vaio SZ - heavy users?

I've got a relatively cheap Acer with 1Gb RAM and 1.7Ghz processor which I've had for about 9 months. I take it everywhere, use it several hours per day sitting on my lap on the sofa, lying in bed drinking coffee, no problems at all.

the only thing I don't like about it is at 2.5Kgs the weight. I've been looking into getting an SZ for ages... but am wondering about the durability of these expensive machines.

every time I see a pic from one of you guys on here it is on a special spot on its own desk with a bluetooth mouse etc... almost like a shrine! Given the cost of the things it's hardly suprising.

Any SZ owners treat them a bit rough? and how well do they take it?

 

I carry mine with me every day, but I'm very careful with it (or very lucky? time will tell!). Held up fine so far... go go 3 months of usage!

 

Sony is not known for its durability. I a SZ crash on me and promptly returned it. Get Lenovo or HP. They are better than Sony. In fact, in my opinion, any brand is better than Sony.

 

I owned an SZ for around 9 months and took it out with me almost every weekday during that time, and I never had any problems with durability

 

I've had my sony S for two years it was amazing study, I just got a sony SZ and this thing feels pretty fragile, I'm afraid if I squeeze it too hard it might crack, the dvd-rom drive is pretty flimsy as well, and the sides feel like they could snap off, but everything else is nice, and strong.

 

Well I have had my SZ for about 2 weeks and so far I have taken it to school with me every day. I keep it in a neoprene sleeve but its in my backpack with all my other heavy hard cover books and its holding up pretty well. The only think Im worried about is the screen since its so thin.

 

I have had mine for 3 months and no problems.
I throw it in my messenger bag and its off to the airport, work etc. It's on the road every day.
It even has taken a flight from the front seat to the floor due to extreme breaking
I really don't baby it too much and no problems yet.

 

thanks for all your comments guys

interesting how people always seem to be either totally happy or very unhappy, no middle ground with a premium laptop !

to those of you have had negative experiences and would now buy 'anything but sony' - how do you square that with the (PCWorld?) statistics that Sony have one of the lowest returns percentages of all the manufacturers? Do you think that you've been unlucky or that Sony fiddle the numbers somehow e.g. by not accepting returns?

 

i would say i was in the middle - i never had any specific problems, but i've owned a few vaios and i was most disappointed by the build quality of the SZ - not to say that it was a huge problem, i was still quite happy with the laptop.

 

so would you say that maybe the reason they are the only manufacturer who can pack all that performance into a 1.7kg frame is because they use materials that aren´t suited to sturdy construction?

I also wanted to ask about the DVD drive, some people seem to be having problems with and saying it is unacceptably slow for a premium laptop?

 

If you use CD/DVD alot, then should not go with Premium.

 

I've posted this before and I carry my laptop in my school bag. It barely fits into the bag and I usually don't carry the power cable. I just carry 2 battery as I have a power adapter at home / work and gf house.

Each morning I do a 5-10 mins sprint to the bus. If it's a 5 min sprint I'll usually have problems when it first bootup. Eg blue screen etc or freeze. A slower jog is usually fine.

When I leave my laptop out in the cold I'll also get a blue screen when trying to boot up. Have to warm up first

My mom dropped it a few times thinking that there isn't anything inside in my bag.

I would say the laptop is pretty sturdy even when I have mistreat it. The top is covered in scratches but I think I'll be able to clean it off easily as it has a hard and rough surface.

 

well it's beginning to look like I'll just have to buy one of these things and find out for myself

 

Wait for the pre-installed Vista version if u interest in vista

 

I think that's a quality of internet forums in general ----- if the internet is anything, it's polarized. You're smart to couple user experiences here with PCWorld stats.

Atta boy!

 

I dont know, what do you guys reckon to these battery life reports??

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=100437

and a 4x DVD?? that's half the speed of my Acer !

 

Rough is relative. Other than when my SZ90 had its screen cracked because someone put their seat back on the plane (I share blame in that one), the SZ has held up just fine. I got mine in March or April of last year, and other than normal wear and tear (some paint coming off on highly used keyboard keys and such), mine has exhibited no issues.

I am on a plane every week so this thing travels quite a bit.

I would also consider myself a power user - I have 3GB of RAM in my SZ, replaced the hard drive with a 7200rpm one, etc. I do a lot of work on this thing. Performs like a champ.

I only have the extended battery and get great battery life. Of course you don't get good battery life with all options set to max (i.e. screen brightness), so find the tweaks that work for you.

 

I wouldn't say that. My laptop has no structural issues - the carbon fiber premium is very sturdy. FUD if you ask me.

I don't do much burning, so it's fine by me.

 

thanks for your thoughts, I am very much going round in circles but thanks to all for their input

 

3GB ?

Can you tell me more about your memory ?

 

You have 3GB with your SZ? Wow, so the motherboard does support more than its official 2GB RAM limitation. I have been waiting for someone who can actually verify this. Do you see noticable difference when upgrading to 3GB RAM and 7200 RPM harddrive? Does the amount of memory show up correctly in the BIOS and Windows XP?

 

Mobo has nothing to do with it. It's just there haven't been larger RAM modules that 1GB and therefore "limitation" was 2GB (2x1GB).
Now I'm wondering how did he get 3GB in his system. I haven't heard about 2GB modules on the market...

 

I wasn't fond of the slow DVD burner either but I seem to get better burn at slower rate.
My home DVD burns 16x(liteon) and it is awful at that speed, makes a lot of errors, so I always drop it to 8X and the problem is gone.

 

Actually, Crucial does sell 2GB module. So, if he can upgrade to 3GB RAM with his SZ (2GB + 1GB), we may be able to upgrade to 4GB RAM (2x2GB). http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?imodule=CT25664AC667 or http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?imodule=CT25664AC53E

 

Didn't know Sony SZ support to 3GB RAM but at $720 for a 2GB RAM it's scary

 

I've used mine for about a year every day at work (University). Dropped it a few times (posted a few pics in this forum or others), hard drops on the solid floor and still works looks great. Other lab techs use my machine all the time and the keys look great. It's transported inside a bike bag with neoprene case and lots of large food containers that press onto the screen, no probs.

EDIT: I should add that I'm in love with this machine and have sex with it every night.

 

yeah dont worry man I feel the same way about my snowboard

 

Hah!

 

My sz330 gets daily usage for both home and work. When moving it around, I put it in the neoprene sleeve, and then it rides in its own compartment in my backpack.

I have treated all of my notebooks like this, and always get long life out of them. This is my first Sony, and I love it.

 

Folks, search is a wonderful tool. See http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81422 for info on 3GB. I paid $450 for my 2GB memory stick from Dell a few months back. It's back up to $590. All Intel-based laptops should natively support up to 4GB of memory - the processor architecture supports it.

4GB is pretty useless under 32-bit OSes. If the SZ90 was a C2D (not just a CD) and I could put 64-bit XP or Vista, I'd get full use of 4GB.

I use a lot of things that consume memory and have always bumped into issues with 2GB. 3GB I've had no issues. I've put 7200rpm drives in my systems for a few years now. If you're doing normal day-to-day stuff, a 4200 or 5400rpm would do just fine. If you're not, 7200 is better. However, realize that Sony can technically void your warranty.

I've been more than happy with my SZ90. I needed a portable laptop that was light (under 4lbs) and powerful, and I got it. My next laptop will be more ultraportable because once I'm done my book, I won't need this much power on the road all the time, but I don't have real wandelust for laptops as I did before I got the SZ.

 

You are so right! This is a computer-geek site, so all the pictures of computers are non-practical devotion-type images. That's to be expected.

I don't personally own an SZ, but I have used in many times in stores. I too, have an Acer, and have had my eye on the SZ (and the TX series). I would think that the SZ, with an all metal frame, would be very sturdy. It's also made for the business user, so that means a lot of travel and commuting.

Whereas our Acers are plastic! (Sadly, its plastic where it's most important to have metal...like the palmrest)

 

the only complaint I have about the SZ's build is the lcd, it's not sturdy cuz the edges seem to be clipped together, I can actually semi-open the casing by prying it with my fingers starting from directly above the built-in mic, and other parts.

THere are also other parts that seem to be a little flimsy, mostly the edges (speakers) and hinges where if you press on it, it will move.

 

Could you give us a link that further describes your claim? Also, elsewhere in the forum, you said that eventhough you have 667 MHz RAM with your SZ, it only clocks at 533. What tool did you use to verify this?

 

Do a google search if you want to know more, but it's the way 32-bit Windows (desktop OS or a server OS) works. To address memory above 3GB, you have to use /PAE and have applications that can take advantage of it. Otherwise, only 3GB is available for use. A good example of such an app is SQL Server. /PAE is mainly designed to go beyond 4GB, not to address the space between 3GB and 4GB per se. /PAE on 32-bit where you're not going beyond 4GB can be problematic. Also see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;888137. With XP 32-bit + SP2, you can get up to 3.5GB with /PAE (Windows takes 512MB to do this), so again, I don't see the point of doing 2x2GB in a 32-bit OS.

Using /3GB gives 3GB to apps and 1GB dedicated to the OS. Bottom line: it's hard to scale beyond 3GB on a 32-bit Windows OS. Servers regularly use /PAE to go beyond. With 64-bit all installed memory is available and ready for use. So while you can technically have 4GB of memory in XP or Vista 32-bit, I don't see the point.

Bottom line: if you want to use 4GB, use a 64-bit OS.

Any number of tools are available to test your memory. Search this forum. It is well documented that Sony crippled the design of the SZ to only use 533MHz. The memory clocks down to that. It's been proven many times over. Why are people still questioning this?

 

I didn't say /3GB was great - I was explaining how it works. /3GB is usless IMHO on a desktop. I actually hate /3GB on a server for the most part.

x64 is a whole different beast than x86. Since you can take advantage of the full compliment of 4GB with no issues or needing switches, it's almost irrelevant to the argument. It's x86 that struggles beyond 3GB of usable memory.

I use VMWare as well as music apps, so I know about memory hungry applications. 9.9 out of 10 users will not scale past 1 - 1.5GB of memory doing normal things. We're talking average users, here. Putting 3 - 4GB of memory in a notebook or desktop running XP or Vista is something that you shouldn't do lightly because it's freakin' expensive.

/3GB you still cut yourself off at the knees. Today for example, I had 4 VMWare virtual machines (3 of 4 at 512MB, 1 at 256MB), a couple of browser windows open, Outlook, Word, SQL Server Books Online, and one or two other things in addition to system processes. I was still just a bit under 3GB of memory usage. Going to 4GB under x86 isn't going to buy me that much - how many people run 1GB of system processes? I don't. So you cripple yourself with /3GB since you won't be able to access more than 3GB of memory for your apps.

Although /PAE may work as I said, it's really designed so you scale beyond 4GB which isn't currently supported in XP. That's a switch more designed for servers since they need to scale way beyond a desktop OS in a lot of cases. If you eek out that extra 512MB under XP with /PAE to get to 3.5GB, I doubt it's worth the overall expense of over $1000 for extra memory for most folks. Going to 3GB is huge (at least for me) under x86 XP or Vista (esp. since I got memory cheap), not 4GB.

Sony also isn't doing anyone any favors by crippling the speed of memory, either. Things would be a heckuva lot better (and faster) if they used 667MHz.

Until you understand the memory architecture for an x86 box, I can't help you here. No matter what way you slice and dice it, you're not going to get much more than 3GB *usable* with x86 and XP or Vista. This is why x64 is so much better.

ReadyBoost in Vista may do a little bit - I don't have it installed - but real RAM will always be best.

 

ROFLMAO, you just proved you did not understand a word from my post... You enthusiastic prosumer guys and gals are just downright hilarious.

But I give you that at least you have a funny wannabe attitude - for a less savy you truly sound like somebody who knows what's he's answering to...


...too bad I actually work in this field and I gave you ****load of examples why are you obviously wrong.

PS: try to get out of the basement and into those type of industries/companies I have listed above and perhaps you'll get the picture finally, why having 3GB on x86 for an app could be great.

 

It's clear you don't get mine. I do server work for a living and know all about Windows memory architectures.

I'm in IT as well, just not on the desktop side for a living. But the apps I use (music, VMWare, etc.) are memory hogs.

Maybe you need the clue - you CAN get 3GB right now on an x86 desktop with Windows. I made that point. WHen you want to go beyond that it's problematic. Sure, things like PHotoshop and what not are hungry, but we're talking a small % of the whole XP market that needs > 1 - 1.5 GB of memory. I'm in that space and it sounds like you and your desktops are, but it's still a small percentage.

Is there benefit to having 3GB dedicated with /3GB? If there is to you, go nuts. We're not arguing the technical. We're arguing opinion. Windows when you slim down and get rid of bloatware does not take up close to 1GB of system space. Yes, you'd eek out every ounce of that 3GB for your apps, but I know of no company I've worked at willing to spend more than $1k just on memory for desktops. None. Hell, most of 'em have old desktops that have probably 256MB at most.

1GB is standard, 2GB is becoming more common, but I think once x64 is adopted, all of this will be a distant memory. If I was running a shop where I had power hungry users, I'd just get x64 and be done with it. Unfortunately there's not a lot of native x64 software yet.

 

Boy, you sounds like one confused guy. Read my posts AGAIN.

You are still saying there's no need for 3-4GB on x86and I'm still saying there are PLENTY of use for such configs.

BTW speaking of PS: guess how much memory any picture will take up on the machine of an average user starting from RAW, creating multi-layered PSD etc?

Seriously, can't say anything else 'til you grasp WTF I wrote first...

PS: I have nothing to do with desktops - if you'd have read my posts you'd know this as well... (HINT: think of lots of server (render) nodes )

PS2: OTOH it's true that the usual single-digit email/web/dvd-type user won't see any improvement over 2GB, I agree.

 

It would be nice to have 4 GB on my SZ, but to be honest..

I think upgrading my hard drive from 5400 to 7200 would yield better results in term of performance per dollar.

 

For the average user, no. You're not understanding ME. It's situational. There are certain apps and types of users who absolutely need more than 1 - 1.5GB of memory. No question. I fall into that category. Joe Sixpack who's surfing the Web and playing some games most likely doesn't.

 

I would consider myself to be a pretty heavy user, as it is has completely replaced my desktop.

1) For work purposes, I am employed by a large storage company in the Professional Services (consulting) group, as a Architect. What that means is that I am heavily using Word for large Word docs with heavy diagrams and graphics, large Excel workbooks, visios, powerpoint, multiple browers opened to different devices, and heavy use of Java.

2) For personal use, I enjoy editing photos, recording mixes from my turntable and editing the tracks, encode decode mp3s, divx video files, and some video editing.

The only thing I don't do anymore is play games. Although, this laptop would probably work fine for the average gamer. As far as durability is concerned, I am constantly going from customer site to site and I used to travel quite a bit with it. I haven't had any issues with it *knock on wood*

 

hey hoolyproductions if you would like to buy an sz i would suggest you buy sz270. it cost 1599.99 here's a link http://www.clearanceclub.com/depot/quelle_showroom.cgi?sku=5414 this is a good site to look at other notebooks as well. I just bought a sz270 from here and I've been using it for couple of days now and I like it. original price for sz270 cost around $2000 or more. this sz270 is a premium carbon fiber which means it is the thin sz not the thick one. I think this is the best price that you can find and it is brand new not refurbrish so think about it.

 

I consider myself a heavy user too.

The thing I like about SZ is the Core2Duo which beats the crap out of my Pentium 4 3.2C in any encoding or decoding process. I've always thought my P4 was pretty fast until I got my SZ. I had no idea CPU technology advance so fast in 3 years.

Even though SZ is really fast, I still can't seem to ditch my desktop because of the keyboard with number pads and my 2 really fast 10k hard drives. Those are the only 2 reason why I still do most videos on desktop.

 

For video I use 15k Atlas or Fujitsu FC SCSI with SCA-LVD adapter - I consider them the fastest drives on Earth in stripe.
OTOH in x64 Opterons are still better than Xeon 51xx-series, no matter how good they are in x86, how do you measure it - FP seems better, that's it.