Close to purchasing first Vaio Z - a few questions on pricing, warranty, SSD, processors

I'm nearly settled on purchasing a Sony Vaio Z for law school beginning this fall, and I had a few questions I hope someone could help with. I'm coming from a Vaio FW, but this will be my first Z.

1) Are there places / times at which I can get any kind of deal on the Vaio Z? Obviously it's an expensive computer, and many of Sony's deals exclude it. But I'm wondering if the Z ever goes on sale, perhaps during August for back to school or anything, or if there are any discounts available for students, etc. I'd be willing to hold off on my purchase for a few weeks if there's a possibility Sony would run sales/promotions on the Z anytime soon.

2) I'd like to have this computer covered by warranty for the full 3 years of law school, but 3 year warranties through Sony are quite expensive at $250 without ADH and $400 with ADH. Are there any other options or solutions out there? Squaretrade looks unfortunately to only be about $50 cheaper - for that small difference I'd just go with Sony.

3) Is there much of a difference in speed/performance between the 128 GB and 256 GB SSD options on the Z? For example on the Series 9, the Sandisk U100 128 GB SSD is an extremely slow performer, and the 256 GB LITEON drive is much better. Just wondering if there'd be any reason beyond just storage space to move up from the 128 GB SSD. I haven't found many reviews for the 2012 Vaio Z so I haven't been able to see many benchmarks on this.

4) Most of the other computers I'm considering have ULV processors. Can someone tell me how performance will differ in everyday usage (word processing, spreadsheets, web browsing) between for example the full voltage i5-3210M in the Z and the i5-3427U and i7-3517U in many ultrabooks? How would those rank in speed/performance observable to an everyday user?

Thanks in advance for all your help!

 

Hello!

I bought the Z2 last year and before I owned the Z1. I have to say that both machines are feeling very fragrant, but are very stury. Both crashed down on the floor and everthing works

The SSD speed ist I think nearly the Same on the 128 and 256 configuration. They are both Samsung SSD´s with Sata 3 speeds! I choose the 128 and bought 2 32 gb micro sd cards with a memory stick adaptor. Much cheeper than the upgrade. EVen some guy in this forum have a small 2,5 external HDD in the Bag.
When you want to save money go for the 128!

I think for the every day use the SSD is more important than the cpu. When I compare the feeling from my Z to an Macbook air, it feels like the same (Z is a bit faster because of Raid 0!).
The more powerful CPU and GPU takes their oppertunity over the ULV combinations when you do picture or video editing or playing games. The Z GMA4000HD has higher clock speeds!

I think when you can buy the Z with a student discount for about 1400 Euro it is in the smallest configuration faster than the ultrabooks and I think more future proof!