Sony CW i3/i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Just saw the latest post on Engadget:

"Sony's 14-inch VAIO CW is now available from $829 with a mobile Core i3, while the $1,120 version ships with a Core i5, NVIDIA's GeForce GT 330M CPU and a Blu-ray combo drive."

I'm guessing that $949 BB price isn't going to be around for too long.

 

when it says "Double-layer support" does that mean i'll be able to burn on to DVD-R DL disks or just read them

 

Just got my new red VAIO CW yesterday! Core i5 M540 (2.53GHz) processor, 4GB RAM. I love it!

 

Via CTO? I dont think bestbuy has the M540

 

Got my Jet Black i5 model today from Best Buy. Is there an up-to-date list of Vaio bloatware that I should uninstall?

 

I'm waiting for mine to be shipped from Best Buy. How is the screen quality on it?

Most users here would recommend to make recovery dvds and then download the necessary drivers to a USB flash drive and finally do a clean install with a full version (not upgrade version) of Windows 7 and install the drivers in the correct order. That's what I'm going to do when my Jet Black i5 arrives to my home. Another thing to do in uninstall the unnecessary software, but the computer may not run as fast as doing a clean install.

 

Hahahah, well, in regards to using a credit card, I'm currently still a college student so the only credit card I have is hooked up to my parents' account and NO WAY would they enjoy me charging up ~$1000 to their account. They'd probably make me return it.. so my only option would be to scrounge up money and buy it myself and when they find out, it'll be too late to return it. xD

Eeeek! I saw that too, and immediately went to check BB's website. Luckily, it's still the same price, but like you said, it's probably bound to go up anytime soon. Looks like, I'm going to have to go hobo it and ask some friends to borrow money and pay them back once I sell my desktop.. >_<

 

I got my VPCCW26FX from best buy too. Love everything on it except the physical sound volume and the screen color, the color seems to be washed out or something compared to my Z. I saw previous posts about bringing down the gamma and increase the brightness and contrast, but that didnt really work out for me.

 

To you guys with the 1600x900 screen, could you please tell me the model # and manufacturer of the screen?

 

where can i find that?

 

I wonder if CW will have the SSD option

 

Make sure you view it from head on, or from slightly below

 

Yes, via CTO.

 

wow, can you post pictures?

I was wondering before you sell ur 3month old pc(CW right, cuz u didnt make clear ) can you do a comparison between both?
especially since you're are getting the 1600x900 screen

becuase some complaints that people had were

1-Screen quality(not vibrant enough, and screen res for the some[including me ] )
2-Sound quality
NOTE: for those members who have opened up their CW, i should of asked this before but can someone take a picture of the speaker placement and its wiring and connector, cuz i really want to see if any other speaker can be put in its place or any type of speaker mod cuz i saw that a speaker mod was done for a netbook so why now a proper laptop

And after the refresh we now have this confusion if the new refresh has web button now or not

 

Any reason not to go with the loaded option from Best Buy? I was really hoping Newegg would have the best price (and save some $$ via taxes) and I like them as a retailer but as someone mentioned Best Buy actually has the best buy for once...

 

PLEASE let me know how that whole AMEX thing works out. I bought 2 laptops on my AMEX because of the extended warranty so I'm really curious what it will be like.

 

nope right now bestbuy has the best configs available at the best prices. Usually bestbuy orders custom models that are skimped in some area but the model numbers on the sony cw's are the same model numbers as newegg.

For once BestBuy has the actual best buy. If anyone is on the fence about getting a CW I would recommend picking one up from BestBuy.com before they are sold out or the price goes up!

 

The main reason I prefer the manufacturer's warrenty is that you can purchase accidental damage coverage, which I really want (it gives me peace of mind.)

The warranty does not cover dropping or otherwise damaging your computer.

 

Yesterday I ordered the CW i5 Jet Black at Best Buy by using my Best Buy credit card so that I can take advantage of their 18 months no interest plan. I did not purchase Best Buy extended warranty. I would like to know if its better to buy an extended warranty through Sony or SquareTrade?

 

i have the vpccw27fx and i don't notice any issues with the screen.

 

yes the sonystyle website is really pissing me off. i really want the new aqua blue laptop but its only available with i3 and the tier graphics card.

as for the bestbuy deal right now... will the price drop or stay the same say in a couple months? i really want the sony cw but i dont need a laptop replacement as of yet. hell maybe if i wait a bit longer the sonystyle website would be fixed.

AND can someone clear this up for me: looking at the new refreshed models at bestbuy... the WEB button is gone?!

 

For those of you who ordered the CW from Best Buy, did anyone go through Bing.com to get cashback? If yes, do you know how much % you got back, because Bing just says 5-15% and I'm wondering how much the actual % was for the CW, although I'm assuming it was probably just 5%. Can't hurt to hope for 15%. ^_^

 

thank you for the pics, really nice,i just wish they changed the keyboard to new 2010 style with full page up/down, home/end keys, and full arrow keys, oh well
where did you get the cw29fx? i googled it and nothing came up

 

yes, wierd of sony since it was a nice feature, but its gone and replaced with an assist button which goes to vaio care in windows, and recovery tools when pressing while pc is shut off.

dont worry about any heat issues, as there have been none at all, even during gameplay, it gets mildly warm which is a great surprise, and can play almost any game on high settings, except for crysis which i think can be played okay in high settings but best in medium settings, i dont think there has been a game yet that our members have had trouble playing, and that was the 230m, 330m is suppose to be the succesor of 230 but better than 240 so lets see what it has in stores for us.

one thing a member pointed out is that the F series has 1GB DDR3 VRAM GPU and CW has 512mb GDDR3 and it has more of a pixel push than CW so cw is better choice for gaming....any thoughts?

 

anyone with the newest CW with the 330m, how is the heat output? not just internal component wise but on the palm rests as well? fan noise? thanks in advance.

 

From what I know the 330M is almsot the same as the 230M in terms of heat and also preformance is a tad better, It is just clocked a bit higeher.

Is the Red (fiery red) the same in the "refreshed" model? I have the P7450 and the pics by Mr. Gump look the same as mine...

 

Is it worthwhile to spend another $200-250 to get a high-capacity battery for this computer? I charged mine to full yesterday and then used it nonstop down to about 4% battery and got over 3 hours of life - which I guess is pretty decent considering the specs - but still leaves something to be desired for me. Will the expanded battery make much of a difference?

 

I think the palm rests are insulated. It's basically a plastic pad. I have a 230M but I don't feel any heat whatosever on mine, even when gaming for hours.

 

fantastic, thanks for your reply. combined with what dr. blaze mentioned about the 230m and 330m, i guess the new cw will probably stay quite cool too eh. thanks to you both.

 

With wifi on and screen set to 1 above minimum what is the battery indicator saying? About 3.5 hours at least I hope?

 

@rehangohar77 - I got the CW29FX via Sony Style CTO. @Dr.Blaze - I think that the red is the same in the refresh, but I may be wrong.

 

Can anyone run 3dmark 2006 at the default settings with the 330m? Thanks.

 

I would, but I have the 310M. Sorry about that. If you want me to run it on my GPU, let me know.

 

I'm leaning towards picking up the 330m model from Best Buy but I'm sure someone can benefit from it!

 

I ordered a cw cto from Sonystyle and a few hours later noticed the Best Buy model. I am still not sure what to do. I upgraded the cto to the i5 540m and to a 7200 rpm hdd. I would have gotten an upgraded gpu but they did not offer it (in fact Sony page states that every cw features a 256 MB graphics card).

Does anyone know if the g310 graphics is good enough to play some of the more graphic intensive games? I noticed that computerwiz offered to run 3dmark on the 310...I would love to see those results.

FedEx just delivered the laptop...I may return it...and get the Best Buy...not sure.

Thanks for any input!

 

Now if only I could get an answer

 

Hey Guys/Gals new to the forum, ive been searching for a laptop for months and finally after not liking any of the specs i decided to wait till Jan to start looking again, the Sony was the best option for an i5 and I almost ordered it off the site..... till i found this site!!! i didnt even bother checking BestBuy their laptops were either way high$$$ or just basic specs....

So thanks to everyone! i ordered mine last night 20th, got an email this morning saying its ready for shipment! cant wait!!!!!!

yea i used the bing cashback too, its 5% = 47bucks which aint bad at all .... although it does say allow 90 days for delivery but hey its free money on top of a great price for a laptop with great specs!!!

 

From a relative standpoint, the bump from a 310m to a 330m is far more significant than the jump in cpu. This is assuming you play a lot more recent games etc. Since #'s aren't out there at the moment, if we assume the 310m is to the 330m the way the 210m is to the 230m, then it's no contest. It's a HUGE difference.

I hate to bring it up because it's a case of to each his own, but on a daily use basis, a cpu bump is almost negligible.

 

I also see sonystyle.com has some discounts on the upgrades. I think the below config is pretty close to the best buy price. Just something to consider if BB suddenly pulls it from their site just as you were about to order.

$979.99

and as low as $ 29.40 /month**
Estimated Ship Date 02/09/2010

how is this estimated?

Add to Wishlist

Original Price

Program Savings

*
Intel® Core™ i5-540M processor (2.53GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz (Reg. price $150.00)
*
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
*
Jet Black
*
500GB Hard Disk Drive (5400rpm) (Reg. price $20.00)
*
4GB (2GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1066 (Reg. price $20.00)
*
Blu-ray Disc™ player
*
No Fresh Start
*
Microsoft® Works
*
Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 Day Trial)

*
No Engraving
*
Standard Capacity Battery (VGP-BPS13)
*
No additional Photo Editing Software
*
No additional Video Editing Softwar

 

Thanks for the info. This is for my hs daughter who is supposed to use it for school and not gaming but for for $60 more the Best Buy model offers a higher screen res., bluray, and the 330m gpu. Are there any drawbacks to the Best Buy model since the cpu bump doesn't really matter?

 

Not sure I would get a 7200rpm drive... just more heat and more battery usage.

 

But so much faster. Would be nice SSD was an option. Heck, I doubt we will see that soon. They can't even get nVidia 330m on the list yet for CTO.

 

Is there any possible way i could order that $949 one from Best Buy US? I live in Vancouver and we don't even have i5 laptops on best buy or stores. I would really like to take the plunge on that spec at that price. If not Best buy is there anywhere else that I can order that exact specs from Vancouver?

 

Is there any possible way i could order that $949 one from Best Buy US? I live in Vancouver and we don't even have i5 laptops on best buy or stores. I would really like to take the plunge on that spec at that price. If not Best buy is there anywhere else that I can order that exact specs from Vancouver?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834127032

 

oh okay cuz usually CTO would be VPC-CW290X
and CW29(FX) usually stands for the pre config models so i was a bit confused

 

I think it's hand's down the best bang for the buck.

Just an fyi, this same model is selling at Newegg and Jr.com for 1119. I think Best Buy might be erring in their pricing at $949.

 

I had noticed the Newegg pricing and thought that the BB price might be an error or an intro price; however I just saw that BB now has icy white with no bluray for $899 not sure if this is new or if I just didn't see it before.

I had not even thought of the 7200rpm hdd using more battery; I just wanted the best options available so this thing can last her a long while.