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

newegg has gt 230m's with a t6600 and p7350 but they raised the price by 50$ as of today. i bought mine yesterday when it was 50$ cheaper

 

Hey Guys,

I just received my Sony Vaio CW.
Build: T6600 2.2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 230m Video Card
Here are my takes on the laptop.


Pros: Nice design, Solid build, and Very nice video card (230m)

Cons: Poor view angles, Suffers from glare, and Poor screen resolution

When I got this laptop, I immediately loaded and tested World Of Warcraft. The game tested nicely on this system. No lag felt, if any, even in Dalaran. When gaming, the video card does get pretty hot, but that's expected, so you'll need a laptop cooler for longevity.

The laptop has poor viewing angles. I tried watching a movie on the laptop, its good for 1 or 2 person when watching from 3-4 feet away, but it is not good for a group of 10 people to watch movies from like 10 feet away. If your not directly in front of the screen, all the pictures get too dark and you cannot see anything.

The laptop also suffers from glare. You can totally see the background like a glass mirror (sun and florescent lights will strain your eyes, especially when watching a dark movie or having anything dark on your desktop background).

I have mixed feelings for the keyboard. I like the way the keys tap. They are quiet and are easy to press but I dont like how they are built. There are holes under every key so I get the impression that water can easily find their way through the keys and kill the laptop.

Now lets go to screen resolution: 1366 x 768. There is not enough vertical screen resolution. When I'm browsing or surfing the internet, I have to use the scroller way too much. I think I would be more happy with a laptop that offers 1440 x 900 resolution.

In conclusion, this is a really pretty laptop. Very nice design, slick, and fashionable. But there are just too many faults with the laptop. I would not recommend this laptop to anyone unless they fix the screen and change the screen resolution.

 

Jlm43,

I assume others may get the free upgrade. Hope you're one of them. For once, not having enough of something in stock paid off.

Merry Christmas to you, too!

 

Thanks for the Newegg tips!

 

BTW the P7450 one at Newegg is out of stuck with an ETA of Dec 25th. I wonder if they'll really get them then.

 

No Problem.

 

Could anyone point me to the list of bloatwares posted here somwhere. This thread has grown like a plague and it is hard to keep track of.
Also how do you guys update your graphics driver? it says my driver is upto date when I try from the hardware device section. I remember some users mention that the latest driver starts with 192. where as mine starts with 187.

 

I think the screen is just fine, not a really big issue for me

 

I do think the screen resolution is a lot smaller than it needs to be. I was initially looking for at least a screen that was 1080p. My previous laptop was 1900x1200 and that is also what I run now on my 24" monitor with my desktop. At work I don't have a widescreen, but the resolution is 1280x1024. Most websites aren't made to be very wide, but need to be long, and I can see myself having to scroll a lot when I get this laptop.

But I knew the screen resolution and did plenty of research. I think the performance in such a small package will be a big pro that will make up for the cons. I can live with the screen, I'm not going to be crowded around with people trying to watch a movie.

I just love how light this laptop is. I picked it up tonight and man it's light! So much better than my fiance's old laptop. My laptop will have the larger battery so will be a little heavier, but still. Should be getting my computer Thursday...just hope somebody is home to sign for it! Can't wait!

 

Anyone, anyone? Bueller, Bueller.

Seriously, thanks for your opinion.

 

I just got my white Vaio CW from Best Buy Canada.

Spec's:

T6600 2.20 Ghz
4 GB RAM
320GB HDD
G210M GPU

At stock clocks, I got 3500+ on 3DMark06, which is quite good.

Then I overclocked to 700/936/1600 and got 4000+.

I got the configuration for

$812.61 + 13% tax.

If I were to go through sonystyle.ca to get the P8700 CPU and GT 230M GPU, it would come to

$1069.99 + 13% tax.

I'm not sure $257.38 + 13% tax extra is worth it????

Moreover, the downside of ordering through sonystyle canada is that there are no returns on CTO systems.

 

mystery905, how did you get your cw for only $812.61? I'm in Canada and the website says its still on for $899.99. Thanks!

 

It was when they had the $100 off if you purchase more than $1000 coupon. I added an external hard drive to get it > $1000, and when I did the online order with in-store pick-up, their system deducted proportionately from the laptop and the external hdd.

 

ahh i see, smart move! yeah i think im gonna wait till boxing day, hopefully there will some sort of sale for this laptop.

 

SONY VAIO CW 14.1
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9600 (2.80GHz)
Genuine Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit
Jet Black
500GB Hard Disk Drive (5400rpm)
8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1066
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT230M GPU
Blu-ray Disc™ playback


I test most popular games like:
GTA4 all hight and very hight setings works perfectly
Dirt2 MAX settings no lag trx 10
Call of duty MW2 max settings no lag
CSS max settings fps 278 (32 players)
Star Wars Force Unleashed Ultimate MAX settings no lag
New stalker max settings no lag.

 

People can barely notice the difference between a 720p and 1080p HD quality on a 32 inch flatscreen TV. It's more or less hyped, actually.

I approve of that... I've got a 32 inch screen.

You'll first notice a clear difference on a 40 incher, so the lack of Full HD on a 14 inch laptop is actually a good idea. You don't waste your money on something you wouldn't notice in the first place.

I can't really comment on the Vaio CW screen though, as I haven't gotten mine yet. But should arrive today.

If you've got viewing issues on some websites, you could easily use the zoom features as all the latest 'net browsers use. If the text becomes too small or too big, you could also change the font size in Windows itself.

 

gratz on the upgrade...I hope I got that upgrade too.

 

1. I'm stuck in a dilemma ,somebody advise me,shall I get P8700 + 6GB ram or T9600 + 4GB ram
2. would there be any noticeable difference in heat and BATTERY between 6GB - 4GB and T9600 - P8700 ? I'm getting extended battery though
3. How about I overlook P8700 to T9600 clock speed ?

 

Ah, just recieved my CW! It's a real beaut... Icy white! Much more beautiful in real life!

Specs:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 / 2.13 GHz
Graphics: NVIDIA Geforce GT 230M / 512 Mb
RAM: 4 GB DDR3
HDD: 320 GB
Windows 7 Home Premium, without Bluray.

First impression: Glossy exterior is sexy. Keyboard is very easy to use. The criticism about the display is way exaggerated, imo. The viewing angles on my CW are pretty neat actually, although the coloring may be a bit too bright. But I'm sure I can fix that by customizing the colors. The speakers ARE anemic, full of treble and lacking bass.

However. It's supafast... Runs smoothly. No issues really. The DVD recovery is a pain in the you-know-what though, as it wants me to use 4 DVDs and it's already taking over an hour for one DVD. x_x

Will check out the gaming performance later and report on the performance, heating, display when gaming etc.

I'll take some photos if anyone has a special request. :]

 

Weird,
I've just received mine and doing the recovery DVDs as I speak, it ask me for only 3 DVD and around 30 mins for 2 DVDs (which is long enough though :] )

After that I'm going to do a semi-clean install to remove these bloatware.

F'ail'o

 

I envy you... You're so lucky

I live in Denmark, so I suppose there might be even more bloatware on our versions of the CW. I wish there was a way to create these recovery disks without all the bloatware... Although it would probably still force me to use 4 DVDs.

I get the option of using 2 DL DVDs (don't know what those are) or 4 normal DVDs.

Also forgot to mention... This is my first 64-bit PC and I can honestly say... Wow :] It's so much faster!

 

the recovery DVDs are IMO to revert back the vaio as out of factory for any reason.
After removing the bloatware, you have many ways to backup your system without any DVD if you like.
It was also my first 64bit PC and some 32bits applications that I was using in my old system don't work. The drivers are more often re-written/compiled so the vendors can still sell their product although I had a problem with Lame ACM mp3 encoder recently and hopefully found a solution to still use the old 32bit driver. Good luck for your old apps!

 

As the cw has a 64Bit Win7 installed, are there 32Bit versions of all the drivers/bloatwares as well ?

I dont want to use the 64bit version because i've got only 3GB of Ram.

 

Anyone ?????????

 

I'm by all means NO EXPERT, but... I'd go for the P8700 + 6GB.

P series are much better at heat diffusion which leads to a more stable and cooler processor. Very important in a notebook.

And the extra RAM is always a treat.

Although the T9600 is technically better, I don't think you'll see much difference anyway. But you'll clearly see a difference when it comes to heat and RMA cases

 

Hi everyone! I'd like to start off by saying thanks everyone for all the information that was said in this thread. I too ordered a cw w/ g230 n blueray player at sonystyle USA on black Friday. And I have been excited and waited patiently to recieve the laptop. I love Sony products I think they do a very good job on their quality but I have to admit they do a very bad job at either choosing or training their employees. Or just customer service in general. My order just got cancelled a couple hours ago and I called to see what's the deal. And all they can say to me is sorry we can't do anything about it. You can always reorder at our website. I even asked to speak to a manager and he said the same exact thing. They do not care how long you've waited or even care to have a repeat customer. I would of been more understanding if they told me within a week but it's been almost 3 weeks then they inform you with no other option. This is going to be their downfall if they continue doing business like this. I'm very disappointed because I was definately looking forward to it. Now I'm debating to get MacBook pro or something else though a little more pricey I'm willing to pay more for better customer service then crappy service for almost $1000 notebook. On a side note: congrats to those who are lucky enough to actually recieve the vaio cw.

 

I don't think you should judge them too harsh based on production-related matters. The customer support really does know zlich about such stuff and I don't think it's any different at Apple.

However, if you think Sony are bad... You haven't experienced Asus!

I had my Asus laptop to repair once before and all went fine. Got it back three weeks later. A month later it screws up again... Back to repair. It took them 3 months to clarify what they're going to do with it. They say that it's unable to be repaired, so they'll fix a credit note for me, so I can get my cash back.

That credit note has been in the works for a month... When I finally got a credit note number, none of their support assistants gave me a clear answer as to what I'm supposed to do with it! So I rang to the shop i bought it from and they couldn't find any credit note number from Asus... And Asus insist that they've sent it to them! LOL!

So what the hell do you do as a customer? Well, a fine advisor at the shop contacted Asus' distributor who got the thing going. So another month until that was fixed and I got a check from them. So in conclusion, I had to wait 5 months because of Asus' insane way of taking care of RMA-cases.

 

following vaio europe support page (below)
http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/downloads/preinstalled/index.aspx?l=fr_FR&m=VPCCW1

all the drivers support 32 and 64 bits except the Bluetooth and NVIDIA drivers.
But these 2 drivers alone are enough reason to stay on 64bits version.

If you want more I'd say that sooner better than later to switch to 64bits.

If you had a 32bits OS and you wanted to buy RAM, I'd understand the argument for paying less for 3GB because the extra 1GB wouldn't be used at all. But the 64bits OS works as well with 3GB as with 4GB of RAM.

I'd go for 64bits OS right now (just my 2 cents)

EDIT: the model to chose in the above page is VPCCW1 in order to get to the download page and to see the list of drivers/soft

 

I ordered mine around 9 pm on Black Friday. I really hope I get the same upgrade. I wanted Blu-Ray burner, but I couldn't force myself to spend the extra money.

 

I know there isn't a whole lot of a difference in 720p or 1080p HDTVs. That's not the issue. The issue is I really like being able to view more when I'm on a computer. Just having the extra pixels would have been nice. As far as watching an HD Movie on the computer, I probably won't ever even do that. The screen is wide enough, would just be nice if it was taller. But I'll live with it. I wanted a small laptop anyhow. Least for gaming I normally don't care much about the vertical pixels, I feel a wide screen is more important.

 

I completely agree with Mr. Penguin. A faster processor doesnt mean better performance. The difference between the 2 processors would be so marginal that you wont even notice it for day to day activities, until unless you are running really demanding applications. There also RAM plays a very important role. The reason we have RAMs is because the internal memory available in the processor (cache) is very limited for storing all the programs for processing. This is supplemented by the external RAM. Higher RAM means the computer can stack more programs for the processor to process.

The only advantage i see with the T9600 processor is that it has a high cache (6MB) as compared to P8700 (3MB). However, P8700 runs much cooler than the T9600. Heat is also an important factor. Not only does it drain the battery, but if it is not dissipated quickly enough, the processor inherently will start running slow so as to generate less heat. Its like a fail safe mechanism in the processor.

 

hi guys, i HIGHLY suggest, if you're impatient, to buy from Newegg, i purchased my cw (specs on sig) on monday night, dec 14 and its already around my area and will get it in a few hours! how quick that is compared to sonystyle

 

Remember though at Newegg you can not return the laptop only exchange it. Their laptop return policy really sucks. Amazon is better, its cheaper no sales tax and you can return it with no restocking fee and they pay for the shipping back. And they ship just as fast as newegg.

 

Hey guys,

It's been ages since I've been into laptops so your advise would be great. I've speced the following laptop (CW1S1) and just need your feedback on the spec and price.

I'm coming from a Acer Aspire 5720 so this will be a "massive" jump I expect. The laptop will be used for media, studies, web design and generally needs to last 2 yearsish. Gaming may come into the equation at some point.

Spec:

* Pink
* Intel® Core(TM)2 Duo 2.20 Ghz
* 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
* 4 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
* Blu-ray Disc(TM) drive
* Windows® 7 Home Premium
* NVIDIA® GeForce® GT230M 512MB
* 14" LCD, 1366 x 768 + webcam

Priced at £770

I can downgrade some of the parts like the CPU to 2.1 but I don't know how much that will set me back in performance.

 

Does anyone know what wireless card comes with the matte style cw's? Like this one VPC-CW1MFX/B P7450 It doesn't say anywhere in the specs... that I can find

 

For those who have problems with the resolution try PowerStrip
http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm
Hope it works =D

 

Thanks Mr Penguin and Raziel. I ll take this advice

 

Hi All
Have been reading this forum for the last two months and have received my laptop last week of which i am very pleased and i was just wondering if anybody has purchased the blutooth mouse as they are expensive.

 

I was shopping around and found what seems to be a better deal, at least in Canada that is.

For a CW w/ P8700 2.53 Ghz, GT230M 512MB, 4GB, 320GB HDD 5400RPM, it currently costs

$1169.99 @ sonystyle.ca less $100 instant off coupon

At greytech.com, you can get an Asus N81VP-D2 w/ T9600 2.8 Ghz, ATI 4650 1GB (faster than GT 230M), 4GB, 320GB 7200RPM, including firewire and eSATA ports that the CW lacks, fingerprint reader, 1 year accidental warranty, 2 years standard warranty, for

$1,146.95 less $100 mail-in coupon

Plus if you buy the Asus from ncix.com (pm'ing gretech's lower price) and you don't live in b.c. you don't have to pay PST, so your taxes will be less and savings will be more.


hmmmmmm

 

Is it worth getting a blue-ray drive for read and write? Can I use normally DVDs to read and write? It's £50 more than the combo drive and I just want to know if there's a point.

 

You will be able to burn blu-ray and dvd with the blu-ray player.

 

I think a reglar DVD-Drive RW should be fine enough. You can always add on the Blu-Ray Player (read) to it. This will allow u to play Blu-ray movies on your laptop. For the Blu-Ray Burner part (write), I havent seen any Blu-Ray media out there for purchase. Getting a Blu-Ray burner would be a good idea if you want to make yourself future safe as i believe it will be a norm after a year or 2.

 

Hey, What does BD stand for when you open my computer and its by a drive? I have E: dvd, C: is computer.

But is BD, I know I don't got blu-ray.. You think its my daemon just making up a drive?

 

Yes, if you are using daemon tools utility, it will create a virtual drive. you can mount image files into this drive.

 

You can find Blu-Ray media out there. NewEgg has some. The cheapest looks to be a 15 pack for $35. Thats the 25 GB discs. The 50 GB (Dual Layer) are about $20 a piece.

I just don't know why anyone would need them. The media is so expensive. Maybe if you wanted to do daily back-ups of something that was 25 GB or less, it would work.

 

Thanks Raz, Yeah I know, I just thought it was odd that it would say BD instead of like another dvd drive or something. So yeah I guess it is daemon that is making that drive lol. Many thanks

I use it to mount my iso games.

 

Mr. penguin it will be nice if you can post pics of your icy white beauty i am also planning for this colour

 

i got a confirmation mine was shipped out today.

Looks like I'll have mine before the holidays. Great news for me. I have my fingers crossed for any additional upgrade treats I can get...(blu-ray burner I hope)

 

Wow. I've had 4 BSODs in the last week. Anyone know why??? All been when I've done non intensive stuff such as on the web or word processing...

 

update ur stuff from sony taxi downloader. I have not yet received an error on this computer.