Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Tell me about it, it is a movie totally for teenage girls. I should have tried Star Trek.

I wonder if anyone with i520 can do a similar test for us? I wonder how low the power consumption will be. If during the light usage, the power consumption is around 12w, then I'll switch! Asus just delivered a new notebook with i5 and it lasts for 8 hours for normal usage! 1.3Kg. I'm starting to see it is really not worthy to have this $3300 notebook.

 

The opinion one has of the fan is entirely subjective upon he enviroment one uses it in. When I go home, in the living room I hear the fridge in the kitchen over the sonys fan, but when I go to school or work or my bedroom where it's perfectly quiet, the z sounds like my fridge, only higher pitched. Drives me nuts. It's not loud persay, but the frequency is horrible.

 

Everything has plusses and minuses. If you use the Asus you will find things about it that you like and that you don't like, same with the Z, and any other laptop you buy. Just find one that fits your needs then figure out ways to deal with the inevitable minor annoyances.

Know that you would have been happy with a whole lot less capability/battery life/speed... just a few years ago and that we will demand even more and tolerate even less in a few more years.

 

Just received my VPCZ11Z9E/B. I am creating recovery discs now, and would like to confirm the following:

1. Once the recovery discs are created, do I need the recovery partition for anything? I assume I can delete it without any possible problems.

2. The Disk 0 (RAID array) is laid out as follows:

Code:

13.39 GB (Recovery Partition)
100 MB (System Reserved)
225.00 GB (C: drive)

I assume the only way to get the recovery partition to use is to do a complete wipe and re-install. Or are there apps that could move the System Reserved partition so that I could combine C: and the Recovery Partition into one without reinstalling? Anyone done this?

 

I wiped everything (including recovery partition) and reinstall on a new partition. Windows will recreate on his own the 100MB system reserved... If you delete your recovery partition make sure you dvd is working first and that you have all your drivers available...

 

Congratz!
I'm still waiting for mine, ordered last week... where did you get yours from?

 

So...when notebookcheck.net do their review they need to ensure that alongside decibel measurement, they also need to report the frequency and supply .wav samples to see if it offendeth thee...

 

lol... Oh No! Are you still within the 30-Days?

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Re: Fan Noise - Would you say the pitch would be bothersome on Red-Eye Flights/All-Nighter to those trying to get some sleep?

 

Yes, I have the support raked at about a 25 degree angle, for typing comfort. I am contemplating purchasing the docking station and I think the angle on that is only about 15 degrees or so.

As to the wear issue, there are probably several schools of thought. I would prefer to subscribe to the one that says these things ought to be able to hold their own at pretty much any angle. I plan to use this in trains, planes and automobiles as well as my offices and have to assume that it's going to handle it.

This was the mode of operation on my SZ and never had an issue in the 3 years I've had it. Ditto for an HP Z3000 unit I had for 3 years.

In fact the only laptop fan problem I've ever had is with one of my wife's old Toshibas. And hers was always used flat on her desk!

 

Could you please tell us why you rather have a Asus then your sony laptop? I really love my laptop, sure the fan isnt as quiet as my previous laptop. But I like the two graphics cards, the design, the weight, the looks, the full HD screen. Should I continue? I bet Asus laptops don't have this.

 

Since I created the recovery DVD's, they should have all the necessary drivers, shouldn't they? I was planning to do the recovery installation so I don't have to fiddle with drivers (except the Intel RST of course). Or does the recovery installation recreate the recovery partition?

I'm still undecided whether the reinstallation is worth it. 13.39 GB doesn't sound like very much now, but it might be sorely needed at some later point.

Sony Center Helsinki, Finland. They have a 3-week queue now.

 

If I remember correctly, the new Asus is less than 1 inch thick and comes with Ati 5830 which is very powerful. I am sure there are things I don't like in Asus, but consider the price of a Z, it is hard to justify $2000 differences. Well, you get SSDs, but SSD price will fall significantly in the years to come, when I look back then, I may find myself stupid to spend so much on this notebook. Plus, if you purchase an Asus, you can use the left over money to buy an iPad, plus an Alaska cruise trip with your lover.

Well, I'm just whining, will make my decision before return deadline.

 

I think I answered it in the post above

 

Thank you very much! Is it necessary to install that Intel driver though? Mine came with 9.5.9 or something like that. I don't think #3 is for me so I'll skip it

 

Are you seriously suggesting it could bother anyone more than 3-4 jet engines and the constant buzz of air conditioning on a flight?

 

How did you even find this Asus PC? I can never find anything on their website. I try, get frustrated, and then leave. LOL

I think it is a personal decision. I personally like the SSD, because it makes the PC faster overall. Also, I would want to see the screen, reviews, etc before I could compare it with the Z to save money. Each person has to decide if the money is worth the better computer. And then how much better vs. how much extra money.

 

For those that have said they haven't had any problems with the fan noise, have you used your laptop in a completely quiet environment such as a bedroom? imo, the buzzing sound is very prominent in these conditions and I think is what is mainly bothering some people, myself included.

 

Well, my bedroom is not quiet, we either normally have a fan running or we can hear the cars and neighbors. So I think quiet room is also subjective.

I can hear the fan, I can understand why some would not like it, my Dell that I have used for the past 4 years for work is louder, so to me, it is not an issue. I honestly don't have a PC that is quieter than the Z, so to me no big deal.

Also, for those that this is a deal breaker, what other PC would you consider? They all are going to have some kind of fan noise and the more powerful, the more fan noise. In my case of the other PCs, the older they are the louder they are

 

On the fan noise "issue," I can hear it too. It is the main fan's motor (no perceptible air noise). I think it could be quieter as well.

Since the fan spins even when idle, it would seem that this can be addressed with a BIOS update to kill it when not needed. I think this would solve 90% of people's problems.

Anybody know if Sony has done something like this in the past?

 

This is the problem - there isn't anything else like it. Weight + amazing keyboard + amazing specs + SSDs, etc....nothing comes close. The acer 3820tg may be the closest we see, but at the end of the day....it's 25% heavier, horrible resolution on a glossy display and, well...you own an acer. The Z looks amazing, and I can't say i've ever said the same thing about an acer.

On a side note, this screenshot was taken after playing L4D2 for about 30 min....toasty. CPU highs of 93, GPU highs of 80

 

I'll go ahead and say it even though I get get dogged for it. How about the " old Z " series ? It's still much more powerful than most other ultra-portables on the market. If SSD is a must, just get one of those Intel X25M 160GB SSD's for it. Alright, I'm ready for it.

 

hey everyone, i just want to say thanks to all of you for all the work/feedback you guys have done here...i have been following this and three other Z threads here and i have to say, im convinced that i need to buy a Z...

now for the question...
in the US, sony style's financing options are to end today (presumably new options will come tomorrow). do you think that this would signal a minor refresh to the VPC-Z11...say maybe a VPC-Z21? I am not familiar with how sony does their quarterly model upgrades but in the past they have usually spent 3-4 months between each upgrade until they ran out of numbers and brought out a new product (VGN SZ to VGN Z to VPC Z)... any ideas?

and if there was a minor refresh, then what might be addressed? lower pricing? better sound? new sig. collection?

again thanks for everything that all of you have done up till now, i couldnt find if any else had asked this so i figured i might as well...thanks in advanced

 

Sony 24 month no interest financing began today. A refresh though unlikely for now.

 

konkrätsyleissöns! I got mine few weeks ago from there as well, not very common laptop in Finland.

 

Finally received my Z116 with 64x2 SSD. Will do a clean install later this week. Loving the laptop so far .

 

totally agree ! when doing light surf in stamina mode the cpu stays cool. no need to turn on the fan (plus, it could save battery ). But I don't think sony will ever modify the bios this way.

 

Having seen that there are quite a few debates going on about the fan noise, I cannot help but give my amateur opinion on the subject.

IMHO, fan noise is all subjective. The are a few factors to consider when comparing different experiences with the fan noise from different people:

1) No 2 things of the same item are made exactly the same. There is always going to be some slight variations between exact product items in terms of build quality/fit. This may contribute to the different levels of noise that the fan may/will make.

2) Different people have different degrees of quality in the hearing of sounds & processing them. This may be due to a person's age, how "seasoned"/"wear & tear" a person's pair of ears are, etc. This may mean that for a particular VAIO Z notebook, 2 different persons may perceive the sound the fan makes differently. One may think that the fan is "loud" while the other may think that the same fan is "silent."

3) The environment where the notebook is being used. This will definitely have some kind of effect on a person's perception of the level of noise the fan is making. Some variations in perception may be evident when the notebook is being used in a very quiet place like the library versus a noise place like a children's playground (when lots of children are playing)!

Therefore, my humble conclusion is that there is no way anyone can really & fairly compare one's experience with others' just by reading about it here on the forums.

 

Yes I do hear the noise and it does sound like a refrigerator but its not like that all the time and if I focus on it I do make it a lot worse than it is. It's not a deal breaker for me but yes it could definitely be improved.. oh and most of the time it is quiet for the most part.

 

I think it was announced a while back in CES, they just officially kicked off yesterday in Taiwan.

 

The fan is noisy, even in Stamina, I understand that. But what I really care about is the battery life, it is too short in Stamina. I wonder how those reviewers get 4 hours of battery life in Stamina with standard battery, that is not even possible with i7!

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 572.864 MB/s
Sequential Write : 424.731 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 429.344 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 436.618 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 24.917 MB/s [ 6083.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 225.851 MB/s [ 55139.4 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 236.153 MB/s [ 57654.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 359.460 MB/s [ 87758.9 IOPS]

Test : 100 MB [C: 8.9% (41.7/467.1 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2010/03/31 17:30:27
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

 

Did you find a good sleeve for the new Z ?
One that fits to the dimensions.

 

In my configuration (extended battery, i5-540, 1600x900) battery life has been fantastic. In unplugged "Auto" mode (balanced plan, automatic brightness control, screen at about 50%, wifi on) I'm easily getting 7+ hours of battery. In stamina mode /power saver/40hz refresh it gets north of eight...

For a laptop of this power and this weight, I think that is amazing.

 

do you think the screen at 40hz makes a big difference in battery time from 59hz or 60hz?
is their any performance degradation with with the screen set to 40hz?

 

Downing your refresh an switching to 16-bit color increases battery life considerably.

 

can you down just the refresh rate to 40hz and would you be able to notice a difference between a screen at 40hz and one at59hz or 60hz

 

Is there a way for you to post the wattage under each mode? I find it hard to believe that i5-540 is so much power efficient. In my calculation, to last 7+ hours, the wattage has to be around 12W under Auto, does that even possible? If that is true, then i7 is about 30% more power hungry than i5!

 

how do you check the wattage usage?

 

You can set the refresh rate and color depth in the Sony advanced power options.

Personally, I can't tell a difference with it set at 40hz. Movies play fine and other apps work the same. There may be some impact to games, but I haven't tried.

 

You can use a kill-a-watt to measure it. I'm sorry I hope I am not asking too much.

 

Sorry, I don't have a kill-a-watt to measure with - also this seems like it wouldn't be a good test, as the plugged in profile is different than the on-battery (though I suppose I could change that).

I don't notice a difference with 40hz, however, so far I've only lowered it for the switched-to-stamina-and-unplugged mode. I've assumed that videos wouldn't play well at 40hz, but to be honest I've never tried to verify that assumption.

 

does anyone know if its possible to customize a key to where it turns off the display when you hit it?

 

I spent a while tweaking the Stamina -> Power Saver profile and right now I can get exactly 4 hours playing 720p movies over WiFi with the standard battery. Probably more if I had them on the SSD and WiFi off.

 

Does anyone know a good USB to VGA adapter that can rotate external screen? Z's video card does not support screen rotation or at least I am not aware of how to do it. Please help.

 

Can you share how you did it?

 

Which model are you looking at?

 

Any model with i5-520 or i5-540 will do. I want to switch to a longer battery life one.

 

In that case... Just get the Z with extended battery. You'll be running 7 hours as well then.

 

All of our computers came with version 9.5. The new one, 9.6, is supposed to be better. How much better? Well that's still a point of much debate...

 

I don't know, I am sitting here reading these posts and the air coming out is very hot. So I am thinking it is needed.