Technical SSD-related questions prior to a Sony Vaio Z purchase... (they're quick)

Hey guys,

All right, to briefly summarize my situation:

As a computer technician of many years, it is always somewhat embarrassing to have to ask such broad questions, but I have read through a ton of the material here already, and before committing nearly $3K to a laptop purchase I feel I need to be entirely comfortable that I am making a rational choice.


You see, I do frequent video rendering and HQ audio editing. This means a lot of storage access and, thus, seemingly presents a great opportunity for SSD implementation. However, I am concerned, as many are, about the longevity and reliability of the Vaio Z's SSD setup under such circumstances.

Thus I simply wish to know:

1) Can I reasonably expect several years of probable life of the 512 quad SSD configuration under such use?

2) Will I notice any serious degradation of performance if I simply use the PC as supplied by the factory without any significant tweaking?

Assuming all of this is okay, I have read about the benefits of leaving 15% space unpartitioned (which I think you can do directly within Win7's Disk Management). Should I do this?


Sorry for the broad Q's, guys; I think I generally know the answers after all the reading I've done here on the subject, but I can't be too sure unless one of you resident experts decides to quickly chime in and set my mind at ease.

Thanks!

-Steve

 

I would imagine yes and yes, but I don't have any guarantees.

Yeah, leaving some unused space is probably a good idea (I wouldn't make it unpartitioned though, just leave free space on your drive).

 

Another thing to consider is replacing the optical drive with a caddy and installing a standard SATA SSD in there. That way, the wear on the SSD from your workflow is on a more disposable, easily replaced part.

Of course, if you really need the internal optical drive for your work, that might not be an option.

I have done this; it was a pretty easy mod, and when I do need optical (which is rarely) I use one in an external enclosure.

The reason I decided to go this route was the fact that TRIM cannot be used on the stock SSDs in the RAID configuration, and it seemed that the garbage collection from excessive writes (I develop software, so edit/compile/run/repeat all day long) was causing frequent lagging. Since installing the 2nd (non-RAID, TRIM-enabled) SSD, and moving some files to a ramdisk, this is much less noticeable.

[edit] Just noticed that you are considering the 512GB quad-SSD option. I believe there is some issue with using all 5 SATA ports for SSDs, something to do with a BIOS problem with the power management causing excessive battery drain.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I truly appreciate it.

Hey gerg,

So considering these points and your experience with using the machine for software development, would you say I am making a poor choice for a video rendering/audio editing workstation? I also run VMs from time to time as I experiment with malware specimens on a somewhat regular basis. I want to be sure that, although these hiccups might exist occasionally, overall it will not detrimentally affect me to the point where I would have been better off using a HDD or standard SSD in another system instead.

I would perform the optical drive mod (I've seen the work you guys do to correct such situations on these forums, btw; it's impressive), but I would honestly much rather having a working solution straight from the box, especially at this price. The Vaio Z's other attributes (featherweight, great screen, and gaming capability) are also attractive to me, so it'd be great to know that, forgiving some tiny idiosyncrasies, the system will work well for my needs.

I guess perhaps the best question to ask would be: How bad is this so-called "frequent lagging"?

Thanks,

Steve

 

I think you'll be happy with the performance, there's nothing like a machine with fast SSDs. However they do have their own considerations. Anandtech has some good information on the subject.

I'm not really sure what is causing the lagging. Not that many people seem to have it. Is it something about my machine, or is what I'm doing with it causing stuttering and/or excessive garbage collection? It was enough to get my attention, and also I was a bit concerned about wear on the proprietary SSDs. So, I put an Intel G2 80GB SSD in the caddy. It holds my database and the image file that backs up the RAMdisk. Since doing that, and putting my working and temporary files in RAM, the issue is much less.

At any rate I am really happy with the way the machine is working now. In fact, I use it instead of the Dell workstation I have at the office, a dual Xeon with 12GB RAM and a 10,000 RPM SATA drive. The Sony is faster

I don't do any video rendering, etc. like you do. That probably puts a different load on the system, fewer but larger files as opposed to many small ones. There is only one way to know how any particular machine is going to work for you, and that is to try it. If there should be a performance problem you can address it as I have suggested, or you could get an ExpressCard eSATA controller and move some of your files to an external eSATA drive (hard drive or SSD).

 

I suppose you're right. It seems like this machine ought to meet my needs for the most part anyway, and if it turns out that heavier rendering operations require some sort of external storage solution, I can make do with the EC slot.

Just one last question for you then, and this one's much easier:

All things considered, what's your opinion of the build quality? I'm coming from a Dell M1330 if you're familiar... so I'm at least hoping for a four to five year lifespan on this baby. I've read troubling things about the keyboard screwing up the screen, the palmrests, and some other items.

We've got no Sony store nearby and I've never bought one of these for any of my customers yet.

Thanks, and sorry again for all the questions.

 

Coming from Dell Inspiron E1505, Acer Ferrari 4005, Sony Vaio SZ, 2x Sony Vaio Z this being my third VaioZ. Can you tell which laptop I enjoyed the most?

It is a good contender laptop among serious performance, style, and stylee

Unfortunately, there are few downturns to this laptop like you mentioned. But you being a computer technician, it is something that can be easily solved. Palm rest issue, I would go to a local hardware store and pickup and sealant coat. Between the screen and keyboard i definitely recommend putting a cloth or something soft.. I wish sony continued to provide the nice vaio cloth they used to with 2009 model of Z's.

anyways with the geforce 330 chipset and the ability to overclock plus i7 processor, it will meet most of your modern video encoding, and transition needs. Plus i recommend getting the lowest SSD size from sony and modify with a customer Intel G2 SSD + Blu-ray disc drive mod.

most of all, you will have fun as you can tell :]

I am a happy vaio owner.

 

The screen is really thin and flexible, so if pressed it can contact the keyboard. I carry mine in a neoprene sleeve in a padded backpack and haven't had any problems. Put a microfiber cloth in there for padding and to clean the screen with. If you are providing these to clients, maybe put your logo on it

The palmrests wear, apparently the black is worse than the silver. They are painted plastic and show wear and scratches. I use an external keyboard almost exclusively, but did get some scratches when one palmrest came in contact with metal.

Those 2 items seems to be the worst of it. Otherwise the build is very good quality. The top aluminum plate is the main structure, all the components attach to it in layers. Very elegant design, sturdy and light-weight.

 

The question is, how much do you write on a daily basis.

Intel has said that the average user writes about 5GB per day on average. With that kind of use there are no wear issues for more than 5 years.

If you're writing 100GB per day the answer might be very different. When you know how much you write it's possible to calculate the expected lifetime I believe.

 

corrado,

Yes; I am very tempted and am quite the perfectionist, so if I were to succumb to one of these purchases in the near future, my very first order of business would probably be some sort of protective solution for the palmrest. Ridiculous, perhaps, as this is a $3K machine we're talking about here. Perhaps an extended Sony warranty with ADP wouldn't be such a bad idea after all in this rare case? The keyboard/screen issue... well, I'm fairly careful with my tech, so I'd like to think I wouldn't need to worry so much about it.


Hey gerg,

So Premium Carbon Fiber might not be such a great idea after all then?

That's the issue. Audio editing often takes me into the 20GB file size realm, and I will save those files once or twice before I'm finished. This happens once per week, but that already eats up quite a lot of the allocated duty cycle. Video editing writes a lot as well.

But isn't it also true that the RAID0 setup (most notably quad RAID) will actually multiply the theoretical life of the system? If what I am reading here is true:

(Of course, the write speed is a little over 3x as fast as the 80MB/sec maximum estimated here...)

And regarding RAID:

-Steve

 

Don't want to sound like i am riding a high horse, but if your considering doing serious modding for a PC to meet your needs, a Z is the last laptop u should consider

 

My palmrest is worn, but it doesn't look bad at all.

 

Still concerns me... it ought to be damn near pristine after less than a year considering the price point.

What color is your Z?

 

Would you gentlemen mind posting pictures of your palmrest on vaio.

this scenario just reminds me of when I had dell Inspiron fancied with cheap paint job. except now THIS IS NOT DELL INSPIRON.

 

I don't think the versions with carbon fiber use it on the palmrests, do they?

 

No, they don't, but doesn't that affect the color of the palmrest (black vs. silver)? I've heard that the silver does not show the wear as badly.

Boy do I feel needy with all of these questions. Really wish I could just get my hands on one to evaluate.

 

I posted photos of my wear in the owner's thread before... check the new one and the old one too

 

>> I'm not really sure what is causing the lagging. Not that many people seem to have it. Is it something about my machine, or is what I'm doing with it causing stuttering and/or excessive garbage collection?

I've owned the Z112GX for 6 months, and use it 8+ hours per day. Very light weight and solid build quality. Screen is great quality a touch small, if you are over 40 you will feel the strain. The pauses happen when using the video Stamina setting, but I can't say I've seen it on Speed setting. They are not correlated to SSD activity as far as I can tell. If there are pauses on Speed they are so short I never notice and they are not disruptive. I suspect the Intel video driver needs updating. I don't see anything on Sony's site but I haven't opened a complaint with them or dug deeply into it.

 

if I replace the optical drive with a caddy and another SSD, could I combine this SSD with the SSD of the notebook as RAID to raise the perfomance?