Sony VAIO Z VPCZ1 - Unboxing Photos and Movie

I'm really impatient.

I picked up a VPCZ112GX/S from the Sony Style store this evening. I've taken a metric-sh*t ton of pictures that I'll be posting over multiple posts.

I also have a video of the first-boot sequence that I'll try to upload this evening.

System specifications are HERE. First one who asks what is in it, gets smacked

I purchased this model primarily to evaluate the 128GB SSD. This configuration has two 64GB Samsung MMCRE28G drives configured in RAID0 (Stripe). I'll post a new thread on my findings this weekend, if somebody else doesn't beat me to the punch. I also have a VPCZ11FHX/XQ on order with the 512GB SSD.

I DON'T HAVE MANY COMMENTS ON THE MACHINE AS I JUST FINISHED TAKING THE PICTURES BELOW. I will say that the previous generation Z charger works with the new Z. I haven't taken the new one out of the box.

I also have a video of the first-boot sequence that I'll try to upload this evening. In addition, I did a video showing the duration from power-on to loading Windows with the RAID prompt enabled and disabled. This will go in the SSD thread.

On to dumping tons of pics, enjoy.

EDIT 3/12/2010: Added disassembly pictures. LINK

EDIT: 1st boot and BIOS post videos. LINK

EDIT 3/22/2010: Added shots of the Samsung 128GB SSD module (64GB x 2) LINK

EDIT 3/30/2010: Added internal shots of the VPCZ11FHX/XQ LINK

EDIT 4/27/2010: Disassembly video: LINK

 

The box




Open



Windows XP downgrade media



Accessories



The battery was already install. 70% battery remaining, for those that care


More on the way

 

Bottom



Top



Right



Left

 

Wow. Thanks for taking the time & effort to post these photos for us.

I love these new Sony VAIO packaging retail (pre-config) boxes. The VAIO CTO boxes used to come in a different "ugly" version for the U.S. market. I hope they change those U.S. CTO boxes to these lovely new boxes for all U.S. VAIO CTO orders.

By the way, am I the only one to think that these silver VAIO Z notebook looks classier than the black ones?

 

Meh, I've been through the "silver" fad of the late 90's early 2000's and am glad to see that black is back. Of course things seems to be starting to swing back to silver again. At least it's not gold.

 

Nice snout in the picture with the specs..lol I have been waiting for some user pics of this machine though, thanks!

 

Cats cannot be controlled

More pics are uploaded, er, are uploading. This will be the mother load.

 

ZoinksS2k, based on that photo, am I correct to say that your pet is even more anxious than you're to have your new VAIO Z notebook up & running? LOL! Or is that not a pet on the right of the photo above?

 

Another batch after this one

 

This is the last of them for now.

 

It's so pretty

EDIT: I noticed the Windows Vista sticker??

Re-EDIT: Nm, that sticker was on the old Z.

 

Nice pics, dude. Great job. Today, my Z cherry got popped by seeing it in person and all these photos! I want mine. I will go sleepless until I get my paws on it.

 

Oh, oh. Some people are going to get upset.

The only option for RAID Level is RAID0. Can't select anything else.

The main screen after I deleted the array


You can't select anything but RAID0. The arrow keys do nothing on that line. You can change the "Strip Size." Cant tell if you can have multiple volumes (only two drives).


In JOBD, Windoes sees the two disks. I'm running an Win7 install now.



Here are some stats. CrystalInfo didn't find a drive with RAID configured.

 

One question answered. The 64GB Samsung SSD's support Trim. Looks like it helps with performance in most places as well

 

Hi, ZoinksS2K!

This does confirm a couple of things. First, it appears that you took your first shot of the CrystalDiskMarks results initially, while the RAID array was still intact. Second, this does say that the 128GB configuration is actually a 2-channel setup (with just one Flash module). Beyond the BIOS and Intel RAID Manager shots, your CrystalDiskmark throughput figures would seem to further confirm this. Assuming that Sony USA is correct in its claims, that would seem to indicate that USA 256GB configurations will also be 2-channel configurations here - the SonyStyle website claims that this is a "256GB x 1" [module] setup. So, it would appear that the only 4-channel configuration here in the states is the 512GB version.

Thank you very much for taking the time to let us know the answers to many of our questions regarding RAID on this system!

EDIT: And the drives are TRIM-capable! Well done! The only real challenge left will be that most motherboards would seem to disable HDDERASE capability unless the SSD cables are disconnected during power-up, and then plugged in after booting DOS, just before running HDDERASE. Obviously, with the Z that might get a little more involved than we might like. Thanks again!

EDIT2: This'll have many folks seriously considering JBOD setups that won't significantly deteriorate, no doubt.

Cheers!
Mark

 

CrystalInfo didn't work with the default Sony configuration. Worked fine on Windows 7 with single drives. I'm restoring the machine to factory now and will try again.

 

Well, with Trim supported on a hardware level all we have to do is wait for Intel to get their act together and release Trim-supporting RAID drivers. I see no reason why a Trim-aware RAID driver isn't possible, it will just take them (and everyone else for that matter) some work, and that work will progress faster as SSDs become more commonplace and people demand it.

For those interested in a Trim-supporting environment *now*, it would actually be good if the US 256gb option was 128gbx2 instead of 64gbx4, as it would be easier to deal with 2 separate, larger drives instead of 4.

This also confirms my worry that Sony might have butchered the Intel BIOS to remove options other than the one they wanted. I wonder if it will be possible to hack it back (much like older Z's have had unsupported features re-enabled).

 

Here are some videos.

This is the first boot sequence. I litteraly opened it for the first time and removed the packaging sheet from the screen/keyboard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ_p3mPp8hM

This second video is showing post times. I haven't timed this yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSCFsgRV8fA

 

If I'm feeling spunky, I'll try to feature enable the BIOS to see if this can be changed.

I had a Dell Z600 with 2x SSD's. They only allowed Intel's crappy IRRT (mirror+). I wasn't able to circumvent this to enable other RAID types, like 0.

This doesn't bother me in the slightest. I plan to use RAID 0 exclusively.

Oh, and by the by, Windows 7 installed perfectly without extra drivers.

 

The Armageddon will begin when people hear about being locked into RAID 0 or individual drives. Guess some things can be done in Windows if you wanted to.

 

How about the backlit keyboard, and stamina/ speed switch.... Do these still function after a clean install? or are the drivers easily added??

Very good job so far btw....

 

Haven't spent any time working with it, but I will say the keyboard is excellent and the back lighting was implemented well.

I'm not in love with the silver color nor with the plastic wrist rests.

I'll do some more stuff with it tomorrow. I'm running through Sony's system restore now. Want to see if I can get CrystalInfo to work this time.

 

the wrist rests are plastic? =(

 

That`s terrible the color can wear off. You have to make sure that you don`t wear your watch when typing as the bottom of the watch can take the color off over time.....this happened with my Dell, because the clasp on my watch is metal.

 

Hopefully the plastic is at least tinted the same color as the paint.

 

I can't believe there is a day where I would be watching videos on boot up and POST. Life never ceases to amaze me.

Thanks, you have just made my day that much better.

 

You mean you haven`t seen the un-boxing video yet! You`re missing out.

 

Does Sonystyle charge a restocking fee? I assume you plan to return this, right?

 

Very nice screen and keyboard (I'll never buy without a backlit keyboard!).

Wish I had $2,000 to drop on one of these.
--

 

Great work Zoinks! At least this confirms that the drives support TRIM when run in JBOD! .. I might just break the RAID and run them separately without performance degradation .. The numbers look decent in JBOD ..

 

Why would you wanna do that?

 

Because TRIM is supported by these drives in JBOD but not on RAID, which might suffer from degradation? .. or am I thinking wrong here

 

If you break the RAID array to go JBOD, does this blow away all the partitions and data so you have to burn the recovery disks first..?

 

Oh, got it. You might be on the right track here!

What about if you just leave drivers in JBOD and then put them into software RAID 0 inside windows?

 

+1

Would you do a step by step tutorial from breaking the RAID to clean installing Windows 7 and have all the features back (keyboard back light? Graphic Switch?)?

It would be very helpful for us who're not very technical

Thanks in advance!

 

I am 99.9% that data will be lost and that you need to make a backup first.

Maybe windows7 offers a complete system recovery option so you dont need to set up everything up.

 

Take a look at these benchmarks to get an idea of how RAID and JBOD compare.
Originally posted by emev in the owner's forum.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=46716&d=1268389790

 

This would indeed be very helpful. I guess you can just follow the steps for other Vaio's on these forums on how-to clean install windows.

 

@ZoinksS2k
I'm personally pretty curious as to how you rate the new Z in regards to heavy-duty performance (as I'm sure others here are as well). Personally, I don't care if this comes in a plastic bag provided it's from Sony; I'm just keen on what this thing is capable of!

So.
1. Heat management. How well does it exhaust heat out of the vent? Fan turns on regularly? Any other random sounds here and there internally (like high-pitched sound before fan starts to 'run' from a 'walk')?

2. Any downclocking? This is provided you got the i7 CPU. Does the i7 go full blast for extended periods, or short bursts / intervals at a time (like the darn T9900 does).

3. Just wondering why you bought the new Z in the first place; do you do anything intensive graphics or CPU wise? Say, running scripts or video encoding? How do they perform when compared with the older Z?

4. Overall build quality. Body clicking at random places, though most notably the LCD screen flexing, and whether it still 'touches' the keyboard. Tried applying a bit of extra force on your new toy to test this out...? ^_^
And maybe also the battery drain issue. Some newer Sonys don't seem to have the issue any more, though some still do...

Really keen on a reply, especially with the downclocking question (provided you went all-out and bought the best i7 you can with the Z...)

 

Btw. regarding question 3: he said that he bought this model just to test the SSDs (and will return it AFAIK). But the question is still relevant for his top-of-the-line signature model, which he hasn't received yet.

 

Correct on both points. Never said I was smart or frugal

Yes, the existing data is destroyed when you break the RAID set. I burned the recovery CD's before I did the quick Windows 7 install. I have since recovered to the original config with these discs.

I may take another video showing how you delete the RAID0 set, making them single (JOBD) drives and then again creating a new one.

I'm not sure I'll do a clean install until I get the VPCZ11FHX/XQ. I've been developing a killer cold, if I become home-bound over the weekend, I may do this. I would follow the current Win7 clean install procedure for the Z. The new system uses the same Sony application as every other laptop out there (Sony Utilities, FW Extension Parser, SmartWI, etc). They are newer, of course, but based on the same standard installers.

 

Can't say yet.

I'll see if I can get a sound sample when I do benchmarks.

I mostly run VM's which is why I'm so keenly interested in the RAID setup. I'll do some video conversions with Badaboom to test the 330M's Cuda capabilities, run the Futuremark benchmarks and load up some games from my Steam account.

I won't bother doing most of these tests this on the older Z. The 9300GS is and has always been a joke. Might do one just to show how bad that card really is.

I actually just compared the screen rigidity. The new Z seems a bit more "bendy" but sony did a much better job with the rubber spacers around the keyboard. There is a lip on the top of the LCD panel that helps too. It will be hard to get the screen to touch the keyboard. Then again, I didn't have too much trouble with this in the previous model.

 

Hello All,

I have been following this thread with great interest.

ZoinksS2k, a couple questions for you:
1. I am also interested in running VM's (VM Ware) on this laptop. What would be the advantages of RAID setup vs JBOD setup when using VM's (aside of performance)?

2. Performance differences aside between RAID and JBOD, wouldn't you always use JBOD given that it supports TRIM thus prolonging your HDD lifecycle?

Thanks in advance!

 

Hey Zoinks... I originally wrote this in the owner's lounge, but I think it may have been overlooked:

Is this relevant..? Could you do this..?

Cheers.

 

VMware will benefit from the increased throughput RAID0 provides. You can't give VMWare too much disk speed.

I have no intention in running the machine in JBOD. I'm confident that the degredation people are worried about can be mitigated in one way or another.

I put this in the other thread:
I will be using ATTO, HD Tune, PCMark Vantage and HDTach when I do benchmarking of the Z over the weekend.

If the opportunity presents itself, I'll also try to connect a few other SSD's to the laptop for direct comparisons. I've got an 80GB Intel X-25 G1, 256GB Patriot Warp V3 and two 120GB OCZ Vertex Turbos. Not sure this is doable, won't know until I crack the Z open.

I'll also try to replicate the tests PCPer does with their SSDs to see if I can simulate degradation.

 

^ Awesome .. looking forward to the results

 

I've got a few more screenshots to show. These will be the last for a while. I have to go to the office to pay off my gizmo habit

Apparently CrystalInfo doesn't work on RAID volumes, so here is a pic of the FSUTIL output and the Intel storage manager. Please note that the "0" response does not mean TRIM works.

From another forum:

HD Tune and CrystalDisk results. I'm very happy with this.



Lastly, ATTO and HD Tach. Very nice indeed.



It will be very interesting to see how three and four member RAID sets perform.

 

Ok, thanks. I must've missed that...

 

No worries, that thread is significantly difficult to follow.