Z3 "coming soon" says sony rep??

^That's what I meant. They have probably stopped selling it because they are expecting the new version, but it seems unlikely they stop selling it a full 2 weeks before the new arrives.

 

If it comes with PMD, I will wait for new SA series. Maybe this time they don't put cheap display on it! I also want NVIDIA GPU for sure! (What's with Apple & Sony using AMD? ATI has always sucked in supporting their old GPUs!)

 

Just got off the line from a Sony sales Rep. New Z out tomorrow. UK site.

 

Talked to one of the online sales guys on Sony UK website and he said it will be back up tomorrow, the Sony Z.

As to why it was taken off the website, he said: 'Because it's components went out of stock' and of course, had zero to say on Ivy Bridge.

 

Interesting!

Not just the timing of our posts

 

Components out of stock? Interesting. Are they talking about new or old components? 24hrs to wait and see.

 

Online sales v Phone-line sales

Let the battle commence....

 

No update on the Sony UK site yet. I know its just gone midnight, but Sony tend to update early.

The waiting goes on....

 

wow! seriously?!

AMD is releasing new drivers every month. it's SONY who sucks in supporting the GPU they've put in their products.

 

So, the new CTO Z is up on some European Sony sites (e.g. Germany, Netherlands, etc.). The model number is SVZ1311C5, so it is indeed called SVZ now. The only difference I see is that you can only choose the i7-3612QM CPU. 8GB RAM is the max currently.

 

What are the prices?

 

The prices are pretty similar from yesterday, starts just SEK 200 down from then actually. But one of the config links on sony.se doesn't work, the page only contains {} so they might be adding more later.

I see one added option, an LTE WAN card. I also see no extended warranty or colour selection page, but that might pop up later when they fix the web.

Delivers in 5-6 WEEKS! :-o

 

Oh ok cool cool.

I am just waiting for the Sony UK site to be updated. Well it is almost home time for me after a long night of work. Hopefully by the time i wake up the site will have been updated

 

German Sony Online is having as the only option the QM Ivy bridge
Is something said about the PMD? Better GPU maybe?

The "new" Z seens not to have changes on the chassis. I will await the tests to look, if the upgrade to Ivy is worth the money

The good point to state is, that the big battery and the Leather case will work on the new Z!

 

there is also a new color "Premium Black"..at least in germany it's new.

EDIT: just talked to a Sony salesman in the online chat. He told me that the PMD stayed the same.

 

Talked to another online sales guy on the site and its been delayed again maybe as one more 'hurdle' to overcome before they put it on (he says probably tomorrow) but unlike last encounter with the other sales guy, he has confirmed the i7-3612QM configuration will be available for the Z, T, S and E series. Confirmed that will be the sole QM configuration for the Z, understandable considering the chassis size. Couldn't confirm whether the gpu remains the same or changed but said the chances are that it will stay the same.

 

I have ordered, there was an initial mishap with VAT so I had to call and replace the order, but it seems it will come through.

Carbon black, i7-3612QM, 8GB RAM, 512GB Gen3 SSD, FHD screen, 3G WAN (have no use for LTE for quite a while), PMD with BD-writer.

SEK 33.328:- (~ $4730)

It's the 5-6 weeks of delivery time that bothers me most.

 

Well I ordered SVZ1311C5E as well:

Premium black, i7-3612QM, 8GB RAM, 512GB Gen3 SSD, FHD screen, 3G WAN, Backlit keyboard, Windows 7 Prof, PMD with BD-writer.

Price: 3.229,00 € (2.625,20 € VAT 0%)

The sales guy said that he is optimistic that the delivery time is shorter than 5-6 weeks, but did not promise anything. So that does not mean anything=)

 

It said somewhere that the dock for the new model has AMD Radeon HD 7670M. I think the old one had AMD Radeon HD 6650M.

 

Sony - Enhance your productivity with faster, smarter mobile VAIO PCs from Sony: New VAIO S and Z Series : : News : Sony Europe Press Centre

'Intel® HD Graphics 4000 + AMD Radeon HD 7670M (on Power Media Dock)'

 

meh, I'm not feeling compelled to break out my CC for the refresh.

 

If there is driver support, I wouldn't mind upgrading or trading up my PMD...

 

Sweet does anybody know when is the US refresh?

 

7670m is just 6650m rebadged, so there's no upgrade to the PMD GPU.

 

Not that I need to motivate buying H/W to anyone here, but I have 3 reasons:

1. I'm a concurrency/multi-threading developer and want as many cores as possible.
2. My Z1 is over 2 years old and I realized that if it breaks, my work will halt until I get a new one.
3. My 10 yo boy is playing role playing games on my 7 yo TX1, at ~5FPS

 

^It's a worthy upgrade from a Z1, depending if an all-in-one solution isn't critical. For us Z2 owners, tougher to justify.

 

Thanks all for the links, but still nothing on the UK Sony site. I'm hoping that the new Z uses a standard SSD or raid standard SSD's.

So who's first in line to post the first the break down video?

 

UK site is down, hopefully they are refreshing the content...

 

Nah nothing on the UK site, just checked it and it is working fine.

 

It directed me to "sorry.sony.co.uk" and is now backup as you say with no new content.

 

I actually got a blank screen originally. Then after a while i checked and it was ok but no new content. When is the z gonna be available???? It is driving me crazy waiting. lol

 

How do the battery life and performance benchmarks on the baby IB quad-core compare with the faster-clocked dual-core SB i7?

 

That's a bit disappointing. Wasn't expecting a 7970 but something newer/faster would be nice.

 

There goes beaups, being correct yet again. You really need to work on that

As for you McMagnus, good god man. Buy one just for your 3rd point. That's no rig to raise a properly nerdy kid with. The term nerd being a complement, of course.

I will be interested in the benchmarks on the new Z, but I won't be buying one this round... or taking one apart for sport like the last two years.

 

Unknown on battery, but if other ivy bridge refreshes are an example of performance gains, expect 10 to 20% increases on CPU and marginal to no increases in memory performance.

 

I feel like the "upgrade" to the graphics card in the pmd is a huge let down, especially considering the Intel HD 4000 graphics closes the gap even more in terms of gaming performance.

What's the point of having a dedicated, external gpu if its only 30% faster?

 

So uhh. Z3 a year from now then? My Z1 is falling apart but I think I can hold out for the next big upgrade.

 

I wish I could but my I'm going to school in the fall. Guess I'll just have to get a MacBook air

 

What is a Intel i7-2620M 2.70GHz processor? Is this a quad core?

 

Clicky...

 

^^^ Thanks for that.

So the new Ivy Bridge i7-3612QM which will be included in the new Z is a quad core, oh ok.

 

"Q" denotes "Quad"

"M" denotes "Mobile"

 

You can try sparepartswarehouse.com. I usually go there for my modding need. I was about to pull the trigger on 2x 4GB modules but then the price is the prohibitive factor at the moment. 160 USD/ each module is simply too high. For that price, I can get 3x 8GB RAM set so it makes little sense for me to pursue that route.

Also, I bought my Z2 refurbished from Sony store for 1150 USD (tax included) and the sweet deal here is that the sheet battery is included. I was waiting for the 8GB model with core i7 to come down in price but that kind of price is so hard to refuse to I decided to pull the trigger. That's why I said that if you can get the 4GB Z2 for cheap, go for it and buy the RAM modules when prices go down. If not, I am sure 4GB is still sufficient for your need. Even I don't think I need 8GB as much as I would. Most games I played run quite smoothly even with 4GB.

Back to the topics, the only thing that I am looking forward to the Z3 is the quad core CPU and the better screen. The new PMD will have the AMD 7670M and it is simply a rebadged 6650M, it's roughly the same as the one in the current PMD so it really makes no sense for Z2 users to upgrade.

The quad core might have some thermal issue too. If you follow the Clevo W110ER scene like me, you will know that even the excellent cooling capability of the Clevo has issues cooling down the quad 3610QM (which is simply a higher bin 3612QM) with TDP around 40W (only 5W higher than the 3612QM). It's best to read the reviews first before deciding. You don't want to have your Z3 fans rampage all the time since it can get quite loud at high RPM.

So yeah, if you factor all of these into account, keep your Z2 and wait for Z4. Hopefully we will see more substantial upgrade next time.

 

the 3610qm is a LOWER bin than the 3612qm, the 10w difference in tdp marks that

 

3610QM is HIGHER bin than 3612QM. Higher clock, higher TDP but in reality, a reviewer of the Clevo W110ER underclocked his 3610QM to 1.9Ghz frequency (<2.1GHz of the 3612QM) and the thermal problem still exists.

And he said that the TDP difference between the 3610QM and 3612QM in real life might be around 5W, not 10W as Intel put on their website. But that doesn't change the fact that the 3612QM will be much hotter than any other CPU in the Z2 and Z3.

The real reason might be this. I could be wrong though because Intel Mobile CPU might not have the metal part to cover the chip.
Intel caught out using cheap thermal paste in Ivy Bridge? -- Engadget

 

the higher the bin the better quality, ULV cpus are one the highest binned cpus out there. And they are 17w.

you are wrong intel doesnt put the heatspreader on laptop.

you are confusing TDP with power consumption.

 

Kids should be kept away from computers. They should learn what real flesh-and-blood life is before being exposed to cyberstuff.

That's what I've heard about IB vs SB on a...uh...apples to apples basis. I was wondering how all the tradeoffs (SB/IB, dual/quad core, and clock speed) worked out.

Sound advice irrespective of any thermal issue.

 

They may not be exactly the same, but aren't they pretty tightly linked?

I mean, it's not as if they're each other's opposite.

Question: The TDP specify how much heat the cooling must be able to dissipate. So, how much of the power used by a computer is *not* converted to heat? The LCD (if any) makes light (which is EM but not heat in the sense that it needs to be cooled), the audio is also not heat but is usually in the <1W range, and then there's a few LEDs. But all that can't be more than 1-2-3? percent? What else?

 

In a german blog i´ve read this information today:

Alles Neue macht der Mai: Sony Vaio Z13

It´s in german but the hardware specs are great - the Dock is the same VPG-PRZ20 as the current, i´m hoping for an easy updgrade ov my 6650 card with this new version

 

Why upgrade the PMD? The ATI´s are almost the same The "new" one is just rebranded!