SZ740N7 - Good Prices?

Hey
I've been meaning to buy a Sony SZ laptop, although my first choice was the TZ because of the outstanding battery (but the small screen swayed my choice to the SZ)
And have had my eye on the SZ791N/X; one of the best SZ models to date without SSD's.
But the price is abit out of my budget at $2500 as I am only a high school student.
But I recently just found out about the SZ740N7, with the only difference to my current knowledge is that the 791 has WAN and 4gb RAM, while the 740 has only 2gb RAM w/o the WAN (which is a plus; for the WAN at least).

But it makes me abit skeptical that the 740 costs only $1800 while the 791 costs $2500, so im wondering if there are any other differences?

Also, are there any sites where I can find the 740 for a lower price that ships internationally? I live in canada so I'm limited for the websites I can purchase it off of.

I doubt I'm able to find the 740 for about $1500-1600, but it may be possible, as I found the 791 for $1500 but then got all sold out.

Any help?

Thanks in advance

 

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...Id=10151&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921665311568

Is that what youre looking for?

 

Somewhat; thats the CTO version; the 740N7 is a pre-customized one, just like 90% of all other vaio's.

It has a 2.5ghz Penryn Core 2 Duo processor, 2gb DDR2 RAM, 250gb HDD, and no WAN, priced at $1800. A link would beee... Lemme find one...

Here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117638

 

you would be better with a premium sz6xx than an sz 740

 

Whyssat?

IMO Im more of a battery life person, which is why i considered the TZ/TX before; although the change might not be huge, the Penryn processor is still faster and gives a better batt life.

Though I might check up on some SZ6 models; I was first interested in the 650, but now my standards have been raised abit; I'd like something with more storage than the 650, and abit faster than 2.2ghz (maybe, depends i guess)

Edit: Which model in particular though? I guess I'd be fine with 2.2ghz (for some, tho some others have 2.4 which seems nice), but I'd prefer at least 200gb HDD; the RAM is very inexpensive online so I can easily upgrade it to $80; so my main concern is basicalli speed, space, and battery life

 

nothing to worry about the speed of T7xxx cpus (they are already pretty fast),compared to Penryns of current generation.

take a look at scores of each cpu at many many sites posting this kind of benchmarks.

as for the battery life , no need to worry about it either , T9300, T8300, T8100 are not much more energy efficient than T7500.

get a Penryn with Montevina in July because with the support for DDR3 ram and much faster FSB the new Penryns on Montevina are much better than the current Penryns on Santarosa.

Other wise , go with the cheaper T7500 ,wich is clearly a better deal.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/cpu-m.../Intel-Centrino-2-Mobile-Platform-Detailed/p1

Most of new Penryns have 1066mhz FSB speed. But current Penryns only have 800FSB.

 

I think the led backlighting is going to save you more power than the penryn...

 

Where did you find a 791 for $1,500;/?

 

The penryn processors does save some battery life, however it does not give a noticeable performance boost from the T7500 (unless you choose the T9300 or higher).

If you are considering a SZ, keep in mind that the premium SZ series have the LED bl screen for better display quality (the quality is much than the traditional LCD on the standard SZs). Also note that the LED bl screen extends your battery life by quite a lot. According to sonystyle, premium SZ have 3 to 6 hours of battery life versus 2.5 to 4 hours for the standard SZs. SZ premiums also have carbon fiber casing which makes them lighter than the standard ones.

SZ premium models are numbered SZ X50 or higher (e.g SZ650, SZ680, SZ780, SZ791). Model numbers lower than SZ X50 are SZ standards. (SZ645, SZ740).

The SZ740 you were considering is a standard SZ model which has the traditional LCD screen and no carbon fiber casing.

 

Ohhhh thanks Ic3Demon, that really helps alot.
Well I'm more or less considering the SZ670 or 680 as opposed to the 740 now; for one thing, the 6's have LED backlighting, although the 740 does have a T9300 if im not mistaken... It had a 2.5ghz penryn.

Oh well, I'll look more into the 670/680; might consider the 691 if i can find a good deal on it.

Btw how many slots for HDD's does the SZ have? I saw on sites that some SZ's have SSDs+HDDs, meaning it has enough room for both? Or is that just for those specific ones?
As I'm thinking about replacing the HDD inside it with a 7.2k rpm, but don't want to re-install vista as I've heard some people saying they have issues with non-functioning function keys or their webcams/card readers aren't working.

Ooooh and i found the 791 on ebay, but it got sold out really quickly.

 

no problem. If you want a 7200 rpm HDD with a pre-installed vista system (free of any driver/utility issues), then i suggest you to take a look at portable one. They offer an upgrade to a 7200 rpm HDD on your SZ (sony certified) and free bloatware removal, so the system you get is bloatware free and fully functional.
here is their website: http://www.laptopsinc.com

Have fun shopping

oo.. and here is a premium SZ780 reasonably priced at $1799 with a T9300 processor:
http://laptopsinc.com/Merchant2/mer...VGNSZ780N5&Category_Code=SSZ&Product_Count=10