VAIO TZ 10 Year Anniversary Japan Official

Man, I just wish there was a way to take out the optical drive and put in the 2.5" 160gb hard drive and vice versa. Would it be possible to make a hack or something? I know it would probably void the warranty but I just wish this was possible to swap the two.
In the beginning when this was first announced, I assumed it was possible, I guess its totally impossible eh? I'm sorry to be nagging but I hope its possible in some way to do this. I'd really wish to have the convenience of having the built in optical drive and then the 2.5" 160 gb larger, faster hard drive whenever I want.

 

I think it has already been discussed, but it is believed that the 2 different options for a 2.5" drive or an optical drive use different frame types.

 

I say get over it. No laptop is perfect, and there are always tradeoffs. What they've done is a huge step up. I use a DVD drive infrequently, so it wouldn't bother me, but everyone is different. I'm still curious to see how the G will work out, but I'm going to keep my eye on the TZ series.

 

Afraid you're right: FenderP wrote: "I say get over it. No laptop is perfect, and there are always tradeoffs. What they've done is a huge step up. I use a DVD drive infrequently, so it wouldn't bother me, but everyone is different." But I need frequently dvd.

And nevertheless, as JackShadow points out: "See, while I really love the SSD drive option for the TZ, I just dont think 32GB is enough for even normal computing and music. The OS will take about half that, not to mention all the extra spamware that will come bundled with it. When you add just 5 gigabytes of music into that... it gets very cramped.!"

This is what I hope can be solved soon: Either swapability as rahulnirmal several times has expressed a very understandable wish for, or soon a 64 GB SSD, as I am afraid that 32 GB will be too cramped.

 

When will you get your G? And what do you plan to do when the TZ comes out next month?

 

Rahul get over it? That's impossible! He'll still be here in this forum about five years from now, still not having bought a new lappy, bemoaning the shortcomings of the latest version that he won't be buying!

 

I get my G in the next week or two. Ordered it a few days before the TZ was announced. It has the Core Solo 1.33 and the 32GB SSD Considering I just dropped the money on the G, I don't see me getting another ultraportable for awhile. I'll see what's up next year when I get the itch lol

I've never loved the T line after the TR series, so I really don't have buyer's remorse. The resolution has always bothered me (squishing so much into an 11.1" - 1366x768). It has always made it seem smaller than it is, much like they've done with the UX series. The old U series was much nicer that way.

 

By then, Rahul will have a 256GB SSD in his laptop and won't give a s**t about 2.5" hard drives.

 

Ha. And I was ribbing him - the get over it wasn't really serious. What you posted is why I just decided to go for the G - it is the right size and weight I wanted. At some point you have to bite the bullet as there will always be something better coming down the pike.

 

As FREN has already pointed out, the best bang for the performance buck is the SSD and the 160GB drive. I agree. That would give you the ability to boot up blazingly fast and still have a lot of storage for all those music files.

While some people use their laptops to watch movies, I'm not one of them. I'm too damn busy, so for me, and I'm sure many others, the DVD drive can be sacrificed.

And let's stop bemoaning the fact that the TZ is not a modular lappy. Apparently, modularity is difficult to achieve in such a small form factor.

 

ubercool wrote: "Rahul get over it? That's impossible! He'll still be here in this forum about five years from now, still not having bought a new lappy, bemoaning the shortcomings of the latest version that he won't be buying!"

There is a (also) REAL problem here: There must not be too big a mismatch between the software demands and the hardware possibilities. I don't know for certain about the technicalities here, but I think it is realistisc to be afraid that 32 GB is in the borderland of being too little capacity of a SSD, as several people have said. So, if SSD 64 GB comes along, I think both Rahul and I will buy the TZ and be happy (or if there will be a switch possibility).

 

does anyone know the weight difference between choosing the hd or the dvd drive?

what is the exact weight of the laptop in general? i have seen conflicting specs.

 

I also agree. And who is to say you can't swap that 160GB 5400 for one of the nice, new Hitachi 7K200 200GB 7200rpm drives, eh?

Well, by nature ultraportables are well built, tightly engineered laptops. Making them modular is not only difficult, but most likely would lead to component failures quicker. I'd rather go for better build quality by having to make a choice.

 

64GB is coming out soon, but the question is price. Once SSD prices drop over the next 1 - 2 years, we'll all look back now and laugh we even used 2.5" platters

 

I played with a TX at Best Buy yesterday and I don't find the 1366x768 bothersome at all. In fact, it resembles 1650x1080 on a 15-inch. And since many of you ask for such a hi-res display, most will be happy with the TZ.

 

Actually, the poster who said that half the SSD will be taken up by the OS obviously did not read this entire thread. I posted earlier that Vista takes up 10GB and XP 5GB. So, if you're willing to live with XP, you could have about 25GB left over for apps and docs.

Unfortunately, the cheap storage explosion has turned us all into digital versions of those people with garages overflowing with crap. I'm sure there's a lot of junk we could all get rid of, if we wanted to.

 

Well said. This is exactly what I am thinking of. You know I'll cherish it for at least 4 years if there's a 64GB SSD option.

The HDD is 40g heavier than the DVD drive.

 

I use the same resolution on my 17" and I dont think it is all that bad. Unless your half-blind the text inst hard to see and even if you have bad eyes, you can always make the icons and text bigger.

 

You finally figured it out!

 

The exact weight is 2.6 pounds or 1.2kg for our metric brethren. There should be no material weight difference between the two drives.

 

See, I never use resolutions like 1650x1080. 1280x1024 is as big as I'll go on a desktop.

Quality of the TZ screen (or UX for that matter) isn't the issue, at least for me.

I've played with the TX and tried to make the resolution less, but it didn't look right on the screen.

 

How is the Lifebook P series able to do it?

 

Four years? Make that six months! Have we told you about the new 5TB laser drive?

 

I was the one who said that. And yes your right. But I've been itching to try the new OS out and I really dont want to go through the pain of reformating it.

And yeah your right. We all have become pack rats. I have image files on my computer from when I first got it. lol Music space is a concern for me though. I only have around 4 gigbytes of music but that is going to expand quickly.

 

Lifebook P is almost a quarter inch thicker.

 

My eyesight is fine. INcreasing text is something I only ever do no matter what resolution I'm in when I present to make it easier for people to see from the back of the room.

1024x600 or 1280x600 should be the default resolution on a widescreen laptop.

 

It's not a question of whether it can be done. The battery they put in there that you can swap out is much easier to deal with then two different kinds of drives IMHO - more easily damaged.

I've never seen modularity (and I've had some laptops in the past that could do it) be as rock solid as one where everything fits and doesn't move. At some point, I found the latch to get the modular item comes loose, etc. No thanks.

 

1280x1024? That's so 1999!

No, you can't change resolution on an LCD, or plasma for that matter, these are fixed-pixel displays. That was a feature of those boob-tube CRTs. You're giving your age, Fender!

 

Ha. It's what you get used to, I guess. I've never needed dual monitors or a ton of real estate.

Interpolated resolution always sucks (i.e. zoom, whatever). So if you don't like the native resolution, you deal with it or move on. I know ultimately I'd dislike the TZ long term because of it.

I'm so old in my mid 30s

 

You're not missing anything. I just took back my ASUS VX2 to be repaired. Before doing so, I reformatted twice and reinstalled Vista Ultimate.* By the time I got to ASUS, Vista had lost its link to the Sound driver and said "no hardware driver installed." This is a clean install, mind you, and all it did was sleep.

Go figure!

*Perhaps that's why it's called Ultimate! It's the Ultimate POS!

 

Oh sorry! According to the YouTube generation, you're legally dead!

 

I'll bet the YouTube generation wouldn't even know the old Commodore SX64 if it bit them in the behind

 

Not unless you included a vid for them to watch!

 

The drive: PCGA-DDRW4. Anyone who can give a picture of it? And more info?

And about the SSD 32 GB capacity for running Vista and Office 2007 and a little more: According to Microsoft I think one should have at least a 40 GB drive to run Vista: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/systemrequirements.mspx

For me, this is an uncertainty I don't like when the price for the TZ is so high.

 

Mr. Andersen, can I call you that? I know it reminds us too much of The Matrix!

If you look at Sony's UX Micro PCs, you'll see that they're running Vista on a 30GB SSD drive, so the Microsoft recommendation is only a suggestion.

Finally, if the price scares you so much, you should not be frequenting these forums! This is a place for people who know how to pull triggers!

 

Thanks ubercool, you gave me peace and optimism again this night! And right, call me Andersen. At the end of the day, I don't think the price will scare me; I'm afraid that the beauty of the TZ is irresistable.

 

I have a copy of Vista Ultimate, but I'm not sure if I want to install the extra junk. I plan on picking up a 8 GB or maybe 16 GB expresscard SSD and use it to store my music, docs, etc. That will free up room on the main drive. The added plus is that when I change machines or say go from the TZ to my work machine I can just pull the expresscard and take my files with me.

 

Both Dynamism and iCube sell it. Sorry, it's the VGP-DDRW4 ( http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/Qnavi/Detail/VGP-DDRW4.html)

iCube has the older one (PCGA-DDRW3 http://www.icube.us/products_accessories.cfm?categoryid=15&searchtext= for $249 and the DDRW4 for $499)

Dynamism has the VGP-DDRW4 for $429

Panasonic also makes a USB bootable DVD drive - conics sells it and maybe iCube. Not sure if it will be bootable with the Sony laptops, but I think it is.

The latest is the LF-P968C
http://panasonic.jp/p3/multi/p968/index.html
http://conics.net/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=25&products_id=83

So you have options. I'm sure there are US equivalents, but you can't go wrong with either of these drives.

 

Now that's about the most truthful statement I've heard all day. At some point, you're either in, or you're out. Dynamism loves me at this point LOL

 

In the webpage, there's a video that compares two TZs boottimes side by side with an SSD and a regular drive. Enjoy.

http://gigazine.net/index.php?/news/comments/20070522_vaio_typet_ssd/

 

I see a rumor that an ultralight Apple laptop is comming. Now if Apple miniaturizes the Macbook, that would be very comparable IMHO; the keyboard, possible flash drive, I think I'll keep my hopes up for that to materialize in the states before the TZ. I find myself wondering why I need an interior DVD drive; I never watch movies on my 17" Powerbook or Macbook Pro. I would not play games on such a small laptop. Basically it would be net surfing, Word, etc. and I really hope it comes with an Expresscard instead of a PCMCIA slot. I finally figured out how to use my Novatell expresscard in the Macbook, turn it into a base station in Bootcamp and wirelessly surf on all three of my laptops; that includes my Sony T250. Making the Macbook share the expresscard signal in OSX was simple, but Windows was kinda complicated for me. So if Apple could make their ultralight just as pretty as the Sony then I would probably go for that instead.

 

Great find, Rahul! I love the YouTube reviews!

 

Buddy, a persistent rumor has been that this new 13-inch Apple notebook also dispenses with the DVD drive, which makes me think Steve has an SSD play up his sleeve!

 

geez, where do you find these things?

I am really sold on the SSD, especially when it comes to boot time. It looks like the SSD equipped laptop is almost twice as fast going into windows than the regular drive one.

 

Well, it's definitely considerably faster, but I don't think I would go as far as say twice as fast. Or did you get that out of a translation of the text?

 

Aww crap. 13" is a mite too big for me. I already have a 15" and would want a true ultralight under 12". Looks like Sony may get the nod after all. We'll see...

 

13" is also too big for me. Therefore, the SZ is not a good alternative for me. The size of the TZ is perfect, both regarding the keyboard, screen, weight and the machine as a whole. If Apple will try and compete with the TZ, in my opinion they must offer a Mac of a similar size (as the TZ), and also: They must add a proper Delete key in the upper right corner of the keyboard! For writers, the Mac keyboard has been a pain in the XXX for all years!

 

Thanks rahu for the video,is illuminating.
But if we take out the booting time, the SSD is also much faster in normal work than the normal HD?

 

Hey
Thanks for the link.
Translations gives away a bit more info: http://66.249.91.104/translate_c?hl...x.php?/news/comments/20070522_vaio_typet_ssd/

They compared 2 different machines:
CeleronM 1.2GHz with 1GB RAM and HDD
Core 2 Duo U7600 1.2GHz with 2GB and SSD

and the result was 65 sec :: 45 sec

I guess SSD only contributed 10% improvement..
A bit dissapointing, I expected more speed improvement from it...

 

To me, SSD not only provides the speed advantage. Yes I was exaggerating when I said twice as fast, however, I am most looking forward to the quicker boot up time, total silent of any hard drive noise as well as power consumption and that I will most likely not see any kind of hard drive failure (not 100% but a lot less likely and I have seen my share of hard drive failure). and oh, another big plus is no more defrag!