Official Sony SB/SA/SC/SD Series Owners' Thread

[ptrkhh]

And damn you non-US people getting 6630M graphics without an i7. I would have ninja'd that 6630M so fast if I didn't have to ALSO get a 250 dollar i7.

It is even worse in my country (no CTO in my country). If you want to get the 6630M, you have to buy the top-of-the-line model which is VPC-SB19GG, priced Rp18.999.000 (around US$2200).
It is priced that high because of the i7 and 256 GB SSD. But, on that price it still lacks Blu-Ray drive, sadly.

I'm thinking about cancel my order, and get the less-than-half-priced Acer TimelineX 3820TG instead. It has AMD Radeon HD6550M which is almost on par with HD6630M on the VAIO.

Spec (Sony VAIO VPC-SB19GG/Acer TimelineX 3820TG):
- Intel Core i7-2620M / Intel Core i5-480M
- AMD Radeon HD6630M / AMD Radeon HD6550M
- 4 GB RAM / 4 GB RAM
- 256 GB SSD / 640 GB HDD
- 6 hours advertised battery life / 8 hours advertised battery life
- 1.7kg with internal ODD / 1.8kg WITHOUT internal ODD
- Single fan with blocked air vent / DUAL fan
- Rp18.999.000 (around US$2200) / US$999

How do you all think? Should I cancel my order?

[Karamazovmm]

the difference is too great, get the 3820tg.

And according to the gaming figures posted here, the 6630m is 20-30% ahead of the 5650m.

You could also try to get the new 3830tg, it should be available indonesia. And the gt 540m is still slower than the 6630m

[jk6959]

The 3820tg has a lot going for it power-wise:

Dual fans solution - no DVD so they use that space to cool GPU and CPU more effectively
Very overclockable - heard CPU OC'ed over 3 Ghz and GPU massively OC'ed
These make it the most powerful 720p 13" portable gaming solution you can find and reasonably cheap.

There's a large following in the Acer forums, the newer 3830 is less OC'able and only has one fan, but if you plan on using at stock clocks it offers same CPUs and Nvidia 540m GPU, which is more than enough to max out most 720p games.

[maxmaxx]

The pages are so many, so if these were asked before sorry for duplication. I thinking getting an SB.

1. Is the hard drive easy to replace (with an ssd) in SB models?
2. Are there heat issues with normal usage (browsing, movies etc)?
3. What price difference is expected to be between SB and SA base models?
4. Battery life is what Sony tells?

[benny90]

I would go with the 3820tg as your prices their for the Sony are obviously super high.

One thing though, I own the SB and others that also do can say that the supposed hinge blocking thing is a non issue, and no it is not blocked. There is plenty of room for air to get out and the hinge is designed to dissipate heat (similar to the MBP). The thing is, this laptop runs cooler than my CULV laptop and nearly all the other laptops that I have owned.

[benny90]

The pages are so many, so if these were asked before sorry for duplication. I thinking getting an SB.

1. Is the hard drive easy to replace (with an ssd) in SB models?
2. Are there heat issues with normal usage (browsing, movies etc)?
3. What price difference is expected to be between SB and SA base models?
4. Battery life is what Sony tells?

1. Yes, 2 screws
2. No, runs super cool
3. $1000 from base to base
4. Yes, I get about 6.5 hrs with browsing and video watching

[simP]

I'm expecting a difference (base to base) more like $500~600, if they offer it without SSD and other high-end stuff.

Yeahh, they didn't delay mine! Just received the invoice and stuff. It's now in Frechen, Germany... so I guess it will be delivered on monday or tuesday (: (of course I hope tomorrow, but I don't think they're that fast!)

Omg, it was already in Amsterdam before 5 in the morning.. how can they do that so fast! That means it's just half an hour removed from me! At 20hrs yesterday it was still in Germany! Really hoping on receiving it today!

[poma]

That $ucks, mine only gets loud if I am doing something intensive for atleast 10 min. And then it only spools up for a minute before going back down. It really doesn't bother me as it is normal, and I'd rather have it spool up and be just as cool as it can be than have a 120* lap burner.

I am also thinking to return because of fan noise. In a quiet environment you can always here it, also with light webbrowsing and office and under load it boosts up pretty much. this is someway unacceptable for the price. I am still checking but I fear this won´t be made better by another bios update.

As far as I know I have latest bios, benny which version do you run? I have R1030H4.

This would be so annoying, a part from that i love the machine. I could live with the noise now still, but what is in half a year or later? Machines do get louder..

[Bufflekill]

Not sure how laptop RAM works, is it pretty easy to upgrade these types of laptops in terms of memory?
Looking at importing, and anything I can do later will help reduce the tax to get it over.

[simP]

Yes easy as pie (just remove the backplate and click it in the slot), and less expensive than ordering 8gb straight away.