Customised Sony s-series laptop - which spec?

Hello, I am looking to customise a Sony Vaio s-series but am unsure about which customisation to go with:

1) Core i7-620M processor, 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm), 6/8 gig RAM, NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M 512MB

2) Core i5-540M processor, 500 GB Serial ATA (7200 rpm), 8 gig RAM, NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M 512MB

Is there much of a difference between the i7-620M and the i5-540M? I have heard conflicting views on this, with some people saying the difference between the two processors is negligible, others saying that the two processors are simply a marketing ploy by Intel, while others say there is a marked improvement with the i7. Benchmarks also seem to show conflicting results. Is it worth sacrificing on hard drive speed (and possibly RAM) for this faster processor?

There are also conflicting views with regards to the hard drives. Some say the 7200 rpm drive is noisier/runs hotter/is not faster, while others say there are no heat or noise issues/there is a noticeable speed increase. Does anyone know which specific drives the s series is shipped with?

I am a Computer Science student and will be using the laptop for programming in Java and C, as well as for general use (music, video etc).

I hope someone can advise!

 

If you are crunching #'s all day then the i7 is a bit faster. For most all day to day use the i5 with the faster HDD will perform better.

 

Thanks for your reply. Will there be a noticeable difference with the faster HDD or is it maybe worth getting both the slower processor and slower HDD? Any thoughts on noise/heat issues?

 

7200 rpm drives do run a tad warmer and use a tad more power than 5400 drives (depending on model)....but....programs launch faster, windows boots faster...I'd really go with the 7200 personally. IMO the 7200 drive is definitely worth getting. Every drive has different noise and vibration characteristics...7200rpm "shouldn't" be louder, but depending what drives Sony went with it could be....or it could be quieter

 

Thanks. In your opinion are there any other comparable laptops with the spec or do you think Sony has the edge?

My other issue is also screen size, I am worried that a 13" screen will be too small to do programming work on. What are your thoughts on this?

 

I think i5 would be a better choice because its slightly more power efficient compared to the i7.

 

Thanks for your help guys. I think I'd go for the i5 with the faster drive. I now have a new problem though... I'm considering a Macbook Pro!

 

If you are looking at 13" MBP you won't get the CPU power of even the S series. By the time you equip the 13" MBP correctly you get could a base config Z for a similar price ($1699). And the Z SHREDS the MBP in performance and just about every spec.

 

hey alex, where are you going to configure the s-series? i cant seem to find one on the sonystyle website that allows me to configure an i7

 

Well not every spec and not just about either. For example battery life or quiet operation, or screen quality or quality - and size- of touchpad, just to name a few.

But this misses the point in any case. This obssesson with specs is way out of hand. What you get out of a laptop isnt just about specs. It's about the day to day user experience.

This isnt about whether one "likes" one brand or the other. I'm about to get a Z myself, but honestly raw "performance" or "specs" was never the reason - main reason was that has a good screen and resolution for a small laptop. I have from my job work a 2 year old Dell 1330 and frankly I have never really hit any discernible limits on it. Specs are overrated in the real life usage of most people. Which is why you see all these CULV + discrcte GPU laptops flooding the market. So I would never dismiss the 13" MacBooks just on "spec". They are very well designed and built units for a good price, with outstanding customer support system. And that is worth something, given that even for the ordinary man, time is money.

 

^Usable battery life is a tie and the screen absolutely kills the MBP screen. Zero comparison. Apple wins on trac pad.

I'm also a mac user myself, so I'm not jabbing on mac vs. pc. But the MBP 13" gets crushed by Sony Z hands down.

Not to mention if you read the OP, he is obviously concerned about performance.

 

Unfortunately it's the Sony s series I'm comparing, not the z. How do you think these compare?

 

IMO the MPB kills the S My point with Z is by the time you go with MBP 13" and spec it out you aren't that far away from the Z...but MBP is cheaper than the Z.

Sony really doesn't have a competitor to MPB. S isn't as good, Z is better. If MBP is in your price range it's and you are happy with the $1200 config it's not a bad buy.

 

How do you think the s is worse than MBP when it has a faster processor (i5-540 in my customisation) and can be customised to have a faster hard drive (7200 rpm)?

 

Overall feature set and build. MBP has optical drive, better screen, better battery life than S, also arguably a better integrated graphics solution. The sony has faster CPU and possibly faster HDD (depending on how you configure).

 

The Sony doesn't have an optical drive?

 

It does, just checked

 

Custom Laptops, Build Your Own Laptop, VAIO : Sony

 

Hey Alex, what specifically drew you to the S in the first place? You mentioned being worried about the screen size. There are probably larger screen laptops you could configure with 7200RPM HDD and Core i5-540m that will be cheaper.

If you play any games, the GPU on this model probably won't thrill you.

I agree though that the 7200 hard drive paired with slightly slower processor (i5) is a better combination than the slower hard drive paired with faster processor (i7). I believe the clock speed is the only real difference between the i5-540 and i7-620, and it sounds like the difference won't be noticeable to you based on the kinds of things you'll be doing on your laptop.

 

I think a 15" would be too big and I can't find any decent 14" laptops that I like. I think 13.3" will be ok and Sony seems to have the best spec here

 

I did look at the Dell studio 15 but the ATI Mobility Radeon HD5470 Graphics Card put me off a bit, as well as the size of the laptop, and the bad name that Dell has in regards to support. The graphics card, however, may be better than the NVIDIA GeForce 310M.

 

Benchmark-wise, yeah, the ATI 5470 beats the NVIDIA 310M. But those benchmarks are just benchmarks, and your real world use may be different.

From my own personal experience, I haven't had a bad experience with Dell. I wouldn't say support has been fantastic, but not bad. They even gave me some significant help over the phone for a computer that had been out of warranty for years. On the other hand, my experience with just purchasing a Sony computer was absolutely abysmal. Don't know much about their ongoing support. It seems like for every story about great service with any manufacturer, there is someone who has the opposite story. Personally I think it's a crapshoot with any manufacturer.

 

Alex, sorry I don't know why but I was thinking about the Y series...not S.

MBP still wins IMO, as does the Z obviously.