s660

Hey all,

I'm leaning to buying a sony vaio s660b, its got a pentium m 1.83 ghz 100g hardrive, nvidia 7400 wireless, no bluetooth, and only wireless bg(since I'm a student and mostly a student i personally don;t think I will ever need 300mbs speed, 54 is fine by me. I just want to know if theres any dirt on this particular model. I was going to go with other notebooks but i got the price down to 1350$ cdn, and when I walk around the computer store this was a decent small laptop, decently built and it was relatively cool, and when pressed the cover the LCD did not distort, I was considering buying the macbook pro but when i pussed in the apple logo on the back of screen it distorted muchos and the thing was running hot, im no coward i could work with it but the keyboard and all jsut feels wierd. Also I want to know the upgradability of the notebook, i was thinking of replacing the nvidia 7400(is it a decent card for a quick game of GTA3 to let out some angst?) or even replacing the entire motherboard get some wifi. bluetooth in there. worst comes to worse I can use usb adapter for bluetooth. I think I've rambled on enuf. Thanks

 

If you're on a tight budget, I'd recommend you stick with a different notebook like a Macbook as opposed to spending money on a much older model.

 

i purchased the s660 from staples...where i assume you are going to as well.
i'm almost completely satisfied with it other than a slight build quality issue. there is a some give on the left palm rest and it creaks when i push down on it. but the screen is awesome (i had to turn it down a notch because it was hurting my eyes), and the lid is far better than anything i have previously owned. i assume it's some sort of metallic alloy that's light and strong.
i don't think the nvidia ***6400 is upgradeable.
if you're going to spend the money to replace the processor and gpu...you might as well just get the sony sz...or wait till the sz3 comes out with merom.
otherwise, for it's price the s660 is a killer deal (considering the weight, size, screen, brand, style, and specs.

 

leof, on your s660 do you have some light leakage on the bottom of the screen? cause i have a bit very minimal, but if its an isolated case I'll jsut return it.

 

what about the thermal issue? is the right palm rest heating up? and the fan noise?

 

there is a little light leakage on the bottom left, although it is well within exceptable conditions.
the s660b does overheat quite a bit on the bottom of the notebook, but the heat is not too noticeable on the right palm rest.
there was a significant decrease in heat after a thorough run through with notebook hardware control, and a registry cleanup.
i can manage an average of 3-3.5 hours battery life with the screen set to 6/9, undervolted, with a cleaned up registry, nvidia powermizer set to battery saving, and the cpu clock set to 800mhz up to 50% load (playing music, wifi, a few IE windows and possibly word).

 

coming from a compaq v2000...the fan noise is nothing.
it is almost constantly running though...

my biggest issue with the s660 is the left palm rest. it squeaks when pressure is applied and if pushed hard enough on the right place, the dvd drive pops out.

 

luckily my palms rest don;t creak, and after using NHC the temperature doesn;t really bother me, the fan isn;t to bad, BTW when me and my friend took apart the s460 we think we we can easily replace the motherboard/gpu mechanically, if we wanted to upgrade it to core duo, sure its a pain doin it urself rather than just buying it but its fun! haha. But when we tried opening the 660 it wounld;t budge we just got the top up a bit jsut that. My battery rattled very little when i put in, to fix it, i cut a rubber band and used some electrical tape to attach to the sides that are in contact with the laptop, and the problem is gone. What are other peoples opinions on the s660/s series? and is there anything like it with a 13.3 screen?

 

is the thermal system improved from s560 to s660? because the s560 heats up over the right palm rest

 

well, the s660 was a great value to me.
i was looking for something that was light, and preferably 13.3"-14", stylish and durable.
the dell m1210, toshiba 200, and lenovo v100 were all pricier with inferior screens (size and quality), and were a lot less durable (mostly the thin plastic lid that bothered me as opposed to the magnesium lid on the sony).
14" like the compaq/hp v3000/dv2000 toshiba m100 were too heavy.
the only other laptops that came close were a few asus', the sz, and a few lg's. they were all too pricy for my needs (i only need minimal power requirements, a decent gpu, and good battery life), all the other notebooks gave me in excess for one criteria and i didnt want to pay the premium for it.

 

i havent done anything really graphically intensive like gaming yet so i am unsure if the right palmrest heats up during intensive processing.

 

when it is plugged it should normally heat up no matter what you are doing. And in my opinion it is related with the hdd???

 

It can get warm while gaming but rarely for me, but other than that it stays relatively cool, still a decent laptop, why only problem is that the HD makes soem scan noises, but that nothing, but i agreew ith leof for all around performance its a greet laptop. for the decent gpu and processor.


@Bugrahan, I suggest using NHC, it will reduce heat issues while using office or surfing internet