Official VAIO SR Series Owners Thread

I meant an external big screen not an entire laptop.

 

What are the dimensions of the SZ with the standard battery?
What is the new weight/dimensions of the SZ with the large-capacity battery? How much more time will you get with the large-capacity battery? (talking with dedicated ATI)

 

Does the SR come with Wireless adapater 5100 instead of 5300? I heard 5300 is better than 5100.

 

Sony's website is offering discounts for the SR on memory, hard drive and Microsoft® Office upgrades!!
They just started offering the discount today, just when I'm about to buy the SR!

 

the SR comes with the 5100
and yes the 5300 is better than the 5100
The 5300 is a Wi-Fi/WiMAX mixed wireless module
while the 5100 is a Wi-Fi only module

 

if you are talking about the SZ you're at the wrong thread
this is the SR thread

but if you are talking about the SR
according to sony's website
"The SR190 Series includes a standard battery which offers an estimated battery life from 2.0 on up to 6.0 hours*. The large capacity battery increases the battery life to a range of 3.0 up to 9.0 hours*."

 

Man no wi max add on? It's not really future proof then. Anybody have experience on light gaming on the x4500? Some Age of Conan at medium settings perhaps?

 

you can always add it on later...

 

Thank you, PhilFlow

 

guys can you verify if the VT (vanderpool tecnology for virtualization) it's enabled in all SR model? [on some model is disabled by bios and can't be enabled by user because masquered by sony, so it has to be enabled with some tricks] A test can be done booting with the vt.iso as exposed in some others posts.

 

Hey guys, I found out that the local version which the country I am in (Singapore) is offering doesn't come with complete Centrino 2 stuff. As in, I think the wireless adapter is Atheros or something. Anything I should know? Is it worse in terms of performance?

 

Have you checked out the discussion here?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=277739

The SR129E/B here in US comes with Atheros card, too, and so far there is no problem reported.

 

yes, thanks, I am talking about the SR.

So what are the new dimensions/weight of the SR with the large-capacity battery?

And does anyone here have it?

 

I'm getting it with an EDD of 8/19

 

Hey guys,
I'm currently weighing the SR against the Z. They're both small and portable, but have some power. Which would you recommend for some light gaming? Would either be able to handle Mass Effect?

 

Mass Effect is hardly 'light' gaming.
The SR would be a better choice, since lower resolution in this case would probably be a good thing perf wise, and the 3470 is slightly more powerful than the 9300 in the Z. Although that's like saying the cripple in a wheelchair is slightly faster than the cripple using a cane - they're still both pretty **** slow.

 

I just ordered an SR last night with the campus and hardware upgrades it
It turned out to be $1533.26 included in tax.
i got the 2 year contract with ADH bought the neoprene case and the headset. What was surprising was the base price was started at 1294.99 instead of 1399.99. The upgrades i did was the video card and the "free" upgrades.
I was able to get 160GB, 2GB RAM, MS Office student.

my only concern is if i should have gotten the "free" 3 year express shipping instead of the 2 year adh. I'm also wondering if i should have added $50 + tax for 2.4 ghz processor.
Was my choice a solid buy?

 

They actually charged you for 3 year shipping? Hardly 'express'.

----------------
Now playing: 16. Taverner - The LAmb
via FoxyTunes

 

haha! lmao

 

There is absolutely no difference between the SR and Z series besides the Blu-ray player and HDMI. The SR notebook is very capable, especially when your on the go. The graphics card is better too.

As for screen resolution, the SR series are much more comfortable on the eyes.

 

and the Z has DDR3 RAM
while the SR has DDR2

 

A head's up for all you guys/girls thinking of getting a Vaio & are going to the CNE!

Be sure to drop by the Sony Vaio van located along Princes Blvd... they're handing out coupons that give you $50 off any Vaio notebook greater than $799, purchased in-store or online.

And also $100 off the FW or LT Vaio's.

haha.. should have waited two extra days to get my SR :laugh:

 

if anyone has done a clean install on their sr's, do you recomend using drivers on recovery disc, or downloading them from sony's support site?

 

you can't add it on though if the notebook doesn't have 3 antenna wires. the 5100 only requires two antenna wires whereas the 5300 needs 3, the extra one is for wimax. this is unless you can add a third antenna.

 

Completely offtopic, and I apologies however can the SR run WoW competently and will it be able to play the likes of Starcraft 2, Diablo 3? I really like this laptop and will probably get the 2.5ghz // 4gb ram version however the video card worries me!

Thanks

 

WoW isn't all that graphically demanding today, from what I hear.

I've tried Fiesta on my SR (Yeah, I'm cheap, quiet. >: ), and it ran very well with almost everything turned up all the way. Even with glow effect, it could handle it well.

Though, I think it would probably be able to run Starcraft 2 pretty decently, from the footage that I've seen of it. Diablo 3, I'm not sure, I haven't really seen much myself on it.

 

The 5300 isn't WiMax it's just a more capable 802.11n adapter than the 5100. The 5300 can transmit and receive on three antennas. The 5100 can only transmit on one antenna and receive on two. I added an additional antenna to my SR when I install the 5300.

 

i saw that somebody on this thread was able to add a third antenna. is there anywhere i can go to see how that's done?

 

That would be me. I will take some pictures later this week and post them. I basically placed the third antenna underneath the silver tube on the left side of the machine (above the F2 and F3 keys) and ran the antenna cable down the tube to the 5300. It isn't ideal, but it's better than nothing.

 

you don't need to route it up to the lcd bezel?

 

That may be a possibility, but I didn't want to remove the display bezel. The ultra thin displays on the Sony's are a pain to disassemble so I steered clear of that headache.

 

if i decide to do this where would i get the antenna wire since i don't have any laptops i can pull that out of.

 

ebay is your friend.

 

So you had to purchase and install the 5300 yourself? (apologies if it's a redundant question, i didn't see any earlier posts).

 

yeah you have to buy it separately.

by the way the one with wimax is the intel wifi link 5150 or the 5350 i think. i may be wrong. also is it possible to upgrade to 5150 without any additional antenna.

 

Would the 13.3" inch screen be enough as your only laptop? I am planning on getting one as my main computer and will not use anything else. I am afraid of the screen size being too small for movies and text reading.

 

No one can really answer that question except you, I'm afraid. I'm pretty much used to the small screen size because I used to use my sister's notebook quite a bit which is also about the same screen size (13.3), but some of my friends found it way too small to use on a constant basis.

Best way to find out if a certain screen size is right for you is to go to a store that displays all sorts of notebooks (Best Buy for example), and take a look at each option. Even better if there's an SR on display somewhere so you can see if it's right for you.

 

Yes I had to purchase one and install it. It doesn't appear that Sony is using the 5300 in any of their new machines. The 5100 is similar to the older 4965, but slightly neutered. I'm sure the real reason why Sony choose the 5100 is cost. The 5300 is $10 more than the 5100. and the 5100 has one less antenna which reduces cost as well.

 

what is the difference between 5300 and 5100? is it really important?

 

Hey guys, I am a proud new owner of a Sony SR. Mine comes with integrated x4500 and claims of 4-5 hours of battery life. However, after charging and unplugging it for the first time, it only states there 2 hours and 40 minutes at the battery icon. Is that not accurate?

 

It may very well be inaccurate. I think you'll find this thread very interesting : http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=285150

 

hello is the Montva P84002.26GHz better than Penryn T9300 2.5ghz


is this an inferior processor
is it slower
get heated more?

why the dramatic drop in battery life on a SR to 3 -4 hrs compared to a SZ. i saw a SR at the store, and i was disappointed maybe it was the grey colour on display. the thing was so thick and ugly compared to the SZ.Come to think of it the M1330 looks better. the SR is Pedestrian



Still its on the budget and i need to use it on my lap, is it cool enough to use on my lap? Any 1

 

T9300 is a bit faster faster than the P8400.

Theoretically P8400 should stay cooler, but realisticly there isn't much difference between them.

An SR with integrated graphics gets 5 hours battery life just like the SZ.

An SR with ATI HD3470 gets about 3.5 hours because of the higher power consumption of the GPU. It's quite a bit more powerfull than the Nvidia 8400 GPU in the SZ.

 

Is she cool enough to keep on my lap, the 1330 is so hot that i need to check before buying anything ever again. In India its available only with the ATI no onboard option-->2.2,led,HD3470,2gb,1.92 kgs.

i'm still wondering if another SZ might be released any time soon in a month or this month.

 

SZ is discontinued as far as I know, no more new models.

Maybe some of the SR owners can tell if it's comfortable to work on the lap.

 

My battery indicator shows 2 hr 40 min too on full charge and i have the ATI graphics card.... I think theres a problem with the battery indicator...?

 

The SR with ATI is really comfy to use on lap. However, I advise that if you don't plan to game much, get integrated graphics. Then with the extra 100 you save, get the extended battery.

I should have done that. Because when I'm pluggin in AC, i take the battery out anyway, so the extended battery size wouldn't bug me. But, when i'm out and need all the abttery life, then I would have stuck in the extended...

It would run COOLER and LONGER battery life with integrated, also saves money so you could buy extended batt. upgrade instead. So... instead of having the ATI which I barely even use..I could have had a laptop that lasted over 6 hours in battery life and ran cooler and possibly quieter.

That's my opinion, but if I were to do it again, I wish I would have just got the integrated as I do play games, but not enough to warrant over 3 additional hours worth of battery life i could have gotten for the same price.

 

Thats what I figured. I'm going to college and won't have time to game, so why pay for discrete graphics when I could get more battery life. I don;t even game anymore.

The only thing bothering me is the HD.

But oh well. EDD is 8/19.

 

The SR works very nicely for if you do have to use it on your lap. I was laying down the other night playing Fiesta with most everything turned up, and it was producing heat. It wasn't really hot though, and the chassis didn't get very hot at all. It was able to stay on my legs (though, they were covered which I do), and I gave the vent... venting space. Even after a few hours of continuous playing, it was still fine.

Then I got bored and quit the game. xD It worked very nicely. It's not too hot running with the ATI, but I'm sure it's more heat/power efficient with the Integrated graphics.

 

The SR doesn't really get hot, even when gaming for extended periods (though the only game I've tried is Portal, which isn't all that demanding).