes that I am using it on battery. Then, after a while, it start to decrease. I think battery meter of this thing is way off, and they better have BIOS fix soon.

Aside from sketchy battery reading, there are two other "main" problems of CW.

1: Screen.
2: High DPC latency

I imagine DPC latency may get to be fixed eventually. But you have to live with screen, which is only adequate (average laptop screen).

These two laptops don't really compare. That being said, you may also want to look into ASUS UL80Vt, which sits between CW and 14Z, and is way better choice (IMO) than 14z.

 

LOOK what I found...A CW Review and $150 Off CW Discount:

1. Finally found published review for the CW:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/product-reviews/sony-vaio-cw-series-notebook-review/?news=123

2. $150 Off CW Sale...it's a lower end CW build with a T4300 and I assume, it doesn't say, with a G210m GPU:
EDIT: I just configured this CW on SonyStyle.com and it comes to about $749, so that is still about $100 savings.
$649 CW at OfficeMax:
http://www.officemax.com/catalog/sk...ultCount=1&csSearchTag=true&_requestid=593145

 

Personally, I avoid DELL, at least for laptops. I had an inspiron years ago and had many issues with it. They were forced to send me a refurbished model after my initial had gone thru many replacement parts(motherboard). However the biggest issue with DELL and both my cousins laptop and nieces is that they overheat rather quick and shutdown because of it. I have a Sony Vaio down, yes it gets hot but not like my Dell used to and never has shutdown on me.

 

Been looking at the CW for a few weeks now. Finally decided to order a CW a few days ago, for a pretty good bargin IMO considering pre-configured models in comet, pc-world and currys are £699, got mine custom-built for £729.10 with the P8700, 4GB, Blu-ray, Win7 Pro, free graphics upgrade, and including 10% off

Finishes: Black
Processor: Intel® Core(TM)2 Duo 2.53 Ghz
Hard drive: 320 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
Memory: 4 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Optical Drive: Blu-ray Disc(TM) Combo-drive
Operating system: Windows7 Pro-64bit without XP
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT230M 512MB
Display: 14" LCD, 1366 x 768 + webcam

I ordered it on the 15th november; Got an email yesterday telling me i would recieve my CW between the 1st December, and the 8th December (my birthday )

After seeing the red on a review, the red looks better than what it does on the sony website... is it possible to change the colour after it has begun to be built? (havent seen the red model in person, wasn't on display in the shop, only blue). I don't want to cancel it now because i will lose the free graphics upgrade as the offer has finished now

A few questions:

Does the CW have latency problems? after reading some posts about latency in this thread, i have begun to worry about my order. I had a Dell m1330 about a year ago which i had to send back because of latency problems - the stuttering ruined listening to music. Does the CW have the same problem?

Hows the build quality of the CW, or even sony laptops in general? i've never owned a sony before, only dell and HP (my dv5t has poor build quality, uneven base, and it's literally falling to bits).

How's the performance of the Intel P8700/Nvidia GT 230m? coming from a P7350/9600m GT, will there be a noticable improvement in gaming at the same(ish) resolution?

Also, does the CW have heat issues? or does it run cool and quiet?


I really hope i can change the colour, although it's not the end of the world i suppose if i can't. black's still nice . As for latency, i really hope it hasn't or i will not be pleased

 

From what I understand about the 230GT graphics card, it performs about 5% better then the 9600GT, but uses less power and runs cooler. The processor's would be also about the same (5% better). So expect a boost, but don't expect life changing. I am envious of you. Apparently I have to wait around 4-5 weeks for that same laptop.

 

I'm going to send back my CW laptop to Amazon. I went to the Sony store and custom did my laptop with the P8700 Cpu and the GT 230M and the Blu-Ray. It has a ship date of Dec. 1st. How accurate is the sony store usually?

 

why are you sending your CW back?

 

because it only had a G210m

 

Ohh ic There seems to be a large difference between the 2 graphic chips. The biggest difference is that everyone seems to have stock of the CW's with the 210 and noone has of the CW's with the 230!!!

(Unless I buy it locally for around $1000 more).

Actually, what annoys me more, is this is the second time Sony has done this, this year. The SR4 series was very similar for me. Had to wait weeks and weeks and weeks, and before I got it the SR5's came out. Luckily I cancelled my order. Now I want a CW instead (better graphics performance and I don't need the battery and the weight doesn't bother me), and they are in the same situation. By the time they are stocked there will be an announcement for yet another Sony refresh and yet another better option for me (which inevitably will be out of stock for 2-3 months). SONY I WANT TO GIVE YOU MY MONEY ALREADY!!!

 

Newegg has the Sony with the Gt 230M instock for $849....

 

unfortunately they don't ship international. Thank you thought falcon

 

Aw didn't see that. Does anyone happen to know if you can swap out the HD? I'd like to put a 7200 rpm drive in their?

 

I believe a bunch of pages back someone swapped out the HDD for a higher efficiency one. 7200RPM are good, but you make trade offs for a slightly faster drive.

7200's use more power and also generate more heat. Therefore your battery will be shorter and the laptop will run hotter.

Go the SSD if you really want performance.

Apparently I am wrong about the power consumption. According to Toms hardware, SSD's still use quite a bit more power then HDD's, even the 7200RPM ones.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-hdd-battery,1955.html

 

Unfortunately the only way to do that is to cancel your order and re-order.. although I'm not sure if they will let you if your laptop is already in production...

 

Someone posted a link to a film that over the keyboard to protect from crumbs, spills and the sorts. Anyone still have that link?

Also has anyone tried to clock the GPU back to stock yet?

 

Here ya go....
Keyboard Skin (Protect your compatible VAIO® notebook keyboard from dust, spills, dirt and grime with this keyboard skin.) White or Black:

https://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wc...gId=-1&productId=8198552921666036655#features

 

Thank you for the info! Good to know~

On another note, I went to an electronics mall, the equivalent of Best Buy or tries to be and saw that they also have the CW with the same specs as mine.

Also, when I went before (approx. a week) I was looking for the Dell Studio which they only had the 15" with not so impressive specs. This time they had the Studio XPS 13" which was what I was originally looking for before I bought the CW.

The specs description was as such:
Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz
4GB RAM (doesn't say if DDR2 or DDR3)
500GB HDD (doesn't say if 5400rpm or 7200rpm)
No mention of graphics card
Slot loading drive (no mention of if Bluray or not)
Backlit Keyboard
Windows Vista Home premium

The price in USD $1382. My CW, well all of the CWs here cost $1142.

Do you guys think that the CW is/was a better choice?

 

My Studio XPS 13 was one of the most unreliable laptops I've ever owned - to the point that I got a refund from Dell 9 months after buying it. I can guarantee that it's graphics will, at most, be a Hybrid GeForce 210M and at worst an integrated 9400M, either way not as powerful as the GPU in the Vaio CW. Additionally no models of the Studio XPS come with blu-ray.

 

Totally agree. I also have a sxps 13 with P8600 and nvidia 9500m. I picked it up at the outlet as my sxps 16 is too big to take with me everywhere. I love the keyboard, LED screen and build quality of the laptop but there is so many bugs (most I think related to the nvidia 9400 chipset). My bugs include:
-media buttons stop responding randomly
-screen resolution keeps changing after sleep (again at random)
-esata is very fussy with drives
-Heat in hybrid SLI is crazy
-Battery life is poor
-Hybrid SLI performance is worse than 9400 in most games

In light of these bugs I am selling the sxps 13 and have ordered a Vaio CW to replace it. My main concern is the CW's screen as the sxps13's screen was amazing!
Also the sxps keyboard is the best I have used.

But the pros of the CW as I see it:
Cool running
Better graphics performace
Less bugs (due to the intel chipset)
Decent battery life
Cheaper

 

Ahh yes I forgot to mention the excessive heat generated when the hyrbrid graphics were enabled and hardly any bump in performance. It's fussyness not only with eSATA but also reading CDs/DVDs. If the engineer that came to repair my laptop the first time is to believed an inherent fault which causes the screens own closing mechanism to eventually damage the screen.

Never had problems with the screen resolution changing though - the quality of the screen was pretty awesome. The media buttons often stopped working correctly if they got a bit greasy and could usually be fixed by wiping them with a cloth.

As far as laptops go it looked pretty hot and felt solid, so don't think I'm bashing it, just had a bit of a bad experience. I think most of these problems are all thoroughly documented in the Official SXPS 13 owners thread. Before it started having hardware failures it was a pretty awesome laptop but I wouldn't go back to it now or recommend it with better alternatives now available.

To get back on topic though, I hope when my Vaio finally arrives in a couple of weeks I'm not disappointed. I previously owned a 15" Vaio FE690P and it was a great little laptop.

 

How do you know about the Intel chipset?

Actually, I'd like to know the details of the motherboard as well as the HDD' brand of the CW. Maybe the dude that changed its HDD can answer - before writing us the step by step guide of what he did

thanks

 

nice photos dude. it really helps others guys who want to purchase....

i want to know that how much heat is generated by laptop ?

plz reply me bcz i m intersted to buy that laptop.

actually i have to choice. 1. dell studio 15 with core i7
and this one.

plz help reply me

 

Because I own:
Dell sxps 16
Dell studio 1555
HP Elitebook 6930p

All have the same chipset used in the CW and none have had any bugs as I have seen in the nvidia chipset.

I will be adding a new HD and hopefully a new cpu when mine arrives, I will take photos and document the process. Unfortunately sony seem to be taking ages

 

How good is the estimated ship date from the sony store? Is it usually pretty accurate or is it off...

 

mine was shipped 2 days later

 

Was that recently? I've heard that their is a shortage on these laptops tha's why I'm worried that it might be a long wait...

 

It was shipped today but Im in France :/

 

oh well i suppose i'll just have to settle for the black... i did originally wanted white but i thought it would get dirty looking

is it really as fat as it looks from photo's, or do pictures not do the CW justice? i have only glanced at it in the shop, didnt have much time to look properly

 

I'd stay away from the Studio 15 i7 laptop because of overheating issues...

See these posts and a thread on the topic below that as well...

As far as the CW, everyone on here says the CW runs cool, even under load...

Dell Studio 1557 - i7 - overheating issues (FYI, it says "FIXED" at the start of the Thread, but later finds that they didn't find a fix):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=432243

 

the pictures make it look really thick.. i actually think in real life it is actually quite a decent thickness.

 

Three Days Nov 18-20th Pre Black Friday Sale in local SonyStyle Stores...not a real big deal to me, basically you get a free Blue Tooth Mouse and CW Carrying Case with the purchase of a full priced CW...I hope the real Black Friday Deals for CWs will be better than this...the deals for Vaio NWs and AWs are better, too bad I don't want one of those...

Sony Style Store Pre-Black Friday Sale...
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AdfKemC2-kmRZGdjOHB4N3NfMmdnOTRicXM5&pli=1

 

hi!

with GPUZ hi see PCI Express nvidia is 16x@1x strange ?

 

Your're talkin greek to me!

 

looks like best buy raised the price to $829.99 (from $799.99); maybe because with 44 reviews and a 4.9 (of 5) rating they realized they could make more money and people would still buy em. Glad I got mine before the increase!

 

looks like best buy raised the price to $829.99 (from $799.99); maybe because with 44 reviews and a 4.9 (of 5) rating they realized they could make more money and people would still buy em. Glad I got mine before the increase!

 

Could somebody please clear something up for me??? I've been reading thru the posts and thought I read that the CW at BestBuy has an Atheros wireless card which is not compatible with a wireless N router....?? Is this true? I have a Linksy's N Ultra range Plus ( model WRT160N)....would this not work if I purchased the CW? Come on guys...this is the only thing holding me back from purchasing this beauty.....(thanks for any help you can give me!)

 

I bet their raising the price, so when they lower it for Black Friday they won't loose as much money, and most people would never know it use to be lower...I've been seeing Dell do that very thing, they raise their "Original" price by 15% and then have a "Special Discount" of 25% off.

 

Can you use the nvidia drivers straight from their site? For the GT 230M that is..

 

Well, not everyone has had problems only a few, the Atheros card should be compatible with any N router, i forget how it works at BB but few shops give a guarantee here in UK that they will return an item with no restocking fee withing the first 15 days. so maybe you can ask them, and if it doesnt work out you can tell them that i was told that this laptop with this wifi card is compatible with N routers and its not working with mine, but hopefully that wont be the case you can try it out and let us know!

 

what abt temperatures ?

 

I've had some weird issues with downloading drivers from the Nvidia site. They just won't install and I get some message about not being able to find the appropriate hardware or something. Also, the installation sometimes doesn't even show the video drivers, only the HD audio driver. Anyway, I used laptopvideo2go.com and used the modded INFs. Everything is working great.

 

I'm planning on getting a CW after my many months of research for the right laptop, and tomorrow i'm going to check it out at best buy b4 making the final order from newegg.
I'm getting the 230m gt and i was wondering if you can post a link to the drivers for me? I can't seem to find it from that website.


Only things stopping me from buying it is
1. Some people say it has a bad display
2. I heard it has horrible speakers
3.Atheros(meh...not that bd)
4. Battery drain problem!!!!

Someone give me the fact about these issues?

Btw, this will be my first laptop. I'm 15 and i want to make my first lappy count

 

Has anyone tried the "WEB" button (near the Display Off one) when the CW is turned off? The CW is supposed to launch a Linux based environment just with a browser for quick web access.

I just tried on mine and I received a message saying that I do not have Splashtop installed. Does that happen to everybody or am I the only one that got a unit with this issue?

Thanks!

 

I have had this with various laptops in the past. It doesnt mean anything, it is just being reported wrong.

Just run 3dmark06, if the score is around 5500 (230m) 3700 (210m) then it is working as it should, if it was running at 1x PCI-E speed it will be much slower