Vaio Z46 versus Z45 (Asian Models)

Anyone knows if there is a big difference between the Z46 with Intel P9700 and Z45 with Intel P8800?

Would speed and heat be noticeably greater with the P9700 processor?

Price difference is close to US$330 (which is substantial).

Thanks.

 

P9700 has a 28W TDP, not that high as T series, and there wouldn't be any noticable heat problem. However I would say the difference on L2 cache is huge (like 10% performance impact or so, for the same frequency). However if you don't mind a 10% difference then P8000 series might be a better choice.

 

Heat wise approx same, maybe like 3-5degrees hotter, but then again these processors run pretty cool compared to other series like T series processors.

I own a Z46, i have noticed that the laptop stays reasonably quiet and cool if you are using intel video card.
With Intel = 35-40c.

The heat feels a lot warmer when using the "real" graphics card, the nvidia one. Any how Nothing to worry about.

Remember, the laptop processor is one of the bits that most of the time is too much pain to upgrade.
P9700 = 6M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 1066 MHz ...
P8800 = 3M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 1066 MHz ...

The L2 cache is doubled on P9700, which is nicer for games, and the processor speed is slightly faster.

Also the Z46 has 6GB of ram, where as Z45 has 4GB of ram.
Which means:
Z46 = 2GB + 4GB Stick
Z45 = 2GB + 2GB stick

A single 4GB stick of DDR3 would set you back about US$300, 2GB stick only really costs about US$40.

Therefore.... if you add all those up the extra bits up you will see Z46 is more value for your money.

Component Price List:
Z46:
P9700: US$589.99
4GB: US$300
Total: US$889.99

Z45:
P8800: US$249.99
2GB: US$40
Total: US$289.99

Real world price difference: $600

As you can see from my comparison above, by paying an extra US$330 to Sony you are actually getting back $600 worth of Hardware.

 

Thanks for your comment Sniper and Caudex.

Ok. Heat does not appear to be 'more' and speed is around 10% higher, which for my case, I can probably live without as I use my notebook mostly for web surfing, Office, and web-based apps.

Am surprised to hear that a 4G DDR3 RAM stick costs that much.

Have been thinking about an upgrade to the Z for a while. The flexi screen is something i am still uncomfortable about. Rest of the Z is beautifully made.

Currently my SZ18 serves me well (XP, 1.5G RAM), except that it's probably going to fail sometime in a year or so!

 

Z45 is CTO, so we can't compare with your Z46 if we don't have the specs.
But to me, it seems that the Z46 doesn't have WWAN.

 

NHT, in Asia (excl. Japan) there are no CTO models.

The only difference between the Z46 and Z45 is the processor (P9700 v P8800) and RAM size (6G v 4G).

I have never seen WWAN in VAIOs for the Asian market.