New Z model with Intel Core i5 CPU

Yes, it's quite possible to make a RAID controller that supports TRIM, as long as the OS also supports a RAID controller that supports TRIM.

All TRIM is, is a way for the OS to tell the drive just which blocks have been deleted. If the RAID controller can translate this to the physical blocks and pass it on to the drive also for TRIM commands and not just for standard read/write/seeks, the physical drive can then wipe them.

But no, currently no software or hardware RAID controller I know of actually supports TRIM.

 

1X4096 + 1x2048 is not single channel but asymmetric dual channel

 

The $2,500 preconfig shows the 4GB of RAM @ 2x 2GB, which is encouraging. Looks like perhaps Sony has the wrong info up on this machine right now... At least in the Customize option

 

Thx arth1.

many have suggested that if the drives can be JBOD'd and if they support TRIM, the problem is solved (as long as you don't care about the reduced sequential read/write speed). if the controller can support trim on multiple JBODs without bugging the OS, why would it be any harder for it to do when striped? isn't it just currently un-supported not really any more difficult? and why would the OS have to care - doesn't it just pass along the file-system level 'delete' info to the controller in either case?

 

What the hell? I keep trying to order the preconfig 2.5k model so that I can get the student 7% discount and all works well up until I go to check out..then all of a sudden the discount goes away and tells me to pay full price

 

FWIW when CTO'd i got 2X2Gb -- so i've dual-channel, but no open slot to upgrade later. i'm not sure there was an option for 4Gx1 at that time (3days ago).

 

i had similar issue. do the chat thing to sort it out; that's what i had to do.

 

Thanks, man. Will do. I take it even if im talking to a rep, they still wont give me a student discount on CTO models, eh?

 

Because without striping, the LBA block number that the OS sees and the block number the drive sees match. With striping (or any kind of RAID or spanning), they don't, and the TRIM command has to be rewritten with the block numbers that each drive has for the physical data.

As for "not bugging the OS", TRIM works the opposite way -- it's the OS that tells the drive what has logically been deleted, because the drive has no way of knowing. That allows the garbage collection (which should not be confused with TRIM) to reap those blocks.

 

Regarding processor speed, I'm still interested in others thoughts regarding i5 vs i7 that are used in the Z. Here are the Intel pages for the two:

Core i7-620m
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43560&code=Intel®+Core™+i7-620M+Processor+(4M+Cache,+2.66+GHz)

Core i5-540m
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43544&code=core+i5-540m

They appear, to me, to be essentially the same chip, the distinction being more of a marketing difference than anything.

The only differences I could spot were: A 10% difference in processor speed and 3M vs 4M of cache memory. Back when cache was measured in KBytes I think it mattered whether you had 256K or 512K. But I am thinking that in most scenarios this cache difference would be barely noticeable. Same for 2.53 vs 2.66GHz.

What do you guys think. Is it worth it to get the i7 for bragging rights alone? Are there other differences that are not apparent?

 

read this link
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Intel-Core-i3-i5-i7-Processors-Arrandale.25085.0.html

i would go for i5 540m over the i7 620m any day, i7 620m is showing a 30% greater power consumption for a 5-10% greater performance... bad ratios

 

There was this notebookcheck.net test posted several times: Core i3/i5/i7 Test, which shows the i7-620M having a bit better performance than the i5-540M, but consuming significantly more power than all the other Arrandale CPUs.
So we'll have to wait for user reviews to see if there are any heat/performance issues with the i7-620M.

 

Thanks,
That was a very good link. I am definitely going with i5.

 

I will also go with the i5-540, unless I find that the Notebookcheck test and anecdotal Z heat comparisons (from all those who saw both in person in Ginza) are in error. When efficiency is taken into account (based on these reports), the i5 is definitely a superior CPU to the i7. Most people here want the i5 with an i7 decal, but I always peel off the decals as soon as I receive my notebooks!

 

I worry about taking ONE test result as gospel when there is no logical reason for the test results to be that way (since the two CPUs are practically identical from a design and features standpoint). I would wait for confirmation of those results from other reputable sites before scratching off the i7-620m. For all you know it's a bug with their test system that prevented only the i7 from properly clocking down or something.

 

My question is does the out of stock 4 GB option cause you to wait longer for your notebook or can you order it, get it and add your own RAM later?

 

What, like buy it without any RAM at all? Naaah, don't think so.
Just call up Sony and ask.
Would be nice if they did a barebones Z though...

 

From just looking at the Sony site it appears the standard model (Non CTO) now comes with core i5 520m instead of 540m? Is this a typo? You can get the CTO for the same price with 540m so it doesn't make alot of sense?

 

I agree. I just wish there was more data available. There shouldn't really be any significant difference between the two CPUs, so I wonder why Notebookcheck's numbers are so different. I also suspect that the anecdotal reports by the various people who have said the i7 feels hot in comparison to the i5 are because the i7 demo unit had been left in Speed mode rather than in Stamina. The i7 I looked at was in Speed mode when I got to it, so that would explain some of the heat on the palmrest.

 

The demo unit was probably not doing any heavy duty tasks, so the speed mode alone should not justify the high temperatures.
Btw was the demo unit really so hot?

In the pcpro.co.uk test, the author of the article was asked in the comments about heat issues and he replied that the underside of the Z got warm, but the heatsink and the fan were doing a good job.

 

Well, both are rated for 35W when using the internal GPU (Stamina mode) That means the actual processing power is limited. So there should a minimal (if any) difference between the two processors.
But when operating in without the internal GPU, the CPU is allowed to reach the 35W ceiling all by itself and that's where we should see a 5% to 10% difference in processing speed and if you add to that a 33% increased cache (from 3MB to 4MB) we should be able to see a performance difference of about 16.5% for core optimized apps.
All that while both use the same amount of power.
So for now I'd take the notebookcheck comparison with a grain of salt.
EDIT: Also keep in mind these units are in a display, brightly lit and fairly dark in colour so it stands to reason they would attract more heat than in an every day scenario.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPKZ2S_Jm-g

 

From my brief test, the palmrest was warm, but not hot. It wouldn't bother me. My current Z gets warm when it's in Speed mode, but overall the Z Series has excellent cooling IMO (which is more than I can say for most of the competition).

I found some more data, ironically also from Notebookcheck. Their review of the Lenovo T410 with i7-620M CPU shows the Current consumption. The average idle of that machine (with discrete GPU!) is 16.3 watts, which is much better than that of the other test. Obviously, it would be best to see the power consumption also with the i5, but it suggests that the previous number is an anomaly.

 

What happens if you have more than 2 windows open and then you use the "side-by-side windows" button? Do the latest 2 screens show side by side, or does it tile sorta like expose on macs. (Lol, does anybody understand what i'm asking)

 

Hey guys doesn't it strike you as weird that the palmrest was warm?
I mean, my Z has two SSDs (not standard issue but full fledged 2.5") running in there and I am working on it the best part of 20 hours a day and it is cool to the touch.
Should have to do with the place where these machines are standing, I mean, glass lit form the underside should be warm all by itself... Think about it.

EDIT: Should have the same effect as right click on the taskbar and select Side by Side. If you have more than two windows it aranges the windows each with it's own width space where n=number of windows 1920/n so say you got 4 windows you get four vertical stripes.
Side-by-side button should be a shortcut to the function offered on the taskbar, nothing more complex.
EDIT 2: I don't get it! Why does it say "Available Soon" when they are right there? You may not be able to pay to have one but there is nothing stopping you from storming the building, knocking out the security and Sony staff and get away with the new Z...
Aaaaaaargh! A little less than 3 weeks before delivery.
I bet this thread will reach 1 million views by then and something like 5 thousand posts.

 

actually i noticed that when i was ordering mine a few days ago. first i ordered the signature metal mosaic one, and cancelled it to get premium carbon and 192mb ssd on CTO - the cancelled order was 520m and the new cto was 540m - it's not much of a difference, but its one more reason to like a cto...

 

Holy that full HD screen looks hot. I want it. Laughed at how itty bitty the mouse arrow was.


Say, if I get Full HD, cant you put the screen resolution down to 1600x900 on in options anyways whenever you want? Oh and screw US for not having full hd as an option on anything but the totally buffed out preconfig.

 

Here are some pics comparing the two (that I got from the vid)..correct me if im wrong, but isnt the "1600x900" on the left the old Z????

 

Dropping the resolution down to anything for which the native resolution is not some integer multiple will result in terrible looking screens. The lower resolution image will have to be scaled up to the panel's native resolution, and if the scaling is not by an integer factor then interpolation happens and the outcome is much worse than what a native resolution image would look like.

 

Thanks, man. Hmm need more pic comparisons of 1600x900 and Full HD for screen real estate purposes. Ive got nowhere to see it in person so its hard to decide if itll be ok.

 

Thanks for the vid link, man. 1920 x 1080 looks totally useable for my 24yo eyes. Now to just wait for SonyStyle US to offer the resolution as an option on the CTOs

 

More pics of the 1920x1080 screen display and real estate

 

I've been following the posts for the past few days and I haven't noticed it being mentioned yet:

You can now pre-order the new Z series from several different websites. I'm not sure if it will actually save you any time, but you might at least be able to avoid tax and possibly use bing cashback. None of them have the 1080p screen, of course.

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-VPC-Z112...ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1266817610&sr=1-1
or
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-VPC-Z116...ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1266818493&sr=1-2

J&R: (Bing Cashback 5%?)
http://www.jr.com/sony/pe/SON_VPCZ114GXS/
or
http://www.jr.com/sony/pe/SON_VPCZ116GXS/
or
http://www.jr.com/sony/pe/SON_VPCZ118GXS/

 

That's awesome man thanks! Hmmm Amazon free overnight shipping or J&R 5% cashback LOL decisions decisions!

 

I don't know but the color accuracy on the left is way better...the one on the left looks pretty bad I wonder why there is such a drastic difference?

 

@bluehaze: I dont know, my friend, but its killing me too! Screen resolution choice is the last piece to the puzzle for me.


Once I decide on that, ill be ready to order. If anybody wants to help out, I wont be doing any video watching or photo editing. Im solely interested in the full hd for screen real estate, clarity, and being afraid of regretting it later.

Its also good to note that I will be doing gaming on it too. Some say the full hd would hurt this in performance. Oh and im in school for programming, so this will be my computer for coding.

 

LOL, No thank you. I would probably stick with the "outdated" 1600x900. I'm still in college, and I'm already having trouble reading long paragraphs on my old Z without DPI scaling. For in-class notes taking, even 1600x900 is an overkill. I assume it would be fine if you use the 1920x1080 screen on a desk, instead of placing it on your lap, like what I do when taking notes in class.

For me, when the words get too small on the screen, I start to interpret the meanings of the words by their general outline/contour. Reading like that is fine for a short period of time because that's what we do when skimming through text. However, it gets tiring when you need to read something that requires thorough understanding, like a research paper.

This whole talk about higher res reminds me of the huge discussion that people had when deciding between the lower res Z and the 1600x900 Z. For a significant portion of the people, even the 1600x900 Z was too much, and they were complaining about it when Sony removed the option for the lower res screen for the 2nd refresh of the old Z. Going back 2-3 years, some people were having trouble even with the 1280x800 screen on the SZ... Even 2 months ago, no one would have thought Sony would put a 1920x1080 screen on a 13.1 in.

Sony just keeps pushing the limit for their display technology, as well as the limit for their eye-straining capability. Are they going to break the 2000 mark when the next Z replacement comes around?

 

I will wait to see and compare in person. However I don't have any expectation that I would prefer the 1080 over the 900 for normal use.

 

If you plan to game with the notebook, take the 1600 rez it's already very heavy for this GPU. FULL HD will slaughter the perf, if you play new games with this. Also, you cannot easily decrease the res below your native one. Or it will look really ugly as some people said.
In my opinion if you don't have a GTX260m kind of GPU perf, forget about full HD.

Edit: The notebook in my sig has similar perf than the Z. I tried with a full HD screen, with some games it's fine (Borderlands, Half life etc.), some other (Dawn of discovery, Crysis, Stalker, GTA4...) you really lose a lot of FPS...

 

You dont want to be staring at text on a 13" 1080 screen for any length of time I can pretty much guarantee you that. I had a 17" 1920x1200 and I consider that too small would hate to have to deal with it on a 13" The gaming won't matter so much lowering the res in games is not very noticeable it is more a problem with text becoming blurry.

 

Natadiem (as well as arth, nutman, and alot of others on this forum) you are my hero atm <3

Its decided. Im going with the 1600x900 with 256GB SSD, i5-540m, 4GB RAM (although id prefer 6GB) preconfig at 2.4k on the sony styles site. Does anyone know if 7% student discount for sure doesnt work with the CTOs? Even if I were to call to place my order and try to sucker them into it ?

@Jparity, hah! I was laughing at that myself. I happened to take a read through that old thread started by SPEEDjj. Funny how that works, huh?


EDIT: ^ Thats funny, my bf has a 17" with a resolution even greater than 1920x1080 and I dont have even a bit of a problem reading things on it. Not a pinch of strain, no exaggeration. Maybe its because im only 19. I imagine things would be very very different on a 13" though. And thank you haze for your help as well.

 

I have the exact same needs as you. Coding, taking notes in class, and some gaming. The Z is almost perfect but...I'm going to wait to see if Apple will refresh the 13" MacBook Pro to something comparable to the Z. The reason is that all the assignments and projects I work on assume a Unix/Linux environment and it's a pain to get Windows to work with them, and I would like to avoid having to dual boot two OSes if possible. OS X provides the best solution but of course the current MBPs aren't anywhere near the Z's specs. What kind of programming do you do? I suppose if it's Windows or .NET programming you won't have the same concerns I do.

 

Correct, Windows through the use of .NET in conjunction with C# to be exact. I feel your pain though, Ive been there. Lucky for me, the university ill be at after I get my associates degree gives all the freshmen brand new MBP pre-installed with everything we need to code and its all included in tuition, so I dont have that issue ! I wish you luck in that MBP search. High five for coding!

Also, from one programmer to another, dont get a cat. I got one thinking it would make for a great coding companion, but all they do is chase your mouse and mistake your laptop for a warm heated bed

 

I have to say the new Full HD screen really is superior to the 1600x900 screen my Z currently has (I didn't get a chance to see the new 1600 screen, if it's any different, though). The colors look better and the sharpness is truly impressive. It feels like the previous Z on overdrive, and the new screen was one of the components of the new Z that really struck me (the other being the high-quality hinges).

As for gaming, I have no problems bumping the resolution down to get higher frame rates. I do that already with the 1600x900 screen, and it doesn't look bad at all (IMHO). Obviously, the native resolution looks best, but as long as the aspect ratio is the same, the game is just as fun to me. The problem with the original Z's Vista drivers was that there were no lower resolutions than 1600x900 that were 16:9. I would have a problem if the lower resolutions are not the same aspect ratio as the screen. The Full HD Z had plenty of resolutions from which to choose however.

One thing I forgot to add is the fact that you can switch graphic modes without clicking any dialog boxes with the new Z. It makes switching smooth (in comparison to the Core 2 Duo Z).

 

Well you are half my age so that probably helps

If you go here http://www.jr.com/sony/pe/SON_VPCZ1...are&SiteID=TnL5HPStwNw-b4jPkCcI4LCE4q/SvyM9nw

I believe that is your config for 2299.00 and if you go here first:

http://www.bing.com/cashback/

and signup then browse through the stores and find J&R.com you can save an additional 5%.

You also won't have to pay tax ordering from that site so you should be able to save yourself a couple 2-3 hundred dollars that way.

Good Luck.

 

I just went down to the Sony Style near my house to have a look at the new Z series. The only demo unit available was the HDD version - black lid and silver innards.

1. The HDD version does not have an eject button
2. The unit wasn't warm to the touch other than the underside and areas near the hinge (where the battery is). In comparison with the old SR model that I have, the flex is a lot better. It just feels studier all in all. I tried listening hard to any fan noise, but couldn't hear any (might be the noisy environment and the fact that the notebook wasn't under any stress).
3. I tried scratching the silver palmrest using a coin - there were no marks at all. But it does feel slightly plasticky.

When i first saw the press pictures, I hated the new palmrest design. But when I see it in person, I thought it looked better than the old Z!

 

Have you tried VMWare Player + Ubuntu Image (you can download both for free) under Windows?

 

That $2299 config on the J&R site has an i5-520m processor at 2.4GHz, and (if I'm interpreting Sony's naming convention correctly) has the silver lid. The one that yellowfrizbee wants (the $2499 preconfigured model on SonyStyle) has an i5-540m at 2.53GHz, and black lid. The distinction is worth noting. However, it's not necessarily a bad thing: its base price is $200 less, you get the 5% Bing cashback ($115), and no sales tax (over $200 in my case). That's over $500 savings if you can live with the slightly slower processor and the silver lid. Pretty damn tempting.

 

One question..
I had read one of the Japanese reviews which shows the windows experience index score of new z with 4gb ram equiped. Is it normal to score 5.9 in ram with a machine equiped with 4gb ram? I remember I saw some notebooks with 4gb ram will score 7.X...

 

With regard to SSDs, I'm not too worried about GC/TRIM, since I will assume Sony has a solution in place for that...

However, I am more concerned about write-cycles. The way Windows and some apps like to constantly chew on the hard disk, will 10,000 write cycles be enough to last a couple of years or so..?! :|