Official VAIO SR Series Owners Thread

Thanks
that sounds like a really great deal

 

I just made my backups. when you run the utility it says 3 regular dvd's or 2 dual layer dvds.

 

SR190 only needs two :/
I wonder why the SR290 needs 3

 

Wow, that is by far the best deal I've been able to find.

I was planning on getting one on the Trade Up and Go Pro 4 promotion list, but I think I'll get this and sell my old Dell laptop for 300$ instead.

 

I'm a noob and this is my first post, so please cut me some slack if this post is worthless.

I saw this open-box SR at newegg.com and thought it was a decent deal, but you have to be aware that you can only return it within 15 days and that it - MAY - not come with everything. Of course, if it shows up without an AC adapter or a battery just return it - quickly. Anyway, with the 2.75% cashback from live.com you'd get it for around $970 shipped. I guess it is kinda like an eBay purchase except you do get the 15 days to return it. Of course, I've never bought an open-box item from newegg before.

For those that don't have student discounts, etc. I thought it was an OK deal if you needed one for the holidays.

newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117795R

(since I can't include a URL in my first few posts you'll have to put the www in front of newegg yourself)

Regards,
Hugh

 

Remember, Sony Style stores are selling open box Vaios for 50% off this month only, so you might want to look into it (that's how I got my fully loaded SR190 for $500). Has the same waranty as if it were new.

For those of you looking to upgrade to a 7200 RPM drive, I did a bunch of reseach and concluded the SEAGATE MOMENTUS is the one to get. It seems to be the best combo of performance and low-power usage (so it's won't drain our batteries too much). Here is the review:

tomshardware.com/reviews/notebook-hard-drive,2006-17.html

I've seen 320 gig versions of the drive for about $100.

 

Is it just me, I feel like the CPU fan on my SR makes a slightly-annoying whiny noise. It's not just air flowing, but kind of like on a windy day, and you have air rushing through a narrow opening, but obviously not that loud. This is only audible when I'm in a completely quiet place, though. Hmm, is there any utility to control fan speed? Otherwise I'll have to learn to live with it. I am aware of the Silent option.

 

Do you guys think the OSD for changing brightness/volume/X-Lock keys is really ugly? Is there any way to change that?

 

I got mines (2.4gig, 4gig ram, 250gig mem@7200, and ATI graphics) for only 870.

 

Hi guys i finally got a sony vaio SR26GN

 

What is the difference between the VGN-SR290 currently listed on Sony's website vs the VGN-SR280 sold at ABT? Spec wise they seem indentical.

 

Where did you get that at?

 

Which one are you looking at? If I customize to these specs, it comes out at just under 2000$.

 

I got it from SonyStyle. When I customize it now, it costs 1394.

When I ordered mine, I had this 20% discount that my company offered. Then there is a $200 VAIO discount coupon floating around the web (I think its expired now). So it totalled up to 870 something. 930 with taxes.

I guess I got quite a deal.

 

i have a weird observation to share. in an attempt to prolong battery life, i tried a few set ups.

1st set up: use rmclock to only 6x and slfm 6x, and 100% on vista processor management.

2nd set up: use full rmclock options 6x-9x, and 50% on vista processor management, and fan on silent mode.


1st set up, i would lose battery of 30% an hour. 2nd set up, i would lose about 20% an hour. i wonder if anyone knows how vista's power managment differ from rmclock. and whether silent fan mode can really make that big of a difference. i will do further testing when possible

 

I'm guessing the specs are a bit different: do you have the Blu Ray drive?
What about Vista Ultimate 64-bit? Or 4GB and 360GB drive?

 

I saw that as well, but both of the Sony rebates I plan on using specifically say open box is not allowed.

Plus, the terms from Newegg about not providing anything at all are pretty drastic.

 

Now on back order for 7-10 days. I almost think this is a price mistake...

 

hey guys, just got my sr and im having shutdown issues. when i go to shutdown or restart the screen goes black but the computer is still on like it went to sleep. i have to hold the power button down to turn it off. anyone else seen this issue before?

 

I got mine (Specs below) for 668 (company disc + coupon + credit card open) with 64 bit windows. Blu Ray would have added another 200 $ to it at that time but didnt go for it.

 

Its Vista Home Premium 64-bit, 4GB of ram and 250gb hard drive @ 7200rpm (same cost as 320gb @5400). No blue-ray. Mines is a glossy silver so its a $50 extra as well.

 

Hello, I saw a SR-220 for sale and I am hoping some SR owners can offer some advice!

1) My old Vaio is 3 years old. I don't have much experience with Vista. The SR-220 comes with the 64-bit version but some others do not. I'd like to know if that's a benefit or not. Is there a speed/performance difference? How about incompatibilities?

2) What is the benefit of the P8400 + ATI Graphics over the T5800? I don't play the latest greatest games or anything, I usually prefer older classic games. I often multi-task a lot, working with graphics applications, photo editors, multiple browsers. I watch videos frequently, as I don't have a TV...

My old XP laptop works pretty well still, it's only slow/choking with tasks like converting video formats for my PSP.

Anyway, just wondering if I should jump on the deal or hold out. It's tricky with so many models/configurations! Thanks!

 

hey please post a picture of the silver SR.. I got black. and while it is okay, it is not 'outstanding' or anything.

 

bite the bullet. three years is a long time for a laptop. Mine was similar and I must say the speed / longer battery life / cooler running over the older laptop is definitely worth it.

 

Thanks, I am more concerned with getting the right computer though. If anyone has any information about the questions I asked, I'd really appreciate your reply.

 

1.) 64bit OS is faster and can fully utilize the 4GB of Ram
Most programs work on 64bit Vista

2.) the P8400 is faster
for your needs, I'd definitely go for the P8400
the T5800 is an old old last generation CPU
and getting the HD3470 card gives you an HDMI port and faster 3D graphics performance

 

I've recently ordered a
P8400 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium, Intel 4500MHD

i was wondering, what decent games are playable on a 4500MHD?
cause i just didnt find a site selling the SR with the ATI card and i had to order it now =S

 

umm Counter Strike Source on low settings...
Idk.. I doubt it can handle any new games at all

 

how about gta san andreas?

 

Sounds like you got a similar deal to mine (I dnd't get the credit card discount.) You didn't happen to hear about the deal via your company's "Hot Deals" DL did you?

 

Thanks for the info!

I noticed that the price of configuring your own SR290 at SonyStyle.com is really quite reasonable, even compared to the various sale and deal prices out there.

I don't need the HDMI port now or play 3D games, but the port in particular seems like good future-proofing for when I might down the line. How significant is the trade-off in battery life? I do use my laptop on the go fairly often...

 

Before I bought the SR, I visited a SonyStyle store to check out the SR. I saw and the black and silver side by the side and ultimately I chose the silver. Silver looks glossy and has a smooth texture to it.

search Google: 'geek.com sr review' and click on the first link and you end up in a page with some silver SR pics. Sorry I couldnt post up the link cuz of the forum restrictions.

 

with the HD3470, I get about 3:30 of battery life
and about a little more than 5 hours with the intel card

 

tony, where did you buy your ram? and what brand/cost

 

If your in the states, I would recommend newegg.com. I've spent thousands of dollars there, even returned a few things, and never had a problem.

 

Yeah, i have been looking at newegg, just wonder what is a good price for it. I wanted to buy kingston, cause thats the brand i have been using forever with my desktop, but they cost over 50 dollars, and this one brand , G skill i think, cost 40 dollars shipped

 

Here is the search results:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...525 1309221140 1309121118&bop=And&Order=PRICE

your looking for pc2-6400 2x2gb kit.
I just ran cpu-z on my laptop and its reporting my ram is Hyundai, @ 1.8 volts. So I would recommend getting the same 1.8 voltage ram. (once in a while you'll see ram listed with different voltages).

The G.skill is the cheapest and is good. I bought a g.skill 2x1 kit for my dell xps laptop 2 years ago it it worked great. It even came with consecutive serial numbers on the ram sticks.
Kingston is probably fine, crucial, ocz, mushkin, patriot, corsair.. they are all good quality.

 

Wow, the battery life is a real Catch 22!

Looking at NewEgg - they have some model numbers that are different than Sony's site - what is the deal with the model numbers beginning with 1, as in SR165? On Sony's site they begin with 2, as in SR2XX - but the specs seem very similar....

 

Guess i can wait a month to see if prices go down for brands other than G skill, do you know what the difference between hyperthreading ram and regular, is it faster?

 

I'm not sure what you mean by hyperthreading ram...

But honestly, laptop ram is the cheapest its ever been in years - for what your purchasing. I doubt it will drop much more, but sometimes you can find it after rebate for $25~.

4gb ddr2-800 for $40 shipped... winner. buy now.

 

Some thoughts:
Most people I know HATE Vista. Bugs forcing them to reboot the machine on a regular basis, having to buy new printers/scanners since drivers don't work, slower performance.
A lot of the business editions of the SRs come with a XP downgrade disc for free - something you might want to consider.

As for 64-bit vs. 32-bit, your real-world performance will not give you much of a bump. 64-bit SHOULD be much faster, but most applications have not been written to take advantage of it, so you don't get much of an improvement.
You do get to use the full 4GB of RAM instead of the <3GB that you can take advantage of with XP, and 64-bit allows each running app to use more of your total memory space (big deal if you have a hog application that wants to use 2GB of RAM).

The P8400 seems like a slam dunk as a choice; you probably won't get a huge processing/performance gain, but you will get something (at least 10%) - the big gain is in improved battery life and temperature (might give you as much as 30-45 minutes longer battery life).

As for the graphics card, it sounds like you could use the discrete ATI card. My current/previous machine is a SZ240 with switchable video (discrete card is the GEFORCE GO 7400). I notice a big difference using this video card versus the embedded one even with older games (HL2, Quake4, F.E.A.R.).
I would use the embedded card because it would give me ~45 minutes longer battery life when possible, but when playing games, I would almost always use the discrete NVIDIA card.
If you go to notebookcheck.com, you can search for the different cards and compare their scores on games: GO 7400 (SZ), 4500MHD (SR embedded graphics), ATI HD 3470 (SR discrete graphics). The discrete graphics on my older SZ is much better than the embedded graphics on the SR for games.
Only downside is that the ATI card will cut about 45 minutes off your battery life (SZ was nice because it was switchable - oh well).

The best deal I've seen is the SR280Y/H at ABT for 1200$. There have been less expensive deals on Black Friday, or open box at a store, etc..., but I think this machine is a steal for 1200$. Of course, these are now back ordered (7-10 days) so not sure if it will still go through or not.

One last note: I plan on setting mine up for dual boot - XP and Vista 64-bit.

 

Vista doesnt have bugs
bugs are from bad drivers

 

The Sony machines ship with Hynix RAM and that is what I bought to upgrade.

I had to buy 2 of these machines, and the first one came with 1GB. I bought 2x2GB assuming that they would ship 2x512MB but it turns out they shipped it with 1x1GB (so I have an extra one).

If you're going to run XP or 32-bit Vista, you can get by with 3GB total (the OS can only use up to ~3GB anyhow). In fact, most of the Sony laptops that come with XP or 32-bit Vista come with 3GB (1x1GB and 1x2GB).

If you want, I can sell you my extra one at my cost (~$25 for a 1x2GB stick).

 

i got my ram from sony, it was a free upgrade
most ram nowadays give about the same performance, just pick a reliable brand with lifetime warranty. like the OCZ ones

 

The SR100 series has been replaced by the SR200 series.

I talked with Sony support on several occasions and I've come to find out that the hardware for the SR100 is the same as the SR200 hardware. The only differences are the software and configurations (XP, Vista 32-bit, Vista 64-bit, HDD size, RAM size, ATI vs Intel graphics, etc.).

 

Thank you, but that fine, i m just going to buy 4 gbs all together
---

I was looking at newegg and i saw kingston had a new ram i guess, with hyperthreading tech, for 58 dollars shipped, when the other kingston was like 53 not shipped. I was just wondering what made it 5 dollars more expensive

 

I don't think the more expensive RAM is necessary unless you are going to be customizing your clock/voltage values.

If you're looking at other memory, I would suggest Crucial.com. They make very highly rated RAM, their prices are usually very good, shipping very cheap (or free), etc.

 

Since no one seems to be answering my question posted on a new thread, maybe i can be helped here.
Sony was offering a free digital frame when i was buying my sr and i didnt see it. I waas wondering if i can still get it by calling sony

 

why dont you just call sony and find out

 

I purchased a very powerful laptop with a powerful video card last time. I discovered 2 things about myself in the process....1) I DO NOT like playing games on my laptop....so I never took advantage of the better video card.....2) I hated lugging around my big laptop so I rarely had it with me.

I personally chose battery life over 3D graphics as I know battery life is something I'll use daily where 3D graphics will rarely if ever be used.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but based on what I've seen, the SR2 series are the later models. The SR1 series are the older/original SR models.