Finally ordered my 140

Hello,

I appreciate all the info I got here in this group. I finally ordered my SZ140

T2500 - 2 ghz
512mb of ram
80 gig hd
$ 1,814.49

3 year on site - accidental damage
$ 299.99

Extra battery (std size)
$ 199.99

Extra charger
$ 89.99

Shipping, Tax Order Total: $ 2,628.32 - according to my fedex tracking, it will already be here tomorrow!!

Then I ordered a Logitech V400 $40, 1 GIG of memory $160

I was very tempted to get the sz90 but that would be nearly $700 more for that unit! Sure I would have gotten the faster processor (I doubt it makes that much of a difference) the slim screen would be very nice though. That was really the debate - nifty screen or not plus slightly better weight and battery life. I could have gotten the T2600 for $300 more but it wasn't critical for me - rather spend it on a hard drive or memory or both.

I'll probably have a ton of technical questions by this weekend -

Thanks everyone for their help!

 

v400? not the bluetooth v270?

 

You should have consulted us here before you placed your order. We would have advised you not to buy ram from sony. For that same price you could have gotten 2gb's of ram. With DDR2 its better to buy ram in pairs. So 1.5gb of ram wont run in dual channel.

Imo you just wasted alot of money. Maybe its not too late for you to cancel your order, and reorder. I'll be happy to help you pick out a better confirguration for less than you paid now.

 

Well he maybe ok. All he needs to do is send back the unopened ram. From the way he listed it, it seem he bought the unit with 512mb (smart) and just ordered ram.

 

Yeah thats what i thought as well. But then $160 for 1gb of ram? thats high.

But we will see when he answers. I just hate to see guys get robbed by big companies and their overpriced items.

 

Heh, becuase I can't wait to get stuff, I paid $230 for my 2gb ram.

 

Tell me about it. I always buy my upgrades before the actual system. I have this thing with maxing out a system as quickly as possible.

 

MemoryGiant.com has 1 gig sticks for the SZ series for $99 a piece... its free standard shipping and only $9 to overnight it....

 

If I'm not mistaken, the V400 is laser and the V270 is a regular optical mouse. I've been dying to get a BT mouse but can't find one with laser. (The MX 5000 comes with a MX 1000 with BT, but I can't seem to buy just the mouse)

Anyway, congrats on your purchase boe, are you planning on doing a clean install?

Skrunch.

 

I got the laser because it was for a laptop - I would have gotten a BT Laser if I could find one that I liked.

I got the memory seperate - I've had good luck with Kingston so I got the 1 GIG. I believe when I put it in, I'll have 1.25 GIG which should be plenty.

I don't think I got a deal - but if anyone thinks they can get a similar system here by monday for less - feel free to PM me - I would certainly be open to saving money!

 

Yeah, i have some kingston myself. Its great ram. But simply put, when buying ddr2 you buy it in pairs. Unless your replacing a damaged stick. The 2 sticks make one whole basically.

So even with the extra 1gb stick, your system will be no faster than with the 512mb. You need 2 identical stick for good performance, which is why most people just opt for the 2gb kits.

Later ill post some links up to some good 2gb kits,

Theres even a good mushkin set for sale in nbr's for sale forum. And you dont have to worry about warranty when it comes to ram. They all have lifetime warrantys.

 

Not sure why everyone here assumes that you require two matched sticks. I've installed my 1 GIG to replace one of the two 256mb modules. Booted my computer and it registers 1.25GB in windows. Unless you people are talking about the speed of the memory in which case you are correct they only operate at the speed of the lower memory module. Of course most speed tests show even if you double the speed of the memory most apps will only run up to 20% faster (most won't achieve that increase) and since I didn't double the speed of the memory I wouldn't even see that much of an increase in performance. I bought the additional memory so that when I open apps that exceed my 512 physical memory it won't be thrashing my hard drive.

PS if anyone who posted that I got a bad deal on my 140 would like to state where I could have gotten it cheaper please don't be shy - I'm pretty sure I have up to 3 days to return it for a full refund.

 

Theres something about overall speed too. Getting them matched in size will also help.

 

The RAM will only run in dual channel mode when they're the same size. But I'm not sure you can actually notice a big difference apart from higher benchmark scores.

 

The things I've been reading lately indicate that these notebooks don't really get much of a boost from dual channel operation, as a single ddr2 stick is capable of pretty much saturating the memory bus. I think the only realy benefit would be with lower latency modules, but there really aren't many options there either.

 

I think the only suggestion that you got ripped, was about the ram. ram can be found for under $100 for a 1G module. look at www.newegg.com

 

THanks - I would agree 100% that I didn't get the cheapest memory that I could have. I'm not very open to trying new brands unless someone recommends ones they are already using. I've purchased 100's of pieces of memory over the years and had some good experiences with a few brands but many less than satisfactory results from other brands. Just to be sure I got the kingston although there are other brands that probably work just as well for less money.

 

Look here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144183

And newegg is a great online retailer...

 

dual channel is a placebo. has ~1% performance delta.