SZ or wait for refresh?

Hey
I previously owned an SZ before i sold it (x9000, 64gb ssd, 4gb low latency ram, 32gb ssd express card, 32gb sdhc class 6); it cost too much for me to bring to school (im only in HS, and my parents paid for 1/3 of the price, so they still had a say in what i could do with it), which ultimately defeated the purpose of me buying the SZ after they saw how flimsy the lid and keyboard felt.

Anyways, now I'm stuck with using my T270P/L and want a new laptop to game with; but I'm not an intense/heavy gamer, so I can live without gaming in school.
But I still prefer a larger laptop so I at least don't go blind.

I'm looking for something in the 13.3" department, which is gonna be the SZ for me, as I want the awesome screen and the good battery life (compared to other 13.3" laptops). But I was wondering, is it really worth it to get an SZ now? Or wait for a monteniva refresh?

Normally I would wait if I knew they were gonna come out with one soon, but they might not announce one for a long time, which is why I'm a tad impatient.

So which do you think is better? Cause the SZ's current price is getting pretty low, as opposed to something like their new line, which would cost quite abit even for a medium config im assuming.

 

Yeah, I sure as heck wouldn't have brought that to high school, that's the highest specced SZ I have ever seen. You are freaking RICH man, count me jealous!

Sorry about that. Ahem.

So you had obviously bought a stock SZ and upgraded the processor and storage to monster levels. How much was the total cost? Something I know I could never afford.

How long can you wait until you absolutely need to get a new one? I would say we'll see the new series from Sony latest by August. Unfortunately, it looks as though Montevina has been delayed by about a month but I'd say no later than August you'd be able to get the new ones. Summer is one time of the year (May to August) Sony releases new models and refreshes previous ones.

I see the allure of laptops that can play some games on the go. Though I personally would get a desktop and very portable computer for on the road, just play some older games, watch movies on that. It would provide plenty of entertainment for me until I get home to my desktop.

 

Haha yeah, but from what I've seen, Sony announces their stuff in august, and takes sometimes another few months to get the new series out and rolling?

I have a desktop at home which I'm using right now, also pretty powerful, although I don't usually play PC games, only when I'm at school.

And yeah, I have the T270P/L for ultra-portable reasons as you may have figured. It can play old games like Unreal Tournament 2003, Hitman 2 and 3, GTA Vice City, etc. But I'd much rather play something like Bioshock, COD4, and UT3 (they can all run on an 8400m gs, although only on medium). But I definitely don't NEED it, which is why I'm willing to wait.

And the setup cost me... Ummm... Approximatelyy...
$1400 - Vaio SZ650
$900 - Samsung 64gb SSD
$600 - Intel X9000
$200 - 32gb SSD Express Card
$700 - 32gb Class 6 SDHC
$150 - OCZ 4gb RAM

All pretty much costing $4000, but I live in canada, and this was one of the rare times where I have to pay both tax and customs; bringing the price to pretty much $5000.
And it's not that I'm rich, but in the long run, I like to spend alot to get nearly the best I can possibly get, so that I don't desire something better for a long time, and thus don't constantly upgrade my laptop.

Like since i had the X9000, there isn't an insane jump of speed from monteniva's top class; only a slightly higher FSB and slightly higher possibilities for bus speed. The difference would definitely be noticable, but would never be so catestrophic that it would make my laptop seem obsolete. Also, the price of the top monteniva processor would probably be pretty high too.

 

I have typically seen them announce new models and refreshes in the summer, such as the TZ, FZ and CR being announced summer 2007 and UX, FJ and TX refresh in summer 2006 for example.

Their releases mostly coincide with Intel's new platform releases. Sony announced the SZ in January of 2006 when Intel launched their Napa platform. The FZ and CR were announced in mid 2007 when Santa Rosa was released and the TZ a month after the Core 2 Duo ULV processors were released in April 2007.

Montevina (Centrino 2) should be a big event and expect most manufacturers (Sony included) to announce their new notebooks right around when it will be unveiled. It was said to be unveiled at Computex in Taiwan in early June but there are reports its launch has been delayed until July 14th earliest.

 

Yeah, I agree with rahul.

HellDemon, when you have the X9000 CPU installed in your SZ (when you have it), how is the temp of the CPU & the laptop? Do you still remember about them?

 

I just picked up a SZ780 today (they were on sale). Construction quality is great. Keyboard quality sucks. Performance is middling at best.

My advice is to wait a week for announcements at Computex. Whatever deals are available now *should* be still available then.. maybe even with greater discounted prices.

 

HellDeman, I am interested in your opinion of the Transcend 32gb Expresscard memory. I have been using 4gb Memory Stick Duo Pro (Sandisk Ultra 2) for my readyboost but for $200 I like the 32gb. I have read reports of it being slow and the specs report write speed of 8mb/s. Can you share your thoughts?

 

Here is my take on the Montevina releases:

Intel is supposedly currently having issues with the integrated graphics chip for the platform as well as the wireless chips. These are the issues that we know of, and there are many more undoubtedly being worked on somewhere.

Any time a new platform is rolled out it is going to have initial bugs to be worked out. If Montevina is announced in July and notebooks first ship in August, it will likely be much safer to wait until many initial issues are resolved.

It will likely be closer to Christmas when more solid "second revision" releases occur.

Andrew

 

Problem with the SZ is that it only comes with a 64MB card, which lets be honest went out of date 3 years ago. The most powerful card offered in 13.3 inches is generally the 8400GS which is not a gaming card either (64 bit bus, if that means anything to you). You'll need to be looking at a 15.4inch notebook.

Wait and see what sony brings out in the coming months, but if your desperate to buy something with a 9 series card now go look at asus or acer since they are leading in this area at the moment.

 

For whatever it is worth, the Intel Mendocino platform has been delayed until at least July 15th, somewhat later for those using the Intel integrated graphics chip (although the OP appears to want discrete graphics).