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

Just got mine from best buy and it has the atheros wifi card to the person who was curious. Liking it so far!

How would one go about doing a clean install on this?

 

Hi all, I am interested in the Vaio CW. However, I have one concern:

Is the keyboard the standard size? This is very important for me since I choosing a laptop based heavily on typing ergonomics (which is why I am looking at the chiclet Vaio CW and NW).

I was reading the reviews on the older CS and came across this:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5068&review=sony+vaio+cs

Inside the article, the passage on the keyboard reads:

"The keyboard is a VAIO-style chiclet layout (a similar keyboard layout is used on all Apple notebooks) that is comfortable to type on, but awkwardly sized compared to a normal notebook keyboard. Even with the 14.1” frame Sony condensed the keyboard slightly, making finger placement for blind typing difficult at first. Once you get used to it there are no problems, but it does have a slight learning curve."

Now I know the CS and CW are not the same computer nor build, but they look pretty identical to me. Can anyone help me out here?

 

Hi,
I'm thinking about getting myself this one.
Has anyone tried installing windows xp on it ? I'll need it to work with cubase, Seven still has problems with audio drivers.

 

Re-ordered my Sony Vaio CW

£850

White
Intel® Core(TM)2 Duo 2.53 Ghz
500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
4 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Blu-ray Disc(TM) Combo-drive
Windows7 Home 64bit without XP
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT230M 512MB
14" LCD, 1366 x 768 + webcam

 

I went into Best Buy last night to check out the CW and figured I would let you guys know what it thought. I was glad to see the FW was right next to it so that I could easily compare the keyboards. I have to say the FW still has the best keyboard on the Vaio line. The CW keyboard feels a little more plastic to me. The Battery was kind of loose but maybe it was just the display model if not that kind of sucks that yet another Vaio has a loose battery. The screen for being so small is fantastic looking straight on...however the side angles seem to wash out the screen a bit.

Overall seems like a solid 14 incher and definitely better then the CS model. I am now stuck between buying the FW and or the CW.

 

This laptop seems perfect for me, just wondering if anyone else configured theirs online (in the UK) and had it delivered... it says it'll take 4-5 weeks, is that accurate or are they just covering their asses? Just seems an inordinate amount of time but I don't think the store models are going to have blu-ray drives.

4-5 weeks could be the deal-breaker, I need to start writing my dissertation soon.

 

You can look at the preassembled models, the delivery time should be shorter.

 

Don't think they have a preassembled blu-ray model though!

Just down to me now, is getting it quicker and being able to work on it worth more than getting a blu-ray player with it?!

My common sense tells me having to fiddle around and keep it next to the TV whenever I want to watch films is actually hassle I could do without. I'll probably save the £50 extra the blu ray player cost and put it towards a standalone soon. And it'll always play 1080p files I download I guess.

 

Read #95, should answer most of your concerns

 

Another question-the battery has some wiggle room and I find it somewhat irritating. It's due to the design, locks in fine but there's just a little space above the battery that it can move up and down. Does this happen with anyone else's cw laptops?

 

Does anyone have one with a large capacity battery? Could you take a picture of it please?

 

Never seen my battery wiggle, in fact it was a pain in the to get in and the lock feature seems to work well.

Maybe I just haven't paid enough attention.

 

Okay just try this, when the laptop is sitting normally, raise the back with one hand and use the other hand to press the battery in various places-does it wiggle/move at all?

If it does, I need to take this back and get another one. I would appreciate it if multiple people could try this

 

You want me to fondle the backside of my laptop! Is that legal?

 

I'm assuming its the same across all CW models. The degree may vary though. I honestly wouldn't have noticed the loose battery had it not been mentioned in this thread. Its very minor (and have moved around quite a bit with this laptop already).

 

I know that the CW comes with an option for a XP downgrade disc, i guess that includes with drivers, you will have to ask someone else about installing XP on it. if possible could you specify what problems you are having or if the problem is relating to cubase.

 

I almost bought this laptop 2 days ago. What stopped me was the older DDR2 memory and apparently Sony doesn't make very good quality laptops. I really liked the looks though, probably the best looking laptops out there.

 

Shawn - This laptop has 4GB of DDR3 RAM.

 

That's odd. I remember it only having the DDR2 option when i configured it, also I read a review on it. They must have fixed that

 

Why does the ram matter? DDR3 ram is still pointless from a performance standpoint AFAIK.

 

I found an Unboxing video-enjoy guys! and i encourage our current owners to post up pics and video's if possible, since we want to see real user pictures and not photoshoot pictures that have been edited to "perfection". Thanks Guys!
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Can someone address this please? Is it full size?

 

I purchased this laptop from BB (online) with my BB account and was able to get 18 months free financing. I am VERY pleased with this laptop. The speakers during playback of BR movies is low (although it is somewhat louder in Windows Media Player). I uninstalled the WinDVD included and installed Total Media Theatre 3 and have been pleased with the increase in volume. I do wish there was some sort of "actual program" to control the sound like I have with the SoundBlaster Fatality Platinum in my desktop. I was pleased when I used HDMI out to my 42" Philips LCD which was at 1080P and carried the sound...which was MUCH better. The laptop plays BF2 with everything on HIGH and I do mean HIGH. It looks AWESOME...so this would definately be considered a mid to high level gaming laptop. The real test would be to see what games like Crysis 2 would look like. I am debating as to whether I should bump the RAM to 8GB since the onboard video card uses CUDA to access system RAM. I haven't opened mine up yet, but I believe it has 2 sticks of 2GB...If I have to pull those out and add 2x 4GB it might not be worth doing quite yet. If others can share some ideas about that....it would be appreciated.

A "matte" black would have been preferred as the piano black shows fingerprints....but the thing looks sharp! I am pleased.

 

BigHAZE, the video card shouldn't be using much system RAM if any, since hardly any games exceed 512mb. I did some experimenting with my desktop using Rivatuner, which has an 8800GT 1gb... A few times bf2 went slightly over 512 and that was with anti aliasing. Even Crysis only went slightly over 512mb. So at most you're looking at a few megs used by the video card, not a whole gigabyte.

 

Thanks...but I think my card is the G210M which only has 256MB RAM on the chip. I read that it could use up to 2GB of system RAM, which is why BF2 looks so good with everything on HIGH, AA at 8X and all the visual tweaks in the nVidia set up screen. Mine has the T6600 CPU(s) and the 500GB HD.

Can anyone elaborate on the "touchpad motions"? I read today that by circling your finger you can scroll down a website. Will have to try it tonight.

Any other "tips and tricks" would be appreciated and I will surely share mine as I find them. I can't believe people are knocking the CW as bulky...I find it to be quite sexy and it is the FIRST new laptop I have ever purchased...and I have been into computers since early 1992.

Another good thing about the CW's bluray drive is I can back up my BluRay collection to MKV to take on the road. I paid $350 for the LG BluRay drive in my desktop in late 2007. The fact that this is a portable BluRay player is a BIG plus in my book.

Is the user manual a PDF on the computer? I can't seem to locate it.

 

True, you initiate the scroll from the edge of the touchpad (the "target zone") and then you move your finger in the direction you want to scroll in circles.

In my case at least it's located under the C:\Documentation folder. You may have to install the VAIO User Guide first though.

Hope it helps

 

can someone upload the user manual and documents please

 

ok so i got the user manual from the sony site. and guess what i found on page 74 it shows a diagram explaining how to use the fingerprint reader and it has a diagram of the CW with a fingerprint reader. it looks like the SR touchpad all together. so that means that some models have fingerprint reader in them or they will have fingerprint sometime soon i guess.
Edit:

 

Oyo;

Did someone talk about the great perf of the Seagate Momentus 5400.6 SATA 3 Gbits/s 320 Go in it ?
And really the GT 230M rocks !
I play risen with high details and it works like a charm.

Let's cruise...

@+

Sony Vaio CW1S1E P7450 4G.DDR3 230M 512Mo HD 320G.

 

Can you pls type the link to manual on the sony site? Because I can not find the manual for CW there.

Thanks.

 

"We expect your VAIO order to be shipped to you between 10.11.2009 and 17.11.2009" =D

 

Hi all, thanks administrator for creating this forum, well i would want to know where to download the manual, i don,t find in Europe,s site nor the american, second; anybody into HD editing does think CW is acceptably good to edit AVCHD videos shooted by a Sony camcorder (for example) at 16 Mps. Thank you very much from advance.

 

does the CW come with a laptop sleeve to keep it in? if not can anyone recommend one?

 

From that YouTube unboxing video, the CW does not come with a laptop sleeve.

 

Here's a link to the user guide.

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/VPCCW10_series.pdf

 

Here's a link to the quick start guide.

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/VPCCW10_series_qsg_EN_ES.pdf

 

Does the CW come pre-loaded with any anti-virus / protection software? if so, which one? Thanks.

 

Thanks a lot for link.

I had some trial version of McAfee anti-virus software in my CW.

 

I got this one and it fits really well

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Targus+...lack/9041173.p?id=1218011768763&skuId=9041173

 

Yeah there was (I think it was mcafee). The laptop however has a plesently low amount of crapware preloaded on it. Much less of a pain to remove than the bloat on Acer systems at least.

 

Has anyone tried getting surround sound from the HDMI port?

I'm pretty keen on getting one of these but the details on the sony site are a bit vague.

 

Even then, it will only use 256mb of system RAM to get to the 512mb that most games max out at. No game actually uses 2.25gb. You don't need to add more RAM to help gaming performance.

 

Could some please tell me if VT can be enabled in the BIOS ?

Page 100 of the CW users guide shows how to enable it but want to confirm that its in the models sold by Best Buy or Micro Center.

Thanks

 

I have the BBUY model and when I press F2 - the BIOS doesn't allow me to enter into Advanced settings- I just get the basics (main, security, boot, exit as options) - so I am assuming that this ins't possible on the model from Best Buy.

 

Could anyone tell how bright the screen is? Is LED obvious or "just" as bright as a standard display?

 

I'm leaning towards the CW, but I can get an FW 550 w/the ATI 4650 for about the same price. Minor differences. I actually prefer the smaller CW size, but it' still a tough choice. Mainly it seems to come down to FW 1600x900 ATI 4650 vs. CW 1366x768 GT 230M. I don't think there would be a great deal of difference, because the ATI has the extra pixels to push, but I'd like to hear any thoughts you guys might have on that.

Also, I know the T6600 vs the P8700 has been argued to be a draw, so I could save some bucks by getting a T6600.

I wish the BestBuy CW had the 230M, I'd get it in a flash if it did as it seems a steal and I'd love getting it locally in case I have any issues, but I felt the 230M was worth the extra bucks.

Also any general thoughts on strengths and weakness of FW vs CW line?

Thanks much!

P.S. Notebookcheck lists the 4650 higher than the 230M but if you read the text, they describe the gaming performance of the 230M as significantly better. Makes no sense to me. Extremely hard to find good, valid comparisons of these cards, but I figure both are close enough that I'd be happy with either. Though being the proud owner of several notebooks with 8xxx series Nvidia cards doomed to fail from what I read, I'm not so sure about buying another Nvidia based unit.

 

The 4650 is a better card. End of question. Its not much better though and both will run the same game on the same setting roughly equally. As for the CW vs. FW, the only reason to get the cw over the fw is if you want them smaller form factor (which is exactly the reason I got the CW over the FW line).

 

Thanks, I do like the style, design, and size of the CW -- perfect size for me (I've used an Acer 14" laptop and found 14" to be about the perfect size for my general, mobile use.)

One more nagging item. the CW comes with DDR3 memory (1066) and the T6600 has an 800 FSB, whereas the P8700 has 1066, so it seems like the P8700 would be a better choice, but others claim there will be little difference. Again, puzzling to me. $100 more for P8700...so many choices.

 

The difference between the two CPUs are minimal. Since you likely do not do any CPU intensive tasks there would basically be no performance difference between the two.

 

Check reviews of laptops with 240M, according to Nvidia 230 is exactly the same but clocked some 10% lower. In comparison to ATI 4650/4670 it offers similar performance in lower details/resolutions, while ATI is clearly faster with higher details. Like 23 to 40 FPS.

See list of reviews on the bottom of this link:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-240M.17654.0.html

So it would seem that ATI is better (faster), but I haven't seen any laptop with 4670 in sub 15" notebook - it has higher power consumption and heats way too much according to reviews I've read. It was also reported for erratic performance in games, many reviews mentioned that ATI card have a problem with maintaining steady FPS (see review of dell XPS 16 on notebookcheck).

I think that overall Nvidia 230 is a powerful choice for that size of notebook. 210M is much worse by design.

I'll buy CW today and post some 3D mark results / gaming impressions.