Vaio Z213GX/B

Hello friends, I need a favor from all who knows what Gen is the SSD in that particular model.

Is it Gen 2 or 3?

Also considering its being sold for low price on eBay, do you see any negatives?

Regards

Will

 

I'm going to tell you I think there is a 80% or better chance that it has SATA III. All American market Z22s have SATA III and I think the flood of those specific models were made for Microsoft stores to sell and they decided to go with a higher spec model and the wholesale market was flooded with them. BTW, in recent days someone got several of them and blew them out for $1,200 on eBay; I don't expect you'll see that price again (wrote the seller, said it was a one-off opportunity), but I've seen plenty go for $1,300 - $1,400.

So, let's let someone who has one weigh in for sure. If you can get return privileges, go ahead and get it anyway and you can return it if it is SATA II.

Keep us posted; lots of people (me included) are looking for one of these.

 

You are dead correct regarding the Flood of those models, but no where could I find the 213 sold for less than 1600, there is also the other model which is z212 that comes with same specs. But with DVD writer instead of blyray rom.

If you have a lead let me know please, but before that I need to tell you this, and ask for yours and others opinion

The thing is I have brand new sealed SA2SGX/T Signature edition, with top specs like i7 256gb ssd' wwan, but cannot Literally Can Not accept its LCD, I have seen it in store before I unseal mine and I was like What on earth crap LCD is this, that's why I'm thinking of selling it and replace it with the above mentioned Z213. Just want your opinion, will I be missing much of performance between my SA and the Z, considering that the SA has crappy Sata ll Toshiba in it?

 

Honestly, you won't miss SA's performance when you are looking at Z's screen. I have a SA21 with Intel X25-M for my wife, so it could give my i5-2540m Z2190X a run for its money for the performance as well. But man the screen really is just no comparison.

 

In checking eBay several times today I noticed that all the under-$1,400 deals are no longer offered (if you search for "completed lisitngs" under advanced search you will see how recently new units were sold at these low prices. It may be that it was a one-time unloading of these by a wholesaler, or there may be some further trickle-down. Typically regarding Sony Z's, patience is rewarded as either units become available at these prices on eBay again or the Sony Outlet suddenly has a slew of Z2 refurbs, open box or clearance items, and sometimes run 20% off deals along with them. A few months ago, people were buying Z13s with Core i7, 1080p screens (which I personally don't recommend, unless it's part of a great package deal) and 256GB SSD for, like, $1,300 after a 20% off sale.

I think you were asking if you would notice much speed difference between the SA with Sata II SSDs that you have sealed in a box and your Z12 that is your current ultraportable. My answer is generally no, you will not notice differences to any great degree, if at all. The SSD will be no faster at all, even if it is a SATA III SSD if the bus in the SA is SATAII. The Sandy Bridge cpu (is it i5 or i7?) will be somewhat to considerably faster, but unless your work involves a great deal of cpu-intensive applications, I think you will notice no difference at all. You should get significantly better battery life from the SB cpu/gpu - as well as much bette discrete graphic performance if your SA has the AMD 66xx gpu. There again, you have to consider the kind of work/gaming you do. The battery life should be 1-2 hrs better with the standard battery and I believe you can get a sheet battery for the SA, extending its endurance to some 8-10 hrs.

All in all, if you can return the SA I would do so. If you can't return it, but feel you could get your money out of it selling it, I would do that too. Unless you are aware of a significant problem using your Z1 - be it cpu/gpu power or battery life, I would advise you to keep the Z, get rid of the SA, and keep your eyes pealed on both the Sony Outlet and eBay for another good deal on the Z2. (BTW, if you found $1,400-$1,400 a good deal, you may reconsider if the current offerings, at $1,500 or so, aren't still a very good deal. The base model (w/o Blu ray) is selling for $1,799 at Amazon and JR and JR has an "open box" unit they are selling for $1,619 that you can return for a refund if you don't like it and otherwise get a full new wtty.

Sorry for such a long answer, but I've been where you are and would have appreciated a comprehensive response. Good luck and keep us posted as to good deals (I'm in the market too), but only after you have secured yours!

 

^ you got me wrong somehow, forget about Z1, I sold it already,and I was talking about the difference between SA and Z2

SA has i7 2620 256ssd AMD 6630 Sata ll
Z2 has i5 2410 128ssd AMD 6650 Sata (Unknown for Z213GX/B)

I wish I know if the Sammish in Z even if its Sata II will compensate for crappy Toshiba SSD in SA.

I like your Analysis skills and logic btw, that's me too.

 

That is one beautiful SA, even if the screen is a beast. You straightened me up as far as the Z1 being gone, but you have me confused as to the SATAII in the SA vs. SATAII or III in the Z21. I see no reason in the world why the SSD in the Z2 would be slower than the Toshiba SATAII in the SA. The only main difference I see is that the SA has 256GB and the Z2s your looking at are all 128GB. I wouldn't worry about the latter though, as there is tons of storage you can put onto SD and MS cards into the Z2. They are slow as molasses but for any media files the access time is plenty fast and likewise for files you want to have on board but will rarely use. There's a thread on that entitled 256 or 128? somewhere here.

So if I'm not misunderstanding again, are you worried that the SSD in the Z213gx/b might be SATAII; and, if so, might be significantly slower than the SSD in the SA, which you say are definitely SATAII? There is no question that my answer is that the Sammys in the Z2 will be faster even if they are both SATAII.

But somehow I think that's too easy a question, so I must be missing something. Did you have a typo and does the SA have SATAIII and you are asking if the crappy Toshiba SSDS @SATAIII will be slower than the Z2 Sammys @ SATAII? In that case, I would say that the Sata IIIs will be faster no matter the quality of the SSDs, so long as they are SATA III as well (the disks, not just the bus.)

I'd hold out for a good price on that SA - it looks SCHWEET!

Are we speaking of the same things here?

OK, re-read it for the third time: you are wondering if the Z2, even if it has SATAII SSD bus, will it seem much slower than the SA because the latter has a Core i7 and the former a Core i5, right? (It's the only logical thing left!) The answer is a resounding: NO!. Unless everything you do is cpu intensive, you will probably notice no difference in snappiness of the SB core i5 and i7. Have you seen any specs on the SSDs in the SA? I would expect the Sammys in the Z to be somewhat faster than the Toshibas in the SA, but I think both have been tested in notebookcheck.net so you can look. Overall, the biggest difference would be in the disk capacities, not performance, and I do feel you have a work around (the SD cards) to make up for the storage gap. With all the time left in your auction, you may make enough to buy a Z2 with 256 GB. I would also write to all the folks selling that Microsoft Store config Z213GXB on eBay and get one to tell you which speed the SSDs transfer at. Calling Sony would be another approach. You should be fine though. The cpu means very little in 99% of the applications people use on these.

Keep me posted.

 

In simple English, I'm just hoping that the Z213 has a Sata lll, when compared to the Sata ll in the SA, but I understood your point regarding the CPU performance differences between i5 and i7.

Z213 sold on ebay are all new Sealed, no way I can convince sellers to unseal it to check.

 

Just a point on the 'crappy' SSD in the SA, those might be SATAII but there are four of them (at least in my SA2 there were, 4x64GB)!!. Each of them has its own SATAII channel. Total bandwith is therefore 4 x 3Gbps! In the Z2 they use dual SSD's (double sided does not fit in the slim chassis), on the Gen3 with SATAIII you are looking at 2 x 6 Gbps bandwith.

So in terms of pure bandwith, SA with Quad Gen2 SSD is the same as Z21 with Dual Gen3 SSD (12 Gbps)!

The fact that the Z has the far superior screen still remains true and that alone is reason enough to go for the Z!

 

Sorry I seem to be misunderstanding the question so annoyingly. I really didn't get the point that the SA has quad array SSDs vs the Z2's dual-array. But once and for all, I do believe that even a dual array SATAIII will trump a quad array SATAII. I believe the Samsungs are faster than the Toshibas used in the SA. But yes, the screen alone absolutely justifies the Z2 over the SA - even if the Z2 was to have SATAII in dual array vs the SA even with SATAIII in quad array! There is no comparison between the two machines, and the SSDs in the Z1 are so fast that I can't imagine them being the bottleneck for anything you might do.

You should be able to call Sony and verify whether that model designation has SATA III. For now, why not just concentrate on selling that gorgeous SA (to a buyer who doesn't care about display quality!) and see how much money you yield and what is available at the time? If you don't have to have a replacement (since your SA is still sealed in a box, you shouldn't), be a little patient and a great deal, either on eBay or on Sonystyle.com will appear! Good luck.

 

For most users, even most Z users, it won't matter. Both are going to be vastly faster than the old wind-up mechanical hard drives and the speed of both SSD configurations will be so fast that most users will never know the difference other than by running some benchmarks that have little to do with anything except for bragging rights.

 

I think in the Z2 SATA 2 or 3 thread, people with Z212 & Z214 got SATA 2, so if I am a betting man I would bet Z213 has SATA 2.

 

I never doubted that about people coming from spinning drives, but you say most Z users as well; are you saying that the doubling of read/write speeds for every kind of block of text will not be noticeable between true 6gb/s and 3gb/s? If not, then why even start the thread about it? I know, we all go "oooh" and "aahhhh" when we see the CDM 997.2mb/s and it's relatively meaningless (except for file copies or backups), but even the 4k random reads are 2-4x when the SSD and the bus is 6gb/s.

I hope you're right. It further reassures me that I needn't upgrade before I'm left in the proverbial silicon dust.

 

Looks like the $1200 was an ebay scam. i was actually hitting myself over the head for not jumping on this. Guess if its too good to be true, then it usually is.

 

That's how I looked at it, eBay is getting dirty, the other day an @ss hole bought my SA2 Signature Edition, and then I received an email from PayPal (Supposedly) stating that I have received funds in my PayPal account, but that I will not be able to see them in my account except after providing PayPal with a tracking number that proves I shipped the Laptop to the buyer.

Reading between the lines, PayPal email came from @mail.com domain, but they COPIED the photos and logos 100%, I then sent an invoice through my PayPal saying that:

If you want the laptop, pay the attached invoice, If NOT, then Just letting you know that I eat scammers for breakfast.

Guess what? Never got a reply...

 

Just so you know, oldest trick in the (scammer's) book. I got one of those 3 years ago. Had the item (netbook) on the Fedex truck when I discovered it! Got it back.

 

Yeah, the $1,200s were a scam (kicking myself for not realizing it!), but there were several $1,300 - $1,400s that weren't. Even today, I got a counter-offer of $1,500 for one priced at $1,700 or b.0.

Give it time, they will start coming down.

 

Well, yeah. Sure some power users might, but your average business exec who is using it for email, some budget spreadsheets, a bit of web surfing and the like, no. They're not going to notice speed differences between SATA II or III.

 

Interesting. Would you say the same for Intel Core i 1st/2nd/3rd gen - other than integrated graphics and batt life? The irony: By March of 2012, there will be $700 laptops that benchmark more the 2X as fast and 2X or more standard batt life than the $2k - $4k Z1/Z2, but methinks those execs would choose the Zs - even the 2010 mods - sight unseen over the 2012 IB models. Think?

 

^No, the execs (almost) always want the new model, regardless of what's in it.

 

Note that processor speeds have not increased by powers of two for the last several years. What we have seen are "peripheral" improvements such as multiple cores, better/embedded GPU's, practical SSD's, lower power consumption, etc.

Barring the unforeseen, it's really hard to imagine 2X as fast by the next commercial release cycle.

 

We're in agreement; I stated that badly. I think the execs would want the latest Z, even if non-z alternates were much faster, had other features, etc. Hell, I want a gold Z2 so bad I can taste it!

 

I try not to, it gives me a headache. That aside, benchmarks are of primary interest to reviewers and forum nerds. If you're not in Marketing, you would do well to ignore the performance numbers associated with consumer electronics. Consider all the people who chose their home stereo systems based on watts per chanel or Total Harmonic Distortion. The folks who thought they were getting a wonderful stereo (200 wpc! 0.001%THD!) while they would scorn a beautiful SET amp (with appropriately matched speakers) because it's benchmarks are, to their mind, atrocious.