Sony CW i3/i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Jut got my cw and it is AMAZING. better then macbook pros. design is very nice. When you look in pictures it looks really fat but in person its actually pretty thin. screen brightness is a lot better then my old hp. colors are more vibrant as well. the weight of it is nice and 14 inch screen is perfect. i also get full wifi bars everywhere in and around my house. my hp wouldnt even get full bars 20 feet from my router. I didnt think the laptop would come with that much crap installed but wow. it did lol. oh well easy to get rid of.


this laptop is an EASY 10/10.

 

For i7 throttling issue, I meant the CPUs in VAIO F Series like i7-720QM will throttle down to 900MHz when running on battery power. So I'd like to know if the i5-520M has the same throttling issue as i7-720QM.

 

After a little less than a month, mine won't boot. Sony is coming to the house to replace the motherboard. I'm glad that didn't happen a year from now.

 

Do you have a link so we can see what that issue is on the i7-720QM? I don't know if the i5 has the same issue. But are you saying it is a bug or a feature to conserve power?

I do know in the Windows 7 Advanced Power settings there is an option to set the Minimum and Maximum Processor state. Not sure if that is the same.

Whawwat? That doesn't sound good. Did you do any overclocking or clean install? Hopefully you just had a faulty board and its not an issue with all of our CW's.

 

No overclocking, no clean install. Just removed bloatware. It just died the other day and would not boot to bios, nothing. Only the green light would come on. Called Sony, they just said they would send someone to replace the motherboard. At least they send someone to the house, better than having to send it in. Other than this incident, I was very pleased with the computer.

 

(625, 1090, 1375) sounded really high to me but I'm happy to report that I ran Resident Evil 5's Benchmark at those settings for 10 hours and nothing went over 60C and I didn't see any artifacts. It is now faster than the M11X I will be sending back.

I'm pretty positive it isn't a clock issue partially because my clocks still show their overclocked speed in both NVidia's panel and in EVGA Precision but mostly because the frame rates drop way too low. We are talking 40fps to 8fps. I'm at a loss and my need to re-install the drivers on the Sony site and hope they now will let me overclock. Thank you very much for your input.

 

Im looking to buy either m11x or cw or f series.

when I looked the screen at the best buy cw(low res screen one) had brighter screen than f series

To me, screen is very important deciding factor. Could you tell me which screen do you like more? the one on m11x or cw? like colors / brightness / reflections

 

I like the CW's screen better on all 3 counts, and a 4th (resolution). Neither are bad or great but I like the CW's better.

 

Here is a brief comparison between the M11X and the CW26. If anyone has any questions please let me know.

I like both the CW and M11X quite a bit but I think the M11X will be going back to Dell because, for me, the CW is a better fit.

The reason I prefer the CW is because it is very quiet and cool, has a nicer screen, much faster CPU, holds 2 Hard Drives with a converter (a 160GB Intel SSD & 640GB HDD are in mine), the memory cards sit flush in their slots (unlike the M11X).

Things I will miss about the M11X are the compact size (M11X is also 1lb lighter), back-lit keyboard, better speakers, faster GPU with twice the RAM (this is however largely negated by the fact that the CW can be overclocked to the point it outperforms the M11X - and this is with the CW holding lower temperatures. I will also miss the M11X's ability two switch to integrated graphics and have it's battery last over twice as long as the CW.

 

Nvm 10 chars

 

I find it weird how in photos this laptop looks really fat and weird but in person it looks 10x more amazing and thinner

 

I am seriously considering the CW as my second notebook/traveling machine. Not as thin and light as many, but I crave power and am willing to carry a bit more light. Here's what I don't get about this thread:

How could anyone be comparing the Sony CW to the Alenware 11 The Sony has a significantly bigger screen, far better battery life and costs much less. Is all this talk of OC'ing the Sony because you are all serious gamers and that's why you are comparing the two? Or am I mistaken in the "facts" I quoted above, or missing something here? Sorry if it's a dumb question; Mom always said you have to ask questions to learn, lol.

 

I would, and have, compared the two because they both cost right around $1000, they both have very similar gaming performance with the CW overclocked, and they are both similar in weight. I know these were the two notebooks that best fit my needs and I'm seriously considering keeping both. I have had a couple of people PM me asking questions about the two systems because they were considering choosing between the two.

The Sony definitely doesn't have a "far better battery life". It has about half the battery life.
They also cost about the same depending on options.

 

My CW (i5, no blu-ray) is out for delivery!!

Now I just have to wait for UPS. I hope they don't take all day

I'll come back with pics and stuff, I'm so excited!!

 

Hi John! I've had my m11x for a day now and am pretty sure its staying.

I had the cw27 for a week and although very similar, they are also very different..

I prefer the build quality of the M11x to the CW. The m11x feels more solid, no flex at all, whereas my CW27 had some flex to it, like on the back of the screen when you hold it closed. not bad, but I prefer the m11x

Screen, well the sony if you get the cw26 or cw27 has a higher res screen. Thats fine, but the viewing angle was a little worse on the cw than the m11x. I really like both, I'd say they are very close with the edge going to the CW when viewing head on.

Gaming.. Well I havent gamed much yet on the m11x, but I have to call this one even.. With the CW gpu OC, the FPS looked about the same as the m11x stock. 3dmark06 on the m11x stock is 6500 for me, the cw was close, but the fps does show higher in GPU intensive games... Edge here, slightly to the m11x as most games use cpu less than gpu.

overall feel.. Well.. I love backlit keyboards, that was a big plus for the m11x, battery life.. well the CW got me about 2.5 hours usually. The m11x has been on for 4.5 hours, I reinstalled windows, ran some benchmarks and games, and loaded data from an extenal usb drive.. battery is at 47% with hours left. To me any laptop should be able to last 4 hours at least.

They are both very close, in terms of price, performance, and size, with each having its edge.. sony gets cpu and screen, m11x gets GPU, size, battery, and backlit keyboard..

I guess at the end of the day I'll stick with the m11x, but I do miss the sony screen and the awesome cpu for playing GTA IV

 

The CW at its cheapest from best buy is at least 900, 949 for the cw27. The M11X starts at 799, 949 with its upgraded cpu and ram, so they are almost dead even in price.

The M11x gets 7-8 hours of battery life vs the CW's 2-3, thats more than double.

And yes, OC;ing and all of the comparisons are because of people who want a small, portable gaming laptop. Although sony doesnt advertise it that way, it sure does fit the bill, its an awesome laptop.

 

does anyone have the extended battery for the CW (VGP-BPL13) thats being sold on the sony website?

if so how much better is the battery life, how much bigger is it and can you post pics?

 

I'm confused how you are getting significantly higher scores than I and you have the i3?

What drivers are you running?

 

chipset drivers: latest from intel
gpu drivers: downloaded from sony. I'm waiting for official nvidia ones.
I also did a clean install.
Remember those scores are with OCed GPU, not stock values

Bad Company 2 was giving me some artifacts. But every other game i play, and 3dmark06 gives nothing... Temperatures are at 60... I've lowered GPU settings, but still got artifacts. Can't figure out why.
I've finished campaign mode, so i uninstalled that game, anyway...

 

Got my invisible shield for my CW today...

Restpad was easy....Lid was incredibly difficult. I see no possible way to have zero airbubbles. It's just too large to squeeze everything out of. Oh well...at least now I don't have to deal with fingerprints and I know the underside will remain brand new.

 

Why is it so hard to buy from these guys? After reading pages of all yer posts all I want is a white CW i5 with blu-ray, the high res nVidia 330m, windows 7 standard and fresh start. DAR!!

SO...I just ordered the white i5 with 310m graphics windows PRO (for $50 f'in dollhairs extra) & fresh start from CTO. Did I totally screw up? The low-res screen at BestBuy looked fine for my purposes. I don't even own a video game. I don't photo shop. To be honest I don't watch dvds on my laptop and I don't even own a blu-ray disk. I work. Do I really need 1600x900 on a 14 incher...?

 

No you really don't.

 

oh man it really was a frustrating buying experience but I'm sure I'll get psyched as ship day arrives!

<vent> I really wanted white because I know I won't buy a stupid cloth to clean the glossy fingerprints but then white doesn't come with blu-ray and it was sold out everywhere online anyway. Then I didn't want the bloatware because while I could easily follow the 18 reboot steps to clean install everything, that was not how I wanted to spend my first hours with my cw. So in the end Sony stole my $50 giving me supposedly a crap-free windows PRO machine that I didn't need but they wouldn't offer me the high-res graphics...blah blah blah you've all heard it before. This was almost enough to make me buy an E series because I loved the maple brown but guess what -- Sony CTO doesn't sell that color! </vent>

Looking forward to joining the CW owners. Thanks for all the awesome info that pushed me to buy this model!

-Vent

 

I hope you can post pics of your now-protected laptop!

 

As per your work that you said, you may not really need the high res screen. But you feel the difference once you have seen the higher resolution for yourself. Dont mean to discourage or disparage you but, if you ask most of the guys on this community, they'd advise you to go for this high res screen.
And also the better graphics card. Even if you dont game, it'll still b good to have it as the price difference is very much worth the upgrade that you get and its translation in performance.

Getting a fresh start with windows 7 is better, so a very good call there by you.

Neways wish you enjoy your new cw..........

 

I guess you guys that are buying the Sony CW don't care about the poor battery performance (battery drain even when the CW is turned off)....

 

I know this has been asked before but I never read a clear answer to this issue. During boot up after the starting windows screen I get a black screen for about 10-12 seconds. I noticed this after doing a clean install. anyone know what is causing this and how I can fix it? Thanks fellas.

 

As I understand it, it only drains in sleep/hibernate, not off. I haven't tested it on my own tbh though. I haven't taken mine anywhere yet.

 

Regrettably, it does drain when it's turned off and unplugged.

There are 2 threads in the main Sony discussions forum which detail this.

If it weren't for the battery drain effectively turning the Sony CW (and a few other models) into a really light "desktop replacement" laptop, I'd have kept my Sony CW (purchased from BestBuy.com).

As it is, I'm looking at the ASUS N82, Lenovo Y460, and Acer 38XX (can't remember name at the moment).

 

Just got my new Vaio CW series yesterday. Its the Sony Vaio VPCCW26FG.

Havent really tested the battery life. But for those who care about how it performs World of Warcraft w/o OCing the GPU, just let me say that its just AWESOME.

Had some customised settings and stayed at least 55 FPS all the way in my ICC 10 raid. Guess 25s and heavy aoe fights or graphic intensive ones wont be too much of a difference. Gonna try lich king 25 tomorrow, so will post the results after that. Lowest i ever get in dalaran in the area with the most amount of people during the peak period was 38 FPS. So its just awesome

Also the laptop remains incredibly cool even when i was gaming.

My only complain might be the short battery life which i myself havent really tested as its on power supply with battery off most of the time. Thats probably it.

Cheers

 

Honestly, I think it's rather pathetic that Sony can't/hasn't solved its battery drain power in some of its laptop models after all this time.

In my opinion, Sony's ineptitude is worse than EA/Dice and all their server problems with BFBC2 (and tied with Toyota and their automotive troubles).

 

Guys, can this laptop handle GTA 4?

 

It totally can handle GTA4.

I'm on my new one right now, and I love it!! Everything feels so nice and the whole thing looks amazing. I got the i5 model, no blu-ray.

First thing I did was wipe and reinstall 7, and it runs way faster without all the bloatware. Had some driver issues (I guess you have to install some of the drivers in a certain order) but thanks to the i5 CW Drivers thread on this forum, got that worked out in no time.

This thing just flies, seriously. It's SO FAST. Haven't tried out battery life yet, but I'm not too worried. That drain thing is unfortunate, though.

 

The sense I'm getting is that Sony Vaio CW owners are using their laptops has light, portable "desktop replacement" laptops. Seems like quite a few posters have no pressing need to take their laptops out into the "field" and run them off their batteries.

Some may be in for a rude awakening when they do....

 

What rude awakening?

 

Thanks John, I was not at all up on my facts. I have now read the NBR review of the M11X and see how incredibly low priced it is and the awesome battery life given the CULV and switchable graphics. So now I'm down to this, as a non-gamer, but avid multimedia hound, the ONLY reason I can see to choose the CW over the M11X is the screen. I think it is the size as much as the resolution (I would get the 1600X900 on the CW) that might sway me.

Still and all, I now see why the M11X is a 9/10 rated notebook and neither the Sony nor any other small notebook I know if comes close in build quality. Though not targeted at this market, it seems like the MX11 just happens to be a perfect traveling productivity/multimedia machine So, all I need to know to buy is, is the screen to small for watching/editing video, doing normal web browsing and productivity apps?

Thanks much.

 

Troll!!!! lol

PS I have had no bad battery problems, granted I haven't left it unplugged over night when turned off but I will never have the problem of not being able to not have it plugged in. Even if traveling I can always plug it in at night. Also with it being quiet, powerful, and cool. those far outweigh a possible battery drain.

 

I commute to school an hour on the train everyday and my cw gets me there and back just fine. besides the "field" is over-rated I like to take mine into the city.

 

The 1600x900 screen on the CW is MUCH nicer for getting work done. If your just playing games or watching video, I kind of like the smaller screen - you can get better FPS in games at the native resolution and you don't see flaws like aliasing in games as easily. If your going to do much work on your notebook (especially video editing, spreadsheets, photo editing, etc.) I'd really recommend the CW. That is unless the extra pound and larger size are a big deal to you.

 

The problem with having my framerates dropped to 20% when switching to battery is now gone (I switched back to Sony's drivers). But now I'm back to not being able to overclock - either from EVGA Precision or the NVidia performance panel. It will let me underclock but not overclock. Anyone else have and maybe overcome this issue? Thanks.

 

well I use the sony drivers and am able to overclock with evga precision without problem. Are you getting any errors or anything?

 

I use Sony drivers and can't OC on battery. But i don't care because i don't play on the move...
On AC power everything runs fine, OC included.

 

With the Sony drivers I can't OC on AC or battery. I don't get an error, when I click apply it just goes back to the default settings. Strange.

 

Yeah, the ratio is indeed really important to keep. Im running the European I3 model, and with stock Vaio drivers, i get 6668 in 3dMark06 with 650/1432/700
Temp never goes higher then 58 degrees. I still think teres more room to OC, specially the memory.

Ill post pics tomorrow

 

Tried it tonight, and it runs smoothly on 1600x900 all details maxed even at stock speed.

 

Hey,

Try something for me, if you havent yet. Install the nvidia tools overclocking stuff, go to the performance tab in the control panel (You might have to look in start menu, when i installed nvidia tools it installed a new control panel.. it was wierd) and accept the agreement or whatever. Then try to overclock using evga precision on ac power.

 

sony vaio CW series has been discontinued in india as sony india wants to boost the sales of the new E series. i went to vaio flagship store yesterday and was shocked to hear this, later i went to four other sony centres and got the same news, sony india has gone mad, how can they replace a 14 inch laptop with a 15.5 inch one and i dont even like the looks of EB series

 

Ok, I'll try to never look at a 1600x900 screen so I avoid buyers remorse.

Seriously, I'm tempted to cancel my order for a while, how do we know if, or when Sony CTO will offer the high-res screen to the U.S?

 

I'm in the US and I got the high-res screen at bestbuy.com. Is there a reason you can't buy it there?

 

did you manage too get the bing cashback albeit using your rewards certificate? it seems to me that it renders the cashback void because its considered a sort of "coupon"

please share if you did get it!