How slow are the ULV Vaios really?

Hi Guys,

I was going to buy a VGN-G118GN/B (I'm not sure if this model is sold in the US) yesterday. However it struck me that it was really really slow. I tried to test some software I use and to unzip a 98M file (into ~360M of content) using the inbuilt unzipping functionality in Vista took 25 minutes. To place this in context to perform exactly the same task on my 3 1/2 year old Acer Travelmate 800 (1.6 Centrino processor) takes just over 1 minute... I was ready to walk out the door with the Vaio until I saw how horrible the performance is.....

Is this a true reflection of a Vaio with a ULV processor (G series or TX series etc) or is it possible that their demo machine was a dud?

Does anyone else out there own a TX Vaio and if so how fast (or slow) is it really?

Any thoughts you be gratefully appreciated.

Cheers

Stu

 

Try doing a re-boot. While Windows is shutting down, go grab a cup of coffee. When you return, Windows should just about be ready to use.

Funny thing is, I'm only half kidding.

 

Its not so much the processor as it is the 1.8" 4200 rpm hard drives they use.

Also, they will be much slower in Vista right now than in XP. The TXs with XP are noticably faster than the newest ones preloaded with Vista.

 

Actually I think it's Vista problem. From my experience unzipping in Vista was about 100x slower than in XP.

 

The G11 is not out in the USA, but the issue is largely a hard drive one. It uses a 1.8" 4200rpm drive. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

If Sony also put the ULV dual core 1.06 or 1.20 in there, you will see a bit better performance, but your I/O is going to be a huge bottleneck in most ultraportables. Very few these days use a 2.5" where you would have the option of replacing it with a 7200rpm drive.

With ultraportables, your tradeoff is generally power. They're not meant to be powerhouses. You pay a price for something small and lightweight.

 

It's just fine on my SZ, so it's not Vista.

 

Also depends on how much ram you have as well, Vista is a ram hog, 1 gig is the absolute minimum for it to really run. Recommend 1.5 or 2 gigs at least for smooth operation.

I'll guess the Gs have 1 gig of ram and your SZ has 2 gigs of ram.

 

The guys above are correct. The 4200RPM hard drive is what's really slowing the system down. Having less than 2GB of RAM is the next thing.

 

Thank-you for your comments.

From this I guess the Vaio VGN-G118GN/B is probably not going to suit me, and I will probably look elsewhere at options such as the Lenovo X60 which on paper has a faster HD and can hold more Ram.

Pity really I really like the packaging of the VGN-G118GN/B.

Oh well thanks again for your comments.

 

The G is rated at up to 2GB of memory so that won't be a problem.

Personally, I'm waiting for ultraportables to incorporate SAmsung's new 64GB SSD drive. Talk about speed!

 

A quick update to those who replied to my post. I went back into the store and tried the same unzipping test using a trial version of Winrar rather than the in built vista extraction tool and the difference was amazing. Using the inbuilt vista tool unzipping took more than 25 minutes. With Winrar it took just over 1 minute just like my old notebook.

It seems that Vista is the problem in this instance...

 

not just thta...the amount of bloatware on Vaios is amazing....Once you are done cleaning up your new notebook, you'll notice a huge performance boost

 

I think those machines are gorgeous. Just put in nough RAM (like 2GB) and a SSD and those things will fly ... and will bridge the entire working day on with the battery.

 

These ultraportables do have room for optimization, add a SSD drive, add more ram, use XP instead of Vista for now, etc.

 

Mine came with 2Gb as standard. And it already bridges the entire working day on a charge. The 100Gb storage is nice to have as on a machine like this I'd rather have a lot of stuff with me (my entire Exchange mailbox, some tunes to sync with my flash player, etc) so I don't want SSD until they get large.

It's slow compared to my other laptops but it's not unusably so.