Everday use: Sony Vaio TZ vs Z

Just a quick question. I am using a Vaio TZ (1.33 ghz, 2gb ram, and 64gb ssd) with W7 and for the most part it works well for what I do - ms office, websurfing, skype, movies (just watching), and some statistical analysis (SAS, STATA, MATLAB). Screen is not a problem. Slightly slow loading up some pages on IE and Firefox but not sure if its the browser or my laptop. Anyways, would I notice any huge improvements if I switch this for the new Vaio Z I5? Seeing if a purchase is justified. Thanks in advance.

 

It all comes down to the end user - what do you use the lappie mostly for?
And if I was to analyse what you have said above...

Matlab, CPU-heavy software. Movies, doesn't matter if you are watching, encoding, whatever, heavily dependant on DXGA ( DirectX Graphics Accelerator) in W7 and thus on the GPU. DXGA is a feature on W7 and not a Vista, as the name suggests, works by giving the GPU a load of video tasks which the Intel 4500MHD is not the best at...

Basically, the i5 versions of the Z would be a pretty decent performance upgrade over the UL CPUs that the TZ come with. I would prefer i7 myself (since I do Visual Studio AND Matlab sometimes).

Movie watching on W7 is alot, ALOT better with the Z (new or old). The nVidia GPU would get rid of all lags you would see on the TZ, and will easily support 720p to 1080p videos without a cough, which can't be said with the TZ and the Intel graphics it comes with.

Internet Explorer loading slowly is the sign that you MAY need a replacement. As software keeps advancing, it gets more and more demanding on exisiting hardware. Basically, its indicative of your TZ aging. Recent machines wouldn't notice this since their hardware would be rather up-to-date for the next few years at least.

I would keep the TZ provided it still does what it needs to do without too many issues. I would replace it if it starts crapping out with some apps that you really need. The Z would be a huge jump in performance and price mind you, so you got to get that budget / performance ratio right and find out whether the new Z is a worth-while upgrade.

Provided you don't watch high-end videos too much and scripting isn't high on your agenda, the TZ would last you another 2 to 3 years without too many issues. I mean, you read of people here with the TX series running W7, and they are still going strong.

If you watch .mkv videos, then my banner would tell you to get CCCP since that is the most light-weight codec pack out there. As for internet browsers, I can't really recommend one (Chrome used to be pretty light-weight when it first came out, now it seems to consume more RAM than IE8)

 

RAM is there to be used though.

 

The TZ goes upto 2GB max. That coupled with a UL CPU (and sometimes graphics processors when running stuff like Youtube), will result in lags. Think the P series trying to play 720p clips, just a wee bit faster.

The TZ is / was pretty over-priced despite the specs it offered (apart from the light-weight chassis and carbon fibre construction). Basically you would see netbooks (with the newer Pinehill CPUs) out-doing the TZ these days...

If the lags to get on your nerve, I would suggest using the XP downgrade disc and using XP on the TZ. I'm a fan of XP myself but work requires me to use Vista or higher (...hmm...)

 

Thats a harsh statement. Ive got a vaio P and my girlfriend has a vaio x and my TZ is much faster then both...... To me the atoms is just for light web browsing. any more then 10taps open it sllllllooooowwsss. down.....

 

Argh... My bad. I myself ended up paying a grand extra for my Z so I guess I don't have the right to say that~~

I guess the TZ has an advantage over the Atoms in the X and P series since the TZ actually has dual cores, whereas the P and X series have Atoms with HyperThreading (with one core only). Though regardless, the performance benefit on the TZ won't be alot over he P and X series. I actually find it harsh that Sony loaded the TZ with Vista in the first place...

But like I said, the newer Pinehills Atoms (was it Pinetrail, I don't remember now!) would / should be able to outpower the UL CPU found on the TZ without too much of an issue.

The i7 versions of the Z; that will blow pretty much every darn laptop on the market out of the water, in and out of its class.