Is Z series user upgradable?

Can a person easily install more memory and/or a bigger hard drive in a Z? I know with my TZ it was impossible without a degree in electrical engineering, so I'm hoping the Z improves on that experience.

 

Its pretty simple, you just remove the keyboard and the harddrive is right there secured by 2 simple screws

 

But remember it voids the warranty.

 

I can't see why it void the warranty...in fact, I've opened up and replaced the hard drive in my previous Z590 vaio, and when I had power problems, I sent it in, and the warranty was still valid.

They can't tell if you open up the machine or not either...so I wouldn't even know how they would know or why it would void the warranty.

 

Odd, I though it was mentioned before...

Well...If they wanted they technically could look at the model of the HDD and compare to the stock drive I suppose...

 

Technically, it is true that if one opens up the machine & swaps the HDD, the whole warranty will be voided. I believe this is what Sony says. However, IMHO, whether this will still "apply" depends on 2 things:

1) How anal the service technician is in trying to fork out unauthorized "servicing" of the notebook
2) How careful one is at doing the HDD swap themselves, making sure that no connections are damaged or leaving signs of tempering

Another thing is that in the U.S. markets, the Vaio Z notebooks do not have any kind of stickers inside the notebook that will show signs of tempering if one works on it. However, the Vaio Z notebooks sold in other markets/regions do have some stickers attached on "strategic" locations of the notebook to deter any form of tempering.

 

how about the processor?
i see there is a service on ebay.
anyone have any experience or guides?

 

Processors probably you can do it, But this would definitely void the warranty... quite obvious when the heatsink paste is different to stock...

Also processors are usually expensive to replace... going with a SSD costs less and provides more "benefits" depending on what you do.

 

Diassembling to get to CPU requires a lot of work, patience, and agility (and service manual, of course). I've been through almost complete disassemble with my Z and I don't want to do it again. I disassembled my previous Asus, Acer, Compaq, Fujitsu multiple times and it was fun. With Z I am afraid to break or bend some delicate part and have a dud on my hands.

But HD is reasonably accessible in Z to do it once or twice. Again, with Asus or Acer 15" laptops I've been swapping HDs frequently to run various testloads until I installed virtual machine

RAM is very easy to replace in Z so long as you remember that it's DDR3 only.

 

CPU is hard to do on the Z, as I've also disassembled the entire machine before....a total of 6 times, on 2 different Zs to do some various mods.

I would not recommend doing a CPU swap as it involves heavy handling of the motherboard, and complete dis-connection of every wire involved with the motherboard.

Hard drive is easy, like I said, it's secured in by 2 screws