The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Received SZ650 couple hours ago; vista x64 experience

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by wouyang, Aug 10, 2007.

  1. wouyang

    wouyang Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    39
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I got it in the late afternoon through JR (only took a day to get where I live). Externally, the thing is a beauty...it is thin, light, and sturdy.

    I don't find the keyboard to be that big of a deal...they are full-sized keys and are indeed a bit noisy but they actually seem to be pretty good.

    It did take about 20-25 minutes for Vista to fully load for the first time. The amount of bloatware that is installed is not exaggerated by any means.

    I immediately made my recovery DVDs and took the Vista Business key that comes with the laptop and installed Vista x64 using an old vista boot DVD that I had from the first days of its release.

    Finding drivers has been an absolute nightmare but the resulting speed and power is undeniable. In SuperPI so far I calculated to 2M in about 55 seconds...I plan to do 3dmark06 and other tests soon and probably write a review.

    Right now, the webcam/microphone, touchpad 4-way scrolling, and fingerprint sensor all do not work because I cannot find/install compatible drivers.

    It's a shame but I'm still considering keeping this x64 install as it is clean and quick.
     
  2. lappy486portable

    lappy486portable Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    10
    Messages:
    387
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Well, I had vista x64, and personally I found it slower than vista x.32. Not too mention that the compatibility is horrendous. I couldn't even get Roxio Easy Media Creator to work.
     
  3. pejx

    pejx Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    1
    Messages:
    78
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Hi Wouyang,
    How is the display on your SZ650? Any light leakage (especially along the bottom)? Many people are reporting this - am interested if it is widespread.
    Thanks.
     
  4. aacury

    aacury Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    5
    Messages:
    175
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    wouyang, did you manage to perform 3dmark06 tests?
     
  5. calot

    calot Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    37
    Messages:
    378
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    i would really like to know how bad the leakage is. do you think a macbook 13.3 inch with 2 gb ram is better? im not a heavy gamer...
     
  6. tbone7467

    tbone7467 Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    4
    Messages:
    79
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    can you post where you found the drivers for the 64 bit version. I was thinking about doing this myself. I have 4gb of ram in my system and would like to utilize it instead of the 3gb of the 32 bit system. have you encountered any issues?
     
  7. nixon

    nixon Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    225
    Messages:
    510
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30