The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Help me decide... Vaio Pro 13 dilemma

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by Steelcold, Feb 25, 2014.

  1. Steelcold

    Steelcold Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    28
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hello,

    I used to own SVP13 for about 4 months. Eventually, I sold it, frustrated by the whiny fan that wasn't very loud, but emitted high pitched sound that was kinda impossible to bear once it began to speed up. i got 91% of the price I paid for the laptop, which I find very fair seeing that I damaged the display (two pressure marks on the screen, not very visible, but still there).

    Thing is, I do miss the SVP. I miss the brilliant keyboard, the extreme lightness and the amazing triluminus display that - unlike Samsung's cold series 9 - is calibrated towards a more optimal 6500K color temperature. I actually miss it so much I'm wondering whether or not to buy me a new one, lol.

    Thing is, I'm kinda fed up with the fan, so please help me on the matter:

    1. Is buying i3 a better option? it has a lower TDW, so it might as well be cooler. I never used SVP in any other mode than silent, and 1080p was the top thing I ever used it for. i5 was mostly a waste. Is i3 more quiet?
    2. what about operating system? I see there's an (unavailable atm) option to buy an SVP with Win7, do you think Win 7 will possibly be less loud, seeing that the drivers for SVP13 win7 are actually newer? Or maybe it's Win 8.1 that's more quiet?
    3. I keep hearing about a supposed SVP13 refresh at April 2014. Thing is, models with ac wifi card are already available (in UK and France sony store), so what is that all about? Maybe the new "refreshed" vaio pro 13 will have a better cooling system, lol? It's probably dreaming but heck...
    4. What else can be done? I already tried limitting processor's max power to a drastic 20% (in powerplan settings). I also used VLC with hardware acceleration on = 1080p movie actually uses 3-5% of my processor that way... but that blasted thing still gets hot and starts whining, even if the total processor usage is below 10%...
    5. Will buying it even be possible with all that "sony selling Vaio" stuff? I want to wait until the 256GB PCIe is offered "for free" (like it was for Christmas 2013, along with 8GB ram), but IDK if that will ever happen again with Sony getting rid of Vaio..

    On the other hand, I miss the fantastic keyboard so much, lol.

    Such a brilliant laptop honestly, but ruined by the ridiculous fan...
     
    Steelcold, Feb 25, 2014
    #1