Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Does this mean the sony z fan is always running and audible, even when system is idle and temperatures are low (~33C)?

(I just returned my Sony SR57 because of the fact that the fan was always running and audible even on silent mode and was hoping that they optimize it on newer models like the Z)

 

The 20% sounds like what it worked out to after the rep factored in the free theft coverage (otherwise, 10% for the base notebook and a further 5% for getting the extended warranty). I wouldn't expect free theft coverage for everyone, this was a special case and should be treated as such.

However at this point I'd even be satisfied with 10%. All I can get is a flat $200 off a $1500 CTO purchase (even available as an online coupon right now). Surely spending in the high $3000's could warrant doubling that??

With such a tight and compact notebook as the Z, the fan is really always going to have to be running at a low speed to keep temperatures acceptable. I can assure you that a notebook with the fan cycling on and off every few minutes (as many many older notebooks have done) is FAR MORE ANNOYING than a soft constant hum.

 

$200 off of $1500 is 13%+

 

regarding fan noise: I'm not a technician, maybe your right and it's not possible but I reckon when my system is in idle mode the CPU should not get warmer and therefore fan should be off.

btw. in my SR model there is a funny bug/feature which is known in several threads throughout internet forums: If I keep pressing a random button on the keyboard the fan goes off, as soon as I release the button, fan starts working again)
I find this very strange!!

You may try this on your Z, I wouldn't be suprised if it's the same there.

 

Except I'm spending at least $3720 and it's still just $200. $1500 is the minimum purchase for the discount/coupon.

 

The CPU is always producing some amount of heat, and it has to be gotten rid of somehow. Passive coolers usually work on large heatsinks and convection airflow, both of which you don't have in a laptop. Basically the laptop has a heat transfer plate, some heatpipes to move the heat away from the CPU/GPU to the edge of the case, and a very small heatsink at the end to dissipate the heat, thanks to the fan blowing through it. Imagine a hotplate sitting turned on in your kitchen. It's not going to do much to the ambient temperature, you may not even notice it's on for hours. Now take that same hotplate and stick it in a 2 foot square closet and close the door. Pretty soon the air in that closet is going to be quite hot, because there's no airflow - no exchange of hot air for cold.

Of course the fan can run much slower in idle versus when it's working, and sometimes the engineers really don't ramp down enough. I have an old AOpen MiniPC, the original BIOS had the fan running at a horrible speed when the system was idling, and yet there wasn't much heat. People complained and they changed the BIOS - now it's barely audible when idling, and only gets noisy when it's hot.

 

So anyone tried gaming on one yet?
Just wondering how it handles temps.
And any 3DMARK06 scores yet? I want to compare scores with something else i have my eye on.
I know 3DMARK06 isn't the greatest benchmark tool but those are the only benches for the other laptop I'm looking at.
Thanks

 

Didn't someone post some 3DMark scores yesterday in this thread? Both 05 and 06.

 

Gaming performance should be the same as the F series since both uses the same video card?

 

The fan is always running and audible, although quietly. You could probably use some tweaking software to change the speed, but I wouldn't recommend doing that. As I mentioned before, the fan on idle is a bit quieter than that of the previous generation Z.

 

Does the fan emit a high pitch whining sound or is it more of a "whooshing" sound? I think I can tolerate a whooshing noise because my hp mini 210's fan constantly emits a high pitch whine and it's driving me insane.

 

Yeah, this is gonna sound weird, but does it make a hushing "shhhhhhh" noise or an almost vacuum "Weeeeeeeen" noise?

 

The current Z's fan is 30% smaller than the previous Z so it should help with reducing the noise as well.

 

The size really has nothing to do with it. Usually, the smaller the fan, the faster it has to run to move the required amount of air, and the louder and higher pitched the noise it will make. Small computers and electronic devices are notorious for this - a teeny tiny fan that makes a horriffic amount of noise. That's why a 60mm fan is a lot noiser in a PC than a 120mm fan, when they're both required to keep the system at a given temperature.

With that said, the fan in the new Z was supposedly engineered to be quieter, and although it's smaller I seem to recall that it looks like it has more blades on it, as well as a more refined blade shape. Which means it can probably move the same amount of air as the old fan, while spinning at the same speed or slower, which should mean it's quieter.

 

Hi, Hollywood,

I sincerely hope that you're right, but small fans must rotate more rapidly than large fans do to move a similar amount of air. This is often/usually the source of the "whining" that can drive folks - including me - absolutely nuts (that's why I only buy desktop chassis' that support very large fans). I'll be hoping that this isn't a significant issue here. We'll all find out soon!

Cheers!
Mark

EDIT: Sunfox, sorry for the duped posting. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

 

If Gillette has taught us anything, it's that more blades and more refined blade shape is going to be freaking awesome!

(Sorry couldn't resist)

 

Mark - no problem, nice to see I'm not alone in my thinking! I really, really hate fan noise - I have a shelf loaded with about 3 dozen supposedly quiet 120mm fans I've bought and then discarded over the years for my homebuilt PCs. My preference is complete silence, but I know I can't do that at the performance level I want, so I settle for near silence.

Chirality - yup, 5-bladed razors or bust!

 

this TRIM issue is frustrating... nice, basic SSD would have been a useful option. but then again, it wouldn't fit into their designs.

well i guess we'll see what happens when you guys all get your Zs... should be shipping soon? personally, i can't get mine til june, as that's when i have family coming over from the US so they can bring the Z with them.

prices in australia are just too ridiculous.

 

Hahaha laughing on the bus is not cool mate Keep your clever statements to yourself

 

Hmph, just noticed that my Z's expected delivery date got pushed from today to the 22nd. That's almost two weeks, and my Asus U6Sg is dying on me... I need to reconsider whether there could be an alternative to the Z for me...

 

I just looked on the German Sony site and found out that the upgrade from 1600x900 res to the 1920x1080 res in only 50 Euros, around $68 US.....that feature offering in Europe really hurts and its so cheap.

 

So wait, am I hearing that peoples order shipping dates are changing? I cant look mine up, sorry. Mine originally was said to be March 16th.

Has mine changed or were they talking about people who order it now as opposed to those that ordered it a while back?

 

I've been trying to find some justification for investing money into RAM, and I just can't find any real-life scenario under which Windows 7 would utilize more than 4GB, except perhaps some heavy duty photo/video editing operations... Someone suggested that higher RAM might be good for the longevity of HDD/SDD drives as they are not touched so often.

If I generally don't use more than 3GB of RAM would there be ANY difference whatsoever between having 4GB or 8GB on the new vaio Z (probably go for i7)? I mean any real difference, like responsiveness of the system etc... (anything except the good-feel factor, investment in the future, JUST-DO-IT reasoning etc )

 

This is where I get confused. What is the best way to backup those SSD's on RAID?

And how do you wipe the SSD's on RAID?

 

Actually, I would just recommend scheduling a basic Windows Backup so you can restore your files and possibly the system if the SSD fails.

 

If you only use the system for email, web, office applications and games, you're not going to use more than 4gb memory. If you do heavy math calculations, video editing, photo editing and so forth - particulary all at once - the memory can be useful.

Honestly 4gb is a very good amount for the majority of users. I have a friend in the process of writing an extremely calculation and memory heavy application (uses 8 threads), and he says it can't push his system above 6gb used. Originally he had wanted to buy a system with 16gb but due to the price of modules he settled on 8gb, and is glad he did as it really doesn't need more at this point in time.

 

Yes dude, that's why I quit that Gillette addiction long ago!!

The fan in the SZ was terrible it is much better in the last Z and I hope that these improvements continue.

 

If it's anything like the gloss on the DSC-TX7, I personally don't think it's cheap, it just shows all the smears and fingerprints left from handling it. Someone posted that it may even be glossier than that.

Congrats. Finally. Give us a full review.

________________________________

Does anyone know if SonyStyle will have the preconfig. models in store and in stock this week?

 

The glossy thing is the only thing I don't look forward to. I rather like the flat carbon paddern on my sz. This Z I am typing on is flat and its much better as glossy gives me an ocd of having to wipe of the fingerprints of all the time.
Flat is easy to clean and looks better

 

I called my local Sony Style a few days ago and they said probably not until April. -_-

 

Is it possible to add in a blue ray player if I just order the DVD right now. I'm thinking that since the 3D Blue-ray players are coming to market I should maybe wait until they eventually release one for the Z series laptop.

Any thoughts?

 

Yes, however it will be a lot more expensive than $500. And there's nothing really different about 3D BD players, it's mostly software upgrades (and maybe a new HDMI version, but Sony says the PS3 will do it, so...)

 

So the Z I just ordered with Blu-Ray will be able to run 3D if I have the right software? I didn't even know it was coming out this soon.

 

I don't know. There's talk about needing a new HDMI version, which if so most likely will not be doable on the Z (and 3D will *not* work on the built-in screen). Now if for some magical reason the HDMI is workable and say PowerDVD comes out with 3D software, then you'd just need to hook it up to a 3D compatible television. There's no change to the physical drives, and PC drives are capable of faster throughput than standalone machines anyways.

Hey man, did you catch your rep's name or extension?

 

Oh I see.

No, we were on the phone so long I forgot her name (I don't even think she told me her extension) - I was also on a cell phone. We had to keep repeating things because the line wasn't so clear. I think the 20% was very lucky and probably won't happen too often, if at all. There were too many lucky factors in that convo. But ANYONE should be able to get the 15% for sure. They only apply it to the laptop itself - she said they are not allowed to apply anything to the warranty.

 

You're right. I notice that they did not apply the 15% to either the warranty or the privacy filter I bought at that time.

 

And the prices for VPCZ119FJ/S keep falling and falling... now it's ¥183,790 (and it was ¥239,000 last week)...

 

I've read that the PS3 will only require a software upgrade for the 3D Blue-ray, so that could be good news since it won't require a different HDMI output.

 

Of course - all companies do that. They know people WILL buy the product when they first can order it no matter what, no matter how expensive. Now that it's been a while they're lowering it so regular peeps aren't blown away by the price.

 

RAM disk, create one with all the extra RAM that you have at your disposal. You can also effectively turn off Page File without any adverse results if you have adequate RAM. Both will decrease the amount of writes to your SSD, thus extending its life (less degradation).

With RAM disk, you can remap all of your Temp folders (windows, browsers, certain programs) to that virtual drive. You can even use it to run programs off it. It will allow you to access and launch programs much faster if it's loaded on the RAM disk drive.

The Z I'll be getting will have 8 GB of RAM. I'm going to use about 1.5 - 2 GB of it for RAM disk.

 

Wow mechguy,

I have never played with anything above 2 gigs of RAM but what you've said is certainly very exciting. You can do this for HDD too and the difference will be even higher since you're now running at electonic speed as opposed to mechanical speed.

I don't even know why windows uses the pagefile when you've got 2 gigs lying around. When I have any computer with 2 gigs RAM and I'm not running anything hardcore like games or an resource hungry imaging app, the first thing I do is switch off the pagefile.

2 gigs of RAMDRIVE...sounds delicious.
We should try to ATTO/CrystalDisk benchmark it.
You'd leave the SSDs crying...*laugh*

 

I would like to do a fresh-install on my Z and then create an image of the system. This way I can just restore using my fresh-start image rather than the Sony provided Recovery disc.

What tool do I need to do this?

 

How do you turn off Page File or remap temp folders? or set RAM disk?

sorry I'm not really technical about it

thanks!

 

I second this. RAM disc is easy to do and very very effecient, set up properly. There are several guides if you don't know how to do yourself. (One search on Gooooooogle should be enough!)

I'm going to go for dual SSD in raid0. I'll take mu chances. And if no updates will solve the issue/non-issue (I'm not 100% convinced there is a problem!) then I will do a HDDerase / filesystem agressive consolidation / AS-Cleaner / whatever I can to make it right. For sure it isn't a lost case.

This is a funny thread. It's the "official" owners thread. How many that write here actually owns a new Z? I know I don't. I think i've counted less than 5 people here who actually do. What happened to the old thread?

Cheers

 

I'm disappointed the here that Sony hasn't bothered to beef up the speakers. Luckily I recently bought a USB powered NXT soundbar in PC World (a store here in Ireland - also in the UK). I have to say the sound is really excellent for the size. No - I don't work for them

 

I don't really see what's the point of RAM Disk. Windows Vista/7 has superfetch which preloads commonly used programs into memory, and file system cache which caches files being accessed into memory. So you get all the benefits of RAM Disk but don't have to worry about managing which things to cache yourself, the OS does it for you.

What do you mean when you say you can run programs off RAM Disk? Programs are run from RAM anyway.

 

For disabling page file:

Control Panel>System>Advanced System Settings>Performance>Settings>Advanced>Virtual Memory>Change

Click on "No Paging File" and press the "Set" button. Click "OK" to everything and then reboot. Go back into it to make sure it is set at No Paging File.

Be careful though, you want to ensure you have enough RAM before you do this because it can lead to system crash if you don't.

As for RAM disk, you need to use a program to set this up. Google, "how to setup ram disk" and brief yourself on it. There are several different programs that you can use, some free and some that you have to pay for. I've used Superspeed RAMDisk on Vista 64 with good results. Not sure if it works on Windows 7 yet.

The use of RAM disk, when used in conjunction with SSD, is to off load some of the writes that would normally take place on the SSD to the RAM disk. RAM disk is perfect place to place temp folders, downloads, or whatever temporary files that you are not going to miss.

Also, why enable Superfetch when using SSD's? It is pretty much useless since data is retrieved instantaneously from the SSD. It helps tremendously having it enabled it for HDD, but for SSD, the benefit is not as nearly as evident.

Why install programs on the RAM Disk? Speed. Programs are accessed much faster from RAM disk than SSD and WAY faster than from a HDD. Yes, programs get loaded into RAM, but it has to be retrieved from the drive first. The faster the drive can retrieve this data, the faster the program will load overall. I run GIMP off my RAMdisk and it's blazing fast.

 

Thank you Mechguy - nice idea to set the Tempfolders to the Ramdrive!

How do you setup it, when the Ramdrive is available? Please give us a little "howto"

Do you have a batchfile, where you set the new Folders?

You all should also think about the Memory Dualchannel thing - with 4 and 2 GB you cant use Dualchannel Speed.. Only with 2 and 2 = 4 GB and with 4 and 4 = 8 GB you could use it.

About the Sound? I doenst understand that Sony offers a Handy like the C905 with very good Speaker Sound, and on the other hand built Notebooks with much less good sound like the old Z :-(

 

I'm confused. First you say there's no reason to use superfetch because data is retrieved instantaneously from the SSD. Then you say programs are accessed much faster from RAM disk than from SSD. Surely both can't be true? The point I was making is that Superfetch does what loading programs into RAM disk does. They both load programs into memory so that when you run them they start up faster. Except in the former, there's no need to manage which programs to put into RAM because Superfetch does it intelligently.

Also can you explain how installing programs into RAM disk works? Since RAM is volatile, don't you lose the program when you power down the system? Or do you install the program onto secondary storage us usual, and then everytime you start up the system you load those programs into the RAM disk? If that's the case, then it doesn't really offer any advantages over Superfetch. Superfetch also loads programs that you commonly use into memory in the background. Maybe if Superfetch doesn't do a good job of deciding which programs to load into memory, then I can see manually loading them into RAM disk may be a good idea, but I think for most uses superfetch does a pretty good job.

 

now that the new z has been out for nearly a week, when can we expect a refresh? by this weekend?