Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

I can't find the performance option you're talking about. If there is such, there should be noticeable difference.

 

Vaio Control Centre--Power Managment---Performance.

Is strange because when I put the memory bus at 533mhz, is asking to reboot and when I go back to this is writing again 400mhz! Any ideas?

Btw I have XP.

 

CS4 would not have a problem working (slowly!) in Stamina mode (apart from the fact that it may need more RAM when you edit large pictures and the IG doesn't have any VRAM, so it may get REAL slow depending on how much system ram you have!) You won't have to reboot, but you will have to close CS4 (or any graphic app) before switching.

For Photoshop to exploit CUDA, a CUDA compatible nVidia driver must be installed (it will then be used by CS4). I know it exists for my 8800GTX (and more recent cards) and that the 9300MGS is Cuda compatible, but I don't know if Sony or nVidia have updated the Z drivers with CUDA compatible drivers yet (as they are very recent, I suspect not). But they should be available soon. And no, you won't have to reinstall CS4 everytime you switch!

 

That's really useful, thanks! I'd give you rep, but apparently I must "spread some rep around first"...

 

I'd like to get some opinions on the following VGN-Z540 vs. a (somewhat ugly) HP dv3500t.

Dang it I can't post a URL yet.... techontheweb.com has VGN-Z540 for $1714.

So for $1714 I can get the Sony with the GF 9300M GS w/ 128MB, p8600, 3GB DDR2, 200GB 7200RPM (and docking station free through SMB, right?)

Or

For $1605 I can get the HP with the GF 9300M GS w/ 512MB, 13.3" 1280X800 w/ T9400 (2.53GHz), 4GB DDR2 (w/ ability to run 8GB), a 200GB 7200RPM HD (which I would have to buy separately and have thus bumped up the price $100) , and dock. The HP comes with HDMI 1.3 and eSata too.

How much better with the HP perform as configured (if any)? Granted it is heavier and ugly (for my use neither of those really matter much).

 

I doubt the HP's screen will be as nice as the Sony's. But it might be a waste to consider the Z if weight and looks are not important factors in your decision?

I would personally find the eSata reasonably useful, but I doubt you'd notice much performance increase with the slightly faster CPU and RAM in normal usage (i.e. 'normal' applications and probably 32 bit OS etc). Just my 2p.

 

You should only see performance difference in CPU intensive applications. You can find some benchmark here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Intel-Centrino-2-CPUs.11100.0.html

If you are budget conscious and don't need the portability of Z, maybe you want to get an SR?

By the way, CPU is not soldered and upgradable to other P series CPU.

 

I know I'm going to be FLAMED by people when I say this...but...

The Montevina seems to be only a minor upgrade when compared with Calpella, which includes the removal of FSB (thanks for the correction!) and the addition of Intel QuickPath Interconnect.

Let's be honest, most of us there are not going to get a new laptop just a year after dropping more than 3k on one...

So I guess my question is:
Is the addition of QPI really that revolutionary?

PS: either way, I'm getting the Z right after the refresh before xmas. Call me opinionated, Z is simply the best 3lb laptop out there.

 

FSB you mean?
There's always going to be better/best technology around the corner. I say live in the present. Drop that $10k if it makes you feel happy at the moment.

 

Nope only those that are strangely obsessed with specs. When you use your computer do you constantly get off on the computer specs? As long as the computer does what you want it to do and it is a significant upgrade to the one you had before. You will never win the tech race. A few months from now that Sony refresh will be obselete. Montevina and Calpella, no big difference. They arent money making CPUs, if they were I would be obsessed.

 

Can you post another photo of that Z premium carbon? In the photos, you can't really tell the difference, but I'm sure in person, it looks awesome.

I use to never care about specs. until I joined this forum. All I ever required was weight/mobility/design. And whatever was offered at the time I needed a laptop, that's what I chose. I never bothered to wait for a refresh or even cared if there was a replacement model coming soon. Hopefully, once I get a Z, I won't be bothered with having the latest and greatest. But for the meantime, all I do is look at specs.

 

Actually, getting rid of the FSB and having an on-die memory controller will have pretty dramatic increases in speed without using more power thus creating no more heat.

I just bought my wife a Z520 and it is a great laptop. I, however, won't bother looking for a new one until next year

 

nvm then, I'm on Vista and there is no such option

 

You guys are totally right! Why worrying about the future. We should all just "live in the present".

So when are you getting your Z?

Yea, I expect Capella to be a pretty significant upgrade. But I simply can't wait for that long!

 

Well, I'm already set on the Z570, but after I saw pics of that prem. carbon lid, I just felt its going to look fantastic. At least it did on that one photo I attached on a post a while back.

Getting back to the topic at hand, lets say, I wait for SSD and Blu-Ray to be affordable, something new will be introduced and I'll never get a laptop. It really gets down to a need or want.

I will be willing to wait 'till Christmas to see if it does make it to the USA. If not, I'm sure I'll be very content and satisfied with the Z570. It's got what I need for the amount of work I need it for. I think by then, we may be up to the Z6's.

 

Yahoo !!!!
The Vaio Z21 has finally arrived in some shops in Germany. Hope to get hold of mine early next week. Will post a first review soon.

Rambler

 

How much.... thats £3818.34. My god!

Another Z thread i'll have to subscribe too.

 

At last the french sonystyle website allows people to customize their TT Z and CS. Blu-ray and SSD options have finally appeared !!!!
Prices are incredibly high for Z (3500 euros for 128 Gb SSD and BR burner that's nearly 4400 dollars...hum...welcome to Europe !)

Now I'm wondering where the laptops are customized (from Japan, or locally)

 

It's DDR3

 

Sonystyle Europe is quoting "up to 3.5h" of battery life in the new Z2x with Intel P9500.
But the old Z1x with the same processor gets 4.5h, and so do every P8xxx models.

Are those times correct? Cause "Up to 3.5h" is kind of a deal breaker to me...

 

Take the quoted battery life times with a pinch of salt, because it totally depends on the setup and usage. For instance, my Z11 with P9500 easily gets 5+ hours on standard battery, if I use good power saving options and keep the brightness down, with WiFi enabled and doing light office/browsing tasks. More brightness, more hardware in use and CPU-intensive tasks, will obviously eat more battery. If you're careful, you should be able to reach 4.5h with all of these models, depending on "4.5h of what?".
You most likely won't get 4.5hr of gaming with anything, because gaming is intensive on CPU and GPU... you see what I mean?

 

Yes, but I'm worried about why Sony decided to lower the quoted battery life by a full hour in a Z2 with the same specs as a Z1.

Maybe are there any other hardware differences?
Is battery life measured in Z2 with different tests?

 

It could just be a typo... Sony's system specs on their various websites often show inaccuracies. For instance, some Sony sites quote the webcam as 0.3megapixel and some quote the same camera as 1.3megapixel. Similarly, some Sony sites initially listed the Z as using DDR2 for system ram, but in fact all the Z models use DDR3.
Because battery life tests are not standardised, you often get different figures from EU/US/JP Sony sites... hence, I would take their quoted figures with a pinch of salt.

 

I think battery life will be the same. It's either a mistake/typo or a different way of measuring battery life.

 

Oh men, I just experienced the battery drain with the Z. Closed it yesterday night fully charged, and now the moment I open it, it shows 90%! Wow, 10% in a night. So, we have really to take out the battery everytime for not experiencing this issue? Is the only way?

 

QUESTION, Hey guys, I few posts back I mentioned I was having a speaker problem with it causing small viberation, I found out that when I put my hand underneath the left side of the laptop near the speaker where its happening to, it goes away, so its like that was not put together tight enough. Anyway this is now a hardware issue, Do you guys think I should take it in for repair? Aaccording to Sony, they'll open the laptop up, and im realky worried cuz its so new. Anyone have any experiece's with local Sony repair shops???? Thanks.

 

Actually I wouldn't be so sure. With Conroe/Penryn memory bus bandwidth was(is) not really an issue - which can be easily tested with increased FSB bandwidth, benefits that increased FSB speed brigns to Core 2 are quire minimal (and definitely far far from "dramatic") and thus, this leads to conclusion that QPI will not make any "dramatic" changes, unless Nehalem is few times faster in data fetching than Core 2 - which is not the case as far as I saw with the public tests.

Furthermore, mobile Nehalem chips will not use QPI - rather, they will use DMI interface used currently for communications between Intel NCH and SCH.

Then, there is TDP- looking @Wikipedia, lowest mobile Nehalem TDP (Auburndale) is 35W which is quite steep compared to current possibilities of having 17W-25W for lower TDP Core 2 parts.

Nehalem will be ~30% faster than Core 2 "clock for clock" but, obviously - we WILL pay that with slightly higher TDP. Of course, chipset will be less complex so really we might end up with a draw when speaking about power consuption

However, I would not wait for Nehalem when it comes to notebooks - we are talking about late 2009 guys, and all that for 30% speed gain? Hmm, if Core 2 was a performance-blocker that would make some sense, but seeing that current notebook bottlenecks are mostly HDD-related, I'd rather get Vaio Z with SSD now (like I did hehe) - unless you want to wait for cheaper SSDs next year, in which case Nehalem will be another bonus

 

Hello everyone, I need abit of help for information of the SONY Z590 CTO. We are about to order this laptop ,but we seem don't have accurate information from Sonystyle Canada of where it is made* except where it is assembled. We would be glad if it is made* & assembled in the USA or from Japan,but not China. We would appreciate any comfimation you give us. Many thanks

 

Hey, hows it goin, its hard to say where there made as there are many different parts. Like the Nvidia chipset is probably made in China or could be USA, or the sound card, or whatever, as with other components, so ud have to actually open the laptop to find this out. All the Z's have the same components, I have a Z555 preconfig Made in Japan, and I use all drivers from Z590 CTO for example for Vista Ultimat, and they work perfectly fine. Its just assembled in USA. HOwever, I would streongly recommend statying away from CTO"s as they tend to cause a lot of issue's with poor assembly. If you read through the forums u'll notice only complains with the CTO versions. Even though I comlaint at the top lol, its a small speaker viberation issue, but very rare. Cheers.

 

I wonder what will be different from the older Z? It seems you're getting more Ram for the same price.

 

Does anyone know how bright is the Z screen in term of "nits"? Is it 200, 300 nits? It would be easier for me to compare it with other laptops, like the 300-nit Dell XPS 1330 or the 400-nit Thinkpad W700...

 

I would not trust manufacturer's specifications.

Dell 1330's real brightness is measured to be 224.3 cd/m², Sony Z's real brightness is 276,00 cd/m².

http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Dell-XPS-M1330-Notebook.5770.0.html
http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/inspection/638

 

What is the difference between the 590,540, and 570? If I am correct, the display resolution is the only difference between the 590 and 540. What is the 570? Sony compare isn't working.

 

Not bad, altough I see the MacBook Air with a stunning 387-nit luminance. Hard to beat that...

 

That's a great question? I'm seeing various model names on both the US and Canadian side...What's CTO version as well?

 

^

The difference is in CPU, RAM, and HDD space - that's all. And, like was already mentioned, the 590 has the 1600 x 900 res screen and options for BD.

 

True but what is the point of an over 300 nit brightness? It will hurt your eyes. Even the Z is too bright at it's highest setting.

The only benefit is in sunlight/outside, but the Sony Z has a matte screen so it will be better in sunlight anyway.

Contrast on the MBA beats the Z though.

 

I am basing my info off of tests that were run with desktop-class nehalem processors. Keep in mind that this hardware includes VERY early builds and, in time, performance will only get better as the hardware and software gets tweaked.

Looking at the benchies from tomshardware, one can determine that these new procs will most def smoke the current C2D procs.

I know that desktop does not = laptop, but the trickle down should show some serious improvements.

As far as TDP, Intel has PLENTY of time to get that straightned out

 

SonyStyle UK is also offering CTO at last. 3 configurable models (1 premium carbon for the fans). I'm going to go for the BR + 200Gb HD, and I'll upgrade it to 320 7200rpm, as there is only 5400rpm available in CTO (and no BR in the pre-conf models, apart form the BR+SSD which is still at £3000 .

CTO are always configured locally, that's why they can offer more models (they stock theparts, assemble them locally, that way they don't have to stock fully configured models which is costly).

 

Forgot to ask, they offer a 2.60 CPU on CTO on Sonystyle UK, does anyone know if it's a legit Intel new CPU or a P9500 overclocked? I never heard of this model, only of the 2.8. It could be typo, given the fact that they still list RAM as 800Mhz DDR3

Unless it is a T9500, that would explain the 800mz RAM?

 

I don't know why anyone would want to use it in direct sunlight anyway

 

can someone tell me please what's the difference between those two models:
Z11VN/B and Z21WN/B
when i compare those two laptops they have this same specs for me, or maybe im blind only battery life is different, oh and price, Z21 is 250Ł more expensive.
they are both from sonystyle.co.uk (sorry i can't post link because i don't have 15 posts :/)

 

I got it !!!

It is soooo nice. Lightning fast boot-sequence due to the SSD-Drive.

I am also fascinated by the screen (I did not own a Vaio before). The Keyboard is strong, but not too strong. Typing is really good. I guess the main difference to the other Z-series devices is indeed the SSD-Drive (128GB) and the BlueRay-Writer.

I am already writing this from the Z21.

More info to come. I will keep you posted.

Rambler

 

WN/B has HDSPA module integrated. W = WWAN.

 

Hmm with my experience with Intel's CPU development phases, usually they spend a lot of time during Ax/Bx samples to actually get down to estimated TDP

But, let's see - at this point nobody can tell because Nehalem is still under development.

One thing is for sure - Notebook Nehalems will not use QPI.

 

picture time... if sony USA is releasing the new version soon, then it will be mine soon too.

 

so between the 520 and 530 which one would you pick?
3gb of ram or a very slightly faster processor?

 

here is a comparison of the us Z's

model processor memory hd hd speed sreen res msrp
z590UBB 2.53 3 128 Solid state 1600x900 3899.99
z591U/B 2.53 4 320 5400 1600x900 3499.99
Z590UCB 2.53 3 320 5400 1600x900 3299.99
z590NGB 2.53 3 250 5400 1600x900 2429.99
z570N/B 2.53 3 320 5400 1366x768 2349.99
Z590nfb 2.4 3 320 5400 1600x900 2399.99
z550N/B 2.4 3 250 5400 1366x768 2099.99
Z540NFB 2.4 3 200 7200 1366x768 2189.99
z540NEB 2.4 2 320 5400 1366x768 2079.99
z530N/B 2.4 2 250 5400 1366x768 1999.99
z540NDB 2.4 2 250 5400 1366x768 1979.99
z540NCB 2.26 2 250 5400 1366x768 1879.99
Z540NBB 2.26 2 160 5400 1366x768 1829.99
z540NAB 2.26 1 120 5400 1366x768 1729.99

 

I don't know those models but I think the sweetspot is the P8600 (2.4) and 4GB RAM.

4GB is good for the integrated graphics and dual channel. But 3 is good too.

 

I'd go for the one with the faster processor you can easily upgrade the ram later if its needed