Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

the vaio z12 is out in the united states, but only on the configured model

 

meh, it's still only an i5, but it is the z12! Only notable difference is the "Share My Connection" feature, which is nice.

 

Does anybody know if vaio vpcz11 can read and write SDXC cards? I cannot find anything about it on this forum...
The point is that I've bought SanDisc's SDXC class 4 64Gb card which I want to use with my Full HD camcorder. But my vaio vpcz11 doesn't react on its inserting. First I thought that it doesn\t support SDXC but doesn't recognize even my old SDHC class 4 4Gb card. The same situation with my wife's vpcz11...
What could it be?

And am I the only one facing this problem?

 

What's the difference between SMC and Ad-Hoc WLAN + ICS?

 

Hey guys i posted a few more videos of gaming benchmarks:

-Need for speed Carbon
-Risen
-Resident Evil 5
-Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfg_8BN4zno&feature=player_embedded

 

Thanks cenkaetaya for taking the time to record and post this. Question for you: Are these results on the standard clocks (Sony factory underclock)? Or did you do any overclocking?

 

100% standard config. Nothing changed what so ever.

if you go to my channel from the first link you can see the other (games) videos.

heres codmw2, just up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srV_jTVUl5A&feature=player_embedded

 

Great videos, thanks for the good work. Not only is the Z light, it can be used as a gaming notebook too (well, to an extent).

 

thanks for the videos! I don't know if you have it or not, but can you post a gameplay video of Battlefield Bad Company 2 multiplayer?

 

ya, its on my friends steam account, il dl it tonight.

im already running into hdd space issues with all these new games installed. I need to get the 2nd hdd mod done asap

 

oh okay...appreciate the help

 

I have a weird situation. My external monitor (Samsung 226BW) just got screwed after I plugged in the power to my laptop while it was connected to the monitor. I only had these cables so I used a dvi/dvi --> dvi-hdmi --> hdmi-hdmi cables. Everything was working fine for hours but the battery on my laptop was going down. I plugged in the power source to the Z11 and all of a sudden, the monitor just died (Laptop wouldn't recognize it). Now it shows all these lines even connected to my desktop via DVI-DVI or VGA-VGA

The monitor is a little over 3 years old and just out of warranty. I might look into buying a different external monitor but does anyone plug in the power source while connected to their external monitors and have any problems? Also what connection are you using? My laptop still works great when connected to my HDTV by hdmi-hdmi cable.

Thanks

 

I never thought I would end up here, but I just purchased the VPCZ124GX/S, so now I get to learn from you all. I had been waiting at various times for the Asus UL30JT, the Acer 3820TG and secondarily for the HP Envy 14. But with the refresh of the Z and the slightly lower prices, I could not resist!

My final price after Bing Cashback was $1980 from TigerDirect.

 

Hey guys,

Someone asked this before I think but never managed to get an answer. Does the Z11 or Z12 support SDXC cards?

Thanks in advance

 

Per: Using SDXC - SD Association
If you want to use an SDXC card in the SD slot on your PC, you need an SDXC compatible driver for the SD slot. *
* SDXC compatible driver for the SD slot can be downloaded from the following Microsoft sites. However, please check with the manufacturer of your PC to determine if the following download is applicable to your PC before applying the download.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...dd-7127-4445-b860-47084587155f&displaylang=en

 

Well after two months of waiting for it to arrive, my Z has finally made it.

Very impressed thus far. It is of course very speedy, which we all know, so I'll comment mainly on what have been some "controversial" issues.

I find that I like the keyboard, and don't mind the spacing between the keys.

Battery life looks very promising so far. On stamina, the Z was reporting nearly six hours of battery life at 100% charge. I put a DVD in and that rapidly dropped to about 2.5 hours. But after I was done with the DVD (about 15 minutes), I took it out and the battery life eventually returned to a reported >5 hours. I also spent about an hour with the Z plugged into my TV via HDMI Out. This was on Speed mode, and I still was showing more than 2.5 hours when I was done with the HDMI Out. I did change my settings (when unplugged) to 40Hz refresh rate and 30% brightness. The battery doesn't jiggle at all.

The screen is amaing. I disabled the automatic screen dimming and brightening and jacked up the brightness to full when plugged in. Very bright and brilliant. Puts my Inspiron to shame. I also find the viewing angles to be better than I expected. I do not see the diagonal lines that some have referred to.

I have not yet experienced the black or blue screen of death, or whatever it was that was plaguing some folks (I'm thinking SandyRavage) when watching videos on full screen. But I have the 1600x900 resolution screen, so maybe that is a difference. Full screen videos on my TV at full HD via HDMI Out also had no problems.

Speakers are quiet and not great quality. But they were actually better than I expected based on their abysmal evaluation by pretty much everyone.

I haven't loaded any games, and being that I'm a bit behind the curve when it comes to games, I don't really have anything that could stress the 330m probably. The most modern game I have is Call of Duty 2 (yes, that's a 2). Thinking I need to borrow Modern Warfare (1) from my father in law to get a better idea of the gaming potential. Not quite ready to bite the bullet and start a Steam download craze.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Here's my spec:

Core i5-540m
192 GB SSD
6 GB RAM
Prem Carbon Fiber
W7 Pro w/ Fresh Start


@a2bucks: Ha! . I was waiting for the 3820TG. I jumped ship from the Official Arrandale Timeline Thread a few months ago. Welcome aboard.

 

Some of us are slower than others!

 

Got my bto z12 today.
i7 620, 8Gb RAM, 256 (64x4) SSD, 1920x1080 screen, black, carbon fibre, fingerprint sensor, 3 years wide warranty, etc - total bill around USD3000, which is bit high.
Very satisfied with speed. Did clean install in very simple way - created recovery dvds, installed win 7 on freshly formatted disk, popped recovery dvds into drive and chose drivers and software i want to install - voila - everything works as is it supposed to work.

 

congratulations.. may we know where did you get it?

 

Going on a trip to Japan this Friday. Flight is 12 hours. If I just sit there and watch DVD videos ripped from the discs, how long can I get it to last?

 

Well you have a few days to test it out and see.

I would guess with brightness at 10%, refresh rate at 40hz, ODD disabled, and wifi off, you should be able to get 3-4 hours watching videos. But that's just a guess.

 

sony style japan
delivery data was estimated to be 24th, but it came on 19th

 

Does anyone here have the Z in Black? Curious to find out if the Black Lid on the new Z is the same as the old Z. Or is it that new black lid I'm seeing on Sony's new F-Series 16.4" laptops? Thanks.

 

i got the new z and the old z, and they are not the same, i did not compare the lids exactly. but i did put them back to back in length, and they were not the same,the new one is like 1/8th of an inch wider.



\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Has anyone used an HDTV with the HDMI yet? I braught the Z to my friends as the old one always, and when i put it on the HDTV i was unable to get the resolution to work. On the old z it would always instnatly adjust to the tv no mater what.

Is there a way i can get it to work the hdtv res more easily?

 

Would it be too much trouble for you to post a side by side photo comparison? Does the black lid on the new Z look and feel sort of like rubber? Thanks.

 

I own VPCZ1 and I've tried it on both Sony 60" 1080p and Sony 52" 1080p. Once connected, it automatically adjusts to 768 resolution and won't allow me to change it manually to 1080 -- it's locked.

I would also like to know if anybody's able to get it to full 1080 resolution.

 

I connected my Z11 on a projector (Acer H7530D 1920x1080 native resolution) with HDMI and I automatically got full 1080 resolution.

BTW very nice, both films and HD Tv, on a 110" screen.

 

ok thanks.. are you located in Japan? $3000 doesn't include shipping right? if incase you are not located in Japan..

 

I am located in Japan.

 

ok.. lucky you

 

really hoping I get an answer to this post

I just did a fresh install, using the same disks I used last time, but this time I partitioned the disk.

While checking the status of the wrtie back cache I noticed my array has shrunk in size!

I now have 4x 61GB, when I had 4X 64GB previously. And it says total size 244GB, though I had 256GB earlier.

Is this due to partitioning?

Thanks guys

 

The "Old Black Z" looks like grey, the new Z is really Black, but feels and looks cheaper than the old Z.
The lid of the old Z feels little bit like rubber, the new one feels like painted.

 

The VPCZ1290X CTO is now listed on the US Sony website. Its gone up $20 to $1919.99. It has a full HD premium display (1920x1080) as a no cost option thru July 3 and an adobe creative bundle. Comes in black or silver and carbon fiber is a $50 option as before.
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644569397

 

I don't know how long the new Z will last, no more than 5 hours I think. I usually try to stay-up the night before and sleep-ahead on the cross-Pacific flight to start the jet lag adjustment early -- so maybe you don't need all 12 hours of showtime.

On the other hand, have you checked on seatguru to see whether your airplane has plug to use? It is better to use it during the ticket purchase, but if you haven't done so it's worth a shot to see if you are lucky.
Airline Seating Charts - Best Airplane Seats - SeatGuru

 

Took me a bit to figure this out too. When I set my resolution on the TV to be full HD, the edges of the screen were getting cut off.

If you go to Vaio Control Center in Control Panel, one of the sections on the left is "Display." Under that, click on HDMI Resolution settings. There will be two tabs on the right side of the screen. Set 1080 on the "Select Resolution" tab, then select the second bubble on the "Adjust Resolution" tab. That should make the screen fit the TV.

 

Just finished playing a game on the Z for the first time.

Played Call of Duty 4 for about 1.5 hours on my TV via HDMI Out. 330m handled it pretty well. I had to adjust the resolution to 1600x900 for me to be satisfied with the performance, so that's a bit of a bummer. But it still looked very nice. The GPU temp didn't exceed 83 degrees, so that's a plus. The computer feels cool on my lap, except right by the vent where it is very warm. Old news for many of you I know.

I'll try some overclocking this next week if I can find some software that works (I couldn't get RivaTuner to work). My current 3DMark06 score with stock settings was 6241.

One thing that has annoyed me (really my only complaint thus far) is how hardware monitoring software disrupts some operations. When I run HWMonitor to monitor temps, the hybrid graphic system is effected. I also lose the ability to control the brightness and audio manually through the Fn key. My power plans also ignore the brightness presets. I know others have experienced this too. An unfortunate flaw, but one I can easily live with (compared to other potential flaws).

 

CoD4 runs on 1080p easily here, but i overclocked it to ''stock'' GT330M. You can use EVGA Precision for overclocking your card.

Hmm mine always picks the brightness of the power profiles. Although i sometimes have the problem of can't change the brightness. But a quick graphic switch fixes that so not a really big deal hehe.

 

thanks, the options are grayed out when im not connected to hdmi, but will try it again when i go to my friends in a day or two (dont have an hdtv )

 

Does anybody know what the difference between the z11 and z12 is? I looked at both of them side by side today and they look the same. I know the z12 can be had with a full hd display and costs more but other than that what other difference is there? Maybe something internal?
Does the hd display actually have "super-crisp hi-def detail, richer colors and brighter display" as they claim? I would imagine the 1920x1080 res has a very small font on a 13.1 screen. You would have to bump the dpi up more that the 125% it is for the 1600x900.

 

Yup. Those options will be grayed out if you're not connected to an HD TV or monitor. If you have the 1600x900 res Z, those options will also be grayed out if you are using dual monitor mode (both Z screen and TV active). It took me awhile to figure out that I had to ONLY be transmitting via HDMI Out to the TV before those options would become available.

 

There's some additional Adobe software included with the Z12. Nothing of interest to me personally, so I didn't really take note of what exactly it is.

There is also a CTO option for the full HD screen, as you mentioned. And there is a new color: granite. That's about it. Hardware-wise, they are using the same parts.

 

One of the colours listed is Metal Shield...what exactly is this?

 

Does anybody know how much more battery life i can get on the i5? I just don't want to regret not ordering the i7 later on

 

The difference is really small. Go with i7.Both are very speedy though.

 

So what games can/can't run on the Vaio? Many people seem to differing opinions towards this.

 

I went ahead picked the i7, as long as I get more that 1:30 I will be happy lol (my Lenovo eats power)

 

i don't know if this has been answered yet...i've searched all over:
is the palmrest still the same piece of plastic from the z11?

 

Do you guys think that Blu drive is worth it for the price? I mean is it even region free? I've also heard its unable to burn dual layered discs, is this true?


It seems $500 is a bit steep. And if you were to take out the blu drive, would the full HD screen still be worth it?

Also, other than size, what are the benefits of having a 256gb over 128gb?

Thanks!

 

I think you are wrong.
I hear you in that i did not expect stellar GPU performance from my vaio-z. As I said, its NOT due to lack of performance of the hardware, its because of bad thermal design.
I DO however expect stability. Whats the point putting a GT330m if its not able to cope with the heat it generates? To me thats a designflaw, and false marketing. They must have been aware of the problem since they downclocked it from stock already at the factory. Im OK with that, that was all stated and clear before i bought it. But that it cant even handle load???
I mean, if you go for a higher specced CPU model in the Z line, dont you expect higher performance?

Your comparison with liquidcooling etc. is ridiculus but not completely off.
Thats what i feel like now, that i bought an unstable overclocked system which i cannot trust handle 100% load.

Very dissapointed if they dont fix this.

*sorry failed to include quote to whom I answered, it is not a reply to last comment. sorry*

 

The VAIO z12 claims to now had quad RAID 0 for the 256 gb configuration (or as Sony USA advertises, 128x2 gb).

As for the RAID 0 configuration for the SSD. What speed differences are we looking at for dual v. tri v. quad RAID? I understand that for daily processes with small reads and writes, there will be no noticable difference. How about for large files and very large files? (Let's say around 700 mb and 5 gb respectively).

Am I looking at a reasonable upgrade from 128 gb to 256 gb? I don't really care about the storage size as I do about the overall speed of the machine.

Also, I just wanted to get a general consensus of whether the 1920x1080 resolution is has readable text or not at the default dpi. And does increasing the dpi to 125% create distortions for web page layouts and such?

For example, on YouTube, would the video be the same size on the screen at both the 100% dpi and 125% dpi--so that 125% would basically be zoomed in? Or would 125% just increase the sizes of all the fonts, (and possibly images also?) creating abnormal text flow around the videos and images?