Vaio F11 or Vaio E Series?

Hey guys, im planning on using the laptop for videos, photoshop and a bit of gaming, maybe even a bit more gaming

The Vaio F Series only has 330M Nvidia Graphics Card with i7QM and up to 8GB of Ram and up to 256GB SSD.

The E Series has ATI 5650 (a less powerful version, reduced clock speed) combined with a i5 520M with up to 6Gb of Ram and up to 500GB of HDD ? Why can i not choose SSD ?

 

Can you not just upgrade to an aftermarket SSD if you decide on the E series with the Ati 5650 GPU? (This may however be a warranty issue with Sony)
I'm not surprised SSD's are not offered. The E series is Vaio's current budget laptop line.

As for the GT330M, I am very impressed with it's notebook rendering performance with CAD + 3d but mind you, I am using the i7-820QM quad core processor as well which is not offered in the E series.

The latest Nvidia 197.16 drivers have given a 10-15fps performance increase to a non-overclocked setting of the GT330M and additional 20-30fps once overclocked. Heat is still not an issue with the new drivers to date. Check Mangosango's posts and youtube game tests for the F11. He's done really great and comprehensive gameplay reviews. (ie. better than Notebookcheck's website GPU results with original stock drivers)

If you don't need the computing power of a quad core, then get the i5 or i3. Those are still fast and highly capable performers. The E series does have the 5650 which is great and supports DX11. My only gripe with the E series is all that shiny glossy plastic.

Price wise, both the E and the F11 are great for the features they offer.

I'll be getting the new Z series soon as well but will wait for the upcoming refreshing to see if Sony Style USA will provide the 1920x1080 option for less than the signature series or if a better GPU is included. If not then i'd still get one with the GT 330M and consider it a good buy.

 

If they just upgraded it to 335M or so. I woudlnt mind paying 200 euros more for a better graphics card but i guess there wont be an update for teh f series so soon right?

 

Late June so i've heard in the F11 owners thread with the likelihood of moving to the Fermi 4xx series.

 

If I had a choice between these two laptops I would want to go for the F series mainly because it is the more premium offering. The only way I can fault the F series is that in uses a Nvidia GPU. I just don't trust Nvidia anymore. I have a Geforce FX card in my parents old desktop, it was a terrible card that preformed no where near as well as was claim by the company. I then had the 8400 GT in my FZ, I have had one die within warranty while the replacement card which I have currently is not going to well either. Nvidia continues to rebrand cards instead of bringing out new ones.

Nvidia infuriates me that much I would actually probably go for cheaper designed E series just to avoid having anything to do with them.

 

I concur..I never liked Nvidia and if I had a choice I would go ATI. I have to admit that I am pleasantly surprised by the GT330M overall. Unfortunately it seems to be extremely low in supply to meet consumer demand.

 

I was considering F-series when I was looking for a new laptop. I don't have any particular bad experience with nvidia. My last laptop with nvidia GPU was the old Pentium 3 Toshiba, which still works fine until now. Searching the internet reveals that nvidia has so many issues with the heat and the suicidal nvidia 8600GT GPU. I heard the GT330M is ok though.

Problem for me, the entry level F-series here is equipped with Core i5 and only GT310M for the GPU, which isn't a very good card for 3D/Gaming ($1,299). The Core i7 version with GT330M is $2,499. The only F-series with "reasonable" price is from the seller with no official warranty (or sony called it parallel importers item), which coupled with nvidia reputation that I heard on the net is kinda risky to not have warranty.

When the E-series came out with ATI 5650, FullHD, and Blu-ray plus the $1,199 price tag, I went with the E-series instead.

 

The pricing of Sony laptops in relation to the specifications you get seems quite crazy.

Although the F series has a premium design in comparison to the E series the fact that you can get an E series which is far better specifications for less must really make the lower end F series rather pointless. I find it is the case in New Zealand that the high end CWs are probably better value the low end S series laptops. Despite all this I would probably go for the more premium model since the extra power in the budget model won't benefit me much but an improved design will.

 

Yes, laptop price here is crazy, crazier if you compare them to US pricing. The parallel importers here seemed to get their stuff from the US, and some even refurbished computers, so I have to be extra cautious if I were going to buy from them. I almost bought Sony Vaio FW480J/T which they claim its new but turned out to be refurbished (and i'm not even sure if its factory refurbished or refurbished using unknown parts).
Anyway, I also agree with you for the premium model argument. When I was about to get my laptop, the E-series hasn't been introduced yet. My choice for the price under $2,000 was between entry level F-series with GT310M and top of the line CW series with GT330M, but I wasn't sure if I like the CW design. If I have the money or if Sony offer a middle range F-series with GT330M for say $100-200 more than the entry level, I would've gone with the F.
When the E-series launched, I was attracted with the ATI 5650 and the design that similar to the F but with all the gloss. So now it's between CW and E, I made the decision to buy the E.
Personally, if I have the budget to go premium, I would go for it.

 

BUT i heared that the E Series has a throttled CPU and GPU!

Which causes 10% less performance. Check here: http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/laptop-review-sony-vaio-eb1z1e-nkrt-1135/3

It is german but u can still check some benchmarks saying it is slower than the F11.

Or should I just go with Dells XPS 16 and ATI 4670?

 

Sorry, I forgot the F11 cost a lot more in Europe and Asia than in USA. The good news is that you are offered the premium matte screen which does not have the narrow vertical viewing angle the premium HD screens have in North America.

Can you get a discount by calling Sony Style and asking for it? A number of USA F11 owners including myself were successful in getting a 10-15% discount using that method of purchase. The discounts were applied by purchasing an additional warranty and a small accessory like the neoprene case (which I would have bought regardless) but a few people did not even need to. My F11's configuration cost US$1750.

I don't see how a downclocked 5650 would be bad since it ensures the longevity of your GPU. Overclocking results from the E owners thread also looks very promising. I don't know why they downclocked it to the minimum though. I don't believe it was to downplay itself so that the GT330M would not look bad as some have speculated. More likely, it is overly cautious heat management and going by they are both of similar builds, the fan on the F11 run at full blast is LOUD and the air hot but the laptop itself remains cool. Why not just have a overclocked performance profile and just turn it on when you need to for the 5650?

I agree that low-end F11 with a GT310M GPU is not worth the price at all. (In comparison to the E series)

EDIT: I don't know much about the CPU throttled in the E series but the F11 i7 quad core CPU's are throttled only when in battery because the battery can't handle the power consumption of the quad core.

In anycase, if I were to get the E series, I would get the Gunmetal Black version. CW's are also something to consider for portability. The F11 and E's aren't great to carry around on a regular basis.

I personally would not go for the Dell Studio 16' on looks. The sides of that laptop just never looked right to me. It looked like Dell had no say it how the ports were to be placed and in the end stuck panels to cover the sides. How about the Asus G73? Best GPU out in the laptop market and leagues past anything Sony will put in. You could consider it a small investment to have a very capable card for a number of years.

 

Ouch. Dang hrmm.. out here the low end F series is $1100. Wow, a few weeks ago they were really selling those at $900-ish, NO JOKE. lol.

http://www.frys.com/product/6139099?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

om nom nom..

When I first heard about the E series, I was mad at the idea of a blue 17", then I saw that they only come in black and white. And, they don't look as nice as an F series.

 

@To no end:

I completely agree with you about the GPU, I will just overclock it when I need that extra horse power, otherwise I leave it at factory setting.
The fan on the E series is also on all the time, and when the GPU is stressed, it is hot (68 deg C max so far measured using GPU-Z), but the laptop remains cool.
How to check the CPU throttling btw?

@Riccardo83:

If you have the budget for F series I say you go for the F series. Especially with the Core i7-720QM/820QM and the SSD, it will be a fast machine
I was also considering the XPS before I looked into Sony laptops, but for the review I heard it gets uncomfortably hot even when not under load (but I can't verify this as I never try and see it for myself if this claim is true). I also heard all Clarksfield Core i7 laptops get hot even on idle, thats why the fan on Sony F is on all the time (again, can't verify this).
I also looked into Asus N61JQ with core i7 which I read from the asus owner's lounge that most owners are investing in laptop cooler as it gets hot even not under load.
I also agree regarding Asus G73, it is simply a beast if you're going to use it for heavy gaming sessions. I read online that the heat management on the G73 is also good. Too bad the cheapest G73 is about $2,200, way out of my budget range

 

Ok guys, I think I might go for Dell XPS 1647 with i7620M dual core. I heared lots of good things that the dual core can be faster than quad due to its clock speed, and in worst cases it can def compete with the quad core.

further advantage of dual is, a lot less heat will be released, so i guess that will do good on the xps 16. Am i right? The XPS design also has changed a little and throttling issues arent there anymore.

furthermore u get 2 years accidantal damage warranty in germany. with sony u only have bring in service....