topic Re: Buying a Type V in PCs & Accessories

Buying a Type V

Kawasaki — Sun, 22 May 2005 05:10:08 GMT

I am about to buy (in Japan) a new desktop and have a number of models in mind. I wonder if people would give me their opinions (postive and negative) on the Sony type V as I don't know aything about this model. It certainly looks good but what about the substance?

The one I am interested in comes with a 17inch moniter and pentium4 3.2GHz, 512mb ram and 250GB hard drive. The cost is 1050pounds sterling.

I will be using it for general office tasks plus TV capture and basic video editing

Many thanks in advance

Re: Buying a Type V

hldomster — Sun, 22 May 2005 11:31:17 GMT

The V series is certainly a sleek looking VAIO, and for what you want it for it appears to be a good choice. My only worry with these models is that they my be difficult to upgrade hardware, as the monitor is joined to the CPU. I'd also be worried about buying it in Japan, make sure you are getting an English version (unless you are Japanese:smileygrin: ). I'd prefer an RA3, but its very expensive, considering you have to buy the monitor separatley. I think the V3 will be more than sufficient though.

Happy VAIO:smileygrin:

Re: Buying a Type V

kee-lo_ — Sun, 22 May 2005 12:52:15 GMT

Akanksha lost her optical drive within the first year.

Personally I would go with the RA series, I bet they're well priced in Japan too!

Re: Buying a Type V

Kawasaki — Mon, 23 May 2005 03:33:41 GMT

Thanks for the thoughts. I shall certainly consider the R series. I have to confess that it is primarliy the asthetic that caught my eye re the V-series.

Kee-lo is right about the prices here in Japan. After paying Sony UK prices almost everything seems like a bargain.

Re: Buying a Type V

Stephanius — Mon, 23 May 2005 15:51:29 GMT

Having a modular system that you can upgrade with standard components is a plus, and the RA gives you that, but when are you likely to upgrade? If its a year or two in the future you can almost ignore this since technology changes too fast - the new stuff will not fit anymore in your 'old' computer.

Having a build-in screen can be a benefit or a draw back, an additional screen costs money on top of the RA, while the V is all-in, but you can pick your screen.

The V3 series is compact and all inclusive, the RA has more performance, but needs more space, requires a seperate screen and is more expensive.

The real question is: what do you want? ;-]

Re: Buying a Type V

Vas — Mon, 23 May 2005 17:11:56 GMT

I am also considering the V-Series for my sister and family.
Thanks for your advice Stephanius. I did think about your points, but what I really want know is how efficient are the cordless mouse/keyboard in terms of battery
if it was possible to turn the monitor off,
the amount of heat produced etc.

Vas

Re: Buying a Type V

Vas — Mon, 23 May 2005 17:15:09 GMT

Especially the vertical Drive, is it ¿solid¿ reliable? (bearing the Vaio Service in UK in mind).

Vas

Re: Buying a Type V

kee-lo_ — Mon, 23 May 2005 17:47:33 GMT

Excellent comparison there Stephanius

Re: Buying a Type V

Vas — Mon, 23 May 2005 18:16:44 GMT

Wonder why VAIO don¿t do the CD/DVD loading mechanism like the Apple iMac G5 does.
Can't remember what it's called maybe Auto loading mechanism?

Vas

Re: Buying a Type V

Vas — Mon, 23 May 2005 18:21:56 GMT

I have also been waiting for the Glossy White version (No funny comments please like you can¿etc) of the V-Series, since the V1 came out, but it seems like they are never going to be available in Europe or States.

Vas

Re: Buying a Type V

Vas — Mon, 23 May 2005 18:23:51 GMT

Anyone on holiday in Japan? Maybe Kawasaki could help me.:smileygrin:

Vas

Re: Buying a Type V

kee-lo_ — Mon, 23 May 2005 20:53:37 GMT

I'd like to see a burgandy RA case

Re: Buying a Type V

Kawasaki — Mon, 23 May 2005 21:28:40 GMT

Yes the white model is here in Japan. In addition to the questions posed by Vas is the fan particularly noisy? Thanks Stephanius. Of course you are right about asking yourself 'what exactly do you want a computer for?'

Re: Buying a Type V

Kawasaki — Tue, 24 May 2005 10:04:14 GMT

Upon further investigation the model here does not come with a separate graphics card rather 96mb chipset. It is also lacks built-in wireless lan and from what I gather it is using an older pentium 4 3.2E rather than the newer 550J processor. Should I be concerned?

Re: Buying a Type V

kee-lo_ — Tue, 24 May 2005 15:49:07 GMT

That all depends on whether you want to use it with a wireless network?
I would personally get the one with that feature

Re: Buying a Type V

Stephanius — Fri, 27 May 2005 14:07:37 GMT

Woha, a lot of points here:

Regarding the processor: the processor type wont make a noticeable difference. 99% of all time you are using the PC the processor will be using less than 5% of its potential anyway.

Regarding fan noise: The V2 and V3 are very quiet indeed, since they have components designed for mobile use, i.e. lower power consumption and low heat production.

Regarding the batteries for the keyboard or mouse I recommend to use Duracell Ultra batteries - they always delivered significantly more porformance that means twice or thrice the lifetime of ordinary batteries in my wireless keyboards. If you dont want to rely on batteries at all, you can buy and use a USB keyboard and/or mouse.

Regarding the grahics chipset, the european versions deliver good game performance. Not as much as you can get from the RA, or as much as you can get when you are willing to build a system with a 500 to 700 euro graphics card, but enough to play and enjoy. I didnt know about a white V series in Japan and I dont know its specs, but when you see a shared memory solution its necessary to check what exactly it is. Classic shared memory solutions are weak in performance since the graphics chipset does not have wide and fast enough access to the main memory. Current shared memory solutions allow the grahpics chipset private use of one of the two memory channels, so it does not have this problem and can use the main memory as fast as it could use seperate video memory.

Regarding the optical drive: Slot-in drives look sleek, but they do have more problems than tray drives. A slot in drive has to grab the disc and move it. That sometimes results in scratches. Also the drives logically have problems with shaped or 8cm discs. From a maintainance point of view, I would take a tray to clip the disc on any day, even though I do see the attractiveness of slot-in drives - I used to buy the slot-in SCSI Pioneer drives back in the day ;-] The optical drive tray is on metal rails, its not a flimsy plastic affair.

Re: Buying a Type V

kee-lo_ — Fri, 27 May 2005 14:42:32 GMT

I prefer the tray anyday.
Much better than slot-in

Re: Buying a Type V

Kawasaki — Sun, 29 May 2005 14:49:50 GMT

Thanks Stephanius for the insight. Always wary of fallin prey to the next modelsyndrone does anyone know where news about forthcoming sony models are released? I don' particularly want to buy something if next month a newer version is due for release.

Re: Buying a Type V

kee-lo_ — Sun, 29 May 2005 18:43:08 GMT

The only thing you can do is keep checking SonyStyle