Sony Vaio - gaming?

empirix

Hey all,

I want to buy a new laptop and since i will be in the sky and on the trains a lot, i was looking for one that could handle my favourite games FEAR and football manager, would the below Sony Vaio spec suffice. Any opinions greatly appreciated. Also is 2.8 kg heavy for a laptop. Cheers

Intel® Centrino® Duo mobile technology with Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5500 (1.66 GHz and 667 MHz FSB) and Intel® Pro/Wireless 802.11a/b/g

Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 (English version), Windows Vista™ Capable and Premium Ready*
120 GB Serial ATA 5400 rpm hard disk drive

1 GB DDR2-533 SDRAM (2*512 MB), maximum 2 GB DDR2-533 SDRAM with 2 x 1 GB DDR2-533 SDRAM

15.4" WXGA (1280 x 800) Widescreen X-black LCD screen

NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7400 with NVIDIA® TurboCache™ supporting 256MB (NVIDIA® TurboCache™ technology combines the size and bandwidth of video memory and dynamically available system memory for optimal system performance)

TerrorFirmer

I don't have a Sony, but I do have a machine with the exact same spec as the one above.

The only problem I would immediately have is that the Sony is likely to be much more expensive then the same spec's in another brand like dell etc.

Anyway, gaming - yeah, it's fine, for either casual or heavy use really but don't expect cutting edge. 7400 is an ok budget card but its only a 64bit card and is quite a way behind the equivilent ATI budget cards like the x1400. I run FEAR Combat on mine at 1024x768 with options on medium, runs fine at about 30fps.

I've not played an awful amount of games on it but so far it's handled Fear, Battlefield 2 and Day of Defeat Source quite well. For upcoming FPS titles though, it's getting weaker literally by the day. Football manager won't be a problem, nor are most RTS titles though.

How much are you paying for this? I have the same spec, but in an advent machine. It cost about 1000 euro.

empirix

Chear havok - paying 1350, any chance of a link to your laptop, does yours get hot when playing games, a lot of laptops do and i hear the Sonys hold up pretty well.

Cheers

Dark Hair

empirix wrote:

Hey all,

I want to buy a new laptop and since i will be in the sky and on the trains a lot, i was looking for one that could handle my favourite games FEAR and football manager, would the below Sony Vaio spec suffice. Any opinions greatly appreciated. Also is 2.8 kg heavy for a laptop. Cheers

Intel® Centrino® Duo mobile technology with Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5500 (1.66 GHz and 667 MHz FSB) and Intel® Pro/Wireless 802.11a/b/g

Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 (English version), Windows Vista™ Capable and Premium Ready*
120 GB Serial ATA 5400 rpm hard disk drive

1 GB DDR2-533 SDRAM (2*512 MB), maximum 2 GB DDR2-533 SDRAM with 2 x 1 GB DDR2-533 SDRAM

15.4" WXGA (1280 x 800) Widescreen X-black LCD screen

NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7400 with NVIDIA® TurboCache™ supporting 256MB (NVIDIA® TurboCache™ technology combines the size and bandwidth of video memory and dynamically available system memory for optimal system performance)

2.8 is heavy for a lap top when you are traveling alot by foot. Airports etc. Not for throwing in a car if you get me.

The ZS is 1.6 KG with the battery in. My other lap top is an NX7010 @ just under 3kg with 15.4" screen. That combined with hand luggage = heavy.

If you are travelling alot go for the smaller type. 12" screen or something. The Sony ZS is a 13.3 widescreen but my god is it sooooo light.

Not cheap though.

empirix

Yeah i was looking at the 13.3" laptop, but i was hoping to use Reason(music production) and i'm hearing the screen is too small

tungsten

have you looked at the DELL XPS M1210? its a looker!

Dark Hair

empirix wrote:

Yeah i was looking at the 13.3" laptop, but i was hoping to use Reason(music production) and i'm hearing the screen is too small

Can't say I know the application... but sure pop into a sony store and have a look? Thats one good thing about the sony... you can look/feel them

The X-Black is about the best screen I have used to date. It is astonishingly clear and crisp. It runs at 1280*800 by the way. And has 1 GB Ram with nvidia GFX.

TerrorFirmer

The 7400 card is - to be blunt - a bitch for heat. Sometimes my laptops 7400 is hotter when running idle then my desktop 7600gt under load!

I thought there was a problem with mine but a few reviews said the same thing, card just runs hot.

It's not an overly big problem, I've played several hours of gaming without any issues, but a notebook cooler would prob be a good idea if you plan extensive gaming!

http://pcworld.ie/productDetails.aspx?productRID=1687&image=Advent

Thats my laptop - 949 euro now. People say Advent aren't the greatest but I've had no complaints with mine and googling reviews proved it to be fairly solid. Slight fault in the link - says it has 128mb shared graphics memory but its actually 128mb dedicated and another 128mb of system memory.

ircoha

what battery time do u expect to get, the vaio are fairly power hungry afaik