Sony CW i3/i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Thanks. Missed it!

 

I'm pretty sure the model you specified actually has the 310M because as far as I know, none of the i5s come with a 210M

 

yes the warranty was expensive but about the same as the 3 yr one at best buy. Bc I have children I knew I needed that. I actully used the warranty on my current one a lot. Actully my Hp is still under warranty for a year and half and will be going in shop as soon as I get my sony. It will be the 3rd or 4th time in and will be replaced and my Dh will take that laptop. So he'll end up getting a new laptop. It has always been worth it for us to get a warranty.


I will end up removing the Norton and installing another

 

I am so totally lost and have no idea what you guys are talking about LOL or if its good or bad. But what was ordeded I just copy and pasted it in that post.

 

you seem to have really bad luck with hardware...I've never had one of my laptops break and the oldest is my 6 year old Compaq

 

that would be the video card we are discussing....

 

I have had HORRIABLE luck with Hp's. Horriable. bad bad bad . I even had one overheat so bad it burnt me. SOOO happy to try a Sony!

 

ok.. lol so uh. did I get a bad one? or a Ok one?

 

I'm trying to decide between Dell 14z and Sony Vaio CW (with I5) for software development and maybe hosting a small database server. Would appreciate your comparison between the 2 laptops. Thanks

 

Thanks for the confirmation. Any opinion between the CW and Dell 14Z?

 

unless you are doing hardcore gaming, you should be fine.

 

Lol... you're so right, i m sorry for the blunder. i wouldn't be buying it if I thought those were the dimensions!

 

finaly someone ordered from sony maybe now we can see the difference between cw27 of best buy and cw29 from sony hope girly post a review

 

This might be slightly off track but has the web button truly been replaced? The Sony website still shows the 'Web' functionality and advertises it..

 

anyone figure ouy how to get the FN key to work after a fresh install?

 

I do not own this laptop. I have run both dbs on lesser single core machines. Oracle will be just fine. SQL server - I would run in a 500-1gb VM as it tends to use up memory. Performance will be relative to your db size and what not of course. Can't comment on .net, I do java.

 

My order at BB is still processing after 2 days
The heck??? Anybody else order in the last 2 days?

 

The one on sonystyle still shows:
NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M GPU with 256MB DDRD3 dedicated VRAM
* 14" LED Backlit Screen1
* 1366 x 768 Resolution

 

No problemo I was looking at the Dell 14z before I purchased.

My conclusion is same as always: Dell charges more for less and it pisses me off.

14z has a core 2 duo ulv processor in it so it is going to get 6+ hours of battery life which is greate if your on the go but not great for a developer. The processor in it seriously has about half the processing power of the CW. Plus the standard config is crippled with half the ram and a tiny hard drive and a pentium ulv with little cache.
By the time you upgrade the 14z's processor to have the su7300 processor,4 gb ram, and a 500gb hard drive the cost is over $1000!!!!
Plus to rub salt in the wound the 14z only comes with integrated intel graphics no options for upgrading.

Long story short the 14z is overpriced and should not cost a dime more than $750 fully decked out (competing Asus models that offer better battery life, thinner frame, and switchable hybrid graphics are only $800). I wouldnt buy dell even if hp was my only other option. I despise how much they charge for how little the offer.

Sony CW all the way when comparing to a Dell 14z or any other Dell 14 model (including their new core i5 models which only have integrated graphics as well, plus only come with the lowest model of core i5 processor)

Sorry....rant over now.

 

Edit: I posted this in the other thread but does anyone on here think the blu ray add on is worth the $180? Is blu ray all what its cracked up to be??


yeah, i received a full refund b/c i never turned it on. decided to order from the sony store instead. says on website it will be delivered feb 9 - hope that is accurate as i have been going mad with having to write all my essays by hand.

 

Hey guys, do you know anywhere where I could order a CW with:


- i5-540M
- 6 GB of Ram
- GT 330M
- 500 GB hard drive

At the moment, the deals are either all for 4 GB of Ram or for the GT 310M. I can't find the two options I want together >< Thanks!

 

^^^I would just order the best buy cw27 or 26 and then buy a 4gb stick of ram. The difference between the 520M and 540M I don't believe would make a huge difference.

 

is there anything that you use your laptop for that really need 6GB of ram right now?

 

You know, all I want is a machine that can play games without hitches. In all honesty, I'm not sure how important each of the specs are. The thing is, with my desktop, something is definitely holding it back. I have a 9800GT, 4gb ram, and a 2.2 dual processor (I think). I mean, I'm pretty sure its the 2.2 that's stopping me from playing how I want to play, but since I can afford the slight upgrade, I wanted to get 6 gb just to be safe.

btw, will any of the customizable features take away from battery time?

 

what you didn't mention is whether your other machine is running a 32 or 64 bit operating system. A 32 bit system cannot utilize the full 4 GB so that would not be your limitation. Also, I'm personally unaware of any games that would use more than 4 GB at this time since virtually none a specifically coded for 64 bit systems. That being said, 6 GB wouldn't cause any harm or battery life deficits of any measurable sort, but I would't let that specification hold you back from getting a new system...4 GB should tide you over nicely.

In the case of the CW, the biggest limitation for you would likely either be the 5400 rpm HD or the 330M video card which is less powerful than your 9800GT so don't expect to fully replicate your desktop experience unless you dropped significantly more coin on a gaming specific system.

 

Alright thanks, I'll probably just go with the 4gb ram then.
What about the processor though? Cause I guess that was what was holding me back on my desktop. Should I be going for the 540M?

 

Hi all-

I just got a CW i5 from Best Buy.com a few days ago. I have since noticed that it has serious battery drain issues. I've seen a big thread here on notebeook review about battery drain on the Z series, but are there any other CW owners who are dealing with this too?

My computer seems to lose about 7% of battery life PER HOUR when in sleep mode (although at some point it seems to put itself into hibernation). (Just put it to sleep for 2 hrs, and it dropped from 90% to 77%. Last night put it to sleep at 40%, and computer would not start up this AM w/o immediately going into hibernation again b/c battery totally drained)

Dunno why this is happening - computer seems to be asleep (screen off, blinking orange LED on front, etc.) and certainly is hibernated when I start it up again (Vaio splash screen, etc.), but if I am losing 7% an hour, I will need to return it.

Battery life seems to be okay when I am using it though - watched and hour of DVD last night on battery, which dropped the charge from about 80% to 40%.

Any thoughts? I have a week to figure this out before I can no longer return to Best Buy. Love the computer otherwise...

Thanks,
Alex

 

I'm about to pull the trigger on a VPCCW26FX but I'm wondering, is the touchpad multitouch? I currently have an ASUS EEE PC and one of my favorite things are the gestures (two finger swipe to scroll, three finger tap for right click, etc). I basically never use the actual click bar under the touchpad and since I'm used to it I'd like to buy something with a similar system.

If not, is there at least a scroll area on the edge of the pad or something similar?

 

I've been leaning toward the CW over the Dell 14Z for awhile but this forum has helped made the decision much easier. Thanks for all the input. I'm going to order the VPCCW26FX/W today via bing.com and see if I can get the 10% advertised for the TV. Will post back.

 

yes it has a multi-finger touchpad.

 

did a little overclocking and ran 3dmark06 . 630/1386/900 scored 7777

 

Thats impressive - almost equal to what the 8800 GTS would score... could you report the temperature as well.

 

without knowing more specifics about your processor it would be hard to say. The i5-520M is a 2.4Ghz part that can turbo to 2.93 so on a raw Ghz basis it is more powerful than your processor. However, the i5 is a dual processor that can virtualize 4 pipes (pseudo-quad core) but unless your program is designed around multicore processing it is hard to say the raw performance benefits.

In addition there is the question of I/O speed. Is your dual core a 667Mhz, 800Mhz, or 1066Mhz part? Also the 330M is a 128 bit part (which is good for a notebook) and your 9800 (and my 9600) are 256 bit parts hence the memory throughput will be double all things being equal

As you can see, there are a ton of variables to consider. The easiest thing to do is run 3DMark06 on your desktop and compare it to the numbers posted here. I have an older desktop with a dual core, 800Mhz bus, 2.5 GHz processor, 2Gb of RAM, and a 9600GT processors and my 3DMark score is around 9000. My stock CW with a 330M that apparently is factory underclocked scores close to 6000 and overclockers have gotten (most recently) in the high 7000s.

Bottom line, most times a notebook will not beat even an older desktop because unless they are specifically designed gaming notebooks (e.g. Alienware) with commensurate crazy pricing, you will never be at parity (for many reasons...just try and figure cramming your 9800 into a notebook case) on the notebook side without spending lots of money. That said, the CW is a very respectable gaming machine for the price, just don't plan on running Crysis at native resolution with all the eye candy. It will run Crysis, but with some reasonable limitations.

What were you expecting for less the a grand anyway...you've got to be realistic...

 

install the latest synaptics driver and the scrybe software on their site...very cool mutlitouch gesture control will be added as well (press three fingers to open up gesture control, draw and "A" with your finger and it will launch your default browser and load Amazon.com for example)

 

We are at almost 90 pages and nobody has posted any gaming stuff except for 3dmark2006

Can someone run a game...anything...and tell us how it plays!?

 

Also, it would be really nice if we can come up with optimum overclocking w/o risking overheating . used as shipped, it would be a shame not to push the 330GT, and pushed too hard, we'll end up frying it. i have learnt it the hard way- persistent high temperatures slowly eats the machine away!
I'll start testing my machine when I receive it on Monday. I wouldn't want temperatures to go above 65-68 C.

 

Please, anyone know information about ordering one of these BestBuy us specs in Canada?

Anywhere?

 

yeah i think 61c was the highest after 30 mins of playing crysis , my house is a little cold though. probably upper in the 50s usually.

crysis runs well at the 1024 res with everything on mainstream which is the second lowest out of 4. liike 30-40fps with dips into the 20s sometimes. but wheen u change textures or shaders one setting higher it goes down like 10fps haha. this is in the early jungle levels.

tf2 runs good at 1600x900 with everything on high i believe, probably better if u go down a res.

i want to try bc2 but im broke haha

 

yes this would be nice.... i don't want to push mine really any further. Ive had this thing for less that a week and i'd be really upsed if i blew it up haha. is it safe to say anything less that 65c is safe?

 

GPU's are safe up to about 80C. As long as at idle the GPU is sitting at 50c of less you have nothing to worry about.

IE: This 8600M GT hits like 70c full load and I have had no issues with it for over 2 + 1/2 years.

I will probably apply some better Thermal paste than the stock one. This should help to lower temperatures about 3-5c

 

Are you stock or overclocked?

Any other games you got? Supreme Commander? Mass Effect 2?

 

Really? I'm no expert on the issue but from my understanding:

<80 is good.

 

this is a little overclocked 630/1386/900. don't have any of those sorry.

 

I am on the fence on buying this laptop (i5 w/ 1600 x 900 resolution). I have a question for you all. How is the quality of the LED screen? More specifically, how's the video playback quality? I bought a Thinkpad t400 and the video playback was extremely poor compared to my 2 years old Vaio VGN-N365E. When playing videos with dark colors, it appeared choppy and grainy. It seemed t400 LED screen had poor contrast level. I had to return it.

How's screen (video playback specifically) on this CW compared to a macbook pro? Saturation level? Color? Contrast?

Thanks for all the help!

 

Some have said that dark images on the CW27 screen are grainy and/or pixelated, but that's open to opinion.

Without photos, it's really difficult to tell since this is a bit subjective!

 

sigh..I think the screen looks great and video is solidly good and...others hate the panel and have returned the machine because of it. Bottom line, if you are super concerned about the panel and can't decide between those of us who think the panel is great and those who think it sucks, you need to wait until they stock it at BB stores or buy it online from someplace that accepts returns without restocking fees (and pay more than the BB price by a significant margin). The group on this thread is quite bipolar about this panel so good luck making a decision.

 

I seriously doubt any photo posted of the screen will allow someone to make and informed decision...you really need to see the panel in person if this is a deal breaker and that means order one or wait till it comes to a store.

 

^^ Thanks, I appreciate the comments. Znutar, when you play a video in HD (on youtube) do you notice the darker scenes to be a little choppy or grainy?

That was my concern with the T400, which is great laptop when viewing pictures. But playing videos on youtube you could clearly see the choppiness with the darker colors in HD video.

 

At 480p they look great but haven't tried 720p but I would presume they would be fine as downloaded HD looks really good. Choppiness in a youtube HD video would suggest to me a bandwidth problem, not a video issue...

 

The screen is only good if you look at it head on. Otherwise, it looks washed out. Although it doesn't become completely washed out, I still found myself adjusting the screen numerous times during web surfing and movie watching.

edit: to be more exact, the screen has pretty good horizontal viewing angles. The vertical viewing angles, on the other hand, is horrible.