Vaio CW with Core i5 :)

Hi,

I just cancelled an order with Dell for a Studio 1747 (it was taking too long - 2 months from order date, and yet they charged my credit card the day after I placed the order, which I wasn't pleased about), so this lead me to searching for another laptop and I came accross the subject of the post.

I quite liked the look of the first CW (Core 2, compact with a decent GPU), but wanted a newer architecture machine with a higher res panel (for dev work), but on cancellation I started searching around and found this on Sony's site (UK):

https://www.sonystyle.co.uk/SonyStyle/VAIO-Laptop-PCs/CW-Series-14

Under configurable models. It defaults to the i3, with GeForce G310, 2Gb RAM and 1366x768 panel but you can spec it up with:

i5 520
1600x900 Panel (this option also boosts the graphics to a GT330 512Mb)
Along with the usual RAM and HDD upgrades.

I'd prefer a quad core (I actually use it in both dev and day to day work) and full HD (but that's just not realistic for a screen this size - this is the first time I've seen anything this high res on a 14" screen); but this is just too tempting in a small package (no more broken back on the train lugging my Dell XPS M1710!!!), with a pretty decent spec, and I'd figure the performance is going to be rather good anyhow. I'm looking at this config which is showing up as £849 and strikes me as pretty good value:

Your configuration

Processor: Intel® CoreTM i5 Processor
Operating system: Windows® 7 Home Premium
Finishes: Red
Hard drive: 320 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
Memory: 4 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Optical Drive: Blu-ray Disc(TM) player
Display: 35.6 cm LCD, 1600x900 + webcam
Microsoft Office Suites: No Microsoft Office Suite
Anti-virus: McAfee® - 60 days protection
Adobe Acrobat: No Adobe® Acrobat® Standard
Adobe Creation: No Adobe® Creation
Adobe Lightroom: No Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom
Also Included

Keyboard: English QWERTY keyboard
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® 330M 512MB
AC Adapter: 1 AC Adapter
Ports: 3 USB 2.0
Wireless LAN: Wireless LAN + Bluetooth®
HDMI(TM) output: HDMI(TM) output
Battery: Battery life up to 4 hours

 

Interesting, the UK site has CTO version with nVidia 330m + 1600x900 resolution? The US site is still on the nVidia 310m for CTO, at least as of lastnight.

By the way, Toshiba just announced A11 w/ i3, i5, and i7 core

http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/tecra/A11

 

Have you also looked at the F Series 16 incher, Caudo? I played around with the configs for both the CW and the F since I'm quite interested in those 2 laptops myself. And guess what? For £899 you can have a F Series with full HD screen (1920x1080) and a 1GB 330M nVidia card, the rest of the specs remain the same as the CW. You could also bump it up to an i7 processor, if you so desire.

This, of course, depends on whether you prefer the portability of the CW, but taking into a/c your preferences above, the F Series is smaller than your Dell anyway and it seems to fit your needs just as well (possibly better), so you might want to check it out also

 

Just of curiosity is there a reason you brought up the Toshiba? Kinda confused since it seems to be a laptop that doesn't share anything similar to the Sony other than a cpu.

 

Asdamine, thanks yes, I was on the verge of ordering the F11, but then thought I'd take another look at the CW (and found the i5 option with 1600x900); I'm still quite tempted by the F11 (and with a 7-8 week lead time on the CW I may change my mind); the reason I've started out with the CW though is that it seems to provide a good compromise with quite a good screen res and reasonable processors, but much more portable than my current one or even the F11.

 

Not sure why the US Sony site isn't allowing you to upgrade the panel & GPU?

 

Newegg has it for sale right now too.

 

in US best buy has better prices for same models as new egg and new egg is charging $100-150 more.

and they come with 1600x900 screen and the 330m GPU all models are around 1100 or less check it out

and as far as i know the 330m GPU should really do anything you throw at it with ease so dont worry about it, and im liking your specs,

 

Yea, but would prefer CTO. I want to up it to the i5-540m, bestbuy has the i5-520m. Also wanted to up the RAM and other things.

 

I noticed in the UK, Play.com is advertising the pre-specced F11's with better specs and/or lower prices than the custom F11's too (pre-order only at the moment), so that may end up being the case with the CW2's. UK tends to get things far later than the US so there are no pre-specced CW2's yet (in fact I'm sure the CW1's only showed up in early December and I think they were available elsewhere much earlier than that) - I'm quite surprised they've given more options in the UK for custom models earlier at the sonystyle site though. I'm not bothered too much by being able to custom spec the system as long as it has decent specs at a good price point.

 

Don't look hard enough Caudovittatus

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/13496...ium-64-Bit-Laptop-Notebook-Black/Product.html

 

Am I Overdoing it With My Configuration??!!

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Hey y'all!

I had to return an Asus had recently bought becuz it was just TOO slow. So i visited Best Buy and went on the Sony Site and configured one that with their 200.00 savings comes in just under $300.00 more than the Asus, but has 10 times the specs. Can you tell me if there is such a thing as "over configuring it?!" The specs are as follows:

Model#: CW290X
i5 540M Processor (2.53GHz/3.06 GHz w Turbo Boost)
6 GB Ram
Nvidia GE Force GT 330M 512 dedicated graphics
320 GB Hard Drive - 7200rpm
Blue Ray Player (Not Burner)
High Capacity Battery

Those few items were so cheap to upgrade, it seemed dumm not to, but then again, will those upgrades leave me with NO battery life?

I thought perhaps a little less power and then i wouldn't need the high capacity battery (that was the most expensive (+100.00) i checked passmark on the cpu, video card etc, all looked good but i'm clearly clueless how it all runs together.

My needs are as follows:

not to see that lil blue circle everytime i open more than 3 windows

thanks so much

Dumm

 

I ordered the i5 330m version from best buy. It'll get here tomorrow. 14" with a descent GPU, high res screen, and i5 processor is too good to pass up. Only downside is that it doesn't support switchable graphics. Sad really as the hardware is there, just crippled as a point of line differentiation.

 

PLEASE take tons of pictures and benchmarks!

3dmark2006, 3dmark vantage, Aquamark, superPI, HDTune and then play some general games and let us know what runs at what settings for playable.

I am looking into that exact model, but am not willing to drop the bomb until I get some reviews on it

 

Will do. I assume I can download all those free if I google them?

 

OK, I concede

I wonder if they're only going to be doing the i3 models for retail in the UK then. I think there was only one spec of CW1 avaialable at retail (though in multiple colours). This time though there appear to be at least two. both i3's but one has 500Gb hdd vs 320Gb and Blu-Ray ROM vs DVD Rom. Not so keen on the i3 with its lack of turbo; having said that, it's going to beat the outgoing P7350 and appears to be £50 cheaper than the CW1 was

 

There were two version of the original CW. It appears the black model is slightly higher specced than the other colours, in both cases.

However, the black model was much rarer for the CW1's. Hopefully it won't be as rare for the CW2's.

Apparently Play.com will get their laptops in on the first of next month. Hopefully they'll start popping up elsewhere then.

 

yes they are all free

much appreciated!