sony tz: general questions

hello, im new to the forum but have been lurking for quiet sometime researching the sony TZ. ive done a lot of searching but still havent gotten straight answers so i thought id post. help would be appreciated.


im looking to buy the sony tz150. yes i know you should upgrade the ram to 2gb and do a clean install of vista/xp. i also know that the 4200 HDD is what slows down the comp a lot. so here are my questions.

1. is the harddrive replacable? NO SSD!!! i do not want a SSD for the space is too limited! id like to know if its POSSIBLE to swap out the harddrive for something FASTER and also BIGGER. and HOW do you do it? i see a lot of people mention SSD but again i do not want that.

2. i know the japanese version comes with a 5400 HDD. where can you purchase the japanese version? also again are you able to change out harddrive?

3. i read a thread about overclocking the cpu. i was not able to get a final answer if its possible to overclock and MAKE IT STAY that speed. i think i read somebody made a file of the program and placed it in start up folder. by placing it in the start up folder does it auto overclock everytime you boot up?

4. what is the bootup time for the TZ with clean install and 2gb?

5. what is resolution of the motion eye camera? [easy one eh?]

6. also prior to looking at the 150 i was looking at the tz270. the main difference is 1.06 vs 1.33, 1gb vs 2gb and last, 100 vs 120gb. my question is if i upgraded the 150 to 2gb. would the 1.06 vs 1.33 make a really big difference? is it noticable? i wanted the tz270 due to the larger hdd and faster cpu, but after reading the forums that it is the hdd that is slow, which is why i asked the earlier question of upgrading the hdd to something faster



my main problem is the harddrive speed and size. cpu speed is meh but hopefully overclocking it will do the trick. i am a student and will be using this comp for web surfing, downloading, homework as well as work. basically a lite version of my computer which ill be using for all the bigger stuff.


TIA

 

The hard drive is your standard 1.8" drive with LIF/ZIF connector, and any similar drive will swap in. The 5400rpm drives are new for the 1.8" form factor, and are just showing up here. In my opinion, the performance improvement isn't significant enough to warrant changing just for that, though if you're going for more space you might as well.

Yes, you can't get overclock to stay set, but you can configure it to OC every time you boot. More problematic is that it resumes normal speed every time you suspend or hibernate, which I (and I suspect most people) do a lot more often than I re-boot.

YMMV depending on what you're running. Most people quote just under a minute.

The literature says 1.3MP, everyone says it's actually .3MP.

 

Honestly, if you use the sony programs, not spamware stuff, but things like the wifi software and etc, I get about 1 minute to load to the windows password prompt. And EVERYTHING loaded in about 3-4 minutes. BUT the laptop is usable form about the 1:30-2:00min mark without causing major slowdowns. Just make sure the wifi hooksup before you launch any web browsers.

 

Using xp and a clean install I get 35~45 seconds to desktop.