Upgrade Sony Vaio Z11 WN/B - Z590

Hi,

As my machine now really is a bit behind time I am looking into upgrading it. My model is the Z590 or in Europe Z11 WN/B. I thought about upgrading the ram (if possible) from 4gb to 8gb. The Sony support page is telling that my model can only take 4gb. Does anyone know if this really true?

I also want to upgrade the HDD to a SSD. And OCZ Vertex 2 or Intel 320. Do you think that makes sense? Of course I want to add Win7 64-bit.

I am looking forward for your answers.

Thanks for your support!

 

In what kinds of programs does your laptop seem that it is not performing up to scratch?

 

it takes up to 2 minutes for the boot. shutdown takes 30 seconds. I have bought a DSLR camera and want to process photos (HDR, Panorama etc.) much quicker.

I also thought about buying a new model, but since my is still in quite good shape a boost in terms of hdd and memory upgrade plus new system could help.

 

That notebook will definitely run 8GB (2x4GB) of RAM. As for SSD, any standard 2.5" ones will work. It is a direct swap of the HDD with the SSD. The system will only support up to SATA II speeds.

 

cool. thanks! what would you recommend? first upgrade to win7, then ram and then ssd? or a different order?

what is the exact type of ram I need for the upgrade?

 

I dont know about you, but I own a Z520 and I installed two 4g sticks on it (corsair), and it wont take them, it wont simply boot. I dont know if I should have a bios upgrade or something.

 

You definitely need to update the BIOS to the latest available version for your VAIO Z notebook & it will work.

Good luck.

 

Allright, I will give it a try tonight and see what happens.

 

If you need an SSD: Crucial M4's are the best right now, by far. Really, FAR far. Very reliable too, unlike OCZ's drivers.

Upgrading to an SSD, 8GB of RAM and Windows 7 will make that notebook of yours fly at an incredible speed, trust me!

 

Well, I just upgraded the bios on my VGN-Z520N to version R2169M3 (I'm on XP) and it won't boot with 8GB. Not even one of them. BTW, I am using this Corsair kit, which apparently has the same specifics as the ones that comes with the laptop (the brand of the one included are Elpida or something like that).

So, I dont know who else to believe or what else to do.

 

You need to be careful about which 4GB sticks you choose:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/480610-sony-vaio-z-vgn-591u-w-8gb-ram-3.html#post7701486

It looks like they need to have no more than 4 chips per side.

From your link, it looks like the corsair kit may have 8 chips per side.

 

I heard it will be only supported on 64bit systems. is your XP 64-bit?

how can I check my bios version? found it, mine is R2170M3

 

but they are sataIII and I would guess (perhaps someone here can confirm) that the z590 only supports sata II? does this work?

 

is it really true that the z11 wn/b - z590 is supporting SATA II and not SATA 1?

 

This is a question/answer posted on Crucial website

Q:
Is this SATA 1 compatible?
Asked on 10/19/2011 by John from Oceanside, CA

Know the answer? Answer this question

1 answer

CUSTOMER CARE

A:
All the SSDs will work in SATA 1 as they are backwards compatible but will not work at their full speed capabilities.

Answered on 10/20/2011 by Crucial Support from Meridian, Idaho

I have got the same exact drive and planning to install it this weekend.

 

thanks, I also found this on the crucial webpage. it seems to be compatible. great stuff.

edit: do you also have a sony z11?

is my driver the right one to start the win7 upgrade?

 

I own a VGN-Z520N, not sure about Z11.

Your seems to be the latest bios driver published for Windoze 7.

I will try to install Windoze 7 tonight and upgrade the bios to R2170M3 to see if I can install the 8GB of RAM.

 

cool! let me know if it works out. mine is also a z590 (z11 wn/b in europe).

 

I like Intel drives better. The random 4K is much faster on the Intel drives.

 

So, went ahead and installed Win 7 just in order to update the BIOs. Big surprise, still didn't like the 8GB of RAM. The BIOS I installed is the latest (according to sony support site) for Win 7, R2170M3.

So, I dont know what else to do.

 

ThreeD, you may also want to check these links:

Do You Really Need More Than 6 GB Of RAM? : Is ?Too Much? Really Just Enough?

Overclock3D :: Review :: 3GB, 6GB or 12GB Investigated :: Introduction

If you want to see real improvements SSD is way to go, RAM - not so much. Only few apps will benefit from more RAM.

Cheers,
Miki

 

If that's the case, I suggest going for the Crucial RAM modules. They contain 4 chips on each side & I believe that those will work. I can't say for a VAIO Z590, but I've used those Crucial (2x4GB PC3-8500) RAM modules for a previously owned VAIO Z690 notebook & it worked.

 

When I was upgrading to 8 gigs, I contacted my local computer shop and asked them, which RAM they would recommend for my notebook. They asked for exact model number...took them half a day searching, I believe they contacted Sony because of that and recommended one specific RAM. It was this one. Works like a charm. And I was really surprised how much I noticed the difference between 4 and 8 gigs

 

Ashers referred to one of my posts on page 2. But this here should help:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/480610-sony-vaio-z-vgn-591u-w-8gb-ram-3.html#post6930818

These cards each have 8 chips per side. And they work fine. All made in 2010 by Samsung.

I bought these so that I could allocate a bit more RAM to my virtual machines (running Linux for some closed C++ testing / scripting).

The need for extra RAM really comes down to what you use your machine for. You'll see a bit of a general performance boost when you disable virtual paging. But that's about it. You'll notice more of a performance boost going with an SSD upgrade mind you. That's the real bottle neck when it comes to everyday performance.

My Z is now nearing 3 years old and it still gives some i5 based machines a decent run for their money. It'll probably do so with some i7 laptops if I get around swapping the CPU one of these days when I'm not feeling lazy...

 

thanks for all the tipps. I would go with the 8gb rams as need to convert and reassembly photos via photomatix and lightroom. I would also take the Crucial M4 because I wasn't hearing any faults or breakdowns about it.

any suggestions about the workflow of the x64 7 upgrade?

thanks!