New Z model with Intel Core i5 CPU

What the heck is a "presale"? A fancy marketing name for "order", or will they actually charge you before shipping?

 

Are U.S. customers allowed to eventually order from the Japanese site?

 

Since so many of you are up on SSD technology and pitfalls, I'm a little mystified why there is still discussion around there being any sort of INTERNAL RAID on these SSD drives.

RAID 0 members must be the same physical size. However you can buy, for example, a 384gb model made up of a 256gb SSD and a 128gb SSD (not to mention the 196gb model with 128 + 64). How exactly could these 2 drives be RAIDed together if the 256gb model, which is made up of 128gb x 2, had an internal RAID? It would present itself to the system as a 256gb drive, which conflicts with the second 128gb unit. Sony would need some sort of special controller, which there is NO reason to do when the Intel controller is good enough and, essentially, free for them to use.

It's far, far more likely that the double SSDs simply present to the system as 2 separate drives (and if there's a special single connectior, it simply works as a double SATA connector). So, in the case of the 384gb example above, the system would see and then combine 3 x 128gb drives.

The innovation here is 2 separate SSDs in a single tiny package that are RAIDed together by the system, not a double SSD with internal RAID.

Of course as I've mentioned before in this thread, this is likely good news since, unless Sony has crippled the Intel firmware, you should be able to reconfigure the RAID array any way you see fit. Or potentially disable it and run the drives separately.

 

GC happens at the drive level for each individual drive, so that's no problem, but they don't do TRIM.
Which is likely part of the reason why OCZ discontinued the Apex, and the Adata drive was replaced with a non-RAID0 drive almost immediately.

The random write speed of the Apex was horrible even before saturation, but lack of TRIM didn't improve things in the long run.

 

Sorry for the confusion; I was summarizing the original Japanese explanation, which is very long-winded. The "presale" is an order, to be specific. They will ship the laptop as soon as possible (beginning March 6th), depending on demand, giving first shipping preference to their best customers who register from now until Monday. The people with the most STAR points will be able to place orders earlier if they receive a special purchase URL from Sony, and the general public will be able to place orders from next Thursday. As for payment, many people here pay with bank transfer, and the order will not even be fully processed until Sony has the cash in their accounts. Loose return policies such as in the US are also not common in Japan.

No. International orders will need to be placed through an importing company like Dynamism or Conics.net. You could fly here and pick one up though!

 

Well I am going back to Japan in July. But I can't wait that long.

 

Hmm, I found something very interesting pertaining to the i5 and i7 processors!

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

Have a look. Search for i5 (540) and then search for i7 (620). Youll see that the i5 apparently out ranked the i7? Credible or??

P.S those of you who helped me in my previous thread, thanks! For sure getting a Z now.

 

Because the drives that the Sony rep showed in the video only had a single ATA hookup, and he pretty much said that they were seen as a single drive?

You incorrectly presume that striping can only be done at disk level, and not at partition level.

One way of doing it is with striping plus spanning:
Stripe the first half of the A+B set with drive C, and add the remaining 128 GB from A+B with spanning. You'll get up to 3x speed for 256 GB of the resulting logical drive, and up to 2x speed for the last 128 GB.

What's a "double SATA connector"? If you mean like Sony did with the first generation Z, that was actually two connectors with a special plug to hook both up.

I hope you're right, but given Sony's track record for doing things the least admin-friendly way possible and deliberately crippling options, I won't hold my breath.

 

The benchmarks on that site aren't made with heterogenous systems, but based on what the users submitted. Someone could have tested an i720 running in a power profile that doesn't allow 100% CPU speed, or someone could have overclocked their 620. If you look close at the list, it's full of errors and "surprises". Like the P8700 being slightly faster than the P9500, when the difference is that the P9500 has 100% more cache. Or the old Pentium M 1.10 GHz scoring almost three times as high as the 1.00 GHz model...

 

Thanks for the feedback, makes sense. I also agree with the errors and surprises; after searching through the video card benchmarks they had, It was obvious the site wasnt accurate.

 

Thanks for all these good information. I purchazed a Sony HD camera recently, I will register and try my chance!

You're right about the Ginza shop, I never go there usually so I completely forgot about it.

Price is amazing, I was fearing it would be way more expensive.
I also think it's wiser to swap the DVD drive for a regular 2.5 HDD. An Intel G2 will be just fine.

Talking about laziness, I wanted to go to the gym after work but I'll have a look in the ginza shop instead, haha

 

I don't know about the i5 registering higher. I see 5 different i5 entries with passmark ranking ranging from 1770 to 4214. They were ranked between #192 up to the fastest being #43.

On the other hand there were 12 i7's. Their Passmarks ranged from 1012 to 7022. They were ranked in slots #2, 4, 6, 10, 11 etc.

The slowest i7 was slower than the slowest i5, but eight of the twelve total i7's ranked faster than the very fastest i5.

To say it is outranked is a little bit of a stretch wouldn't you say?

 

Let me know how it turns out!

The only thing I'm a bit worried about is how difficult the new Z will be to dissect (to replace the HDD). Judging from all the Sony notebooks I've taken apart by now, it's a real exercise in precision. Getting it apart and back together without any damage may be difficult (the maintenance manual for an older T Series I recently took apart at work referred to a special "bamboo tool" Sony uses in-house to pry open the frame without putting any marks on it!).

 

Damn, the special New Z case is amazing...
http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/Special/Computer/Vaio_acc/Z/Briefing/index.html

 

What is a "Stick AC Adapter"? (?_?)

 

not quite nice looking to me :/

 

It's Sony's AC adapter that is stick like and cooler looking than the normal wall wart

 

@dimension6. Can you please tell us if WWAN modem is locked in Japanese version.

 

I don't know what model WWAN card is in the new version, but the one in my (previous model) Z was easily unlocked using the DC Unlocker service. I have never actually used it, though.

 

Just to double check...

In the Z, the i7 is faster than the i5, right? I saw someone mention earlier some site said that the i5 was faster? (Doesn't make sense to me.)

The SSD, at the worst, is still faster than a 5400 RPM HDD?

The only thing that's really not future-proof about this model is it using USB 2.0 over 3.0, si? Even then, doing a backup to an external HDD should still be pretty fast, right?

 

I am trying to see that on this page with configurations but specs are done with flash so I can't translate it .

http://www1.jp.sonystyle.com/Product/Computer/Simulation-biz/Z/VPCZ11AHJ_VPCZ11AGJ_VPCZ11AFJ/

Can you please check if you can find anything about it on this page? For me it's very important to have functional 3G modem and will decide if I will by Z from Conics. net or not.

 

The 7 is faster than the 5, probably mainly because the cache is a little bigger. The person who claimed to see a better number for the 5 than for the 7, I don't think was looking at that table all that clearly

 

Faster. Even looking on the teste here: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

you can see: Intel Core i7 M 620 @ 2.67GHz cpu mark - 2103, rank(lower is better)- 153
Intel Core i5 M 540 @ 2.53GHz scores 1770 & 195 respectively.

The other thing is that I didn't notice any differents in architecture and features between thos processors in except from frequency and 1MB cache extra for i7 : http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=47341,43560,

 

in the dual-core space...

the dual-core i7 (620M) is faster than the dual-core i5.


but there are also quad-core i7's (720QM, 840QM). in that context the "faster" chip is a function of your needs. the quads don't always perform faster for applications designed for only 1 or 2 cores.

it's very much YMMV.

 

All CTO options in Japan:

http://translate.google.com/transla...include/html/Z11/spec_vom1.html&sl=auto&tl=en

 

WWAN modem is seams to be locked to NTT DoCoMo. Now question is: is it same WWAN modem like in old Z and can it be unloked with DC Unlocker.

I don't understand why they lock WWAN modem on machine that suppose to be highly mobile .

 

Is there a price for the i5 with a HDD in Japan? The cheapest lowest spec model?

 

Cheapest model with 320 GB HDD and i5-520m is 153800 yen (around $1700)

 

All communications equipment in Japan is completely locked to the provider. I didn't see any information on which WWAN module is in the new Z.

The cheapest one is ¥153,800, but has no web camera, fingerprint reader, backlit keyboard, etc. IMO, it's worth the extra ¥40-¥50,000 to do the upgrades.

 

I wonder why SSDs are made with slow write-cycle-limited NAND flash in the first place, instead of something like MRAM/NVRAM which is up to 1000 times faster and isn't limited to write-cycle limits..???

 

NAND offers much higher densities than standard DRAM at a much lower cost. If you were to use MRAM/NVRAM you'd never get the type of storage in the same physical space as with NAND and the cost would be exponential.

 

An interesting fact for the german folks:

 

A bit disappointing they didn't include anything special hardware-wise for the new Z on JP Sonystyle. Few pictures which caught my eyes and didn't see them anywhere else or in lower resolution.

 

I wonder if the HDD model will still have an eject button...

 

http://www.viddler.com/explore/SoftpediaGadgets/videos/22/

 

Sony JP is offering 450 Wireless LAN card. Nice.

Also Big battery is 9.5-11 hours - VERY nice.
I saw a picture comparing the normal and the large battery, but I'm unable to find it... does someone have it?

Thanks for the link.

On another note. I've been following this TRIM debate with some skepticism..

Attached are pictures of my Samsung SSD used for 1½ year without any maintennance or service, before and after "manual TRIM action", described here:
A simple guide to manual TRIM

Any comments on my results? Or does the TRIM only apply to RAID0-SSDs...?

Edit: The attachments are actually: First one is after TRIM, second one is before.

 

Anyone else felt pain when he closed the lid with the "clap" sound?

 

I felt double pain since I'm so used to closing my Z carefully to prevent the screen mark...

 

The reviewer didn't seem too enthused - what did he point out? It's using "older technology" (not Optimus), it is "bulky" because of the optical drive. Nowhere does he mention weight, or the actual video card, which are two of the biggest selling points.

-Peter

 

yeah, the guy seemed like an idiot. the only reason i posted it was to view the Z itself, i forgot to suggest putting it on mute

 

I love solid clapping sounds. I will clap mine for fun when I get it. I won't be a happy camper though if the new version leaves key marks on he screen. As for he video looked like i was in someone's house during a party? Are these on sale now somewhere?

 

Sorry, I just want to ask what review is this? Is it possible to link me? I can't seem to find any links to a review in the last 5-7 pages. Thanks.

 

This one (one page back).

-Peter

 

Well that means he's putting faith into the new Z, isn't that a good thing ?
Wished I didn't buy the first gen Z and got that one instead.
Oh well, got an S for now and very soon my first gen Z to sell.

 

Thanks, I must've missed it while trying to quickly skim for something like gizmodo or NBR's review.

 

Wow, the screen looks very good, looks like it has better than average viewing angles. It's funny that he says it's "bulky" because of the cd drive the thing is only 1" thick LOL What is he comparing it to a Vaio X?

 

The new one has space between the lid and keys. They talked about it in the design vid on youtube. They wanted to leave space so it looks like the lid is "floating" or something like that.

 

For the record I slap the back of my Z's lcd to close it.
Been doing that since I first got it.
Heck, to show some friends how well built it is, once or twice I've even punched the back of the LCD to close it.
And I have no idea what that mark on the LCD is, never seen it in my life.
Generally I have abused the heck out of my poor Z which has taken the punishment without a single creak or squeek.

 

I wouldn't trust it. Call me pessimist, but I'm 95% sure nez Z will have the same problem as old one. Not with line from palmrest though, but with marks from keyboard.

And btw...I'm keeping my Z. Plastic palmrest, no nice premium lid pattern and no possibility to upgrade it for standard 2.5" SSD makes the new Z less prefect for me than the old one. I'm also very curious about the fan noise with smaller fan and powerful GPU.

There are things I love about the new Z, but I'll wait for its next gen, when Sony engineers will learn from mistakes they made with this one

 

What material is the palm rest of the new Z then?