New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

Don't you mean the Z2 replaces VPC-Z1? The VGN-Z was replaced by the VPC-Z1.

 

Yes, you run RAID on servers and important systems. Because of the R in RAID standing for "Redundant".
"RAID 0" however, is not RAID -- it's not redundant. Thus the zero.

With RAID 0, the risk of losing all your data increases exponentially with the number of drives in the array. If one drive encounters an error, all the drives lose all their data.
You never see RAID 0 on production systems except on crash-and-burn systems where speed is more important than anything.
And even then, it's far more common with RAID 10. RAID 0 is the ricer choice, and I'd fire any sysadmin who set that up on a business critical system, whether it be a server, workstation or laptop.

A good reason to not run RAID 0 on a laptop is TRIM. Without TRIM on the drives, you will get write amplification. No, garbage collection can not do the job of TRIM - it works with TRIM to collect the blocks that were marked as free with TRIM.

As for turning off RAID 0 in the BIOS, do you have a Z? I'm starting to wonder. Cause Sony has crippled the Intel Fakeraid BIOS setup, presumably to simplify support.

 

Given the prices, you can't have RAID at all with SSDs.

 

Why not? 4*128 GB gives you 384 GB in RAID 5, i.e. you "lose" 25%.

Granted, Sony would have to make the individual drives user (or at least normal technician) swappable for it to be worth it -- not losing data is the entire point, and the "standard" procedure of Sony techs to wipe everything would be counter-productive.

 

^It would be next to impossible considering 2 drives in the Z is actually a single drive that's double sided. In your example of RAID 5 there would be no way to replace a failed drive, only 2 at a time...destroying all the data. Thoughts? (you know raid better than I do).

 

RAID 0 is considered a valid RAID level, look it up

I like my laptop fast, I back up important data, if one of the drives fails I just need to reinstall the OS and programs on the remaining drive.

I haven't noticed any degridation in 9 months of hammering my Z for 12 hours a day. I'll probably buy new SSDs before these ever degrade.

I have a Z, bought it for nearly $3K, why would I make that up? I have a BIOS hack that un-cripples it.

 

^You can kill the RAID without hacking the BIOS anyhow.

 

My point was that SSDs are not Inexpensive Disks. Yes, I know that some people have redefined the I in RAID.

On a more technical note, I thought you now could have TRIM with RAID 0 although I could be wrong. If you can, there's one less reason to change from a RAID 0 configuration.

Is there any informed guesstimate of the configuration Sony would offer for the 512GB option (2 * 256; 4 * 128; etc.)?

 

First time poster, long long time reader.

Considering buying a refurb'd Z. Anyone have any experiences with Sony refurb'd products? Specifically the Z line?

The wait for the next Z is killing me. Plus I begin grad school at the end of this month, and my only laptop is one from 8+ years ago (Dell Insoiron 6000). It'd old and slow, but running W7 and has a 1920x1200 display. Don't think I can adjust to anything lower than 1920x1080 now!

In reality I guess I should just be patient, hold onto my Dell, and wait for the next Z...

Does Sony have a predictable release pattern (like Apple)? How confident are most people that the new Z will be coming this June/July? Or are most of you rather skeptical of this expected release date? Speaking of which, why do pele expect June/July? Or are these just arbitrary guesses?

 

I doubt the new Z will show up in june/july... the SA is just now about to launch.. and this model has been "official" for a long time.. the Z2 is still under the radar. Considering how much less is known about this new Z, I can't help but assume that this model is coming late summer at earliest?

I on the other hand am only speculating so take everythin I say lightly

 

I've had my Z11 for 13 months now, and, like you, have worked it (and the wireless broadband GOBI card) for about 12+ hours a day, every day. Other than an occasional pause when requesting an application, the system performs as fast and reliably as it did on day one. Just the usual Windows-related crashes/program freezes, occastionally requiring the use of System Restore...and that's not going away anytime soon...

==>I forgot to mention that I have had nearly everything replaced on my Z over the year including: Optical drive, lid, 2 hinges, palmrest (2X), HDMI card (2X) and the motherboard. The most reliable parts of the computer has actually been the RAID 0 Drive array (192GB, 3x64GB)!

 

Nope. Theoretically, it's easily implemented on RAID 1, by simply sending the TRIM command to each drive in the array. But for all the striped types, it becomes more complicated, as you need to translate and transform the single TRIM range command into multiple commands that specify the exact blocks that are freed on each drive. This is a major driver change, and no vendor offers it so far.

 

Would changing your Z to RAID 1 be enough RAID to please you? That would be better than JBOD even if TRIM was not supported.

 

Cheers, my mistake. Will edit post

 

well you lose half the space in raid 1...I can see where that would bother folks

 

I've been wondering... Take an Intel SSD. It has 10-channel architecture. If one channel gives the whole drive is gone. How bad is reliability of 10-channel SSD compared to a single channel SSD? How does it compare to 3 SSD, 3-channel each? Can we even make a reasonable comparison?

Of course, it's determined by reliability of individual components. But the question still stands, are these 10-channel drives reliable enough?

To me it's all theoretical speculation. I've had enough RAID5 configurations corrupting data that I do not run RAID5 anymore, period. Only mirror.

But RAID0 in Z to me is a single drive, whatever it's internal architecture is. And it's more reliable than a single traditional drive with moving parts. That's it. Very rough but practical estimation.

 

For me personally, the best would be a standard (2.5", 1.8" or maybe blade) SSD without RAID.

The most important thing would be to know that I can change the drive if needed. Sending the whole laptop for repair when a drive breaks is not at all what I would want to do (especially when reading about the bad repair experiences - scratches, etc.).

And RAID is not something I need in my laptop. I would rather prefer a single, larger, standard SSD.

 

so this new Z is supposed to have thunderbolt.

does anyone have any clue if this should work with the new iMacs display-in?

 

interesting question, since from what I could gather thunderbolt is just an avenue, the peripheral will use the port that you want, like a common USB port or a display port

 

The driver already takes commands (read & write) that involve a block range which is them mapped to a set of ranges for each drive. They just need to use the same mapping function with a command that doesn't transfer any data (trim).

Major lazy rather than major change perhaps?

(yes, I am a developer and yes I have written a disk driver and filesystem before).

 

New LG Blade P430 and P530 laptops ? thin bezels, slim displays

New LG Blade Notebooks. Ultra thin bezel, so the 14inch model has the footprint of a normal 13inch notebook. There is a 15.6inch model as well.

Both models come in 1366x768 resolution...?!? I don't get it, why aren't manufacturers making high res notebooks, this is ridiculous to have 1366x768 in a 15.6 inch notebook. I really don't get it.

 

It really is pathetic, especially when you consider that Sony made an 8" notebook with 1600x768.

 

That's not bad, it's got discrete graphics. So it's the screen and lack of USB+Thunderbolt that is unattractive.

 

Geforce 520m is really weak though..

 

Oops, ok. I get too excited when I see a discrete GPU

Edit: Maybe that's why the resolution is so poor: Integrated / weak GPUs cannot power higher resolution screens without significant drops in FPS. And now someone will correct me in 3... 2... 1...

 

It looks increasingly likely I'll get the new Z. The potential competitors are dropping out the running pretty quickly.

^ What they said.

I suppose the new Dell could potentially be a competitor but I doubt it, especially given the starting price. I doubt it will have FHD, USB3, etc. even as options.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20059079-64.html

 

^ What Louche said. 900 vertical on the display is really the minimum that's acceptable.

 

That may be done to satisfy "typical/general" consumers like my parents. They're the sort of people who go by the "go big or go home" mentality. Fortunately or unfortunately (whatever you want to call it), this same mentality applies to the screen resolution, which is not to want a high resolution screen but a low resolution screen. To my parents, the lower the screen resolution the manufacturers can offer, the better! Don't ask me to explain the reason why they feel/think that way. I honestly couldn't for the heck out of me figure out &/or understand why.

 

Damn it.. can't make up my mind.. get the z13 now or wait for z2 which designwise doesn't appeal much to me.

I still would want usb3, thunderbolt and sandybridge... :S

Everytime i check the supply decreases.. now it's down to 21 left at the swedish distributor...

 

Buy both? Buy the Z13 now & when the Z2 comes out, then buy that as well?

 

Sure thing if you'll sponsor one of em

 

Are there pictures of the new Z somewhere? At least you still have the option to get a Z....I would probably just order a current Z if it were still available from Sony in the US.

 

I haven't read this whole thread, but is there anything concrete to indicate either that the SA launch is imminent, or even better, a specific time frame?

 

Buy the current one.

When the new one comes out, if it turns out that you think you would like it better (remember, you might not) then at that time sell your [not very] old Z and buy the new one. Or, wait until the Z3 comes out and then buy that one (no matter what you get there is ALWAYS) a newer better one just around the corner)

 

um, i don't think most people are even aware of what resolution is.

they just keep chanting HD! HD! HD!!! they honestly don't know the difference between FHD and HD.

that other poster had a point. considering how many people game, it makes people it easier for manufacturers to use cheaper gpus.

 

wrong thread. pls refer to here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...es-discussion-sonys-next-new-13-3-laptop.html

also... I doubt you'll get a firm release timeline.

people have been throwing june / july as an approximate on both the SA and the Z

 

I'd suggest the same. Can't spend your whole life waiting for the next best thing as you will wait forever. Unless there is solid evidence that the new Z will be out within a month or two, get the current Z now.

I wish I could do the same, but the Z is no longer available on the Sony site (US) - and I have an $800 Sony gift card. *sigh*

Patiently waiting for the next Z. Or at worst, the SA (hopefully it has a 1080 option. 1600x900 will suffice, but having 1920x1200 on my desktop and 6 year old Dell Inspiron 6000, it's hard to go lower).

 

Check out the sony outlet? I haven't checked lately, but all the good deals were there... jealous of some of the deals that came out there...

 

theres a few jap websites which still sell the z14 online...the pricing though are stupidly high..but u can configure them up yourself...however no fullhd screen and only come in i5 configs....
a friend here in aus just sold her z138gg online coz screen to small for her to read...her bf got it for her she sold it for 2100AUD still in box..-__-
prob went to by a handbag

 

^What he said.

 

I will wait for Z3 with IvyBridge, which uses 3D transistors; together with 22nm, the power consumption will be cut by half which means even smaller laptop and longer battery life......

of course, for those who do not already own Z1....you should get Z2!

 

^And then once that comes out, you can not buy and wait again for the 15nm product, and then once that comes out you can not buy and wait again for the 12nm stuff...etc. etc.

 

Haha

Well it's quiet a big step right now with the sandy bridge.. battery life seems to drastically increase? Feels like the battery time has been fairly constant last couple of years for the laptops. Sure batteries have probly evolved as well, but the components become more powerful and drain more power as well so it doesn't feel like battery time has improved much...

 

it'll be 2 years until z3 comes out, meaning it'll be haswell, not ivybridge

the z2 will get ivybridge next year

 

I think laptop should be able to last for 10 hours of continuous use (with wifi on / video / balance mode / etc.)

I think most laptop can do it easily within 3 years; I hope Z3 can do it in 2 years time

great if Z3 has IPS Mon too...

 

^If you don't buy one at all, you get ZERO hours.

Low watt CPU is only part of the story. For light surfing, CPU's are mostly idle. Battery consumption is coming from i/o, display, southbridge, hdd, etc. A 30% more efficient CPU isn't going to give you 30% more battery life....let alone double the battery life like you think it should.

 

for the type of battery life you're thinking of, they are going to have to introduce new battery technology... unless you don't mind using a slice battery

 

Hey.. my current one got zero hours anyways

Of course, but just looking at the specs.

Battery time...

...old S series: 5h
...z13: 5h stamina mode / 4.5h graphic mode
...New SB series: 7.5h default brightness / 6.5h maximum brightness / 4.5h dvd-plackback

It sure feels like battery times are getting better. If it's the new cpu or other components becoming more efficient, I don't know.. but the end result is what we customers want, a longer battery time. I wanna be able to make it a business day on one charge, something I hope will be possible in near future.

I'm not that into batteries and all, but isn't development awfully slow on that front? The batteries are quiet large in physical size yet they don't pack very much heat. I know it's not fair comparing different technologies but look at the speed that harddrives are developing, both becoming smaller and faster. With batteries, it feels like nothing is happening at all...

In the future I hope battery time gets more prioritized. Think it's overlooked by the manufacturers, how much the customers truly value a good battery.

 

Z series no longer available in Vaio Europe web store.
What does that mean?

 

Probly same thing as for the USA.. the SB model is getting released right now in Europe.. and it will be followed by the SA in june/july... Z2 late summer or in fall?

Don't really understand why they discontinued the Z13 before new Z2 is ready. SA is said to be a "temporary" replacement if I understand correctly, but I feel like it's a completely different product and it just seems wrong calling it a replacement. I think they shoulda kept producing and selling Z13 untill Z2 is ready. SA has nothing to do with the Z in my opinion..