Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

Thanx Ya'll. Brain boy, I've tried to send him a message but somehow it couldn't be delivered Anyways saving my do bros for 8Gb NAO ;D And besides anyone got a Z with Intel processor with 2.93GHz ?! Cuz now Z comes with this processor I've done some research and found out It is a E7500. Talk to some guys and told me that's a bit better than P9500. Oh and talkin bout lil laptops with sh*tloads of memory... Dell sells their XPS 13.3inch laptops with 6gb or 8gb. I wonder are they on the same platform as Z.

 

No 2.93 in USA at the moment, only in the canada and europe models I think (dunno about japan...).

 

Intresting italian7. I've been spoofing on Sonystyle UK. So It's probably like u said available in particular places

 

Are you sure it's an E7500? That's a desktop chip, and would be extremely hot compared to the P8xxx and P9xxx series, which have 25W TDP.

Again, I think it would be a huge mistake to buy a Vaio Z and then load it up with extremely expensive hardware upgrades that either won't make a noticeable performance difference (the 8GB of RAM), or a higher TDP processor that would run hotter (more fan noise) and kill battery life.

If you want bleeding-edge performance, you could build a separate desktop system with much more powerful hardware for less than these upgrade premiums alone on the Vaio Z.

 

Zinthar, Yes, I'm not 100% sure. You might be right. At least, on macbook when I went from 2gb to 4gb there wasn't any difference. What model number then that w.93 processor is Zinthar? Btw I can't own a desktop dude because my job requires traveling a lot. And want a compact laptop with HIGH performance for my part time job

 

Can anyone here tell me how readable the Z's display is (particularly for text) outdoors in sunlight? Thanks.

 

Called again for the bundle plus student discount.
Was told that its only avaiable when the bundle is avaialble online, and cannot combine the two by phone.
I asked when it was going to come back online and he said he didn't know.

Guess I will have to foget about the -60 dollars and the 3 year warranty.

 

If you're ready to order now and don't want to wait for the offer again ... my tips: Buy through ebates.com for 3% back - it's simple, easy ... once you're set up, click through ebates and order, then you will get 3% cash back through PayPal (or check if you prefer) - can give you your $60 off you were hoping for if you have a $2k order. Buy your warranty through Provantage for much cheaper (ie: 4 year w/ ADH normally $500 from SonyStyle, only $280 from Provantage - same Sony warranty). Use the student discount. Apply for the rebate bundle (must purchase by 3/31 to qualify).

 

Sounds good!

S

 

Oh, sounds less good. I thought memory was cheap.

S

 

The cheapest ones here in UK I could find for £469 x 2 = ~950 quid. These RAMs are so CASH ;DD I'm thinking is it possible to manually overwrite BIOS, or to change something that could lead to RAM support?!

 

If it's sunny tomorrow I will definately try that. It's definately too bright inside, and not ultra glossing like so many displays are nowadays, so I'm guessing that the worst it will do is a score of "tolerable."

I'll post tomorrow to let you know.

 

Hye guys. Just got my new Z yesterday. Love it! I previous had a asus laptop running windows 7 and found going back to Vista impossible so I have installed the Windows 7 public beta X64 onto my Z. Everything seems to be running perfectly except for the Speed and stamina switch. Is there a way to fix this? The S1 and S2 buttons and function keys are running as normal. I did update to the prerelease Nvidia drivers - could this be the problem? ANy help would be appreciated.

 

I also got the 3 year extended warranty directly from Sony when I ordered by phone. But I never actually got anything in mail or in the box that contained the laptop.

Anyone else knows where I can find it?

Thanks!

 

You should've gotten something by mail. I got a "certificate" of my warranty (2 year ADH). If you haven't, just call them up and have them send you one. The first copy they sent me, they misspelled my name, so I had them send me another copy.

 

Did it come with the laptop or the accessories? Or did it come in a separate envelope? And which number did you call? I think I would have noticed it if it indeed came with the laptop, but I'm not 100% sure..

Also, what does it say on the sticker under your laptop? On mine it says "WARR: 1 Year", I got the 690 CTO btw.

Thanks!

 

BTW, I did chat with Support who know nothing about warranties themselves, but did provide me with the number and hours of the Extended Warranty Service Division:

1-866-374-0134
Mon - Fri: 8 AM - 10 PM, Central Time
Saturdays: 9 AM - 3 PM, Central Time​

 

Thanks for the number!

Btw, how do I turn off bluetooth on my laptop when I'm not using it? Or is it not drawing any power when it's not connected with my cell?

 

Bonjour, has anyone build two SSD on RAID 0 with XP ???

 

I just came in from outside. The viewability of the display (1600 x 900) using an 11 point Calibri font in Word 2007 in bright, direct sunlight is pretty good. Here are my results:

• At the highest brightness setting, it is very readable without glare. Of course, you might have to tilt the screen to avoid a direct reflection of the sun, but with the viewable angles of the display, that won't present a problem
• At the second-highest brightness setting, it is still usable. It is, however, not quite as easy to see the text.
• At the third-highest brightness level, contrast really starts to fall off, making reading the text much more of a strain.

 

Does that mean you have the Gobi wireless chipset and that its GPS is enabled?

Anyone else with a very recent Z have the Gobi chipset and a functioning GPS receiver? In particular, is anyone successfully running HSDPA from this chipset?

 

Anyone have any idea why the Z640 CTO refresh isn't available on sonystyle.com yet? Thanks.

 

Yes, it does habe the Gobi Wireless chipset which is GPS-enabled. I have yet to activate the Wireless service, however. FYI, it is through Verizon and the lowest-priced plan (50MB) is $39.99/month, as listed on SonyStyle.com.

I'm thinking I should investigate if Verizon offers other plans. Does anyone know the answer? Do they require a multi-year contract or is it "pay-as-you-go-and-cancel-when-you-like?"

 

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/...ion=priceSort&typeId=5&subTypeId=13&catId=409

 

anyone got the good price on a z in the uk? prices have gone into orbit of late, just as i gear up to buy...

 

I'm curious myself why it's taking so long. The Z690 CTO has been out for weeks now. At this rate, the Z790 CTO will be out before we get the Z640 CTO.

 

The expiry date of the mail-in mobility/productivity rebate is probably a good indication of when the Z640 will be available...

 

FrinkTL, thank you very much for the info.

 

Well, it would not be uncommon for Sony to extend that rebate offer for another quarter, though...

--
BTW, just noticed it, why are you selling your Z610?

 

I received my Z690 CTO yesterday, used it all day that first day and have used it quite a bit today (on account of needing to install and uninstall a whole lot of programs) - all of which are very hard drive intensive tasks. Based on those 2 days of nearly non-stop usage, here are my thoughts on this potentially disturbing issue:

• I have also noticed a vibration. HOWEVER, it is so minor and minute as to be totally undetectable unless I am not typing but am instead only placing my hand lightly on the left side of the palm rest
• I do not believe that it is the hard drive for the following reasons:
  
  1. The vibration is constant and does not vary in a pattern consistent with, or in time with, the hard drive activity light
  2. Higher RPM hard drives are less (not more) prone to any sort of vibration
  3. It seems more likely to me that the source of the vibration is the fan. I have never detected the vibration immediately after starting up; only after the system has been running for awhile and had a chance to heat up (and need the fan)

  ​

 

FYI...I just installed an OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD in my Z690....wow. I don't have any stats since I just finished installing it and don't have the time to run tools, but just from bootup, application launching, and just general snappiness of Windows 7 I can tell there's a big difference. Launching MSDN Library and Visual Studio is nearly instantaneous!

 

Anyone needing to buy a decked out Z690 should do so now. There is a CLEARANCE Z690 in the outlet that is decked out:

2.66 Ghz
4 gb ram
premium carbon fiber
320 7200 rpm hd
blu ray disc drive

$2447

This is a new computer, that is on clearance discount for some reason. I dont know if it is that much better than the 10% student discount if you bought a CTO, but, here is what makes the deal sweet: PAYPAL15 - this will give you an extra 15% off outlet items! The only kicker is that you have to pay with paypal, which may or may not be a problem for some of you. So the final price for the above computer after 15% is knocked off is

$2089! (Pretax)

If that wasnt out of my budget range, I would be ALL OVER IT. A new computer, basically decked out with BLURAY. I think its a good deal. The 15% discount expires tomorrow. Man I wish this wasnt over my budget!

 

Italian7, I just ordered my 690CTO today and was able to get the student discount and the $300 warranty deal, but I had to push pretty hard. I didn't bring it up until I had configured the laptop. I must have asked at least three times and finally asked him to check with his supervisor. He came back and said he could do it, but only if I bought it immediately.

 

I don't think it's the fan. If you feel the underside of your Z really carefully. You can tell that there are more vibration coming underneath the harddrive as opposed to the fan.

The vibration is definitely noticeable to me. But it's not too much that it gets on my nerves. btw, I also have the 320 gb 7,200 rpm Hitachi HDD.

 

It's the HDD...I couldn't stand it...switching for SSD solved the problem

 

I just tried using the coupon on this deal but the web site says that the code PAYPAL15 is temporarily not available!

Man, this is a heck of a deal if the coupon works!

 

Congrats!

 

I think it's an exchange rate adjustment. Prices have risen on across a lot Sony products. Canon prices have also gone up massively.......

S

 

My Vaio Z has a 250gb hard disk. Would it be reasonable to upgrade it to a 500gb hard disk since I don't want to lug around an external hard disk?

 

What would be reasonable is to offload your pr0n collection to a HD or NAS device at home instead of taking it with you when traveling.

If you quickly filled up 250 GB, you're quickly going to fill up 500 GB too.
Unless you have very specific job requirements that require more than 250 GB but less than 500 GB. But if you did, you would never have bought a device with a 250 GB HD in the first place.
In other words, the solution is to stop storing everything on the laptop.

 

I didn't get the 320gb since I could get a hard disk with bigger storage for a cheaper price.

 

The code ends today Anyway, can you paste the link of that product here, I can't find it on the website

 

Just bought a z690 clearance today. I can confirm that the code works.

 

Hello, I'm trying to order a z690 CTO on the website but I noticed that instead of the 10% student discount I get only a 5% discount.
You can check it by putting in your cart a z690 (without logging in; configuration doesn't matter) and the logging in your sony style campus account and doing exactly the same.
If you compare the two subtotals (the price before applying taxes) you see only a 5% difference.
Could someone pls give it a try? I would like to know if it's a problem of my own account or of the website.

Thanks.

 

I just used the discount to buy the computer that i never received. It was the exact same configuration and everything and I got it 2 hundred dollars cheaper than before because of the 15 discount. How the world works!!! Now I am happier.

 

hi everyone,

is this vaio z540 comes with ddr2 or ddr3?

http://about.pricegrabber.com/searc...VGN-Z530n%2FB/st=query&mode=about_compreviews

sony's web site says that the z comes with ddr3, but I sow on site's that it comes with ddr2. is it possible?

 

What do think would be the best configuration ?
- two SSD drive mounted in RAID 0 on VISTA
- two independant SSD drive on XP ?
Thanks for your advice.

 

It seems that no one is interested to the fact that the sonystyle.com online store seems to silently cuts the 10% student discount for vaio Z notebooks to 5% .
Maybe I am missing some info about why this is happening. May you point it out to me please?
I called the "Order at" number and I've been told that it is a problem of the website and that it will be fixed in these days.
Anyway I still don't know for certain if this is a general problem or just a problem with my sonystyle.com account.
Has anyone done the experiment to verify the student discount?

Thanks.

 

I just checked my account on SonyStyle web site (I saved that item in my cart). Unfortunately, it says "Out-Of-Stock" now! I would have bought that if the Paypal Code was working early this morning.

 

I'm not being unhelpful, but unfortunately, this is a question ONLY you can answer for yourself.