Fw11zu

hi guys and gals
this is my first post looking at sony so be gentle with me

my story so far....
using fujitsu amilo 1.7ghz >>> jumped upto alienware m15x 2.5ghz (returned for refund)>>> now looking at a sony vaio.

ok,i know its a drop from the m15x graphics and everyone is going on about getting a sager but before i splash out over £2000/$4000 again i want to check out the competition first.

i looked at the vaio fw11zu yesterday priced at £1,300/$2,600
its a very nice looking 16" laptop but will it do what i want it to do.
im not really a gamer but after playing the 5 games from the orange box i fell in love with the games and graphics quality. will the vaio stand upto those graphics with its indipendant 256mb graphics card or will it need the minimum 512mb graphics 8800gtx like the alienware has.

i also do a lot of digital DV edditing using pinnacle studio 12 and also using photoshop cs3. the 4gb ram will certainly help but will it struggle with the 256mb graphics card.

i have a few more questions but these are the main buying points so all your advice would be greatly appreciated.
thanks.

 

the FW can work with the DV editting and CS3. It'll be easier to work with with the widescreen screen.

What games were you playing?

 

I got the VGN-AR61ZU a few months ago and i was really dissapointed by its performance.. I sold it but im thinking of getting the VGN-FW11ZU with the hope that it will be better. The specific configuration is not sold in my region so i will have to order it from abroad.

I will mainly be using it for movie viewing so i guess it will be great. Maybe it can handle a couple of games too..

 

where do you antonisCy? how did the AR61ZU disappoint? AR is currently in the 80's so im guessing that model is about a 1yr - 1.5yr old. The FW will be great for movie viewing. It can handle moderate games or great games depending on where you live. Europe get the ATI HD3650, whereas in North America gets the HD3470.

 

MrDJ, you should be able to play your games fine. that model should come with the ATI HD3650 which is a little better than the nVidia 8600 GT.

 

i had a few games but for the time i had my m15x (returned for repair twice) i only had chance to play:
team fortress 2
halflife episode 2
halflife episode 1
halflife 2
portal

do you think the fw11zu would be able to handle these games or would that be pushing the graphics card a bit too much.

nice one,thanks for that.
i know after going from the 8800gtx there will be a big difference but i think i could live with it as long as i get a computer that actually works out of the box. and if you say the games would be playable then im happy with that.
cheers

 

your wrong. i got the AR61ZU a few months ago and it was supposed to be one of the best laptops in the market and it sucked. The newer version 71ZU is the same with the difference of 0.1 Ghz

At some places even , the 61ZU is more expensive than the newer model

I guess the thing that really destroyed it was that it couldnt handle the 1920x1080 resolution it was given. At lower resolutions it performed ok

 

i dont know. Sonystyle is up to 81 which was released about a month ago. I'm not saying that you got the model yrs ago, im saying the model itself based on the number would indicate its at least 6 months old, i.e. from an older refresh.

Most people I know that have a AR in america are happy with theirs so i don't know what to tell you other than hopefully the FW will treat you nicer.

 

my next question has to do with warranty and repair. if i buy this from a sony centre who are franchised and not actually owned by sony how would the repairs if needed work out. and what is the best warranty to get. after the fiasco of alienware and having to return it to ireland every time i would prefer to have an on site warranty if one exists. also a freephone number for tech support would be prefered so any sugestions of the best place to buy it from in the uk. (and please dont say pc world).

 

http://vaio.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProductCategory.action?site=voe_en_GB_cons&category=VN+AR+Series

we are up to 71

 

srry to hear that you guys are behind by a refresh of some sort. Well hopefully the FW will workout better.

I'm from the US so i don't know how sony warranty works in UK, but i'm guessing it will be something something close to how it works here. Here for problems we call the customer service number, i believe its free (can't tell since i have unlimited minutes), and they ask for a bunch of stuff and send either a fedex box or ups box over for us to send it to their nearest repair center. Once their done they fedex/ups it back to us.

 

thanks for that info Hinduemperior.

 

no problem, pleasure.