Opinions on Sony Viao VGN-AR770 and memory upgrade

Hi, I have been trying to do some research on a new laptop and I think I have settled on the following:

Sony Viao VGN-AR770
Extended Battery (BPL9)
WLAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
No TV Tuner
LCD 17"WUXGA (XBRITE-HiColor™) with integrated video camera
DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive
240 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm]
2 GB DDR-SDRAM (DDR2-667, 1 GBx2)
Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.4GHZ)

First of all, I would appreciate any opinions on the laptop in general. I have compared it to several other laptops including Dell, Sager, and HP and I think I like this one the best.

I have a few questions for Sony laptop owners:
1. I have heard that as good as Sony laptop LCDs are they do go out after a year or two. Has anybody else with a Sony laptop experienced this problem?
2. I would like to order the laptop with 2GB memory and the upgrade it myself to 4 since Sony charged $400 for 4GB and I can buy it for much cheaper. The question is, if I buy the laptop with 2GB will it come with two memory slots or just one?

Thanks for all your help!

 

Any information would be great. I would like to order the laptop on Monday.

 

I also am looking at this model and am finding very little on any forum about it or any AR. I am looking at it primarily for screen quality for photography, and because it looks better built than the Dell 1720, though more expensive. Another option is the Macboook Pro 17".

I would think it has 2 slots for mem, though not absolutly sure. I havent read anything about the screens failing more quickly than any others.

 

Not sure about the screen,(first i heard about them failing) but you can of course upgrade yourself. 32 bit vista will only utilise a small portion over 3gb ram so maybe just get 1 2gb stick.

Nice laptop btw, but it could usea blu-ray drive

 

Hi friend, i have a AR620E, this machine come with 2GB Ram and only one slot occupied, i have installed 2GB dimm in the other slot for 4GB total, there is a really huge improvement in Vista but only recognize 3GB of then, sadly i don't have all the drivers needed for install Vista 64Bit on this awesome machine.

Never hear about screen fade in this series

 

I spent some time thinking about the blu-ray drive and I think I'd rather save the money and buy a stand alone player for my HT. I don't think I will be using the laptop to play movies that much anyway.

 

Really!! Then why the 1920 x 1200 res screen? Games? Video editing?

 

I am planning on having a dual boot - Window/Linux system and while in Linux, I do a lot of development so I need as much screen real estate as possible.

 

Cool. So will the hard drive not be a bit slow?

You have two slots in that model, maybe buy a 320gb 7200rpm fujitsu seperatly (when it comes out next month ) which should blow the 5200rpm away

The price should be around $250-$300

 

I have had an AR770E for over a month.

Standard Battery
WLAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
No TV Tuner
LCD 17"WUXGA (XBRITE-HiColor™ with integrated video camera
BluRay DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm]
3 GB DDR-SDRAM
Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.4GHZ)

I use it as a desktop replacement for photo editing at the screen resolution.

The screen magnifier, Fn-F10 allows email and web sites can to be more readable (larger)
I also use a Logitech bluetouth mouse.
No problems to date, I am very satisfied with it.

 

It might be a bit slow but the only 7200rpm option that Sony has is not worth the money in my opinion.

Thanks for letting me know about the fujitsu drive. I'll keep that in mind.