New S480

Hey, has anyone seen the new S480 on Sonystyle.com? I was going to get an S270, but it looks like they are no longer available through Sony. I guess you can still get it through Amazon.com or Compusa, but I kind of want the extended warranty options through Sony.

Anyway, it looks like both models are essentially the same, with more options available on the 480. Also, the 480 looks like it has a dual-layer DVD burner available.

I noticed the video card is the nVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 6200 128MB TurboCache™ Graphic Internal. What does "graphic internal" mean? The 380 has the same card, but is listed as "32MB Discrete Video Memory, 96MB Dynamically Shared Video Memory." Does that mean the new version has 128mb dedicated video memory? Or is it just different wording for the same thing?

I think I'm going to get one of them this weekend, but would like to sort out the video card issue. Help!

 

It is the same thing with different wording. If all the memory is on the video card, there will be no "turbo cache" on the product title.

 

Wow, I'm glad to see such a direct answer; I've been wrestling with this same issue. If the video card is the same, however, why is the S480 cheaper than the S380, with the same configuration?

 

Sony appears to have "cheaped out" on the video card in the S380 and 4xx configurations opting for the Turbocache version of the NVIDEA card instead of the full version or a version more in line with what they used to have (ATI Radeon 9700 w/64MB dedicated. 32MB is dedicated on this card....96MB is pulled from system memory which can't operate as fast as on board because of competition with the CPU for clock cycles performing other tasks. The result is a card with nominally worse performance than the S360's 9700 but from what I've heard from people that actually own an S380 is still pretty good even for some taxing games. You'll likely just have to dial back some of the resolution and lighting features of the game not to have any delays.

HP ZV5220US 15.4"WXGA 512MB RAM 60GB HD AMD XP+ 3000 8lbs. (heavy)

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by azradaz

 

Understood, but I still don't understand why they (1) renamed it if it is the same, or (2) still sell the s380 if there is no distinction except being more expensive. Besides, the s380 hasn't been around that long. Just causing consumer confusion (at least for this consumer).

Nevertheless, it looks like the s480 is the "s" series to buy at the moment.

Thanks.

 

1. The name makes it sounds newer to the un-informed, so it sells better. Now, usually there will be an option or two that is actually different, so they can claim they made some improvement and justify the new name-sake.[ ] Since both are customizable, the one or two new options usually make no difference in real world.

2. They have to put the left-over S380 stickers and name plates somewhere[ ]. Anyway, the parts ordered before have to go, so might as well sell them. Eventually, those will go to the clearance and that will be your time to buy S380 -- since they are just S480 on clearance price.[ ]

 

Thanks, glad I found this forum of people more informed than I (and definitely more informed than the sales guys at Circuit City!)

 

Looks like one big thing about the new S4XX series is that they come with black or gunmetal gray covers- the black looks really neat but like all black objects, it shows all greasy fingerprints etc... and is tough to keep clean. A small thing but worthy of an upgrade.
Now if they would only make the keyboard better!

 

I had no idea it game in the gray, I have heard compliants that the black cover leaves lots of finger prints. So if you can get the S480 with a gray cover it would look much sleeker and cleaner. Has anyone heard about the loudness of the fan on the new S480 compared to the rest?

 

I returned my 380 and ordered a 480. It was about $150 cheaper with the same equipment. I ordered it without the nvidia graphics upgrade. As I said in the other thread, I'm wondering if it's not the nvidia stuff that's cranking up the heat in the S380. Video performance isn't particularly important for me, so I figured I'd see if a 480 with no nvidia heat at all.

I also have a Toshiba M200 tablet PC on order. There can be only one...

 

Um, based off someone reviewing in amazon.com -- the fan issue continues to be a problem in the 400 series..... [ ]

That's really sad because I wanted to get this computer and just bought a S380 that has the loud fan and was hoping to return it for the 480.

Can anyone confirm the heat/fan S480 issue?

Thanks.....And here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00092DUKQ/qid=1117435319/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1_etk-electronics/102-3002912-7297721?v=glance&s=pc&n=172282

 

I also want to get the S460. Maybe the person who posted actually owns an S3**, and just reviewed the wrong computer. I called Sony and the guy I spoke to was surprised when I told him that the S360's fan was loud. He said the S460 is a very quiet machine, but nothing has been fixed regarding the fan because he wasn't aware of any problems.

 

I returned my 380 and ordered a 480 (without the nVidia graphics). The machine has been "out of stock" the last week or so, no estimated ship date given.

 

Hi guys,
I've a S360 and got 2 questions here.
1) is the Mobility Radeon 9700 on the S360 using AGP or PCI-E interface? or am I totally off here.

2) I just recently installed Omega Driver for the MR9700 video chip. And I need to reinstall/update the AGP driver for my motherboard. ANy idea where can I find i?

Thanks a million!

 

Radeon 9700 is an AGP card, but I'm not sure where to find an updated AGP driver for the motherboard.

 

Thanks for the confirmation.

I no longer need the driver. I've just checked, my computer works w/ all the functions enabled w/ the Omega Driver.

It's a great driver... makes this machine support 1680x1050 so we can have a wide aspect LCD.

 

I thought the screen already was in "wide aspect". I've also only seen screens with a native resolution of 1280x800 so I'm not sure how you are getting 1680x1050.

Of course, you probably mean the external monitor, but I would have expected ATI to have wide screen support in the official drivers.

 

1st, ATI doesn't produce driver for notebooks, notebook manufacturers does (Sony in my case). And Sony's driver have wide aspect resolution for 23-24" wide LCD's. But 23" LCD's price is about double that of 20"s with DELL. And since most 20" wide LCD's natural resolution is 1680x1050, that's why I need a driver which supports that resolution.

[ ]

 

Not to redirect the thread, but I have a couple of questions regarding the S480. Does anybody actually have this yet? Does anyone have the S480? Those of you that said "Aye", is anything from teh 360 fixed? Is the fan just as loud? Does the computer run hot? I like this computer, but these are two big issues for me, and any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks
Arash

 

Look the only difference I can see is that now the Nvidia Geforce Go 6200 with TC will have 64 MB(64/64)dedicated VRAM instead of 32 MB(32/96) which was present in the S380 .And ofcourse the Dual Layer support . I am sorry I am talking about the S470 and not the S480 .

Follow this link

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?CategoryName=cpu_VAIONotebookComputers_SSeries&ProductSKU=VGNS470P%2fS&TabName=specs&var2=

Nothing apart from that.

Sony VAIO VGN-S380 --- Intel Centrino 740 1.73GHZ --- 60GB Hitachi 5400rpm --- DVD+-RW --- Windows XP Pro --- Nvidia Geforce Go 6200 128 MB (32/96) , its better than a lot of them out there.

 

I too am very interested to hear more about the S480
Truthfully I know close to nothing about computers[:I] and was checking all the postings about sony notebooks to see what kind of reviews they were getting... (I know you are probably wondering why I am even asking since I know virtually nothing about computers but I was hoping for some help!!) I really don't need much in my computer except for small size and lightweight (I will be bringing it with me to college which includes a long flight) and I really love the sleek, cool design of the S480 but have not been hearing much of anything and some bad remarks about some earlier S series
I have checked out some others such as dell, fujitsu, asus and others but have not found a computer that has the sweet look of the S480 or most of the other sony vaios for that matter...but I do like some of the Fujitsus (S6231 and S7010)
any comments would be much appreciated
thanks

 

See some of the posts labeled with S480 or S380 here and I am sure you can get a pretty good idea of the pros and cons of S480. Since you have checked out S series in person, I recommend you to go back and do so again, but this time focusing on the two most frequently complained feature of S: fan noise and heat. These two are the natural by-product of putting high performance computing technology in a small package, but you may find them too annoying, especially if you are not using the high performance.

Fujitsu is also a solid machine, with less problem in the two areas Sony suffers because it uses a much weaker graphics chip.

 

thanks, I think for what I need my computer for I really could go with something simple and less expensive...like I said the only thing that I really love is the sony's sleek design and also I am a little scared to steer from the well known brand names. Thanks for the input though I will definately look into it more.