New S560 arrived!

I ordered one of the new S machines last week and it arrived yesterday. I previously owned a S4xx a few months ago and wasn't very pleased with it. I sent it back due to the noisy fan. I was hoping that the new S would address my major complaint (with the redesigned fan) and a few others minor issues I had. It's been a few months since I had the last S so bear with me if my memory is a bit spotty.

Case:

I ordered the preconfigured black case model (VGN-560P). I think the blace case makes the S look a bit more sleek and sexy than the silver case. When unboxing the S the case looks the exact same as my last S. After opening the lid I noticed that Sony has been busy cleaning up the interior. The previously annoying mouse buttons have been fixed and are actually usable now. They are probably about 50% wider than the previous S and they sit flush with the case. They have a nice brushed look and click nicely when depressed. The case above the keyboard is now black instead of gray. The S1 and S2 buttons are now black to match and they are flat instead of having a raised section in the center. The power button is now black also. In between the S buttons and the power button are the keyboard indicator lights. Instead of having the leds mounted directly in the case as with the older S models the new S has the lights recessed under a single smoked panel. It now looks much more refined. The WLAN switch and indicator panel looks different to me as well. The overall shape is the same but now the panel appears smoked/mirrored. The WLAN switch doesn't feel as loose either though it still rattles a little.

Heat:

Well this is the important section for a lot of people including myself. I have to say that I'm a bit happy and disappointed with the new S. Let's start with the new fan. To keep it short and sweet the new fan definitely works better than the old unit. The fan noise is markedly reduced and due to better BIOS programming the fan runs a lot less. When the fan does turn on I can hear it when it ramps up but it immediately slows to the appropriate speed it needs (determined by the BIOS and the actual CPU temps). There isn't nearly as much fan noise...the actual motor + fan blade noise as the older fan unit. The sound is more of a quiet rush of air which is much less annoying than a whinning fan. When the CPU temp hits 60C the fan turns on and you can hear it rev up. As soon as the temps begin to fall the fan speed decreases. So by the time the CPU temp hits 52C (turn off temp) the fan is nearly silent. Nice! There seems to be quite a bit less cycling of the fan than before. As I'm typing this message the fan has yet to come on and it doesn't appear that it ever will since the CPU temp has been holding steady at 52C (I am running CHC and undervolting the CPU). So I'm really happy with the fan performance. The other issue that a lot of people had with the S is the warm right palm rest. The hard drive lies directly underneath the palm rest. Supposedly the new S takes care of that issue. Well I have to say that I don't believe that is the case. I've had this notebook on about an hour and the right palm rest is quite toasty (not scolding hot but quite warm). Luckily the palm rest heat was never an issue for me. I've owned some very toasty notebooks in the past so it isn't a big deal. I believe that issue has a lot to do with the particular drive. I have had issues in the past with Fujitsu drives. They seem to run very hot ... much hotter than even my Hitachi 7K60 hard drive. The Fujitsu's do run quiet but their heat output seems to be an issue. I would like to install my 7K60 in the S but the S uses SATA. If I decided to keep the S I'll pick up one of the new 7K100's if Hitachi ever decides to produce more than two at a time (I can't find them anywhere). As far as case temps the bottom does run fairly hot. You could use it on your lap but it would get uncomfortable if wearing shorts.

Battery:

If you have an issue with the older S units and the rattling battery you're going to be disappointed. Yes it still rattles. I obviously haven't had a chance to do any battery tests other than unplugging it now...it says 3:08 left with the display dimmed all the way down. I'm sure it will get better after a couple conditionings.

Display:

The display looks good. It isn't the best glossy screen I've seen. The dark edges (right and left side) are still present from the older models. I'm disappointed that Sony would hype these screens and deliberately sell a display that has obvious backlighting issues. The default desktop is mostly white so the first thing you see when you get your brand new notebook is a dark patch along the entire right side of the display. Shame on you Sony. Good news is that if you never have white showing on either side of the display you'll never know. Yes that was sarcasm.

This model does ship with an nvidia GF 6400. I haven't run any benchmarks. From digging around in Windows I can't tell how much memory is discrete and how much is shared. I can tell you that with 2GB of RAM the video card is showing 256MB of RAM.

Misc:

This wasn't meant to be a full review but just a comparison of the biggest flaws of the older S's vs the new S. If you have anything else you would like me to take a look at let me know.

 

Could you please run 3DMark 03/05 and let me know how 3DMarks you get? I'm thinking of getting the FS-790 (or whatever model it is in Canada) but I have clue how fast the GeForce Go 6400 is in 3D acceleration.

Thanks!

 

Personally I'd like to know what CPU-Z says about your memory speed, and what your Sisoft Sandra memory benchmarks are...

Also, I'd like to know what version of BIOS is in the 560, and if it's possible to save a copy of it to flash onto an s460...

-Robert Hildinger

 

So heat and battery rattle are still problems.... I couldn't tell whether or not you were saying the screen was the same, better or worse than previous models though.

 

He's suggesting that it's about the same as before, and it should be since Sony hasn't touched it. That makes sense since the S series has always used the one-bulb XBRITE due to its smaller size.

 

bet you to it pygo, already PM him.

 

OK, d'ling all 300 MB of 3d05 (thank goodness for FIOS). I also did a dump of the BIOS and PM'd BlinkSilver.

 

Correct, the screen appears about the same which is a bummer.

 

CPU-Z results:

Channels: Dual
Freq: 266.0 MHz
Cas: 4.0 clocks
Ras-Cas: 4 clocks
Ras Precharge: 4 clocks
Cycle time: 11 clocks

3DMark05:

1021

 

Thanks!

Isn't that a lot slower than the X600 Mobility? Doesn't seem to compareable to me. How dissapointing.

edit: Original post didn't make a lot of sense. Needed a little revision.

 

But doesn't the S series have a 64mb 6400?

 

Which is what I've been saying all along. Why do you want my BIOS? I've got a 4 year old computer here. (?)

 

Then I stand corrected. Wouldn't the new FS series have the 64MB GeForce Go 6400 though? Also, any possibilities of the graphics chip being underclocked for the S Series to save power and decrease heat? Its a thin-and-light afterall.

 

Can you give us an idea of weight - Is the laptop really 4.3lbs? What is the total weight with power adapter? I travel a lot and don't want to carry more weight than I need to.

 

a few layers of sticky tape will be enough to stop this

good review tho! thks

 

hey there,
Just got my s560 as exchange for my humming fs550. I agree with all cons (heat, screen, marked fingers on black chassis), but it is bearable and so mobile!
My QUESTION:I would like to know how to underclock or undervolt my machine to reduce the heat/fan.
Step by step explanations or directing me to an url are most welcomed!
thanks a lot a lot to the kind soul whi takes his/her time

clara

 

Sorry, can't help you here. Don't know abything about voltage tweaks on laptops.

Does the GeForce Go 6400 on your laptop have 64 megs of onboard memory? Was just wondering if the rumor is true.

Thanks!

edit:
Just did a quick search on yahoo and found this:
http://www.cpuid.org/clockgen.php

 

Have you tried something like Notebook Hardware Control? If you have that program installed, and put the settings as "Max Battery", you'll probably reduce the heat and fan considerably.

Here's the URL:

http://www.pbus-167.com/chc.htm

 

Thanks a thou! pretty prgram indeed, will find my way into it
cheers

 

I just picked one up at J&R in NYC for the low-low price of $1699, and with the $100 rebate, the total price comes to $1599. I thought this was a pretty amazing bang for the buck.

As far as the hardware goes, it was as listed elsewhere, BUT it came with a 1x512MB 533MHz SODIMM - NOT 2x256MB 400MHz SODIMMs as reported on the Sony website and elsewhere. I popped in a 1x1GB 533MHz SODIMM to bring it up to 1.5GB. Also, I have confirmed with RIVATuner that the 6400 has 32MB onboard; however, the card does report using a total of 256MB RAM.

I have just completed running 3DMark05 with it right out of the box, and it clocked in at 976. I am sure I can boost this with some tweaking and upgrading the drivers. As soon as I do, I will post my results here.

-Zaika

 

I used NHC 1.9b3 to max performance on the CPU while plugged-in and updated the NVidia Drivers to 80.40. After re-running 3DMark05, the new result is 1124. Let the tweaking continue

-Zaika

 

I just overclocked the GPU to 470/842, and 3DMark turned in a pretty nice 1187 score...

-Zaika

 

That is a good improvement over your stock score. Be careful with overclocking though - you may run into heat issues.

Yes, the updated drivers always help. I see a decent performance increase with each new set of drivers.

Let us know how well you can run games, I'm interested!

Chaz

 

Yeah, I have paid very very close attention to the heat generated by my overclocking. The unit never gets above 65C, and I see no artifacting, etc... at this level.

Have you had any success with later drivers? I get the best performance with 80.40, but see some pretty significant drops in later versions.

-Zaika