Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Thanks for the responses guys.

I went ahead and manually installed all the available updates on the support site. I figured I'd install them all and the ones I don't like in the future, just uninstall. Is this the same method you guys approached?

Is this all I need to do in getting it up to scratch? The rest relies more on preference than anything else, right? Like brightness, software installation, or display settings.

 

Thanks for all the responses guys!!!

I have finally ordered the Sony Z12 + i7

Thanks

 

for those who has i7, how long it lasts on battery? just normal surfing with wifi on.

 

^ I would like to know that too please.

 

^approximately 4 hours, 4.5 max, with screen brightness on medium.

 

hmmm.. you are not using the autobrightness right? i can only get max 3hrs on battery but i us auto brightness..

 

^Nope, I have turned off auto brightness.

 

I agree.

Am using auto brightness & 3hrs is max with standard battery.

Cheers.
T

 

I am using auto brightness but also have brightness value set manually.

I assumed that auto Brightness works on a percentatge adjustment based on the level you set - am I right ?

(eg. If auto brigthness is set to on & brigthness is set to 90% manually, I had assumed auto brightness would auto adjust to max of the 90% set, always lover no higher)

Cheers,
T

 

I have no idea to be honest. I turned it off as it would keep adjusting quite frequently. It can't be good for the screen!

 

Just order Sony Vaio Z12X9E/X.
Do you have some suggestions about (128GB) ssd partitions to improve and minimize degradation?
Thank you very much!

 

I would recommend doing a search on this thread and you will find heaps of info.

However, to help you out:
1) Turn off hibernation
2) Turn off disk de-fragment
3) Try not to fill up you SSD - leave at least 20% spare space
4) Garbage Collection somehow replaces TRIM and keeps your SSDs running fine. So don't worry!

 

Hi,
I do understand why you suggest turning off Hibernation, due to SSD wear. However, I use Hibination about 4 times plus per day and dont agree there is a major problem.

Gives that even with continued 'writes'; the SSD would out last the Laptop!

(my older laptop with 128Gig SSD is now a year+ old & constant Hibination has not yet caused any degrigation.

Personally, I see the benefit of Hibination be much better than any slight wear impact,

Cheers,
T

 

oh ok.. i thought i have a bad battery.. my old Z can reach upto 5.5hrs with no effort medium bighness with standard batt.

 

I just want to tell all perspective buyers of the Z - the i7 model is just amazing! Fast, runs quiet (yes, so very quiet especially when you install stuff, you think it's not doing anything) and doesn't over-heat!

 

does your fan turns off completely when idle? mine doesn't..

 

Hmmm no I don't think so but I can't really hear it unless I put my ears right down to the vent.

 

ok thanks for the confirmation.. i wonder how is it with the i5 users..

 

Re: battery life discussion...

I've found that the screen brightness settings play the largest factor in the battery drain. I too recommend turning off auto brightness and setting the brightness to something relatively low while on battery in order to extend your battery life. I was able to get around 5.5 hours when setting the brightness at 30% and turning off the DVD drive, setting the refresh rate to 40Hz, and changing to 16-bit colors.

It's just a suggestion. If you like hibernation, by all means keep using it. If you're a user who is a little obsessive about the SSD, then turning of hibernation is probably a good idea, because it causes writes that you probably don't need to be making. Personally I don't really find a need for hibernation that often. I also have felt that the boot up and shut down time on the Z is so fast, that it's not cumbersome to have to do that as an alternative to hibernation. But there are of course cases where hibernation is probably necessary.

 

There are some adjustments you can make to fan use in the Vaio Control Center.

 

yeah.. mine is already set to silent but still the fan is always on even if idle. my old z does stops if idle. i guess the improvement of the new z concentrated on the aesthetics, FHD, i series procs.. not much on its efficiency in terms of noise, heat and battery life..

oh btw, if i set the brightness to 100%, the lower portion of the lid heats up.. anyone notice this?

 

Actually I think temperature control was a major focus for the new Z. They completely redesigned the fan. That also is likely the reason it has a bit of a whine to it.

That being said, it sounds like my fan is always on too, but I literally have to stick my ear right up to the heat sink in order to hear it. If I'm doing anything that requires silence (like working in the office or in a library), I feel like the Z obliges perfectly. It only gets noisy when doing something taxing like playing a game. And if the noisy fan keeps it cool (which it appears to do exceptionally well), personally I don't mind that tradeoff.

 

The next big discounts should come around late august to coincide with back to school...what do you figure the promotions will be like?

 

hmmm... By my calculation:

If we assume the flash is good for say 100,000 writes. 128GB at 300MB/sec gives 426 sec to fill the disk.
times 100K ==> 42e6 sec which is 1.3 years.

 

100,000 writes?!?!?!? Dude, are you posting through a wormhole from the 20th century?

Here in the 21st century, flash is good for 1,000,000-2,000,000 writes.

So for cheap 1,000,000 write flash it's.

1,000,000 * 128GB(137438953472) = 1.37438953472e+17 byte writes

1.37438953472e+17 / 300MB(314572800) = 436906667 seconds

= 7281777.777777778 minutes
= 121362.962962963 hours
= 5056.79012345679 days
= 14 years

If Sony use decent 2,000,000 write flash in their premium laptop, that would be 28 years writing to the disk constantly.

 

How did you figure that?

 

50.5 days.... mmmm; not sure that can be right, as who would provide a 2 year garentee on a laptop that might fail in such a short time.

many people buy power laptops (such as the z series) for video editing with lots of intense read/writes being a basic requirement.
Therefore, I would expect a minimum of 5+ years usage before any sign of wear.

Ps, to put this into perspective - a standard HDD has a finite 'bad blocks' table, that once full cannot be cleared & the drive will then begin to fail.

This is just my thoughts on the matter,

Cheers,
T

 

FireWire or (iLink) is a GLARING omission for those of us who transfer stuff back and forth to an external HD.

 

I need to use XP for some older programming projects (I know that Virtual Box can handle this, but...) and I was wondering if anybody figured out how to get the brightness controls (Fn5 & Fn6) to work with the 330M. When I use the speed mode under XP I get a very dimmed screen with no way to control it.

Any help?

TIA

 

There is Firewire on the European and Japanese Z. Its only in the US that firewire has been cut out. Might have to do with price point and licensing fees. The US Z is also markedly cheaper than the other two regions.

 

What's with all this talk about not being able to play HD videos on the Z? I tried searching but can't find the origin of this problem. Any details, please? Thanks.

 

well for simple troubleshooting purposes, did you turn off auto-brightness?

It's a problem during speed mode when one is watching full HD youtube/internet videos and sometimes the Vaio Z gives off a buzzing noise and the screen goes black. There's a thread on it somewhere in this forums(I'm not sure what it's called) but it's been attributed to some driver problems. However this problem isnt apparent in stamina mode

 

do any of you know what brand/model ssd and ram sony uses in the vaio z?

 

and also im sorry guys but i dont wanna read through 600 pages can someone comment on the build quality to say a macbook pro or the new envy 14? also does it look as good as these two laptops in real life? i like uniform thickness and the vaio z doesnt have that but it still seems to be quite the looker.

 

I haven't seen the envy 14 in person, but I can tell you the z looks way better in person than in a picture. I went to the sony store to look at the z and than went to the apple store and found the z to be sleeker. Plus the screen was nicer on the z. I was gonna get the envy 14 but I went to best buy to try the dm4 which has the new hp touch pad, and I hated hp's mac style touch pad. If you are willing to dish out the extra money for the z, I would def get it over the envy, but the envy is a good alternative.

 

ok cool thanks elmish im still gonna have to think about it more but youve def helped me out.

 

^

I have both MBP and Sony Z (at least had it for one day, will get the replacement in few days) and lemme tell you, Z is a beast ! Its super light and FAST ! If you want something fast then u certainly want to go with Vaio Z. and as "elmish1z" said, Z is much better looking in person rather than in the pictures! plus you get Raid 0 SSDs and a BEAUTIFUL 1080p LCD screen on Z

 

Thanks for the tip, but I can't find the auto-brightness in XP. I will say that when it first boots it's bright, then it go dim right before the log on screen.

 

I've owned Macs since the very 1st one. Let me also say that I hate Macs. So with that in mind, the Z is built way way way way way way better than any Mac. I do development on my machines, hence I use the CPU a lot. Macbooks are little hot plates. My aluminum Pro is unusable on my lap. I have to buffer it with a couple of magazines. The Z is really cool. It doesn't even get to what I consider warm. It's cooler full out then my Macbook Pro is at idle. I've already dropped my Z from about 4 feet up. Not a scratch and obviously it still works. Macs go bad just sitting there. Google up the failure history on Macs going back years. They are high. It's almost always the same problem. Bad solder joints. They had that problem all the way back to the 128KB Mac. Back then I used a soldering iron to fix the problem. Now I just go all out and use a heat gun. Many "dead" Macs can be brought back to life with judicous use of a heat gun or time in a oven to reflow the board. So is the Sony built better than a Mac? Yes. Not as good as a Thinkpad though.

As for looks..... I do love the feel and look of the Mac aluminum case. At first blush, I wasn't that found of the Z. Now that I've used it for a couple of weeks, I love the way it looks. It's a little jewel.

 

To note, i've had VAIO's stretching back to 1998. Off the top of my head, i've had

505F
N505VE
VGN-T350P
VGN-TZ350N
VPCZ1290X

I have not found Sony's to be very durable or rugged. I think often CRAPIO would be a better name.

Sony often uses plastic where metal should be spec'd and includes detachable plastic bits that tend to break off after awhile.

The Z1290X is the first Sony i've had that used all around metal and carbon fiber and I have high hopes for it's durability with no external plastic bits to fall off.

Up until the Z1290x, on every VAIO i've had, the plastic end caps on the outer cylindrical hinge have marred cracked or both. This is a huge nuisance since it's actually a structural member.

On the 505F, and N505VE, swivel based extended battery losts the ability to swivel and just free floated. Plastic cylindrical end caps cracked/marred failed. Magneisum casing was solid as heck with a very durale finish.

T350P was a step down. Liberal use of plastics meant that the finish got marred real easy. Again, cracked the plastic end caps but this time they weren't structural.

TZ350N. Probably the tiest VAIO i've owned. crappy build quality. under 3lbs but very flexible. Screen flexed quite a bit creating keyboard marks on the screen everytime I put it in my bag. End caps cracked. Rubber nubs all around display bezel fell off Rubber feet on bottom fell off all the time. Crazy glued them on all the time. Where the battery mount clips/locks into place on the chassis, it cracked off rendering a loose fitting battery. Pain in the butt w/the extended battery.

This Z1290X has the best build quality of any VAIO i'ved owned. No plastic doors or end caps to break off. Swivel hinge is now enclosed creating stronger connection. Sony's have a bad habit of developing play in the hinge area due to loose screws.

I considered a MBP since the one's i've had in the past along with powerBook's (except Pb G4 Titanium) have been really solid. I decided to give Sony another chance after seeing the specs/design and build of the Z. I'm hoping this puppy will last me 3-4years.

 

id say the new z gets about 30-45 mins less battery life then the old Z with a 2.4ghz

 

i agree, but i think its just that the power management didnt allow you to turn off as many stuff as the old Z. i cant set the power saver mode to turn off the memory card slots on this one. the old Zs there were a lot of things you could set in vaio power management.

 

This post triggered some thoughts and I think I linked fan performance with GPU performance.

Under Vaio Control Center's thermal strategy, by setting it to 'Performance' rather than 'Silent', I found that I can improve GPU performance. Now, when Oblivion's settings are almost at max and I roam through the countryside (where the stuttering was worst), there's just a hint of stuttering now. And the max temperature rose above 80 to 84 deg Celsius:



So it looks like the thermal strategy controls not only the fan speed, but also the GPU. Which makes sense

This also leads to think that maybe, instead of giving users fine control over everything, Sony instead simplified management by creating a small number of profiles that govern multiple aspects of the system.

 

Samsung and Toshiba

 

Is the SSD of Z12x upgradeable later?

 

no. its a proprietary ssd. can't be upgraded or replaced by a user.

 

Even the reported Toshiba SSDs in Z12x's?

 

The connector/interface is standard, but the shape configuration is non-standard.

Is anyone else in the industry using a proprietary SSD config?

 

Hi guys,

I'm a newbie here. I hoped you could help me out with a couple of questions I have about my new Z12.

I just bought the Z12v9e/x which is suposed to have a 128GB hard drive but when i check the C:/ drives properties its states '81.9GB free of 108GB'. That's 20GB short, and presumably some 20GB of bloatware. why is this?

Also I cant seem to hook my 1920x1200 display up with HDMI-DVI. It only works with VGA-VGA any ideas?

Thanks

 

HDMI works only via nVidia graphics. Recovery partition takes up 11-14 gigs. Formatted capacity is always less than stated capacity.

On a different note, should I refrain from installing the latest Intel graphics drivers/