Upgrade SZ or Buy SR/Z

I have a SZ110 and it's been slow opening apps including firefox. Sometimes it would freeze while opening a pdf. I was wondering if I should upgrade it or purchase a new laptop? I have already updated the bios and upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit. I like the light ultraportable weight of this laptop at 4.1 lbs. I really don't want to spend over $600.

Options I'm Thinking of:
1. Upgrade to 4gb DDR2-667 ram, 128gb SSD, & to max the cpu with Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 2.33ghz
2. Buy a SZ6+ series? Same as my SZ but using Intel Core 2 Duo T7500. Not sure how much of an improvement this would be.
3. Buy a VGN-Z, not the VPC-Z (too expensive). I like the fact that this is even lighter than the SZ.
4. Buy a SR. Same weight as my SZ if not heavier, but it has a better graphics card (ATI HD 4570).

I think most of those options would be around $500 if I get them secondhand on ebay, but which option would be best for the money? Any other option I'm missing?

Thanks for all your help!
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Sony VAIO VGN-SZ110: Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83ghz, 1gb RAM, Nvidia GeForce Go 7400, 100gb 5400rpm ATA hdd, DVD-RW

 

I vote VGN-Z... even though it's "old" it is still better than most consumer laptops out there... which is a sad sad thing....

 

I would vote for the VGN-Z.

1) The SZ1 is limited to SATA 1 so you won't get all the benefit of the speeds of the SSD. Also, as you're probably aware you're limited to 3GB with a 32bit OS but then there is dual channel symmetric mode. The graphics card is also very old at this point.

2) You would get a nice boost in all round performance with the SZ6/7. It supports SATA 2 speeds and the bus is faster. Also, the integrated graphics is better but it still is not ideal for HD. The dedicated graphics 8400GS is problematic as well because of the Nvidia problems. Partly for this reason i've always run my laptop in stamina mode. The 45nm processors that the SZ7 takes are the most power efficent SZ1-- SZ7.

3) The VGN Z integrated card can handle HD. The dedicated card doesn't have the problem that the 8400gs has. It also has a better screen than the SR the other potential laptop on your list. The SR also doesn't have switchable graphics so battery life if you go for a model with dedicated graphics will be worse.

I upgraded a Fujitsu P7230 and probably spent more than $600 on it last year but it's an ultraportable with features that are hard to find in laptops now. I would have to spend a lot more buying another laptop which i wasn't prepared to do but will do may be later this year or next year.

The Vaio SA has been rumored to start at $1,200 so may be if that is within budget may be wait until early March to purchase.

 

I'd say the primary upgrade would be SSD, no matter which laptop you put it in, you'll notice And don't worry about speed benefits, most important is low seek time and this will remain unaffected by SATA1. Then stick in more RAM. If you can afford to buy newer laptop fulfilling these requirements - go for it, else I wouldn't consider it worth it.
I've recently switched from SZ2 (C2D T7200, 4GB RAM, 500GB HD 7200RPM) to VPC-Z12 and I attribute 99% of user experience improvement to SSD drive.

 

I too would go for the VGN-Z.

Your SZ is rather old, period. If you do go down the upgrade path, as Rachel stated the performance benefit (notably the SSD you mentioned) will be limited by the chipset. Though that said, from your current 5400rpm HDD (which I'm assuming you have now), the benefit will be most definitely be felt.

The SSD is probably key in getting your SZ to speed up. And as ghrh says, after that the RAM. Not too sure if maxing out the CPU will give you a noticable performance boost, especially considering CPU mods are rather risky business (and thus potentially expensive).

I personally have owned the VGN-Z for just over 2 years now, and am tearing myself apart trying to decide on whether I should continue modding or going for a custom-built desktop. I do move around with college so a laptop is preferable, but then the desktop I've planned up is more powerful. So I guess I can kinda feel your pain there.

In regards to your machine starting to slow down... Can I ask what AV you're using? I'm gonna take a wild guess and say AVG, but just incase...

 

There was quite a similar thread a while back, you might want to have a read of it. The OP wanted to upgrade to an SSD also.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/411714-vgn-sz-time-upgrade-t7200-t7600.html

Certainly you will see the benefits of going for an SSD but well the performance is limited to Sata 1. You might also want to consider Seagate's Momentus XT hybrid HD/SSD if you wanted to save some money now. This is not like upgrading older ultraportables where owners only alternatives are going for slow 1.8 or an SSD.
The SSD if you buy it no doubt you can use it in another laptop down the line.

It is pretty easy to upgrade the cpu in the SZ series. You don't need to dismantle the main body of the laptop to get to the processor. However, depending on your tasks you may not notice a difference.

 

what are the current specs of your SZ?

 

Sony VAIO VGN-SZ110: Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83ghz, 1gb RAM, Nvidia GeForce Go 7400, 100gb 5400rpm ATA hdd, DVD-RW

I'm a student in research so I often have to use huge database and analysis data for research. Also lightly use photoshop, dreamweaver, and gaming (dota). Those work on my laptop...just really really slow.

 

The comment that the SZ is old, I think that needs quantifying.

As mentioned, Sata1 means less of an improvement, though an SSD coudl still show you an increase. Being a first generation SZ, you are limited to 2gigs of memory, so 4 gigs isn't going to happen.

Second Gen Sz's compete quite well with current I-5 systems in most ways and some have even managed to get 8gigs into them. It still is stuck with an older Intel and Nvidia GPU, but the Intel handles most common tasks just fine.


As for the OPS question as to what to do...
Like I said, 4gigs will not happen in your 110.
The SZ6 yes, you can do that, they seem to be hitting around $350-$400, which for the money is a nice laptop even today. Put 4gigs in it with Win7 64bit, they run great. My SZ750 does all you want to do without problem.

If you want new though, let's face it replacing an SZ with something new for $600 is just plain impossible. You will lose a TON of quality and probably a lot of features, and sorry, but an Sz6 is just nicer to use than anything under $600 new.

The cheapest SZ replacement realistically is going to run $800-$1000 USD. Look at the Dell XPS line for more gaming style or (my personal favorite) the Toshiba Portege' R700/R705 series. The R700 and 705 are similar but the differences are important so be sure to look if you go that route. Spec-wise it's a newer Intel graphics, I5, 13in, longer battery life, that is thinner than an Sz, and almost a pound lighter.

The 13in category is a slim one that becomes even more slim when you start looking at features and quality.

 

oh wow..I didn't know Toshiba had such a laptop. I always thought they were lower-end laptops. Thanks for letting me know! It sounds like a good option. I see they have some r705 with i3 and some with i5, but does the graphic card differ too? It looks like it's all integrated graphics.... Guess that would explain the better battery life.

 

Or they just have a larger battery or better power management. If you think about it, the VPC-Z's have pretty much the same power consumption as the r700 if you put it on stamina mode (using integrated graphics of the i7).

If you want, you can always consider getting yourself a thinkpad x200. 12.1" form factor with a fully-powered dual-core i5 or i7 processor as well as the Thinkpad ruggedness and reliability you wont find in a Sony ultraportable.

 

I thought it was 3gb max for the older SZ series? The 945GMS chipset is restricted to 2GB but the older SZ's don't use this. Other owners have upgraded to 4gb and in a 32bit OS the BIOS recognised 3.12GB. I'm not quite sure or remember why you shouldn't be able to use 4GB with a 64bit OS, may be you can?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/215416-sz1-t7400-4gb-ram-anyone-has-tested-windows-xp-64-a.html

A Segate XT drive is under £80/$120.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3734/seagates-momentus-xt-review-finally-a-good-hybrid-hdd/2

You could sell of your old processor to recoup some of the costs of buying a
T7600.
Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 2.33GHz Mac Mini 64bit CPU SL9SD on eBay (end time 20-Jan-11 15:21:06 GMT)

You probably could upgrade for $200-300.

At this stage though the time might be right for you to buy a new laptop. With the above upgrades though and if you use the dedicated card you might find it still a very capable performer.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-Go-7400.2143.0.html

Edited to add:
I knew this had arisen before and in this post a forum member tried 4GB in a 64bit OS in a SZ3 but the BIOS only recognised 3.12gb. Sony restricted it in the BIOS and these older models really needed a BIOS update which Sony did not provide.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/4509628-post686.html

I've been trying 1080P more recently in integrated graphics mode on my SZ7 T9300 2.5ghz 800mhz and it's actually smooth. Flash is still quite heavily dependent on the cpu. Like leslieann wrote though the SZ6-7's can be upgraded to 8GB of ram and of course as i mentioned before they support SATA 2.

 

looks like a lot of people think I should give up on this laptop. I don't mind since it's like 5 years old (though I did pay a fortune for it when it 1st came out, $2000).

So the recommendations I gathered are Sony VGN-Z, Toshiba R700, and Lenovo x200. Which one gives the best performance per cost? I'm not the type of person to buy/upgrade laptops often, as you can see by how long I kept my sz110, so I would like the next laptop to last a decent length of time. I kind of want a laptop that's light (<4lbs), with dedicated video card, and with a dvd-rw. So the Toshiba and Lenovo have shortcomings.

 

Sounds to me like you should just wait until you can afford the laptop you want. The old gen VGN-Z is limited to 4GB RAM, so even though its a great computer today (As you can see in my sig, I had one), quite likely in 2 years you'll feel it is outdated. I also like to keep my laptops for a long time... typically 4-5 years. I only upgraded from the VGN-Z to the new VPC-Z because I got it for free through Sony's warranty. The only way to manage that though is to always buy the best or nearly the best. Things like a 4GB RAM limit and USB 2.0 will be big annoyances to you in the near future, i.e. 2 years, if you want a long term laptop.

In other words, the VGN-Z would have lasted you 4-5 years if you had bought it when they were still making them. Right now it probably won't.

 

yeah the top of the lines would last longer. Top ones I was looking at are Sony VPC-Z and Samsung QX310, but they are expensive. Not to say I only found the QX410 within the US. They didn't bring the QX310 here? I only found it on UK, AU, and HK websites. Either way if I get those I'll need time to save up. What should I do now to last? Ram? It's the cheaper upgrade...

 

Not all " old " VGN-Z series notebooks are limited to 4GB of RAM. I know for a fact the VGN-Z800 series ( Z820, Z850, Z890 ) all support up to 8GB of RAM.

Newegg.com - Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model CT2KIT51264BC1067

This is installed in my Z820. In my opinion, if you can buy a VGN-Z890 from Sony Style's Outlet Store, you should be good for several years. There are still a few of them for sale.

Reading this thread again, I see the OP only wants to spend around $600.00 so perhaps the more recent VGN-Z series might not be a cost effective option for snangel.

 

The graphics are all Intel (4500?) which is plenty for anything but gaming it seems. One difference between the two is bluetooth, the cheaper one omits it as well as the fingerprint reader. The better one also has a USB/Esata port, I haven't really looked into it. Some places say it's a USB3, some have hinted it's a power over esata connection.

Still it's a metal chassis, thin, light, fast and darn nice system for the money.
Is it a Z? No, but if you don't need the gaming aspect it's a good alternative and a nice one to see. The 13in category is finally getting some respect and some decent options (other than junk or high end).

I was thinking it was 2, but yeah, I think you are right, it was 3.12. I knew there was some weird limitation on it.

Three gigs isn't terrible. The processor is still a bit limiting though. However, considering we run everything om I7 down to Atoms (same as a Celeron 800) today, an older SZ with 3 gigs is fine for more basic stuff and probably enough to hold over the OP until they can afford what they want.

 

That's what I'm going to do for now. I just bought a 4gb ddr3-667 kit from amazon. I know W7 only recognizes 3.12gb. I'm going to see if there's a difference btwn having 3gb vs 4gb in the SZ. If I can't see a benefit of having both 2gbs in it than I'll just sell off the extra stick of ram. I'll let you guys know if it solves the slowness problem once I get the ram.

If it doesn't then I'll probably have to settle for the Toshiba R700 or Asus U30 or U33, which ever is cheaper. But I'll aim for the VPC-Z if I can. Hopefully the VPC-Z will come down in price once I saved up money...since it looks like the best machine out there for the weight.

 

yeah the R700/R705 sounds good. The R705 is less expensive and it's the consumer type with Windows 7 Home (try Best Buy for a great price). The R700 is mostly a business type with Windows 7 Professional and a few more features (bluetooth, fingerprint reader or something like that). I got our buyer to buy a few R700's recently. The R700 is a sweet nice lightweight fast laptop. The R705 is the same minus a few items but equally sweet nice lightweight fast. Bye.

edit: return that RAM to amazon or cancel it

 

So I upgraded to 3.12gb of ram with 2x 2gb DDR2-667 CL5 ram.
I used Everest to benchmark and it says Dual DDR2-533 4-4-4-12. Does it run at 667? And does that mean the dual channel is working?

Everest results:
Status 1gb RAM 4gb RAM
Memory Read (MB/s) 3661 4017
Memory Write (MB/s) 2972 2974
Memory Copy (MB/s) 2961 3074
Memory Latency (ns) 95.1 95.1
CPU Queen 7093 7086
CPU PhotoWorxx 5639 5851
CPU ZLib (KB/s) 21311 21588
CPU AES 6387 6439
FPU Julia 1477 1487
FPU Mandel 687 666
FPU SinJulia 818 822

Windows Experience Index
RAM 4.5 4.7 (only went up by 0.2 pts...)

 

Not totally true. I'm running 8GB RAM in my VAIO VGN-Z690 with BIOS R5031M3.

 

You most likely won't notice more RAM in benchmarks, but in everyday usage...
Memory will be limited to 533MHz, but it sure is working dual-channel.

 

How much of an effect you experience comes down to how you implement those extra gigs. For one, I disabled virtual memory by setting the paging size to zilch (0MB). Though I've now got 8GB to play with, with less referals to the HDD hence meaning a slightly more zippier machine.

Where I've felt noticable differences? Up on the list would be running virtual machines with more donated RAM, WHILE watching a movie in the host OS for example. Next would probably be blu-ray playback (or 1080p playback for that matter). Data is less streamed to the HDD and more direct to the RAM; with 3GB of RAM I would see slight stutters near high-action scenes. That's not present anymore.

If I recall right, W7 will set your paging size to be identical to that of your installed RAM (so if you have 3GB installed, you'll by default have 3GB of virtual memory). I wouldn't recommend decreasing the paging file right down to 0MB with just 3GB of visible RAM; the OS will BSOD on you without warning unless you monitor what you do and have open. And from what I see now, W7 x64 with little installed on a VGN-Z will idle on 1.6GB from a total of 8GB.

Back when I had 3GB of RAM (with 3GB extra of paging), I saw W7 go all the way upto 2.8GB and the machine was referring to the HDD like mad; barely usable in that state... That happened when a scheduled virus scan started up while I was in fullscreen Ubuntu and almost cost me my project...

@sonus
Running VGN-Z (2nd gen), 8GB RAM without issue with BIOS R2170M3. Worked first time like a charm.
As mentioned earlier in this thread, machines like the Z won't really feel outdated as quickly as you'd expect.. Like the SZ, these machines are / were high-end machines at their time. Heck, again mentioned earlier, some SZ from years back can compete against some (low-mid i3) machines sold today. You'll agree, that's quite a statement from a machine that's probably around 5 years old.

 

Yeah I see an improvement. My ram usage is around 40% now instead of the 90% it was before. Firefox doesn't have as much difficulties with multiple tabs. Opening pdfs haven't crashed my computer so far. Music playback seems to stop stuttering. I haven't tried photoshop or dreamweaver yet, but I assume those should work better now too. Upgrading the ram probably won't help the graphics much huh? I still can't play games then.

On another note, while installing ram I heard a rattling noise and found a spring underneath the keyboard and by the usb ports. Anyone knows what this spring is and how to put it back?

 

Some games are heavily memory-bound and you'll notice some improvements when the game doesn't have to constantly read data from disk. What games do you want to play?

 

That is a second gen, not a first gen.

 

i have a Sony Vaio SZ760n/c and I am planning to upgrade my HDD to 1Tb. I noticed that 1Tb 2.5mm HDDs are 12.5mm higher in their specs...Can I possibly fit the 1Tbs to my SZ760n/c laptop? pls advice..need your help

thanks

 

I wouldn't put faith in the Windows Experience benchmarks. adding more ram is one of the easiest ways to make windows run smoother.

 

I'm trying to play league of legends, but it failed before so I uninstalled. Going to have to reinstall it and try again.

 

Nope, you need a 9mm drive.
I believe there is a 750gig drive available now in that size, but 1TB will have to wait.

 

According to wiki the recommended graphic card is Geforce 8800, but the minimal settings should work fine.