Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

Thats for WindowsXP - but a sweet deal, thanks!

 

haha lol yaa dunno how i missed that. but wud it be possible to 'copy' windows XP from one computer to the other?

 

Its called Norton Gost.

 

Or "Acronis True Image". Did it several times with Acronis, pretty easy and simple and fast.

to Toronto-Guyy: where's your full Z review?

BR
Miki

 

I just bought Acronis True Image for only $10!! full download v11 use coupon ATIH80

 

i no about those. i was talking about multi set. sorry for the confusion.

 

Well ive been posting them in segments. I mean I would do a full-review but everything is perfect so far. I was expecting a bunch of problems, but all is good. I already mentioned the flaws I had which were minimal.

PROS:

Almost everything.

Support.


Cons:

Battery leakage.

 

The best review ever.
thx

 

If you guys really want a Full review, just say the word.

 

yes! full review! with lots of pics! =D

 

yeah, show us your pink canadian keyboard

edit: anyone with his 3gb ram vaio, please confirm - does Z work on dual channel? (you can use cpu-z to check)
thx

 

Can everyone help to answer some of my questions in page 335 ~ ~ at least about heating and HDMI ? Ur answers will help me a lot in deciding to buy vaio Z , thanks

 

Well, here goes!

Upon opening the box, I was like holy ****. Thats small, sleek and beautiful. Laptop is very lite and sleek and small. For me its the perfect size, although my uncle was was strongly considering it after doing a lot of research had one problem, screen size was too tiny for him. I wish Sony would consider making a slighty larger version of the Vaio Z exactly as it is. Like a 14.1 inch or something. Anyways, laptop is very sturdy, especially when knocking it really hard with my fists. I loved the fact that I got a 20 day return policy with no restocking fee by the way, so I still have a good amount of days to test it out. The screen on this thing is unbelievable, everyone at the office even gets astonished as to how beautiful the screen is and the overall laptop itself. I get id say safe to say 98.5% screen leakage free. Now the only 2 problems I ran into, first was the DVD rom drive kept disappearing from the "My Computer", but I found out its a Vista issue, not the laptop thank the good Lord. Secondly the battery leakage, although for me its actually doing fairly well now. But ill confirm that soon. I bought a beautiful case for it which ill post at the bottom. When hooking it up my Full HD Bravia tv via HDMI, it looks so beautiful, I almost fainted. Sound on the laptop is not bad, good surraround sound affect, but the volume could be better and bass of course, SZ780 was much better. The finish on the laptop is really growing me, , even though in some shades of light it tends to look a little flakey, like Kellogs corn Flakes, its still a beautiful finish. Keys on the laptop are veryyyy nice, just going to take some time to get used to like everyone else has already mentioned. When I type I always accidentally hit a certain key so nothing types, and I go on typing like a fool to find out im typing nothing! Did I mention the screen is beautiful, well it is. The 1600x900 screen is certainly great feature to have, but ill never use it, im using 1280x1024, which for me is perfect. I love that little power green and amber light on the side, its really bright and nice lookin, especially when doin DJ'ing at night clubs, it really shows and blends in with the environment as you can imagine. As far as speed and perfrmance is fanastic, even with all the junk this thing is zippy. Oh I forgot to mentioned one thing I also noticed, this has happened only twice actually, when I switch from Stamina to Speed, it didnt do anything till I rebooted. But only happened twice!

Overall, I would recommend this laptop to everyone and anyone if ur okay with a small screen size of course. As you all know, I would highly recommend avoiding CTO's at all cost, ur just askin for problems. Make sure you bargin with the guy ur gettin it from, I did and got $100 off the laptop and off the warrenty, I now have a 3 year warrenty plus $5 off my case.

Here are the pics!

http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/se...ctId=1005500&navigationPath=32009n32220n32227


http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0077.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0079.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0080.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0081.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0083.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0085.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0086.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0087.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0091.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0092.jpg

 

Hey guys!!

Ive been following the thread for a few days now. You guys are really helpful and convinced me to buy a Z. I ordered the Sony Vaio Z590NFB on Friday from PCMall and cant wait to get it. I have one important question though. I plan to hook up my Z to an external Samsung monitor. Either the Samsung T220 (1680x1050) or the T240 (1920x1200). What do you guys think? Do I need the higher resolution? More importantly can the Z flawlessly output to these two resolutions? I will have to hook the monitors up through a VGA cable. Do you guys have any other suggstions for nice monitors? Im open to anything and will spend between 300-400 on one. Hot deals anywhere? Any advice would be helpful.

Hope it comes tomorrow!!

 

hey forty91 consider HDMI->HDMI connection for PURE picture quality!

Acer 24" HDMI $360 (you did say max $400 right )

 

You can't have dual channel without matched pairs, so for 3GB no it will not function in dual channel. However they are releasing 3gb dual channel kits in the near future.

 

Awesome, Thanks!

I wanted this some time back and couldn't afford it after the purchase of my Z!

 

You're very welcome! It works wonderfully, I have 2 exact images of my OS saved to an External drive AND on DVDs The program is so easy to use, (may I dare?) even a caveman can use it

 

Hey, I was wondering if any of you fellow Z owners have tried to undervolt following the guide here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

Specifically I am having trouble because the HWmonitor program instantly crashes after startup. I know some of you are checking your temperatures, so are you using this program or some other?

 

Thanks! I took a look at it. How important is the 2ms response time vs the 5ms? What do you think of the samsung screens? They sure look nice. And last question, is the connection through HDMI really going to look that much better than through the monitor cable (VGA)?

Post what external monitors you guys hook your Z up to! Or if you had $300-400 to spend on one, which one would you get!!!

Thanks

 

2ms is BLAZING fast. and yes visually you will notice clarity in difference between HDMI to HDMI connection vs vGA. HDMI = uncompressed audio AND video.

Those Samsung's dont have HDMI. The res is the same 1920x.

If I had $360 (btw this usually ranges upwards of $390 and HDMI AND HDCP capable LCDs range WAY over 400) I would get the 24" Acer. Its a bit bulky but its AWESOME screen. ( Read review here)

 

-=ToRoNtO-GuYY=-,

Thanks mate for very nice, detailed, done in one breath review and with some nice pics.

BR
Miki

 

Cool, congrats! You will love it.

As far as 1680x1050 goes, I'm not sure, but I tested HDMI and VGA out on my 1920x1200 NEC monitor and while they both work they seem to have "issues". It might be my monitor, but it seems HDMI output doesn't seem quite as sharp as I hoped it would be, and VGA output has some quality loss. However, my other laptops are crystal clear through VGA and DVI on the same monitor, so I'm not exactly sure where the quality loss is coming from.

I prefer higher resolutions, so I suggest the 1920x1200 res. Faster response time is always welcome, too, but anything below 8ms is said to be undetectable by the human eye.

This is the monitor I have: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824002359

 

I would recommend looking at a S-PVA panel as opposed to a TFT, granted they may be out of the range of $400. But if you can get one for $100 more, i would go with that.

 

I think the problem may be that your monitor is 16:10 aspect ratio (1920 x 1200) and the nVidia 9300M GS has max res of 1920 x 1080 (16:9). So your monitor is having to re-scale the image. I'm having trouble finding a list of resolutions that the 9300M GS supports. Perhaps one of the Z owners can chime in with that. (The nVidia spec page is rather terse.)

 

I plan using my future Z with res. 1600x900 trough HDMI to my Samsung HDTV with resolution 1920x1200...Are you saying that they may be problems in the image?

 

so Torontoguy,

Z555 Canadian Spec has 1600x900 resolution instead of 1366 x 768 that was listed on Sony's website?

 

I think that might be a typo.. the poor guy doesnt really have 1600x900 but just got confused after reading SOOOOOOO much about it

 

I am trying it right now. I am still testing, but it definitely helps. Right now i am running 1.075V as opposed to 1.1375V and my temps are down to 63 deg C instead of 73 deg C

The fan is also quieter at full load, i will keep posting as i progress down in voltage.

 

It has 1600x900, it is a typo on the sony site. I also own this model.

 

1920x1200 is supported (see attached), both through VGA and HDMI. I'm working off the monitor while writing this reply. I do suspect it may be my monitor's HDMI connection, but again, I can't be sure. The strange thing is my VGA connection on the same monitor isn't as bad as I remember it.

 

OK, good to know. I assume that is only the case in speed mode? I suppose you could try another HDMI cable in case yours is bad.

 

Ok it looks like my voltage can't go any lower.

I didn't follow the undervolting guide to a T, because i wasnt to keep the SuperLFM state. Here is what i have configured for my states:

SuperLFM 6.0x 0.925V
Normal 6.0x 0.950V
Normal 7.0x 1.0375V
Normal 8.0x 1.0375V
Normal 9.0x 1.0375V

I didn't bother customizing the 7 and 8 multipliers because i didn't see much of a point since it seems to just be in super LFM, 6.0x and 9.0x. I had the startup 6.0x state set to 0.925V and it was fine, but i fear that it may become unstable with more apps starting in the near future.

Right now at 100% load, i am getting 61-62 deg C. Only ran orthos for about 30 minutes, no problems so far. If it gets 3 hours stable, i am fine with that. The fan is quiter than before, but it isn't a night and day difference.

 

TorontoGuy: Please elaborate why you recommend avoiding CTO's. Thanks.

 

Thanks for the feedback, only I am interested in whether HWMonitor worked for you? For some reason on my machine as soon as I open it, it instantly crashes?

 

He's a Canadian that hates Americans,

 

But, he won't hate me, because I am Canadian.

 

The reasoning is probably because generally, the retail models are produced in Japan and the CTOs produced in America/China and so its assumed the Japanese made models are of higher quality. I don't think thats necessarily the case though.

GrooveOne here had a Z590 CTO with a stuck pixel but he returned it for another unit that's perfect. I'm waiting for his review.

 

Hah! The reason is that when you order a pre-config model, it is entirely assembled in Japan. When you order a CTO, they build it in Japan and use the same exact parts, but then ship it to San Diego where it is assembled according to your specifications.

 

Anyone tried RivaTuner? I installed the latest version but apparently I can't monitor the GPU. I started a more detailed thread about it with a screenshot:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=298844

Also, has anyone tried CPU-Z? Memory shows up as DDR2 only. I remember there was an issue where DDR2 was showing up as DDR3 in the previous version. In my case, it's the other way around. Anyone else have this issue? Perhaps the latest version is not yet able to detect it.

 

I too have this issue with CPU Z

 

When in stamina mode, CPU-Z can detect DDR2 under the Intel chipset, but for some reason it cannot see the video RAM while in speed mode.

 

Hah. I'm almost done. I'm still sorting through the 150+ pictures I took. I'm hoping to post later tonight.

In terms of the ready-to-ship built in Japan vs. CTO built in USA argument. I personally believe that people tend to have less issues from Japanese assembled systems. That said, my last two VAIOs have been CTO's built in San Diego, CA. And I have no hesitation recommending CTO to buyers who require a specific configuration.

The first, a VAIO S170P, is still going strong after 4 years of heavy usage.

The second, my new VAIO Z590, came shipped with a dead pixel. I returned it and ordered another one which was defect free. Technically speaking, the dead pixel is a manufacturing defect and not an assembly defect so I don't hold it against them. At any rate, I have the 3 year warranty on it so I don't lose sleep over it.

 

What do you use the Z for when DJ'ing?

 

Okay, i understand the HDMI through a few dicussion here
How about i want to use the Z to play wow/games at 5hours/day ? Will the nvida 9300 will become same result as other 8400, 8600 ? really looking for someone telling the truth about the ability to reduce heat of z system ..... ty a lot

 

You could always do a custom order here in Japan; then you get the best of both worlds! In any case, here's a photo of my custom laptop with the larger mouse buttons (I ordered no fingerprint reader).

 

I like those bigger mouse buttons!!!

 

are the z owners bothered by the unusual flex in the screen? I have a had time getting over it as SZ doesn't have this 'issue'.

 

Review in german mag for computer tech c't 20/2008 page 82
VGN-Z11 series
cons:
too big steps in setting of brightness
missing sep. buttons for Pg up/down Home and End
DDR3 Ram only little faster but lower power consumption
why not implemented 9500M GS
128 MB video memory in cheaper units slows down performance 30 %
long accu loading time
VGA output signal weak quality
eSATA, SPDIF missing
fan noise idle 0,2 - 0,4 Sone
full 2,7 Sone!!

 

Hi lamdatz, PortableOne ship from the US to Australia no problems. However, you might get pinged for GST.