Choosing on features for SZ series notebook

I may order the notebook from SonyStyle since I don't need many of the features which are included in those at BestBuy or CompUSA. Basically I'm getting the 1.67 duo, 60gb hd, 512mb, bluetooth and fingerprint, cdrw/dvd and extended battery...at the moment.

I will order the one with 512mb in two sticks, can I upgrade to faster RAM later on and get the speed increase from this faster RAM? It is only a little more expensive to get the 667 RAM (or whatever it is) versus teh 533 from Sony...but if there is no speed increase I won't deal with it.

Does anyone know any increases in battery life with the extended battery, or at least a picture of it? Has anyone used third party manufacters battery with it?

Are there any benchmarks showing differences between the speed of the processors? If I go with the stock battery the notebook will only be 1500, and my budget is closer to 2000 so cost will not be a huge issue, but I still don't want to spend too much.

On a sort of unrelated note does anyone know if they're able to work on prices at places like CompUSA or Best Buy at all? The notebooks they have are slightly better deals than online (and you don't have to pay shipping either) but I don't need a dvd rw, win xp pro (I can get it from school for 4.50) or other things they have on them.

 

No one knows anything about any of my questions?

 

If you do a seatch theres at least 100 threads just like yours on the same notebook. And to answer a couple of your questions...

No, those stores will not work on price for you. You can only get them to beat each others price. And best buy will beat anyone on of their prices by at least 5%.

I bought my SZ120 from best buy ($1999). Walked in there on tuesday and got them to beat circuit city's price of ($1849) That was over $170 cash back in my hands.

If you plan on buying 2gb of ram, do not buy from sony. Get with the least amount of ram possible. And find the best deal between the various etailers.


Another thing is you can only get a custom configuration from sonystyle.com. But there are limit to what you can add and remove.

 

I returned mine cause of the electrical issue. I honestly dont understand why people not making a big deal out of this like they did for the carbon fiber , wich in my opinion was not a big issue like this one. I would stay away from a laptop that sends electrical voltage near the palm rest area.
I have been doing some research for a wile on laptops and i would take the asus over the sony, the sony only has 2 things going for it the looks and all the thecnology it has for an ultra portable , but im sure soon more laptops will come out with this functions , just wait , dont rush it on this laptop.

 

they're not making an issue of it because most of us dont have the problem.

 

Why shouldn't you buy ram from Sony? Is Sony's RAM just bad or too pricey? If so, what company should I buy RAM from?

I was thinking of getting 1 stick of 1 gig ram. Is that a good choice?

 

Too pricey. Also mixing and matching ddr2 is not good. Mixing and match different ram period isnt good. So just get the cheapest ram you can get from sony. And spend less than $200 shipped for a 2gb set.

Newegg.com
zipzoomfly.com

Are great places for ram.

 

So let me get this straight. You're saying I should get as little ram as possible and then buy my own ram sticks to replace Sony's ram?

 

Yes.

 

I only want 1GB of RAM, I haven't been able to find if the computer can take teh increased speed from the RAM, so I'll probably just buy it direct from Sony since its cheaper for their memory as opposed to buying it later on.

I have not been able to find out anything about the extended battery.

 

Are all ram sticks compatible with the SZ or are there specific ones for the SZ?

 

I think you are supposed to get a 50% increase of usage with the extended battery (e.g. if the normal battery lasts 4 hours, the extended battery would go 6). Of course, the extended battery is larger and weighs more. There has been some discussion about this on the forum, but I don't think there have been any definite comparisons posted yet.

 

Thanks. I think I'm going to wait on the battery and put the money towards other stuff, my current powerbook lasts like 6 hours on a charge but I've never actually used it for that long in succession where being plugged in would be a massive issue. Oh, and ProphetX, thank you for responding to my question as well.

 

No problem, always here to help.

 

Is there a big performance difference between two 1 gig 667 MHz ram sticks and two 1 gig 533 MHz ram sticks?

 

I'm not an expert, but from what I understand, I don't think you will notice a difference when you're using the laptop.

 

For what it's worth, I posted my times for both extended and normal battery using battery eater last night. Extended got ~56% more battery life than the standard battery. I'll be doing a thread with pics of it soon.

 

No there is no difference at all. The SZ will clock down the RAM to 533Mhz it doesn't run on 667Mhz to my knowledge.