Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

I opened the computer today to see how easy it would be to change the hard drive and CPU, and the hard drive is pretty easy to get to, but does anyone know where the CPU is? I don't think it's under the keyboard but rather, on the underside of the computer. Is this right? I looked around and couldn't find it on the side facing the keyboard.

 

Has anyone successfully made the DVD drive region free or successfully used an "unlocker" such as AnyDVD or DVD X Player? I bought some DVDs from amazon.co.uk and I don't want to get stuck in either region 1 or 2.

Thanks!

 

Not to interrupt the SSD festivities, but I was told by a SonyStyle representative yesterday evening that there is no specified date for the release of a z640 -- presumably the number for a z540 refresh -- as of now, though it's possible sometime later this month.

Sounds like a longer version of "I haven't a clue."

 

Not possible with the maufacturer Sony uses. Sorry. Pick a region or rip on another computer and strip the region code out for odd movies.

 

T9800 vs P9600?
Hi guys, first post here. I will order this Vaio Z in the next couple days.
P9600 - 4 GB - SSD128 - 1366x768 - DVD
Sorry if this has been discused before, but I would like to ask the owners of a T9800 model (like SSDVaio) if the heat is very noticiable.
I am tempted to go for the T9800 as I will do some HD video editing and MKV encodings, but my head tells me that P9600 will run cooler so the fan will run quieter. Note that 90% of the time I will be browsing internet or Excel and from time to time I will do some video/photoshop stuff.
Any suggestions?

 

Yes, go with the P8600 - Cooler and increased battery + powerful enough for your tasks..

 

Thanks Sonority.
The CPU however would be a P9600. The battery life is not very important for me as it will be plugged most of the time. If the heat/noise was about the same in both models I might consider the T9800 series. But if you can feel much more heat/noise, then it is not worth for me. And that is why I would also like to have the opinion of an actual T9800 owner.
Thanks!!

 

I have the Vaio Z11 WN/B (Germany) and I asked myself if I can use HSDPA in Japan or hae Japan an other "mobile Internet" Network? (Want to buy a japanese mobile contract.

 

My one week old z540 just did a freaky thing... One of the LED backlights (near center of screen) went on the blink a few times then came back on. It looked like a dark vertical stripe coming up from the bottom. I run at only 33% brightness in advanced power management, and I'm plugged into AC power.

I guess I've got a year (minus a week) to send in for repair if it continues to go blinky, and I'll be checking with my seller on their return policy. Overall I'm happy with my Z, but this combined with the battery drain issue (I loose 10% overnight) is making me regret buying VAIO.

 

Now I am confused. So do you think a 10% more juice is worth 150€ (190$)? . Wich was the temp of the P9600 at full use? Are you sure the fan is not more noisy or stays more time at high speed than the P9600?.

Thanks!

 

I use VirtualCD, and have set up two virtual CD drives -- one with zone 1 and one with zone 2. VirtualCD is certified for Windows Vista, so as long as you obey local laws regarding license restrictions of any media you copy to HD, be they DVDs, music CDs, programs or games, you're in the green.

 

The HD power draw is minuscule compared to the CPU and GPU power draw, so yes, changing to an SSD will not let the fan spin down noticably more.

 

How are you measuring your temp? Are you using Everest 5? Not all programs give accurate temp reading.

Also, when you talk about "full use" do you mean Orthos or something similar that stresses the CPU and RAM?

 

I had to start from scratch and reinstalling the OS, actually Vista Ultimate. One problem, after the install it is showing up as 32bit.

 

Yes not all programs give accurate readings, so temps are comparable. Im not using Everest 5, HWMonitor for temps and Burn in 2008 for CPU stress tests. This actually records the temp at 87c at full load 100% CPU usage after 8 minutes. Desktop runs around 40-44c but jumps into the 50's as IE, Adobe, Vaio Control..etc open up.

I had the T9600 in my first Z(returned after 10 days) and I used RMlock to undervault that and it was 38c on desktop, when I went to reorder my Z, I had no hesitation in choosing the T9800..It's a beast that can be tamed to your taste

Its a myth that the T9xxx will melt your Z to a horrilble death

 

What junk can be uninstalled on the Z690?

Thanks.

 

Microcenter has the Z530N/B for $1299.99.

http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0293872

I think its still a great deal despite the new Z600 models out, what do you guys think?

 

@Rahuyl,

Why would you post such a tempting deal as this? Thanks for the link. It is a great deal I believe.

Gary

 

That looks like a great deal to me. I would consider it myself but I just picked up a nicely specced refurb Z590 off of the sony style site for $1180.

As far as I'm aware (correct me if I'm wrong), there's no significant difference between the Z500 and Z600 refresh, just some slightly different configuration options.

 

SSDVaio, congrat with your new VAiO. Thanks for sharing your experience.

And your SSD drive, it is RAID0 or is it the new single 256 GB ?

 

Thank you SSDVaio, and thank you guys for all the answers I got.
I have just placed an order for the P9600-SSD128-4GB-1366x768 for 2,103€ ($2,650)
In three weeks time from now I will be a Vaio Z owner.
Can´t wait !

 

thanks mobytoby, it came with the RAID 0 SSD set up. I haven't tested it properly but it pretty nice so far...

I'm just testing the Gobi HSUPA 3G at the moment, got 30 days free with T mobile...I'm gonna use it too

this HSUPA was new to me....I knew about HSDPA but not HSUPA, happy to have this and it's unlocked(sim-free) You can use any mobile company you like..as it should be

 

your welcome soyelhefe, congrats on your purchase

although one thing, are you sure about your screen option?

sorry to bring it up after you have ordered

 

Thanks SSDVaio !

Yeah, I spent 2 hours in Dixons with one unit 1600x900 and even the screen was superb, I decided the text was too small for me, and I do not want to start zooming or tweaking dpi or having headaches after a few hours.
It must be that my sight is not as good as it used to be. I am in my 40´s now. .
And I am not going to watch movies in that tiny screen. My home cinema is the right place to do that !.
Soo...I hope I have chosen the right screen.

Thanks again.

 

from what you say, you have done your research and even checked in Dixons up close. So I think you have definatley chosen the right screen for you, no worries there!

 

I just ordered the Intel 80 gb X25-M SSD today from Amazon--should arrive tomorrow. The only thing that worries me is the space...how much room do you have after everything is installed? I'm not going to use the laptop for downloading songs or movies or anything so 80 gb should be enough but who knows. Thanks!

Now all I have to figure out is where the freakin' CPU is on the motherboard! I might replace that with the P9500 in the future.

 

Nice,

Any thoughts here regarding running this unit on windows 7?

I thought recommended ddr was 4gb and there is 2gb here.

My current vaio is really in bad shape, and I need some advise

ty

 

Micro Center has some bad ratings on reseller.com.

Maybe too good a deal?

 

I've had good experiences with them with their brick and mortar store in Houston. Last month, I bought parts from them to build a desktop PC and many complications came up like the motherboard not posting. I managed to return everything the next week with no fuss and got store credit to buy new parts (ie. exchanged Core 2 Quad CPU with Core i7 and mid-tower case with full-tower, etc.) and successfully built my PC. They have the lowest price on the Core i7 920 processor at only $230!

 

Love your avatar Rahul, it makes me chuckle.

Any thoughts on windows 7 on this setup?

Paul

 

I think 80gb will be enough for you. I have Windows 7, office, microsoft expressions web 2, a few programming tools, and about 10 other small programs, and i have 61.4GB in free space.

BTW, you'll definitely enjoy the performance gain. From sleep, the Z now wakes up in 2 seconds, and a full boot-up is ~30 seconds.

 

Hey Rahul, Update us on your TZ recall.

 

Microcenter is a reputable store, I'm surprised they can cut costs so much seeing as they are an authorized Sony dealer, which means rebate eligibility.

 

What about mine? Mine's funny too right?

 

Oh good. The SSD on the 690 I had was not THAT fast. I timed start up and shut down times for the 690 with the 128 gig SSD from Samsung and the 610 with the 7200 rpm hdd and they were about equal. Hopefully the Intel, since it's better quality than Samsung, will have a more pronounced performance gain.

By the way, what are the specs of your computer?

Oh, and did you just stick the SSD in the computer and installed 7 on it? Did you do any fragmentation or anything? I'll probably install Vista on it since there are still quirks with 7 that I'm not comfortable with yet.

 

I am SO glad you posted that! I was starting to debate going for the 128 SSD over the 320/7200 HDD ... but I think it's an expensive upgrade and I wouldn't mind waiting as the space increases and price decreases. Guess I will [wait].

 

Haha no problem. Actually, the 610 was restarting a TAD bit quicker than the 690 with a P9600 and the SSD. But the 690 was quieter and programs loaded quicker but nothing that would be worth an extra $550 for an upgrade . Worst case scenario, install one yourself!!

 

MY Z JUST SHIPPED 7 DAYS EARLY@!!@!!!!@#!@$!@#!@#!@#!@#!@#!@#

was supposed to ship on 3/10 but i just logged into sonystyle and got this!@

Shipped Date:
03/03/2009


Gonna get it a week early!

I don't know what happened but I'm gonna POOP (edit: language filter) myself, WHERES THE TP?!

 

I'll gonna you

 

language filter?

 

no lol that was to your pre-edited post

 

I still have not sent it in for the repair, its been working perfectly fine since I got it in January 2008. I am hardly using it now that I finally built my own desktop which I have wanted to do for years last month and its collecting dust underneath my bed. I remember being extremely crazy about the Vaio TZ when it was announced back in May 2007. Can't believe how things have changed.

 

oh hah, i got confused >.<

Must be all the excitement from MY NEWLY SHIPPED Z!!! Should get it on thurs, wooohooo.

 

I have the P8600 2.4ghz, 3GB DDR3 (self upgrade), regular DVDRW, and the Intel X25-M 80gb.

I swapped the hard drives and just simply installed Windows 7. I manually disabled disk defragmentation and indexing, and reduced the recycle bin size.

No isssues with Win7, just that fingerprint reader doesn't work. Not a big deal for me, and UPEK is working on Win7 drivers for our chip also.

 

Well, I had the 610 for a little while (my Z is still in Japan ...). The 7200rpm drive was not as fast as the RAIDed SSDs, but it was plenty fast. At less than half of what I paid for my Z90, it's practically a steal.

Although I'm getting antsy ... the G is fine for normal stuff, but I need to do a few things it can't do (like run a ton of VMWare stuff), and the Z was great for that. Although its lack of ability to run 64-bit guests under VMWare Workstation is becoming limiting. If anything drives me away from Sony, it'll be that.

Right now not having a more powerful laptop is getting me antsy. I'm looking around which never leads to anything good. I'm eying the Toshiba R600 which can have up to 5GB of memory and enables VT ...

 

Any one notices about the temperature. Im using the Z11wn (core 2 P8600 @ 2.4GHz, GPU Nv 9300G MS, 4GB DDR3). I run the Speedfan, the temperatures always around : GPU = 66, core 1 and 2 around 56-58 (all degree in C not F)
room temp 18-20.
so is it high or normal? Because i think it should be around 60 for GPU, 50 for core.
any one help plz.
thx

 

You owned a z with premium carbon fiber and the intel x25 hard drive ?Is the premium carbon fiber lid looks good, noticeable and worth $50 and did the intel drive improve its speed significantly ? Thanks

 

Pretty close to my temps feel free to post a screenshot in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=355504&highlight=speedfan

 

I assume you're referring to me. I have the premium carbon Z and I've had the Intel X25-m for a few days now, moving from a previous OCZ SSD, and a 320GB 7200rpm. The carbon fiber lid is well worth it in my opinion BTW.

The Intel X25 is greatly faster than the 320gb, and much faster than the OCZ ssd. (although that one is a great value and pretty fast also) Boot time is greatly improved with the Intel SSD, shutdown and sleep are almost instant, and I appreciate installing programs in only a few seconds. Loading time for most of my programs, including Photoshop which is a hog, is extremely fast.

In my Core i7 desktop I have 2 performance RAID Seagate 1.5TB 7200rpm drives, and it seems sluggish compared to the laptop. I also dock the Z to a 24" (hdmi) at my girlfriends' and I multitask the hell out of it with photoshop and many web editing programs, and it handles it like a champ. I couldn't be happier.

 

just checking, you know the non-premium black lid is also carbon fiber, right?