Official VAIO E Series Owners Thread

Do you have the 5470 or the 5650 graphics?

 

How much did it cost for you to upgrade to the 5650 graphics?

 

I got it from local Sony store. Did not build it online, so overall it was 850 EUR.

 

Oh I see. I think I'm gonna go to the Sony store tomorrow and look around. Thanks for answering all of my questions!

If anyone else has the 5470 graphics could you tell me how it runs games?

 

Mine is the one with 5650 graphics.
Its the EB17FG model with Core i3-330M/4Gb/500Gb/ATI 5650/FullHD/BD-ROM Combo. I can't do CTO here or I would love to pair it with Core i5
So far I have no problem with the i3-330M's performance though.

One more thing, before buying this computer, I was reading a review from Laptopmag and it says the laptop doesn't have multi-touch trackpad.
I dont know if it varies between models but mine seems to have multi-touch.

 

Interesting. As soon as the US gets the 5650 I'll be all over it. I just hope it won't cost TOO much more. So how would you rate the build quality, mklasse?

 

Has any one bought the gloss white version or indeed any of the other gloss colours. If so what is the finish like? Does it look good?

I am interested in getting an E series but do not want the typical standard boring matt plastic finish found on nearly all laptops these days.

I am also waiting for the 17.3" EC series but these do not yet appear to be available in glossy colours. Sony UK have also since pulled the ability to buy an EC series from their website. Does anyone know whether the EC series will be available in all the colours available for the EB and if so when sony will start selling the EC series?

 

I say the build quality is solid, with a little flex above the optical drive door, but not to the point it gets annoying. It doesn't creak, and the keyboard is also lovely to type on (at least to me)
Honestly, the "budget" part does show on the lid cover. Mine has some "dimples" on the lid that may have come from the casting process. The hinge feels solid with no play in my unit.

Mine is in glossy black. I would say the pattern looks subtle in black. It will be more noticeable in other colors like pink, green, and blue, but I'm the person who usually like matte surface, so subtle is good

 

Very nice, I'm going to buy this model too. Just a small pity that it does not have Core i5 but I think the Core i3 is good enough for my everyday works. I love the HD 5650, Full HD display, numberic keypad and multi-touch trackpad.

Where did you buy this laptop? It seems to be an Asian model, isn't it?

 

I'm located in Indonesia, it is asian model.

 

I received my VPCEB19GX last week. I really like it, but there are major problems with it: Firstly and most importantly, there is this annoying high-pitch noise. This noise is much much louder when I disconnect the AC adapter and the laptop is on the battery only. The noise is almost non-existent in the Safe Mode though. I really hope they can get a driver/software update that can resolve this or else I'm on the verge of returning it. The latest updates at SonyStyle have not made any difference. I am wondering why only 3 people (Asdamine, Mythdat and kaveh_812005) have complained about this noise so far. First I thought it's a US-specific problem, but seems like at least one of you guys is not from the US, since you've got the HD screen. Have you guys called them regarding this? I think mine is the worst case. This whistling is just too loud to stand.

The viewing angle is also miserable. The sound quality is just terrible. It is so bad compared to any laptop over $500, let alone my previous VAIO (VGN-FZ290), which also had a better display. The screen on the E is seems so much smaller compared to my FZ because of the widescreeness. By the way, it's stupid to put all the 3 usb ports on one side. It seems like such a downgrade from the FZ to the E, especially in terms of build-quality, but well I almost paid twice for that one back then.

I really don't know how this average display and graphic card (ATI 5470) will handle the Pro Evolution Soccer 2010.

The laptop itself is quite zippy with the i5 provessor, probably even more so because I have ordered the Fresh Start. And Windows 7 works like a charm. I love the touchpad. The feel and accuracy are great.

 

I can't see Sony bring out an update themselves to solve the noise issue - as I mentioned earlier in the thread, it's not really a Sony-specific issue, more an Intel issue - it happens in laptops from a wide range of manufacturers, going back to Core Duo processors. Really the only thing from a software side that would affect the issue would be to prevent the CPU going into its power saving modes - but then of course you'd have higher power consumption.

I can put up with it - I've gotten used to it and don't notice it now. And it's too high frequency for anyone else in the house to hear so I'm not annoying anyone.

Can't comment on the screen issues, as I have none of those problems on the HD screen.

Edit: don't mind the flag next to my post, must have clicked something weird

Edit2: I do have an email in to Sony support re: the sound issue, had one email which wasn't too helpful, waiting to hear back again

 

Just ordered mine from the UK shop. I was wavering a bit between which screen to get but as it turns out the full-hd one is unavailable (for now at least - oh it is there as an "option", but the buy-button is disabled the moment the full-hd screen is chosen).

I am not hugely fuzzed as I have a nice external monitor to use when at home and arguably the full-hd in a 15" is overkill (for me) "on the road".

3-4 week delivery - can't wait to get it.

 

The i5 430 is almost the same as the i3 330... the difference is extremely negligible and it's not worth spending extra money for the i5.

Regretor: Of course this is a downgrade from your previous FZ, you have to remember that the E series are very cheap performance budget systems, comparable to cheap Acer or Asus laptops and not in any way in the same quality class as Macbooks or more expensive Vaios. I have an Asus from 2006, cost like 1200 euros back then, the sound quality is way worse than the EB and the screen is equally bad. I'd say it's quite typical of laptops in this price range.

 

I just noticed the base price increased by 50 € on $ony$tyle Europe compared to February ... greedy bustards
Now it's cheaper to get it from retailers 50 € less +24 months warranty Pickup & Return

 

This might sound weird, but when I got mine from the store for 850 EUR, the next day price of the same exact unit has increased by 170 EUR!!!

 

I debating between the VPCEB1Z0E/B which is £799.99 or VPCF11M1E/H which is £949.99 ... its only £150 difference so I'm not sure if i should upgrade to the f or stay with the e .I want to use it for 3d work and light gaming.... anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

I didn't have ANY such noise on my Core 2 duo processor of the FZ. The noise is very negligible when the adapter is plugged in, but when it's only on battery it is literally too loud and distracting to disregard. Maybe mine is a little worse than anybody else. I really wish I could verify that so I can make a decision.

I don't want to sound negative or too critical, but the sound quality is so bad that I think it's a defective speaker or something. Last night I was alone at home and talked to one of my friends on Skype, I barely could understand what he was saying. And I even tried the volume at different levels.

 

I knew from its price that it cannot be a top model, but I was stuck to get a 15" and didn't want the Vista nightmare again. I need to take this to the campus sometimes, but I also don't want it to be too small for viewing photos or videos, so this size is the best compromise for me. I really wish Sony had a more competitive series at this size. I configured the Z to my likings, and the price went up $3k, and I can't spend that much. But the $1500-1700 range is ok for me.

 

I went by the Sony store today to check out the E series, and I really like the design/build quality. It's too bad I can't get the 5650 card in the US.

The Sony employee I talked to was funny though, he told me if I wanted to play the Sims 3 I should buy the E and upgrade it to 8GB of ram and the i5 turbo boost. lol

 

Got this too

 

I bought both of these models. I got the F model first but I hated the viewing angle of the display so much that I immediately sold it. Then I got the EB with the full HD screen and the quality of the screen is so much better. So out of those two models I think the EB is the better choice. Now if you get the F with the premium display that people like so much, then maybe the F is better, but that you unit is way more expensive than the EB.

 

Hi GUys,

I seen a video on Youtube where a guy managed to oveclock his HD5650 to 625/900mhz. :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQnzHIFiKLU&feature=related

See the comments @ the video. He is saying that this can cause no harm to the GPU: "... but if you see any artifacts, you must turn the clocks down. If your card overheats it will reboot. Just turn the clocks up 10 MHz at a time and test it for a few hours if its stable turn it up again. Its the correct tool by the way."

Question 1: What do you think? Is this worth to try?

Question Nr 2: Does it make sense to try an overclock the CPU (i5 520M) ?
As far as I know this clocks (due to the Turbo Mode) from 2.4 to 2.93 GHz.

Question NR3:How does this turbo mode works? Is this raising frequency automatically or you can tune it somehow?

Cheers,
V.

 

Hi,I have same problem...
I went to service center today but unfortunately that time its did not make noise and they said that u have to leave ur laptop here for 2-3 days and we inform u,but I don't trust any of them so I came back to my home.after that again I here that noise.

 

@vvik75:

1. I think gupp has tried overclocking his ATI 5650 to 650Mhz successfully, but not sure about the memory clock.

2. I guess overclocking is always possible, but I never tried it myself and laptops are generally prone to heat issues when the CPU is overclocked.

3. Intel turbo boost automatically overclock single core of the processor from dual 2.4Ghz into single 2.93Ghz (for Core i5-520M) when using a program that doesn't support multi-core processors

 

How could the laptop get silent suddenly? Mine makes the noise all of the time.

 

How much more does the HD display cost compared to the regular one in Europe and Japan?

 

It costs £40 here

 

That's a bargain. US is just going downhill in everything quality-wise.

 

Not really, you guys have waaaaay more choice from other manufacturers, and a whole lot cheaper too

 

hi,i don't know, but it was funny...
A few option may be make this problem:
1-cpu fan
2-hdd
3-speaker
4-Maybe battery has problem

If u hear carefully ,this noise come from around left speaker and cpu fan.

 

Do you think this laptop trackpad is good? Because I see it is not the same as other VAIO laptops.

 

Ditto. The UK pricing is simply ridiculous to say the least.

 

Hi there. I think it's either number 1 or 2 since there's no voice when in safe mode or when the ac adapter is plugged in. I'm almost 100% sure that a BIOS update can take care of the problem. Because even dragging the bar up and down in the Firefox, silences the noise.

Do you also only hear the noise when the adapter is not plugged in?

 

This sounds like the same problem most of new nbs with iX processor have. The same discussion is in the F thread as well as in Dell section. Of course I can't be sure it's the same thing, also even for the other nbs there are just some theories, but it sounds quite similar. Many people reduced the noise with the mic trick, cause they say the problem was not actually in the mic, but in the driver.

 

My opinion is that its a bit cheap made. It works, but it doesnt works as fine as other laptops I've tried. For example the Dell studio 15 touchpad is way better in my opinion.

This trackpad is very hard material, and it isn't very smooth.

 

btw, do you all have Alps touchpad in your EB, or Synaptics? One person one the Czech discussion board when he got his EB, there were Synaptics drivers, but the multitouch didn't work. He found out in the Everest, that the touchpad is in fact Alps, so I upped for him my Alps drivers which surprisingly worked. But what more, he got also multitouch It was for the first time I saw Alps touchpad with multitouch support.

 

hi,yes I have same problem.I said noise maybe come from number 1-2,but I'm sure that my hdd or cpu fan does not have noise,and when Cpu usage goes up there is no noise.Mybe from speaker or battery.but i hope bios upgrade will help.

 

All eb series has alps tpuchpad

 

So which is better between Alps and Synaptics? And do you think this touchpad is as good as CWs?

 

Synaptics is better.for 1 month I had cw26.its touchpad was really great.
but if u want to buy eb series just wait sony fix its noise problem.

 

I've already explained twice in this thread what causes the noise and why Sony won't be fixing it


And yes, the EB comes with an Alps touchpad (which has multitouch support), but the Synaptics drivers work with it fine, and have a few more features

 

My EB series came with Alps touchpad and driver. I also have that high-pitched noise problem but wasn't really bothered by it as it goes away whenever its plugged-in (which is 80% of my usage)

 

If the noise is due to the processor up-/down-clocking itself, wouldn't this noise problem be able to be fixed via BIOS?

 

Only by disabling the CPU's power saving states, which there's no chance of Sony doing. And you can't do it yourself, since the BIOS is locked down.

In the end, from Sony's perspective, it's just a noise (which technically isn't Sony's fault) - computers and laptops make lots of noises, and this is just one of them. It's not causing or indicative of any damage, so Sony won't be too concerned.

 

Hey,

The only noise that my EB is making, comes from the fan, but no complains here. Sony Vaio F series had the same problem (US version-high-pitched noise) and it was fixed by Sony (updating BIOS). Hence, I was wondering are we having the similar case US version (EB) VS EU version (EB)?

ps. my EB is an EU version.

 

Hmm, wasn't the F's noise microphone-based?

 

I believe before Sony solved the issue, the temporally solution was found in muting microphone ... But whatever the cause was, it was solved by updating BIOS.

@Mythdat: as it seems your EB is an EU version, do you experience high-pitched noise?

 

Yeah it is an EU version, and I do have the noise

 

hi,this noise can not temporally solve by mutting mic.I did it but it does not worked