Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

is $1615 for the base model Z a good deal?

 

I am not able to find this. Anyone care to explain a bit in detail on how to find this? Thanks mucho

In Regedit:HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction\Enable -> “N”

 

Can anyone tell the difference? Testing this is a bit difficult, and would really require blind tests for proper objectivity. As for now, I just leave it on 40Hz all the time, since I don't like having the screen flicker whenever I change the power state (between 40Hz and 60Hz).

 

Any thoughts on the change in color depth 16 or 32 bit? does that effect the battery n any effect on the screen colors?

 

I just tried the Diamond Pro unit and it handles rotation. The whole experience, though, is not terribly exciting. Slow and not a great image at 1920 x 1200 x 32.

 

I am using extended battery now, only able to get 4 ~ 5 hours on Stamina.

 

Thanks, I expect it to be slow. I am also thinking of DIY ViDock as I have around 20 of Nvidia 7900 sitting in the cabin collecting dusts, these are retired cards.

 

I'm trying the ViDock 2 right now and the Z is not seeing the video card. It does see the USB port on the ViDock, but not the video.

I sent a note to Village Tronics, the manufacturer, but haven't heard anything back. (Not a good sign.)

I sent a note to the seller, SewellDirect, and they have responded but their suggestions haven't proved useful yet.

I was using an old nVidia 6600 card so maybe I'll go out and get something more modern, like one of the low-end 200 series cards.

 

Has anyone actually returned the Z cause of noise issues? Or anything other problem? My screen started jumping as I type right now. Everytime I hit a key, it moves up and down!

 

Wow, that totally sucks dude.
I just have the standard battery but I can web surf for 4+ hours on that.
Maybe is not a fair comparison though, you may be doing heavier duty processing in your 4h on the extended battery than I on the standard.

 

Is that your way of saying we are all just full of hot air around here?

 

I think that's an excellent deal considering list is at 1899.99. The only place I've seen it lower is Best Buys @ 1729.99 and MicroC @ 1699.99 (plus 5% off additional). Where are you seeing at for 1615?

 

I am surprised that so many owners have complained about the noise.
Mine has a I5-M540 and 500GB HDD and the noise is barely noticeable in a 'quiet' environment. The noise level is definitely much lower than the SZ series used in the same environment.
However, when cpu intensive app runs, the fan noise is quite loud.

 

I'm getting 4 to 4.5 hours on the standard battery.

The screen brightness is set to three notches (Fn+F6), performance is set to silent, keyboard is set to 'do not turn off.' I also have the screen refresh set to 40hz and color set to 16bit.

I'm just doing word processing in Word and Acrobat, browsing the web, chatting on MSIM, answering emails in Outlook.

Can you describe your normal workload?

 

Just ordered a Z11XEB from Amazon for £1595... Bargain..!!

Should arrive by 1pm Saturday..... WOOOOOHOOOOO..!!

 

That's not bad at all. This bit is, of course, wrong:
Quad SSD Flash drive in RAID 0 for ultra fast data transfer and file access
(as far as I know, the 128 isn't quad anywhere).

Edit:
This is wrong too: "VAIO Display Premium with LED backlight 1920 x 1080"

 

Don't worry, I know what I'm getting, lol... Saw the Quad error, didn't see the screen error, looks like a sloppy copy-and-paste from the Z11ZEB...

 

What is MicroC?

 

The fan noise is quite noticable while gaming, but usually I use headphones so it soes not matter as much. I did not yesterday just to do the test.
Can people post their stamina/speed power settings, maybe not important enough for a separate thread.

 

Can't play team fortress 2 without undervolting the cpu: it is too hot (85°C sometimes more) and the fan is tooo loud. With undervolt, max temp drops by 12/14°, fan is much quieter !!!

 

Valofel,

Does the fan still spin when undervolted and idle?

 

No, the fan doesn't stop.
But undervolting isn't effective when idling, it doesn't seem to accept my undervolting and cpuZ doesn't give the cpu voltage for mobile core. So, quite difficult to see if it works.
But, when under load (gaming), I do notice that temperatures fall. Also, the turbo boost doesn't work when cpu is undervolted. Must be why the cpu doesn't get too hot.
(I personnaly don't need turbo boost when playing for instance TF2. The game is perfect in high details at native resolution)

 

Is that the i5 or i7..?

 

it's i5 520m

 

My guess is Microcenter:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0330321

Original Price: $1,899.99
_
Our Price: $1,699.99
You Save: $200.00
SKU: 593012
Mfr Part #: VPCZ112GX/S
UPC: 027242790933

* Intel® Core(tm) i5-520M
* 4GB DDR3-1066 RAM
* 128GB Serial ATA Solid State Drive
* DVD±RW Drive
* Multimedia Card Reader
* NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M GPU and Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD
* 10/100/1000 Network
* Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6200 (802.11a/b/g/n)
* Stereo A2DP (2.1 + EDR)
* 13.1" Widescreen LED Backlit Display
* Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
* Silver

 

Have anyone got GPS working in Europe models?

I have Z11X9B and I have no controls in Smart network Program for it.

I also tried to uninstall this Smart Network (europe) and installed SmartWi connection utility. All I see there is Verizon Wireless, Share 3G with Wifi, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

If someone managed to get this working in Europe models please let me know what to do..

Thanks!

 

I read somewhere that nVidia card wouldn't necessarily work with ViDock, but ATI cards should work fine. Also, Windows 7 should support both nVidia and ATI drivers at the same time.

I have a ViDock ordered and expect it to arrive next week. More about my ideas in this thread.

 

Hmm, that's the one I'm getting...

How do you undervolt, s/w or BIOS..? (Does undervolting improve battery life too..?)

 

If i would have to guess, i would guess that there are no gps in european models, but i might be wrong.

 

Hi,

How is the possibility to find Signature Collection Z Series VPCZ11FHX in USA stores ?

 

Yes it should improve battery life as well. I would like if someone who is as expert in this issue, would write a small post concercing undervolting.

Is it recommended operation for i5's or i7's? Yes it should lower heat and improve battery life, but it sounds too good to be true...

 

bing cashback @ 15%

 

Nobody? The noise on mine seems to be too loud but I don't want to be the only one returning the computer for that reason

 

Maybe you should ask here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=418851&page=39

 

Maybe Sony has blocked this feature somehow, because in Gobi 2000 there is a GPS.

http://www.qualcomm.com/common/documents/analyst/Gobi_2000_ProductSheet.pdf

 

I have not started my work on Z yet. For my normal work load, I'll do programming in Visual Studio, listen to music, browsing, word, Photoshop, Acrobat, screen capture, powerpoint.

Right now, during my testing on Z, I listen to music, browsing and that's it!

Maybe I got a defected one? That is why I need someone with kill-a-watt to measure the wattage of your computers.

By the way, I have a i7 Z, with 512GB SSD,6GB RAM and 1600x900 screen, if these spec. matters.

Accrording to my calculation, the system power usage has to be around 12 watt to be able to last for 7 hours. I tested my netbook, it consumes around 10W!

 

What software do you use to undervolt? I really want to be able to do it to make my Z last longer.

 

I asked last time I was in the Sony Style store. They should be getting them, but it is anybodies guess as to when. All you can do is call.

Something isn't kosher somewhere. You've downed your refresh to 40Hz, yah?

 

I've set the refresh rate to 40Hz.

 

It´s possible to get a compilation of good and bad things from the new Z after users evaluation ?

 

Yes, I'm aware of the more advanced entries into this issue. I'm very short of time right now and was hoping to get an off-the-shelf solution before having to get my hands dirty doing a DIY project.

However, that may become my only option.

I'll try an ATI card. (I was hoping to stay all nVidia just from the standpoint of overhead, and that I would probably be able to upgrade the laptop drivers along with the outboard drivers without having to mod the config files.)

 

I think that the problem is in fact that we don't seem to have any software to drive the Gobi 2000 card, My UK Z came with some software from orange and
and orange sim already installed (which I would have to activate with a contract). I promptly uninstalled it as crapware so I dont know what if it actually did anything apart from let you connect to the orange network.

 

So I just received my Japanese CTO Z11, i7 8gb ram, 1600x900, hdd version (going to swap for Intel x25 soon), I opted for simple black cover and I like it very much, as well as the small vaio bluetooth mouse. Now I am in the process of burning recovery DVDs thru my external dvd burner, seems to take forever... and yeah it needs 4 single layer DVDs (Japanese Home Premium).

As I was reading the discussion concerning fan noise, I was worried a bit, but I cannot hear it yet...

 

Little bit unrelated... but I cant seem to solve this bug - I just installed Firefox and I cant see avatars nor names on this forum, installed both Java, Flash... any idea?

 

I'm thinking this is an April Fool thing. The colour of the names are the same as that of the background, if you highlight using your mouse you can see them.

 

If you select the names(highlight it), then you'll see them.

 

Ahhh!

And here I was getting ready to pack up and return my Z! (No point in keeping it if I couldn't even browse the Z forum)

 

I ordered it yesterday night ! (core i5, 4 gig ram, 192 gig ssd, carbon) in sonystyle canada 2053$ +tax.

But I read here the cpu and gpu was very hot after 30 min of playing (l4d2) !? Finally this laptop it's not colder than the new Lenovo Y460 !

That's a deception....I thank this sony Z has and excellent cooling system...

 

Hehe... I see, great timing while I try to make everything work just right, April Fool must not be very popular with customer/support services etc...

Mouse stopped working hmmm.... another fools day joke?

 

A popular website in Taiwan just published a Z117 review, their findings are consistent with mine!

During idle time, the power consumption is around 30Watt using integrated graphics with standard battery, which lasts around 3 hours.

http://www.mobile01.com/newsdetail.php?id=9082

I wonder how you guys make Z last for more than 4hr using standard battery?