Sony Vaio S Series

[schinoy]

Hi all,

Currently looking at the 13.3" Sony Vaio S Series, $1249.99:

3rd gen Intel® Core™ i7-3520M processor (2.90GHz / 3.60GHz with Turbo Boost)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
13.3" LED backlit display (1366 x 768)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE (1GB) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology
320GB (5400rpm) hard drive
8GB (4GB fixed onboard + 4GB removable) DDR3-1333MHz
CD/DVD player / burner
Internal lithium polymer battery (4400mAh)

I plan to upgrade the hard drive to an SSD at a later date.

I have two questions:

1) I've heard bad things about the fan noise in the previous-generation S series. Does anyone know if this issue has been resolved?

2) How bad is the 1366 x 768 resolution? I don't have the money to upgrade to the "Premium" version with a higher-resolution display...

[Mobius 1]

Hi all,

Currently looking at the 13.3" Sony Vaio S Series, $1249.99:

3rd gen Intel® Core™ i7-3520M processor (2.90GHz / 3.60GHz with Turbo Boost)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
13.3" LED backlit display (1366 x 768)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE (1GB) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology
320GB (5400rpm) hard drive
8GB (4GB fixed onboard + 4GB removable) DDR3-1333MHz
CD/DVD player / burner
Internal lithium polymer battery (4400mAh)

I plan to upgrade the hard drive to an SSD at a later date.

I have two questions:

1) I've heard bad things about the fan noise in the previous-generation S series. Does anyone know if this issue has been resolved?

2) How bad is the 1366 x 768 resolution? I don't have the money to upgrade to the "Premium" version with a higher-resolution display...

Please fill the form before posting here

1. You can fix this by repasting with IC diamond or Coolaboratory liquid ultra and "lap" the heatsink contact points

2. Your budget doesn't seem to fit. Try to fill the form first, then I can provide more help

[schinoy]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Oops, I forgot to copy the form from my last post:

What is your budget?
~1300

What country will you be buying this in?
USA

What size notebook do you prefer?
Thin and Light (13 - 14-inch screen), however, I would NOT like an "ultrabook" because of the low-powered processors and lack of a discrete GPU.

Would you consider a refurbished laptop?
Maybe

What are the primary tasks you need this notebook for?
Web Surfing, Office and Productivity Software, Listening to Music, Photo Editing, Video Editing, Video Chat and Conference, Movie Streaming and Viewing, Casual Gaming

Possibly engineering at college, would like to future-proof the system for that possibility. Heavy, heavy multitasking.

Where will you be using this laptop?
Will be used different places – will be attending college soon

How many hours of battery life do you need?
Not sure - 3?

Will you be buying online or in store?
online

Which OS do you prefer?
Windows 7 & Linux dual boot

List the screen resolutions that interest you:
Standard Resolution (1366 x 768)
High Resolution (1600 x 900). I'd prefer high resolution, but I'm not sure if Standard will be fine in a small laptop.

Do you prefer a glossy or matte screen?
Glossy or Matte is fine

Is the laptops design important to you?
Yes, but not very important.

Approximately what date will you be buying this laptop?
Soon-ish

How long do you want this laptop to last?
4 years

How much storage capacity do you need?
>300 GB

Are you interested in SSD for storage?
Yes – but in a couple months. I'd like to buy it with a traditional HDD to keep the price down and then upgrade to an SSD later.

Do you want a built-in optical drive, what type?
DVD Burner

[Mobius 1]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Oops, I forgot to copy the form from my last post:

What is your budget?
~1300

What country will you be buying this in?
USA

What size notebook do you prefer?
Thin and Light (13 - 14-inch screen), however, I would NOT like an "ultrabook" because of the low-powered processors and lack of a discrete GPU.

Would you consider a refurbished laptop?
Maybe

What are the primary tasks you need this notebook for?
Web Surfing, Office and Productivity Software, Listening to Music, Photo Editing, Video Editing, Video Chat and Conference, Movie Streaming and Viewing, Casual Gaming

Possibly engineering at college, would like to future-proof the system for that possibility. Heavy, heavy multitasking.

Where will you be using this laptop?
Will be used different places – will be attending college soon

How many hours of battery life do you need?
Not sure - 3?

Will you be buying online or in store?
online

Which OS do you prefer?
Windows 7 & Linux dual boot

List the screen resolutions that interest you:
Standard Resolution (1366 x 768)
High Resolution (1600 x 900). I'd prefer high resolution, but I'm not sure if Standard will be fine in a small laptop.

Do you prefer a glossy or matte screen?
Glossy or Matte is fine

Is the laptops design important to you?
Yes, but not very important.

Approximately what date will you be buying this laptop?
Soon-ish

How long do you want this laptop to last?
4 years

How much storage capacity do you need?
>300 GB

Are you interested in SSD for storage?
Yes – but in a couple months. I'd like to buy it with a traditional HDD to keep the price down and then upgrade to an SSD later.

Do you want a built-in optical drive, what type?
DVD Burner

That's better

First off, I don't reccomend the vaio unless it's a "real" 640M, not a 640M LE, it's lower powered version and some speculation it's a rebranded 5xx series.

For your budget, I'd reccomend one of the sagers/clevo from Xotic PC, they have lower price that suits your budget. Contact one of the rep from the clevo/sager subforum and ask for a discount.

Vaio is good, but a whole lot more expensive compared to sagers.

I also don't reccomend buying i7 CPU's that doesn't end with "QM", if it ends with "M" it's dual-core. I'd reccomend saving money and get an i5 because the performance if dual core i5 and dual core i7 isn't really worth the extra dough.


Hope this helps



EDIT: Config is an i7 3610QM, 16GB 1600 ram, 1080P glossy, 500GB, 15", 1GB GT 650M (DDR5), Blu-Ray burner. $1300.
You can drop the price even more by reverting to 8GB 1600 and dropping the bluray burner to reader or dvd burner.

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6165-...er-p-4344.html

NP6165 (W150ER)

[penetrode]

delete please

[Jenie]

Hi all,

Currently looking at the 13.3" Sony Vaio S Series, $1249.99:

3rd gen Intel® Core™ i7-3520M processor (2.90GHz / 3.60GHz with Turbo Boost)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
13.3" LED backlit display (1366 x 768)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE (1GB) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology
320GB (5400rpm) hard drive
8GB (4GB fixed onboard + 4GB removable) DDR3-1333MHz
CD/DVD player / burner
Internal lithium polymer battery (4400mAh)

I plan to upgrade the hard drive to an SSD at a later date.

I have two questions:

1) I've heard bad things about the fan noise in the previous-generation S series. Does anyone know if this issue has been resolved?

2) How bad is the 1366 x 768 resolution? I don't have the money to upgrade to the "Premium" version with a higher-resolution display...

I dont think the screen will be having more issue. Its pretty reasonable.