The Great American Sony Notebook Upgrade. I need your help.

So, i bought the Sony Vaio SZ480 2 years ago. Today, i am having a weird fan sound so i have sent it back into Sony for repair (and upon its return an eventual re-sale).

(i tried to do it myself, but was apalled by the intense complexity hidden under the keyboard). In fact, i have a feeling that these are created in 2050, and sent back in time for sale today.

BUT, its not powerful enough for running Outlook, Phostoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Fireworks, and several instances of Firefox. So, i am interested in upgrading. It gets choppy.

I only want the delicious looking sleek lightweight Sony Vaio's. Such as the Z series, however, it doesnt look as awesome as the SZ series and I have a feeling they are going to retire that series of laptops soon since they have been out for over 2 years.

So, does anyone know if they are going to release a new line of laptops for the holiday Windows 7 season? if not, i welcome all suggestions as to what i should do.

my needs are:
1. bad a$s sleekness looking. (i have the carbon fiber SZ model)
2. nasty power.
3. light.

Thank you everyone for being a part of the Great American Benny Chains notebook upgrade. Your prize will be a puppy/kitten named in your honor given to a homeless child in east Oklahoma City.

 

Try filling in this form first so we can know more about your requirement and expectations (e.g. screen size, budget, etc).
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=29271

As to whether to wait for new updates and refreshes, the only thing I can say is, there is always going to be something new tomorrow, if you play the waiting game, you will never get a computer. Just buy a new computer when you really need one.

BTW, what's with the excessively patriotic title. There are people from all over the world on this forum... and Sony is a Japanese company.

 

Doesn't matter, he has money and is actually spending it in USA instead of saving it in this tough economy, he is a Great American!

On the other hand, I think he knows what he wants and there are really only Z and SR that fit the bill. The question is whether these two get Intel platform refresh around holiday season and maybe he should limp along with SZ a little bit longer to wait for that refresh. I personally think you should wait for the holiday season sale if you can even though a refresh around that time is not guaranteed

 

The Z has been out for 13 months and Sony may well keep updating this model for another 11 months but nobody really knows. The SZ was around for slightly over 2 years I believe.
May be after W7 has been released Sony may do a small refresh. Most likely after Arrandale has been released then they will do quite a major refresh may be in Q1-Q2 of next year.
Unless you really need to buy now October is not that long to wait.

Have you upgraded your computer at all?

 

I would wait, there might be some GPU upgrade and it makes the difference in your case.Meanwhile go for Win 7 or Vista 64, get max RAM possible, put SD or memory stick for the ReadyBoost (it works great, speeds things up, now I can close PS or whatever editor instead of keeping it open all the time, since thanks Readyboost after opening/closing once, it opens in few sec only). For apps as you listed RAM makes more difference then CPU speed. You need 8G ideally.

 

I know, but I am American and i need the upgrade. If i was in Malaysia, i would have called this the Great Malaysian Sony Notebook Upgrade. However, if i was Malaysian who knows i may have been into krill fishing, turtle hunting, or perhaps dance instead of IT so its a difficult premise to determine my hypothetical Malaysian lifestyle . But, if i had to choose it would probably be dance which would make this entire thread completely out of place.

Cool, this is awesome info. What is Arrandale? It sounds neat, Lord of the Rings-ish. I am totally going to wait until October, id rather get a clean install of W7 rather than a voucher for an upgrade. BUT, the Z series just doesnt look that cool, and isnt even the most popular laptop on this forum. (The SZ was when it was for sale). No further upgrades to the SZ, i couldnt! I was dumb, and i think bought the last model of SZ before they upgraded the motherboard to support 4Gb of Ram. Mine only supported 2 GB. Needless to say its been a suck-fest.

This Readyboost you speak of sounds awesome, i will investigate it. Thanks.



I just dont really like the Z series, i feel like its design is shoddy, and doesnt have the same high-end look to it like the previous top of the line Vaio notebooks.

To me, VAIO makes the highest quality laptops out of all the brands, and costs more then the rest as well. I want it to look better as well as perform great. Luxury Notebook. Am I right, or am i being ridiculous?

thanks again all

 

In fact, not one Sony laptop is on this forum's top 50. Its embarrasing!

 

I bet a new model will come out when the next James Bond comes out.

 

Arrandale is the next generation platform. The processors will be smaller 32nm as opposed to 45nm and there will be some other changes as well that should make the next gen laptops more power efficient.

The max ram that your laptop will take is 3GB. 2GB ram can be bought very cheaply now and it is very easy to upgrade ram. Also, your processor can be upgraded up to a T7600 (I don't know what you have installed now) very easily also without having to dismantle your laptop. Upgrading to a 7,200rpm HD(if you don't have one installed) might also give you a performance boost.
This is if you may be decide you want to hang onto your SZ a bit more and upgrade to the Z later down the line.

 

I think right now it is the perfect time to buy because not only do you get Vista, you will also have an XP downgrade disc and in October, you can get your Windows 7 copy too! Three OS-es, perfect!

 

I wouldn't look too much into the top 50 list. You have hundreds of different laptops with different specs and uses. The Z is primarily a business laptop and therefore unlikely to get as many hits as your consumer models.

Anyway, if you have negative thoughts about Sony, it's time to look into other notebook manufacturers.

 

yeah and maybe if i go on craigslist i can score a used mattress, an old HP printer, and a crt monitor.

Who cares about XP, its over and done.

Vista sucks, and i look forward to W7 and do not intend to look back.

uh oh the newspaper flopping down the street has an unclipped coupon! runnn.

I just said luxury laptops, not hand me downs. thanks for trying to try though.

 

Thanks, I believe i have the T7200 (2 ghz), and im pretty sure ive gone to crucial.com and im maxed out at 2. But, ill check again when it comes back in the mail from the future.

But these are all extremely valid upgrade options. I just think the cash will be better spent on a new horse rather then polishing old hooves. <-- i just made that up. i like it.

 

I never said one negative thing about Sony. I just said i dont think the Z looks as sleek as their past high-end notebooks.

I love my sony, and if you can suggest another luxury model line of notebooks, i am all ears.

I will even clip coupons for you.

 

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