Buying top-spec F series in UK

Hi everyone!

I'm just about to order one of these - they seem a great deal!

I'm in the UK - what is the difference between the VPCF11Z1E/BI and VPCF11X5E? The first one is available on the Sony UK site, and the second the Sony Style site. If I spec up the X5E to the same spec, it's £70 cheaper!

i.e. - i7 720QM, 8GB RAM, 500GB Hard Disk

A few questions though:

I really want the best screen possible. Do these both have it? Is it Adobe RGB?

I need 8GB of RAM - is it cheaper to get it with 4GB and buy the extra 4GB seperately?

Is a 128GB SSD worth the £120 extra over the standard 500gb 7200rpm disk (currently included free)? Is the SSD that Sony include any good, or should I buy a 128GB or 256GB one seperately? Do they have a limited life span?

Finally - is it full of bloatware? Will I need to flatten it and reinstall Windows to get it running well, or is the VAIO stuff worth having? Are the disks for Windows 7 supplied, and are the drivers easy to find?

Thanks!

 

I can't help you in regards to the screen issue because I'm not too well-informed on the UK models.

However, in regards to the RAM, it is cheaper to have the 8GB option from factory than buying them later on. DDR3 SODIMMs are horrendously expensive and considerng how the world now is just out of a recession (almost at least), the prices of RAM sticks right now are not favourable for us as consumers.

The SSD, well, what do you plan on doing with the highest-spec F series? The SSD is fast at loading things (think booting up the OS, opening applications), and also at saving files (large movie files for example). But there is the obvious size bottle neck and price. If you plan on alot of file storage, I'd stick with the HDD; prices are bound to come down off SSDs this year with the recession over most of us now (RAM prices, maybe next year)...
SSDs and HDD all have some sort of lifespans. If you are talking about the degradation of SSDs, then I think Zoink confirmed that the VAIOs (the Sony Z at least...) has some sort of background garbage collecting that should help keep the SSD in top-performance nick.
For a speed comparision, your typical SSD is about 3-5 times faster than a HDD in regards to reads and writes.

All Sonys have bloatware. Not too sure about UK since it's region dependant, but my Z came with full versions of Photoshop and Premiere which I found useful. If you plan on using the factory OS, get rid of anything that has 'trial' in its name; they only bug you for your money when the time period is over. MS Office trial is good to have if you have a working key around (MLK keys and sometimes the retail keys work as well; Basic, Small Business Edition, and Professional keys are supported usually). If you want your lappie performing at the best possible speeds, then backup and make your recovery discs (suggest making 2x pairs incase the first pair doesn't work) and clean install a new OS with Sony's original drivers. Drivers are found on Sony's support site, so no, not hard to find.

Hopefully that helps you with making an informed decision; in the end, the choice is yours...

 

Thanks - very helpful.

I'm going to be doing lots of Lightroom and Photoshop work - but the RAW files themselves are stored on a NAS. The SSD will be my editing disk, so I'm more interested in speed than space.

How much do you think SSD prices will come down? Do you know what SSD Sony fits?

Can anyone tell me if the UK Premium screen is Adobe RGB?

 

If you are using a NAS system for storage, then I would suggest a SSD (plus you are only keen on the speed benefits...). All the SSD versions of VAIOs I've seen are Samsung branded. Out of them all, the new-shape Z has proprietory connectors making the stock SSDs impossible to replace (for now at least). You might wanna research that with the F series; I'm pretty sure the F series' SSDs ain't proprietory, but I've never seen a thread going over their SSD specifications..

I'd say, AT MOST, a 10% decrease in prices of SSDs, provided Intel releases their new SSD lineup this year.
I don't really have any evidence to back this up, just personal experience considering how I've seen PC component prices fluctuate in the market for a while now.