What do you think of the NEW Vaio FW?

Thanks TetonWolf!

if this is the laptop i choose (and 99% sure it is, unless i have to get a macbook or it doesn't perform well for me, but according to you that won't be a problem ), i was planning on buying it from Best Buy just in case i had any problems i could just take it in and have them look at it. it was this exact model, not sure if it's any different than the one one on sonystyle.ca...

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10108936&catid=26955

So this laptop IS decent for 3D rendering? some people online told me that the graphics card sucks on it and i wouldn't be getting very much out of it. i'm assuming it's good for video/audio editing since it's an entertainment laptop and it plays bluray, and it's probably good for graphic/web design and photography, and of course running multiple design programs at once with the ram. lol but i'm not very start with hardware so my word isn''t very trustworthy.

Thanks again .

 

The ATI 3470 gets very good marks for advanced 3D rendering. This is why it gets a 3DMark06 score of 2600 vs. 750 for last gen Intel X3100 and 1500 for NVidia 8400GS. Of course, there are gaming cards out there that can push a lot more data per sec for shooter games and get higher 3DMark06 scores because of this pixel-pushing prowess but bandwidth isn't the same as graphics rendering ability. For advanced 3D rendering at reasonable frame rates, the ATI 3470 will absolutely excel (it's DirectX 10.1 ready which is the latest 3D technology for Windows). Also, it has 256MB discrete video RAM which is quite substantial compared to many previous gen machines. The FW is the latest and greatest for your needs without breaking the bank. And the 16.4" widescreen 1600x900 will be very nice for your graphics and photo work.

P.S. Please consider the HiColor screen upgrade though as your graphics & photo work will really demand very accurate color reproduction (which this screen provides).

 

Yay!! see im not much of a computer gamer anyways (except for those fun little games like Sims and Zoo Tycoon, hehe) but if it's good for 3D rendering then i think i've got my laptop choice! (i've been stressing out over the right laptop for my college program, but i think this is the one) Thanks for your re-assurance

so i can't get that hicolor from bestbuy? what exactly is it?

the 16.4" widescreen will be excellent for me, especially for web designing, and the Resolution is great!

i just have another question. i have asked people on other forums about this before i found this one, and they all tell me Sony isn't good?? they say they're customer service sucks, and they are not good at building laptops? is any of this true? oh and like i said they say the video card is no good at all for what i need it for, but you already notified me about that.

 

One word.... balderdash.

P.S. I can find fault with every single laptop company...every one.

 

Sony has one of the best built quality. Just look around this forum and you hardly ever find people complaining about Sony built quality. Alienware has better video cards, because gamers are their targeted market, but if you browse Alienware forum, you will see a lot of people complaining about built quality. Their very expensive notebooks are falling apart.

 

And Dell build quality and reliability are poor. And HPs overheat and are too bulky and heavy. And Lenovo (IBM) have dim screens and track points. And Toshibas are so shiny they blind you and they hate Blu-ray.

 

True for the consumer lines, not for the Lattitude line. In my opinion.

 

I happen to think the TrackPoint is the pointer control method of the gods (when implemented properly, like on an IBM/Lenovo...).

 

Yep. My Latitude D420 is rock solid.

 

lol. woot to having rocks as notebooks!!!! lol. but i think we're talking consumer market here. latitude is more business/work station oriented.

 

TetonWolf, see this review:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4524

it says that its performace is good except with 3D Graphics.... what do they mean by that?

(lol, and all you other members please leave yoru feedback for this question and the review)

 

Sorry but I think I already answered this. If you want to play first person shooter games, then the FW may not be for you. But if you want moderate frame rate and superb 3D rendering then the FW is just fine and dandy. You need to ask yourself what you need. The ATI 3470 is a great video card but other cards will be faster...question is do you need faster.

 

I just picked up an FW193E and did a clean format. Two questions:

1) I haven't been able to find the hotkey driver. The screen brightness buttons don't work, although the windows mobility center does.

2) The restore partitian seems to be unusually resistant to formatting. Didn't even show up when installing Windows. Any quick and dirty way to get rid of it? I can't imagine ever needed or wanting it.

Thanks much of anyone has any tips.

(PS, so far I love this puppy. Keyboard is the best I've ever used, and even my single bulb screen looks nice)

 

Guys...


I just went to the Sony Store...

and...

i put a deposit on it! okay, i was going for the 160, but my mom insisted on getting a blu-ray burner?? lol i was kind of shocked, but she kept saying just get it and she would pay the difference. so, we went with the 180! i'm so.. pumped! i have to wait til next weekend to get it because i only had enough for the deposit and i still have to speak with my coordinator to get his opinion which he isnt back til this coming Wednesday. anyway, this time next weekend, i will most likely have it .

and Thanks for everyone's help, thank you Teton for re-assuring me on this beauty!

 

BD burner? NICE!

 

lol yup

i wasn't planning on getting it, but i think my mother really likes BR (even though she denies it and says she doesn't know hat it is) but she's always been so... generous with blu ray! lol when it was BR vs HD DVD, we walked into sears and we say a BR Player for $499 and my mom just said "that's not bad, we can get it if you want" and she nice about it lol, i was like . we didn't get it, but she kept offering. this time, the guy told use "you're paying $300 more if you want the BR Burner" and right away she says "oh that's better! i'de get the one with the blu ray burner" lol and SHE talked me into getting that one. anyway i'm not complaining

 

Linah, can i have your mom?

 

ahaha, sorry she's taken

wow, i just realized how many spelling errors i had in my last post...

 

Just great!! Glad to hear about the Blu-ray...I've been the Blu-ray evangelist around here for the last few months driving everyone nuts. So welcome aboard!!

 

Hey guys, just expanding on something phil said in here, so need some advice.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=281299

would swaping the drive out void the warrenty? what about the OS? how would I go about getting it onto the new drive? I checked around and found NCIX locally has some for sale.

here are some I found:

price $105
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=32100&vpn=MHZ2320BH&manufacture=Fujitsu

price $149.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=30280&vpn=0A56417&manufacture=Hitachi

price $127.68
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=27912&vpn=WD3200BEVT&manufacture=Western Digital

not sure it it worth the price at this site since it only costs 70bucks to get the 320 drive from the 200 gb drive.

if I take the 160 give (the lowest price I price it out to $1,886.07 with taxes and shipping, with the 320 drive, it comes out to $1,998.07, with taxes and shipping, basically $112 difference (in Canadian)

now it depends which drive I would get from ncix, if I go with the Fujitsu, perhaps I might save some depending on taxes (105 with BC tax is 118) so thats 6 bucks more than CTO. The other drives are a lot more expensive than the 112 difference for the 320 drive vs 160 drive.

I have no clue what drive the 320 is in the FW though. any help would be appreciated.

 

It might be a Toshiba 320GB like the NBR FW review sample had. It showed pretty good performance (check the HDTune graph in the review).

Your best bet is to go with the cheapest drive and then buy either a Hitachi or Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm drive. That will set you back about $170 USD but will give you cutting edge system performance. You'll need to be familiar with how to do an image backup of your entire hard disk to an exernal USB drive followed by a restore to the new drive (Acronis sells very nice backup software for doing this).

If you feel uncomfortable doing all that or you're worried about the warranty, I recommend you just order it with the 320GB drive as it will provide very good performance...certainly better than the typically slow Fujitsu 200GB 5400.

 

I agree. Look for Hitachi 7K320 or WD 3200BEKT. I must say though that these drives make a little bit more noise than the stock drive.

Furthermore, you probably will feel unfamiliar and uncomfortable, since it's the first time you're replacing a hard drive. It's very easy though and a straight forward job. I used to believe it was hard in a notebook, until I tried it one year ago.

I would not recommend the Toshiba 320/5400 since it's mostly fast in synthetic benchmarks and not that fast in real life benchmarks. (Toms hardware for details). The performance will be ok though, so it's a matter of how demanding you are.

If it will void your warranty I don't know.

 

hmm, well unfortunately those drives are not on ncix and I have no idea where i could get them in canada.

there is this
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=32346&vpn=ST9320421AS&manufacture=Seagate

Seagate Momentus 7200.3 320GB 2.5IN SATA 7200RPM 16MB but at 189 it is a bit steep.

 

From the drives you linked to the WD320GB/5400rpm is a very good and fast drive, but uses a bit more power.
If you don't care about the 10 minutes battery life or increase in heat, it's a very good choice.

The Hitachi 5K320 is cooler but also a bit slower.

The Seagate 7200.3 is not worth the money in my opinion.