New VAIO CTO. Which of the following are worthy upgrades?

Which of the following in EACH category would be worthy of the price tag? I.E. is it worth 50 bucks to upgrade to a P8400? Are their upgrade prices good or can cheaper parts be found elsewhere, i.e. newegg?

# Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26GHz)
# Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40GHz) [add $50.00]
# Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9400 (2.53GHz) [add $200.00]
# Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9600 (2.80GHz) [add $500.00]

# 1 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 1GBx1)
# 2 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GBx1) [add $50.00]
# 3 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GBx1 + 1GBx1) [add $100.00]
# 4 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GBx2) [add $150.00]

# 120 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm]
# 160 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] [add $50.00]
# 200 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] [add $80.00]
# 250 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] [add $100.00]
# 320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] [add $150.00]
# 200 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [7200 rpm] [add $180.00]

# Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4700MHD with Intel® Clear Video Technology
# ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3470 [add $99.00]

 

id def upgrade to the P8600 thats a pretty good price I think.....then Id get 2gb and buy another 2gb for 4

 

How about video card?

I heard Intel was having issues with integrated graphics..that's why it was delayed???

So would 100$ be worth it to upgrade to ATI?? But how much would battery suffer?

 

I would want a dedicated graphics card so I would def. upgrade......not positive on how much it will effect battery life but I wouldnt think it would all that much.....obviously if your playing high-tech games your battery will drain more but thats to be expected....hope I helped

 

Well, I'm questioning the usefulness of the HD 3470 right now.

Reason is, according to some reviews Ive seen, it gets about 2000 on 3DMark 06

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

As you'll see on that list

The 4500MHD (or 4700MHD?) same thing I believe, is supposed to achieve at least 3x the X3100 chipset achieved, which was 500 on 3dMark06. Meaning it could achieve 1500.. making them about the same.

So I'm not sure if that is worth the price.

Id say P8600 is worth it though

You get should 1GB (1GB x1) and as long as its 1GBx1 you will ahve an empty slot, and you wont waste anything. You can then buy a 2GB stick for $50, and you'll have 3GB for $50 less.

 

Basically I am down to the grpahics card...

To save bucks, I will only get 1 GB RAM now.. it's only 45 dollars FOR 2 GB of the same speed RAM on newegg...it cost 50 just for 1 gb upgrade on Sonystyle.

Harddrive..same issue... I will just get 120. They want 50 BUCKS for 40 GB more? wtf? I can buy a 250 GB portable harddrive for 90 bucks.

I will upgrade to the 2.4 CPU though..

NOW...JUST THE GRAPHICS...

 

do you game?

 

im with you. same question---- graphics which one should i get? duke, where are you gonna buy the hard drive

 

lightly.

Wolfenstein

Hitman Blood Money for sure!

I make music mostly though. Cubase FL Studio, ect..

And I will buy the harddrive from newegg or amazon. they pretty cheap.

 

Then Id prolly get the dedicated card

 

im just concerned of heat and power use.

 

Heat wont be an issue but power use will be "while you are gaming" not so much when your not

 

thanks ben, I think I know what choice to make now. The ATI seems both SAFE (whole intel issue..reason why montevina was delayed b/c integrated graphics issues) and FUTURE PROOF in a sense that incase I want to game on the lovely SR, I will be able to.

 

Well good luck and I hope you enjoy your new laptop

 

Thing is, you'll have no control over what brand and type they use.

The 200GB might be Hitachi 7K200, in which case you are lucky. Or it might be Seagate 7200.2 which is slower. I'd rather buy my own harddrives.

A Seagate 7200.3 320GB 7200rpm costs about $200 and is the fastest at this moment. OCZ Core SSDs are coming out now at very low prices too.

 

i wonder how easy it will be to install a hard drive on the sr.

 

Which company do they use for the 120 GB and 160 GB?? Are there good/bad ones?

 

There's no garantee they'll always use the same brands and types. They just use what they can get at decent prices.

I once got an SZ with a mediocre peforming Toshiba 160GB/5400rpm.

But really in everyday use it's hard to notice these differences, unless you're running benchmarks.

 

Phil, do you think the ATI GPU upgrade is def. a winner?

 

For gaming it's just an average card, check the 3d mark06 scores here.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

For 1080p videoplayback it will be fine.