Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 (VPCZ1) Official Owners Thread Part 2

I've been waiting for a month to see pricing and options on the z1390 in the US, and after checking it out, I decided to buy an z1190 from the outlet. I took the 2 year warranty with ADH - see below. I went for this since I really like the idea of having the 4GB x 1 so in the future it will be easy to add a second 4GB stick (all the 1290's and 1390's come 2GB x 2 so you have to throw them both away and buy 2 x 4GB to upgrade)... also this came with 256GB x 1 so if needed I could add a second drive, maybe not easy but doable if need be (which I doubt I will need)
I felt the i7 might have a better resale if I decided in a year to sell it, and it might be a little more future-proof as I am into photography and I heard the next version of Adobe's Lightroom and Photoshop will handle more threading? I know this isn't a quad core but .. ... I only do light photo editing on my laptops anyway.. the heavy lifting and all storage is on my desktop. I recently returned a Dell E6510 because it was too heavy for travel, and hard to open on a plane in coach.

So what do you think of this choice? the same config (the i5 580 is the same speed) would be 2399, so I saved $360 ... was this worth it?

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-620M processor (2.66GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.33GHz
Hard Drive: 256GB (256GBx1) Solid State Drive with RAID 0 Technology
Optical Disc Drive: CD/DVD Burner
Battery: Standard Capacity Battery
Channel: C50876059
Warranty: C50876063
Operating System: Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
Software Optimization: No Fresh Start
Software: Microsoft® Works
Software2: C50876093
Photo Software: No additional Photo Editing Software
Video Software: No additional Video Editing Software
AntiVirus Software: Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 Day Trial)
Base Unit: C50876419
Battery Color: C50876492
Memory: 4GB (4GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1066
Limited Warranty Term: 90 Day Limited Warranty
Per Unit Price: $2,039.95

 

Seems like a pretty awesome choice, and I find your reasoning impeccable.

 

I own the i7.

Both are built from the same litography as other said, and the differences are effectively, reduced to clock speed and cache size.

Cache size has a big impact in power, as well as increasing the clock speed with the same amount of voltage.

It is rated to lose about 10% of autonomy but you are supposed to get 15%-20% better performance.

About the 35W envelope, that is for the sum of the CPU and the integrated GPU. 25W for the cpu and 10W for the gpu I read somewhere...

In my experience, tweaking the cpu throttling has nowhere near as much effect to battery life as controlling the screen brightness has.

If I were you, I would go the i7 route. You can always choose to get the extended battery or buy a second one, but you can never upgrade the cpu easily...

 

That performance estimate is VERY application specific. I don't think 1mb extra cache is gonna translate into a huge performance increase across the board - this has been proven many times, larger cache is nice but only in a few specific programs. On average it's safe to assume the performance edge of i7 is around 10% with only a handful of applications getting 15% or more.

Larger clockspeed at the same voltage still means larger power consumption, no way around it.

 

is it possible to have RAID 0 with only 1 SSD? I dont think so

 

What Sony sells as a 256GB x 1 is actually two 128GB drives mounted on two sides of a single card.

Physically it is one drive (in the sense that it is one card)
Logically it is two drives. 128x2

That's why they can do raid 0 on what THEY call 256x1

 

Half a year of heavy use and my HDD index is steady at 7.9. I never reinstalled/restored the system (except for initial resize of partitions in-place). It just keeps on working fast. The experience index numbers are 6.8 6.8 6.4 6.4 7.9, exactly as they were initially.

 

Your calculations are simply wrong! While the power consumption of the i7 is theoretically 10% more than the i5, you're basing your battery life calculation as if the CPU takes 100% of the battery life. This is fallacious.

Adjusting the brightness off the backlight on the screen, using the DVD/Blu-Ray drive, et al. probably has a much greater effect on battery life than going from an i5 to an i7.

 

I am not calculating based on theoretical assumptions about the i5 vs the i7. I am simply reporting the net difference folks have observed between the two machines. The 10% difference is simply an empirically observed result between the two and goes back to days long, long ago, the earliest days of the Z11 (March-April, I guess that must have been ).

But also. Always remember that the reality is more complicated than any simple calculation or measurement. The truth is, like Arith1 sometimes points out, that in a particular application, a faster processor can sometimes finish quicker and consume less net power. It's also true that an almost seeming conundrum can occur whereby the faster processor ends up being the slower. For example, due to thermal throttling, the fast cpu can hit its thermal limit and throttle down, while the slower processor maintains a high net duty cycle, do to the cooling system's ability to better keep up with it.

So that's just an example of why it is always dangerous to base these things on theoretical assumptions. You just sort of have to try and keep things between the two machines as equal as possible and then make your measurements under various circumstances, comparing all the while.

Sort of as an aside, recently I was at a programming conference where a presentation on benchmarks was made. This presentation showed how a simple measurement comparing a very simple algorithm was affected by so many parameters in modern systems: with cpu caching, built-in cpu optimizations, optimizations by the java runtime, browser runtime, javascript runtime...
It was quite amazing to contemplate that even the simplest measurements really can be quite meaningless and should always be considered suspect.

In other words, all this talk about small differences in power consumption and speed may not be worth worrying too much about, in the long run.

But, in the end, all else being equal (yes, a very a big if). I believe the i7 version of the Z should give approx. 1/2 hour less, out of an average 4-6h battery life.

 

A while back in this thread there was a link to hong kong sony showing a vaio z with blu-ray rom/dvdrw combo drive. Does anyone know manufacturer and type/model? I want to upgrade my z11 to bluray but the uj242a are still over 250 dollars so perhaps this drive would be a cheaper alternative.

 

You can get the uj242 on ebay for $199 + shipping

 

hey guys,
looking to get a external monitor and have a couple of questions!

i have a 128, 1920x1080 and think im wanting to get a 24 or 27" monitor, probably a 27" though.

looking at this baby currently, its definitely a more expensive one , but they're having a sale right now, and i cant say i have an aversion to buying expensive top of the line electronics considering i bought this computer.

UltraSharp U2711 27 inch Monitor with PremierColor Details | Dell Australia

basically it offers 2560x1440 and im confused what this means if the vaio run 1920x1080. dont really know where to start asking- i guess im wondering if that means i wouldnt be able to fully utilse the 2560x1440 resolution it offers? i checked though and 1920x1080 is the same ratio of 2560x1440, is that relevant? would it be warped/distored?

reading some reviews and some people complain the text is too small.. is that a problem i would have, if im viewing webpages on 13.1" 1080p laptop?

thanks!

edit: any general comments about external monitors in general/what you guys use/brand or model suggestios/things to look out for is appreciated!

 

No. The Z can't drive 2560x1440. It won't be distorted, it just won't fully utilize the resolution of your monitor. Instead it will display in 1920x1200 (or 2048x1152).

If you 'extend' the display onto your laptop monitor. It will be at its native resolution (which I guess yours is 1920x1080) and the external display will be at whatever it can manage (which unfortunately will not be 2560x1440)

 

i was under the impression the vaio pretty much had the best resolution available in a laptop... if it cant utilise what this monitor has to offer, what can?? only desktops? can a desk top run any resolution?

what exactly is the relationship between laptop and monitor?

thanks for the input. so if i have 2 monitors that were exactly the same but one was 2560x1440 and one 1920x1080, it wouldnt make a difference because my laptop can only support the latter?

 

Correct. Also, if you were considering getting a 1920x1080, I would recommend that instead you consider 1920x1200 instead.

As far as the question of what is the relationship between the laptop and the monitor. If you choose 'extend' then each gets its own resolution. If you choose duplicate then both are at the same resolution (a compromise value), and both display the exact same thing. Of course, you can also choose the other two options: only external or only laptop.

No, not any resolution. In fact many can't do 2560x1440. Also, to get that resolution out of dvi you need dual dvi. Single dvi won't do it. Neither, I believe, will hdmi (in theory, I guess it can but I just haven't seen anything that can push that resolution over hdmi).

 

thanks a lot oscar

can i ask why it is you recommend 1920x1200 > 1920x1080, when my laptop is 1920x1080? wont that mean things will appear distorted/stretched?

can see that 2560x1440 monitor was definitely not what i was after!

 

1920x1200 gives you 120px vertical space which is nice for reading/writing documents.

 

Hello everyone,
I would like to ask people in Europe and/or US (especially people in Germany) if when you first installed your Windows 7 on your Vaio Z, you could choose between different Windows languages? In Greece, where I live, all SONY Vaio Z's start with a language choice menu. A company in Germany told me that Z's they sell come with German only windows and German only keyboards. Anybody can verify this? You input would be valuable to me, thanks.

 

Those of you with the hdd version of the Z - What does the right side look like where the dvd drive would have been? Is the dvd bezel still there? is it just a big hole?

 

The HDD caddy covers the hole, similar to those ODD-to-HDD caddies.

 

Ahhh right. I was just wondering since some folks tried to replace their optical drive with a hdd caddy and in the pics there was a big gap.

 

I believe those pictures were from earlier attempts to have a HDD solution before NewModeUS and other companies started making caddies which have a much cleaner finish now.

 

Actually i thought 2560x1440 was the max output of the VGA of the Z. I know for sure that HDMI only does 1920x1200, but there were reports that 2560x1440 was achievable through VGA, you just wont have sound on your monitor

 

Like fuchstronaut pointed out, 1200 gives you more vertical resolution than 1080, which is like having more space.

It won't be distorted. Each will display correctly in its own native resolution.

 

Actually, the highest resolution the Z will emit out of its vga port is 2048x1536.

Unfortunately this resolution has two problems:

1) It is a 4:3 aspect ratio, i.e., not wide-screen.
2) The monitors available are specialty, they are CRT, and are in the $10,000+ price range

So, given those two issues, most end up foregoing 2048x1536.

That leaves two good options for maximally utilizing the pixels:
1920x1200 (in the 16:10 form factor) and 2048x1152 (in 16:9).

If you are going for maximum possible pixel count then 2048x1152 gives you over 2% more total pixels! (2,359,296 vs. 2,304,000) .

On the other hand the 1200 gives 4% more vertical space

There are a few nice 2048x1152 23" monitors available from Dell, Asus, Samsung, that I am aware of, but that's about it. Options are more limited.

There are more options for 1920x1200.

And of course, ever since the HD market took off for TV's, the 1920x1080 option became ubiquitous.

 

As I knew only Windows 7 Ultimate have option to choose from different languages. with Windows 7 Pro or home you are stick with the language provided with the notebook, means if you purchase a notebook from Germany you will get German OS, from Us you'll get English OS... and same thing for keyboard. even hear in Canada they don't offer dual languages (French and English) we are all stuck with English OS.

 

lol, German KB, I always wonder why the Z and Y are topsy turvy on them?

 

When you first boot a VAIO Z bought in Greece, you are presented with a welcome menu, where you can choose your language of choice. That's really a great feature/option, since people may well choose the language they prefer in their windows interface. Windows ultimate gives you the option of changing the user interface language AFTER you've installed windows.
Could anyone from Germany also verify that German is the only language available for your windows installation for VAIO Z's bought in Germany (for Z's with Win 7 Pro that is). Thanks again!

 

The reason is, that we use Z much more often and Y is nearly only used in foreign words. Another thing is, that in German "tz" is used quite often. What I do like about the German keyboard is, that the return button is bigger than the US. What I dislike about the Z's keyboard is, that you have to use both hands for home and end buttons as well as pg up/down as I use that often as a software dev.

 

If you find the German keyboard strange, check out the french, you got nuts on that one when you are used to German or English.

 

sweet awesome post, thanks

so if i get a larger monitor, my vaio will bit able to utilise its pixels up to 2048x1152? but that means it wont be able to utilise the 1200 vertical pixels in a 1920x1200?

 

1920x1200 works (tested it with U2410 and HDMI cable).

 

2048x1536 max resolution means you can go up to 2048 in the horizontal pixel count and 1536 in the vertical pixel count. 1920x1200 definitely fits in that envelope.

 

I don’t find the French keyboard very different than the English one! They only switch the (Q by the A) and the (W by the Z) , since I am in Canada and I speak French too it is better to keep the English Canadian keyboard same as the English keyboard with é è and some other key inside

 

hmmm ok so if the big monitor is 2560x1440 does that mean the vaio will at least utilise all the vertical pixels, if not the horizontal ones?

what will the resulting resolution be on external the monitor then? 2048x1536?

 

OK new question,

can anyone shed any light to connecting it up to 2 monitors? possible for the vaio?

been reading it up, seeing something about using two different ports, one for either monitor? looking at the 'connect to projector' options though, the picture only shows 1 extra screen i can extend my image to?

thanks for all the help so far oscar, anyone know anything about this?

 

Look at this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/522532-sony-vaio-z12-multi-monitor.html

 

Gang, how are you all doing!

I've been toying with an idea, but thought to give it a real dive before I come discuss it here - lots of bashing users sometimes - anyways, what I was playing with is :

NTFS Compression!

well, now to the facts:

1. Applying NTFS Compression on the following, made me gain 5.7 GB:

a. Windows
b. Program Files x86
c. Program Files
d. Users

so, I regained an almost 6GB of my precious-and-expensive SSD space.

Now to performance analysis:

IT JUST SEEMS snappier and smoother, the only real-life thing I did, was to time the Boot time using the Boot-Timer utility, I used to do it in 19 seconds to desktop with all startup sequence executed, now its a 15-16 seconds.

So basically, some space saving - good one actually - plus a slightly better boot-up time, add to that the snappier performance while doing everyday task, all I have to say now, is that, the ball in your court, TRY it for yourself, if you get positive/negative feedback then let's know the facts.

Final word to NBR Geeks, there might be some Techies and Theories that you know, and I'm interested to learn. lol

I think about it this way... Ultra Fast CPU, DDR3 RAM, SSD in RAID-0, Compression/Decompression is a CAKEWALK!

 

And let us not forget, one can always click on the Rep button (if one is so inclined).

 

I brought my Z12 in summer from USA. I didn't include Wireless Mobile Broadband Built-In to the laptop, and only after read it comes unlocked and can be used in other countries. Now I want it

I wonder, if it's somehow possible to upgrade laptop with Broadband Built-In now? I.e. buy it separately and insert into the laptop, or bring laptop to sony store and get them it upgraded?

I was thinking to buy new Z13 with broadband instead, but its pricing and configuration options appeared to be weird.

Thanks in advance!

 

what is the cheapest way to get a VPC-Z112GX/B ??? is there any price change now that there's Z13 in USA?

 

I have a VPC-Z114GX, a preconfigured model without any WWAN features. I did a search for it so forgive me if this has been covered to death. For many of the infos, it is hard to determine whether they pertain to the old Core 2 Zs or the i5/i7-based ones. Anyway, since I am about to upgrade to a BluRay drive UJ242a, I thought it would make sense to then install the Gobi 2000 as well since I will then have opened my Z up already and I remember reading that the GOBI slot is under the optical drive (correct me if I am wrong please). Will any Gobi 2000 card from ebay work or is it limited to a subset by BIOS? My initial purpose is to get GPS going. I have seen GOBI 2000s in the $60 price range. My laptop already has an opening/little door in the battery compartment where a SIM card reader could go but it is clearly missing, so I am wondering whether this is easy to add (solder in). What SIM card reader model number should I go for? Finally, with my VPCZ114GX, can I expect to find WWAN antennae in the screen, or are they going to be missing too? Many thanks for any answers.

 

At least you will also need the daughterboard on where you plug the WWAN module, since Sony only installs that if you bought your model with WWAN preconfigured. About the Antennas I am not sure, but what I saw from Sony yet, I guess probably you also don't have them assembled.

 

99.9% true, Z is not a mass-produced product, so it serves no purpose to outfit every chassis with all the antennas.

 

Someone already tried this and got nowhere just buying any Gobi 2000 card of Ebay. It seems that you need the Sony Gobi card that is if you do want to use a Gobi card. Sony also do not pre-install antenna in models that do come with built in wwan.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...i-2000-vpc-z11-not-just-any-card-will-do.html

 

??????????????????????????????????

 

Maybe no one knows?

 

Aha, the key here is the underlined part. For a Z1 that comes with the WWAN card, it has an additional daughterboard that connects the WWAN card to the motherboard. I haven't yet seen anyone get the specifics of that daughterboard. What some have tried is to replace an existing WWAN card with another, so the daughterboard would already be present.

It also turned out that the WWAN card that comes with the Z1 is already unlocked, we only need to change the software to make it work with other providers.

 

Anyone knows if the stock Toshiba SSD drives in the Z support trim or not? I know that the existing drivers do not pass trim in Raid, but I'm contemplating to break up the raid0 in order to regain the Trim functionality - if it's present. I googled the drives but no reliable info came up.

 

why?????????????????????????????