VGN AR670 CTO - Thoughts?

I guess it's only been out a month or so from what I can tell, and first-hand info seems to be pretty thin. Anybody got one?

I just pulled the trigger and ordered one, based largely on reviews of prior AR models. Figured I'd take advantage of the 18-mos SAC with my Sony Card that hasn't been used in a couple years. My youngest is going off to college next fall and wants a laptop, so she's getting my like-new 9-month old Toshiba Satellite A135 (a fine laptop, but the display was too small for me).

Decided against Blu-Ray since I'm pretty well invested in HD-DVD at this point, plus I would rarely watch discs on a laptop anyway. And I spec'ed the cheapest RAM config because I just ordered 4GB of OCZ for $150 -- compared to the ridiculous $660 upcharge Sony wanted for 4GB.

I will likely run Ubuntu Gutsy if at all possible, as I've been doing with my Toshiba. Will probably dual-boot with Vista for awhile until I get any kinks worked out. Anybody have experience with Linux on an AR series?

Also, any idea why they force you to buy a dual-HDD config to get the WUXGA display? That doesn't seem to make sense, from an architecture standpoint.

 

Bump

Anybody?

 

There is a Linux forum here, and the users there will probably be able to help you more.

It's probably cheaper for them to have you buy two 120 GB hard drives instead of one 250 GB hard drive.

 

Hi,

I am considering purchasing a VGN-AR670.

My Questions:

1. I would like to buy the Notebook with a single drive, and add a second drive later. I wonder if this is possible? ( I am worried that I might need special cables or mounting hardware for the second drive.)

2. For two drive configuration can I configure the notebook as two Drive letters (e.g.) C:> & D:>. or am I forced to use a RAID configuration with single drive letter?


Thanks.

 

My AR670 arrived on Friday, but since then things have been so hectic that I haven't had time to sit down and play with it until today.

First thoughts:

1. It's a beautiful design, but massive compared to my 15.4" Toshiba. The neoprene case I bought along with it from SonyStyle (which was offered to me when I added the notebook to my cart, and claims to fit 17" models) does NOT fit. Even without the extended battery, I could not force it up over the last corner without feeling like I would tear it. And I really wanted one of these, both as added protection when the notebook is in the backpack, as well as when I want to travel light with the notebook under arm. Oh well, I guess Sony gets it back and I look elsewhere...

2. The HiColor display is stunning!

3. The battery fit was totally unexpected. I assume it's because it's the extended battery, but with other notebooks I've used, extended batteries are either the same size (or pretty close) as standard batteries or they mount on the bottom of the notebook such as not to significantly change the formfactor of the computer. This one sticks out a couple of inches from the back of the notebook, completely breaking up the straight line of the back edge, and thus making case options a bit trickier (unless the battery is detached, which I may have to do, although I don't like it -- what if I'm in sleep/hibernation?).

4. The BIOS leaves a LOT to be desired, but I expected that from Sony. I'm just not used to having virtually NO control. The Phoenix BIOS in my Toshiba was much more full-featured, and I still resent having the VT extension disabled. I need to work on hacking that with the help of the other guys that have done it for other VAIO models.

5. The Intel Matrix RAID array is a bit of a pain. I'd rather have two separate 200GB drives, one for Vista and one for Linux. Gotta check out the Matrix utility to see about doing this, since the BIOS is no help. Of course this means having to reinstall Vista too.

From what I've been able to do with it so far, it's been great though.

I don't see why not, but it would probably void your warranty since you have to open it up. Unless of course you paid Sony entirely too much money to do it for you. If it's your intention to have two HDD's, you'd probably be best to just go ahead and spec the 2nd drive now.

The two drive configuration comes as a RAID 0 array. In order to split them up into separate drives, I'm assuming you have to run the included Intel Matrix utility, which I've only briefly glanced at. I'm just not sure how you use this tool from a currently running copy of Windows, since breaking the array is going to kill the OS and everything installed. Maybe it writes changes to a BIOS area and applies them at reboot? Anybody know? I don't recall seeing a prompt or a keystroke to otherwise get into a RAID BIOS at bootup.

 

Hi there,

A couple of questions for the semi-profesional, if you please....

What did you mean, sony forces you a dual HDD in order to get WXGA?

Also how does a dual HDD is different from a "regular" HDD?

I am thinking of ordering the AR650/670 in the next few weeks.

How good is the extended battery life, when comparing to the standard one??


Regards,
Jetblue

 

You can't configure the AR670 on SonyStyle with the HiColor WUXGA (1920x1200) display and 8600M GT GPU unless you choose a dual-drive configuration.

Dual HDD means just that: two physical hard drives. Mine has two 200GB drives, striped together in RAID0 for 400GB total (preformatted, of course). It's more like 376GB when partitioned and formatted, or around 183GB per drive.

Hard to say at this point, as I've not run it down yet. It's supposed to be roughly twice as long. Since I run my laptops on the highest performance settings, with virtually no power management, I won't get as much as a lot of people who use those features. Which is why I ordered the extended battery. The estimate on the battery gauge applet was about 2 or 2.5 hours as I recall. With suitable power management, you could probably get close to 4 hours out of this thing, but that's just a guess.

 

Hi, sorry if I am making it hard on you, just want to get as much info as possible before I purchase.

Is the 1800p available only on the ar670 model?

I have been looking at this AR630E and it seems that they offer the dual HDD as a standard however screen is 1440X900 XGA

Here is the specs I considering, any significant difference between 670/630 besides the size of the HDD??

Product Description Sony VAIO AR Digital Studio AR630E - Core 2 Duo T7250 2 GHz - 17" TFT
Dimensions (WxDxH) 16.4 in x 11.8 in x 1.3 in
Weight 8.2 lbs
Platform Technology Intel Centrino Duo
Built-in Devices Wireless LAN antenna
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 / 2 GHz ( Dual-Core )
Cache Memory 2 MB - L2 cache
RAM 2 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) - DDR II SDRAM - 667 MHz - PC2-5300 ( 2 x 1 GB )
Card Reader Yes
Hard Drive 160 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400 rpm
Hard Drive (2nd) 160 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400 rpm
Optical Storage DVDñRW (ñR DL) / DVD-RAM / BD-ROM
Display 17" TFT active matrix 1440 x 900 ( WXGA+ )
Graphics Controller NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT - 256 MB
Audio Output Sound card
Telecom Fax / modem - 56 Kbps
Networking Network adapter - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n (draft)
Wireless NIC Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Notebook Camera Integrated - 1.3 Megapixel
Input Device Keyboard, touchpad
Battery Lithium ion
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium

Regards,

Jetblue

 

You can't get 1080p out of a 1440x900 display. Any HD content would either display at 720p, or perhaps be interpolated up/down to 900p. It takes at least a 1920x1200 (WUXGA) laptop display to get 1080p, since you need at least 1080 vertical pixels. The next size down in laptop panels (which I don't think Sony even offers) is 1680x1050, 30 pixels short of 1080p. I've also heard of 1920x1024 panels, which would come up short as well. So WUXGA will be the only way to get true 1080p on a notebook.

I would never buy a work laptop again that has less than 1680x1050. I loved my Toshiba but the 1280x800 display was killing me. I'm a developer, plus I do a lot of graphics work, so the extremely limited vertical resolution was incredibly frustrating. So I gave the like-new Toshiba to my college-bound daughter and bought me this Sony. My Dell laptop at work that I've had for 2+ years crams 1920x1200 in a 15.4" widescreen, and my primary home desktop runs a 24" 1920x1200 LCD with a 20" 1600x1200 secondary LCD. As you can see I crave high-resolution. I thought for a knock around laptop that I could tolerate 1280x800, but turns out I just couldn't. 1440x900 is hardly better than 1280x800.

The other obvious difference is the AR630 you spec has the 8400M GT, rather than the 8600M GT in the 1920x1200 AR670 model. If you aren't concerned about gaming, though, then that's a moot point.

Also notable, the T7250 CPU has half the L2 cache (2MB) of the T7x00 line (4MB L2) in the AR670. L2 can play a pretty big role in performance.

 

Just to let anyone who is looking to purchase a AR670 CTO you can forget about getting it for Xmas.

I pretty much ordered a similar machine except with 2Gb of memory (will upgade to 4gb later) on Dec 03 with a build/ship date of Dec 11 (Today) I just recieved a e-mail from sonystyle stating my new ship date is Dec 20. I called there 800 number trying to get them to upgade my shipping to 2nd day air because of this delay and they wouldn't budge. The girl at customer service told me the best she could due was cancel the order. Which she seemed eagar to do! I think Sony has more orders for Vaio's then they will admit.

Whats really is misleading is that if I placed an order today for a similar Ar670 on there website there giving out a build/ship date of Dec 18. Which according to the e-mail I just recieved is false statement.

With my luck lately I'll be lucky to get the thing by New Years When I do get it looks like I'm going to need to reconfig the hardrives and on top of reloading the operating system.

Token2

 

That sucks I ordered my VGN-AR670E November 28th and received it December 6th

 

Thank you for all the enriching info you mentioned.

Me also is a big fan of hi-res.

If you don't mind to shed some light on the piece....
So from I understand from your posts, the only AR model that will be availiable with the 1080p is the AR670 (Only with the dual Hdd)???
Is there a single HD AR670(8600GT and L4 cache)?

Thanks in advance
Jetblue.

 

Sony only offers the WUXGA display with the dual hard drive option. You can configure the Sony AR at sonystyle.com.

 

Just a update I got another e-mail today (Dec 19) from sonystyle stating that my AR670 build has begun with a new ship date of Dec 21.

I just was wondering if anyone knows where does Sony ship the AR630 CTO's from? Is it California? or China?.

My son bought a HP laptop about a month ago and it was Fedex'd directly from Shangahi China

I can't wait to see the 1920x1200 HiColor screen. After looking around and almost cancelling the order I decided to keep the order I had.
While looking around at the different computer stores the only LCD screen that seemed close to the Sony was a 17"Macbook pro HiColor the salesperson at the Apple store said they used Sony LCD panels in there top of the line macs, Whether its just salesmen BS I'm not sure. I also looked at a Dell XPS Hicolor screen and thought that screen didn't look as good as the Sony or Apple. For the price $2000 including tax and shipping I think I got a pretty good deal. The Apple HiColor's were around $2800 and the Dell XPS I priced was around $2500. I thought about upgrading to the pre-built AR690u but the 2800 amazon price like the Dell XPS and the Macbook Pro were just more then I wanted to spend.
BTW I'm typing this on a old sony GRT260G with a 16" Xbrite LCD screen thats 3 years old. When I put my old sony up next to my son's new 15.4" HP the sony LCD screen still looks better. Hopefully my new one will look just as good.

 

My AR670 CTO shipped from California.

 

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