Have decided to get a Sony for their overall good ratings and design

Ok, so I have decided to forget the Macbook, too much money for such little power.

I really like Sony, and I always have. Love their TV's, Camera's, and Movies hehe. So it's only natural that I get their laptop!!!

So I went to Best Buy and saw that they have these for sale online right now:

I picked only notebooks with a 2ghz intel duo processor, 2gigs of memory, and an actual graphics card that can handle games.

1. VGN - SZ650N/C - 2049.99
2.2 ghz, 2g ram, and NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS; Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

This is obviously the most expensive I have picked, but is it worth it to buy for this much compared to the ones below? Is the card good for gaming?

2. VGN - CR123E/B - 1249.99
2 ghz, 2g ram, and Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

Can I put a graphics card in this? Or will I never be able to play hardcore games on here like Total War and AOE III?

3. VGN - AR520E - 1399.99
1.8 ghz, 2g ram, and NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT

Once again, is the 8400M GT a good gaming card? Will the 1.8 ghz slow me down? How does the ghz affect Vista and gaming???

4. VGN - AR550E - 1799.99

1.8 ghz, 2g ram, and NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT

Is the card worth all the extra money for gaming?

Also, what would be the best choice out of these four? Could you rank them first to last and your reason why as well, that would be great.

Here are my questions that I can hopefully get answered tonight:

1. Is right now a good time to buy Sony? Is their production level good right now?
2. How does Vista run on Sony? Is 32 or 64 bit better to get?
3. Is it easy to uninstall all of the crapwear or to do a clean Vista install? I don't know a lot about computers.
4. How are these four choices for Gaming??? I like Medieval II Total War, AOE III, Fable, and new games that require a lot of power like the ones mentioned. My desktop can't play them, it crashes every load up, I don't want my Sony to do that.
5. Can someone explain the main differences between the CR, SZ, and AR's I have picked. I am kind of clueless, and sony.com hasn't helped me at all with this.
6. Does ghz speed really matter that much when it comes to games or internet or things like adobe photoshop???
7. Thanks for your help!

 

For real gaming, only the AR with the 8400M-GT is a good choice out of your options. It's a low end performance card that should be able to handle newer games at medium settings and native resolution.

Processor speed does not really matter in your case, all the processors you've picked are fine for your uses.

The main differences between those machines are the sizes. I strongly suggest you post a FAQ in the What Notebook Should I Buy Thread if you haven't already.

 

Yeah I have posted a FAQ, but even after saying I was only looking at Sony, Gateway, and Mac, I was still getting Asus or Dell suggestions, so I just let my thread die.

 

yea, thats kinda what i think

 

Could you post a link to the FAQ so we can see your other needs ?

 

Yes here it is :

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=170941

 

Well, I would say you should either go for portability, with the option of playing newer games at lower settings, and get the Sony SZ6. The best card you'll get with your Sony's is the 8400M-GT, which IMHO isn't a good enough upgrade over the 8400M-GS to give up the portability of the SZ6.