Your views on *this* laptop

[Harsh Gupta]

Hi,

I need a laptop, as my current HP dv6500 series laptop is almost dying. It is overheating, have been crashing a lot lately and slows down a lot if I have to run a lot of apps simultaneously.

I just saw this Sony Viao model (F-series).

I was hoping to go for 6 GB RAM instead for standard 4 GB (will cost $100) and also upgrade the Graphics card.

What do you think of this model? Will you recommend it? If yes, will you recommend for RAM up-gradation? Or any other model or even manufacturer (except HP), with almost identical configuration and equal/lesser price?

Thank you.

[baja_yu]

Depends on what you plan to do with it. Looks good, except I'd upgrade the hard drive instead of the graphics. And exclude Norton AV even if it's free

[FireXtol]

I'd probably avoid that particular Nvidia chipset. It's DX10, and really doesn't offer that good of performance.

Here's a search limiting results to fairly game worthy AMD cards.

ASUS typically includes 1 year of "accidental damage coverage" at no additional fee.

Here are the only 3 choices with both high-end(for mobile) graphics, and 6GB to 8GB of RAM on Newegg.

Or you could always upgrade the RAM yourself.

[Siddharth Rout]

Harsh... Being a Sony 'Fan', I simply love it...

But back to Baja's question...

What exactly do you want to do with it? What is your main purpose...

more details about this piece here....

http://clickany.com/sony-offers/vaio.../VPCF1290X-CTO

[Harsh Gupta]

Thanks for your input.

Long story short. I usually go pretend that I will be playing big games etc but have not played any single in 4 years, since Halo.

My current HP laptop is pathetic. I am studying my Masters and had to install lot of things in past 1 year. But it was Oracle which beat the poor thing to death. It hurt my system performance terribly.

So I need a good system. Really good system. Good processor, good amount of RAM, okay amount of HDD and if my budget permits me, a decent graphics card. But I need one under $1000.

So this one looks good.

I will be okay if it is not Sony. I need something for long run now.

As FireXtol suggested, I checked Asus. They look good but I am yet to check if I can get something decent in my budget. I checked their site, and their gaming rig looks good, but it seems they don't have retailing option. I can get it from some vendor but the configuration which they are offering makes it high in cost.

Any suggestions? I can content with i5 or even i3 if you guys think it will be good investment for atleast next 4-5 years.

[FireXtol]

Perhaps this $799 AMD Acer Aspire? Similar performance to a desktop Phenom or Athlon II quad core. According to Passmark it also falls right between two core i5's in performance. Nearly identical specs to this $999 Intel Acer Aspire

There's also $719 editions, but the $799 seems to me to be the best deal(for a Mobility 5650). The Gateway also seems like a good deal(supposedly has the longest battery life). While the Toshiba and Lenovo unfortunately have smaller screens. With 2 year ADH(~$170), those $799 are just under $1000.

Or maybe these will help: Acer comparison; Others(non-HP/non-Acer) compared

Any special reason you're wanting 6 GB of RAM?

[Harsh Gupta]

Thanks for the link. That Acer Aspire does look like a good deal.

Why I need 6 GB RAM? Guess, I am lazy person and prefer to use & reuse a thing until it requests me to get a replacement. Like this HP Laptop, it is almost 4 years old and I should have replaced it a year back when it began showing its true colors. So I was hoping to get more RAM so this new one may last 4-5 years (minimum). Yeah, I am kinda devilish.

Anyways, that option do look good. Though I am little inclined towards Sony, and also Asus after your suggestion. And also I used to own Acer scanner few years back and had a hard time getting it installed on Win XP. Their support service was awful. So I was avoiding Acer.

Can you suggest any other similar option? I have been looking a lot now for AMD based laptops, in Sony, Asus and Dell, but right now nothing seems to beat this, for now.

I guess, I should wait for other members to post their suggestion.

Can you please help me in understanding, which AMD processor provide better performance, Phenom II or Athlon II?

Thank you.

[bloodsside14]

As far i read this thread about the things you want and the apps you are running with your laptop. I think i can suggest you to buy a desktop rather than a laptop so it easy to upgrade and easy to find a parts. Because laptop is to expensive when it comes in parts and some are rear, In desktop you can choose what you need and more high end parts and you can run 24/7 without down time. Laptop can't do that ayt?!

Upgrading memory and video card is not enough to have a fastest laptop or desktop also upgrade the processor and hard drive for more efficiency.

[FireXtol]

Would you actually use that much memory? I rarely use more than 512 MB. Then again, I purposely use/seek out software that's efficient, and well-written.

The Phenom II has an L3 cache, while the Athlon II does not. That's the primary difference. It doesn't make a big difference in real world performance as most software isn't cache-optimized. Indeed, I'd guess many programmers are blissfully ignorant of cache these days(even if they're aware of it, they most likely don't actually program 'for it').

For example, WinRAR benefits noticeably, while WinZIP does not. And this makes sense. Benchmarks show that WinRAR is a far more optimized/efficient program than WinZIP.

[jtstone09]

I am not a fan of Sony Laptops - mainly becasue they are not field replaceable. You have to send EVERYTHING in to get it services.

My favorite laptops are DELL. When there is a problem, they send parts so I don't have to send the laptop.

[Lord Orwell]

Depends on what you plan to do with it. Looks good, except I'd upgrade the hard drive instead of the graphics. And exclude Norton AV even if it's free

you know, i was hoping to get some feedback on nav2010. My sister in law installed it without asking me on my mother in law's laptop. This increased boot time from 20 seconds to approximately two minutes, and usability was completely gone. P.S. 1gb ram, 1.6ghz processor. this is annoying considering official system requirements are 300mhz.

[baja_yu]

Wow, that's really bad. Can you imagine how it would run if you really had 300 MHz
That is one of the reasons I dropped Kaspersky. You can feel it's impact on the performance. Not that bad though. It is still my favorite security suite, if they ever make it lighter I'd be glad to go back. I watch what I do, I could probably go without an AV completely, but I keep Avast on just in case, it's free and you don't even notice it's there.

[stanav]

I used to be an Avast fan until Microsoft rolled out the free Miscrosoft Security Essentials. Not that MS product can give better protection, the main reason why I switched is because it doesn't have the annoying "Your antivirus database has been updated!" popups as Avast does, and it also doesn't need a license renewal every year

[TheBigB]

Hi,

I need a laptop, as my current HP dv6500 series laptop is almost dying. It is overheating, have been crashing a lot lately and slows down a lot if I have to run a lot of apps simultaneously.

I just saw this Sony Viao model (F-series).

I was hoping to go for 6 GB RAM instead for standard 4 GB (will cost $100) and also upgrade the Graphics card.

What do you think of this model? Will you recommend it? If yes, will you recommend for RAM up-gradation? Or any other model or even manufacturer (except HP), with almost identical configuration and equal/lesser price?

Thank you.

Love it. I went for a lighter version, also a 14" (need portability).
I have the VPCEA1S1E and it's running awesome.
Had some minor discomfort with the helpdesk, but they do no worse than any other.
There is an option for XP downgrade, but power management and drivers really suck. So I stuck to Windows 7 x64; the x86 drivers are poorly available...
Anyway, they at least somewhat support other OS's, which is what very little notebook producers do.

I do recommend the Vaio.

I am not a fan of Sony Laptops - mainly becasue they are not field replaceable. You have to send EVERYTHING in to get it services.

My favorite laptops are DELL. When there is a problem, they send parts so I don't have to send the laptop.

Completely disagree. Apart from the keyboard pretty much everything is available as spare part.
Most Sony laptops come with 2 year pickup-and-return, which is pretty much a standard for notebook warranty.

I really dislike DELL.
They do service fine within warranty. Outside, suit yourself; service and spare parts are abnormally expensive.

you know, i was hoping to get some feedback on nav2010. My sister in law installed it without asking me on my mother in law's laptop. This increased boot time from 20 seconds to approximately two minutes, and usability was completely gone. P.S. 1gb ram, 1.6ghz processor. this is annoying considering official system requirements are 300mhz.

Norton is and always has always been heavy. I must say on new machines it's workable, but I still prefer other AV over Norton.

I used to be an Avast fan until Microsoft rolled out the free Miscrosoft Security Essentials. Not that MS product can give better protection, the main reason why I switched is because it doesn't have the annoying "Your antivirus database has been updated!" popups as Avast does, and it also doesn't need a license renewal every year

You can switch Avast to silent mode, though you still have to renew your license, yes.


I think you should search for comparable models of Sony, ASUS, MSI and Samsung and pick your favorite.
Personally I would put DELL and Acer out of consideration, but hey, it's your choice

[baja_yu]

You can switch Avast to silent mode, though you still have to renew your license, yes.

With the latest versions the matter of activation is just writting your name and email in a prompt in the application so it's easy. Unlike before where you had to submit a request for an activation key on their webiste then wait to get it by email, then copy it to the application.

[Jenner]

That's actually similar to the laptop I got a few months back. Here's a specs page of it though it's already obsolete.

I love the thing. It's FAST. I can run all my games at max detail, max settings. The 330M graphics cooks with the i7. It gets hot though. If you intend to use it as a LAPtop, I'd recommend a lap platform to rest it on so you don't cover up the bottom intake vents.

[Lord Orwell]

personally i am using an acer aspire one as a laptop and the wife has a p4 1.4ghz. A laptop can last as long as you need it. I have issues with modern games (and frankly no dvd drive is killing me) but even netbooks are dual-core now. And i don't even carry it all the time since i got an android phone. Also investigate battery life claims. I have another NEWER netbook with a swivel touch screen by HP and the battery is completely gone to the point it shuts off if you unplug it.