When I got my TR2 you couldn’t really add anything to the notebook aside from software. With the S, the variety of upgrades available is fantastic and you can really build one to suit your needs. So what do you have in your S?
Mine-
Screen: Went with the XBRITE after experiencing it firsthand on my TR. Wonderful upgrade, and the backlight is very bright and white. I’m glad they made this option avaiable, the lack of it is one of the reasons I went with a TR over a Z1.
Graphics: Got the Radeon 9700 for some gaming and snappier performance. I turned off some of the eye candy on my TR because of the integrated graphics, but leave them running on the S.
CPU: 1.7GHz Pentium-M. Good price/performance ratio, the 1.8 and 2.0 chips are way too expensive. The 2MB L2 cache is nice as well, and I wanted the slower speed to save on battery life and lower heat output.
Wireless LAN/Bluetooth: Got both, nice to have it integrated without hacking or importing.
RAM: 512MB because Sony’s memory prices are obscene. Performance is very good, but I’ll probably upgrade to 1GB at some point.
HDD: Got the 40GB unit, but upgraded to a 60GB Hitachi 7K60 7200 RPM unit. There’s a noticeable performance increase, but battery life has been affected a little bit. (I lose around 10 minutes per charge)
Optical drive: Just a DVD/CD-RW, I don’t burn enough DVDs to justify the extra cost and already have a Sony DL burner.
About $2200 plus tax and expedited shipping (damn my impatience). I spent about the same for my TR2 in October 2003, and this machine is far more capable (but less portable). Hopefully Sony will incorporate some nice things from the S into the next TR.
1.7GHz Pentium M - like what Cellery said. It was the best price/performance chip that they were offering. I even considered going down to 1.5GHz to save a few dollars but decided to “treat” myself.
512MB (1 x 512MB) - same reason. I ended up buying the extra ram from Kingston and it works like a charm. In fact, it uses the same actual memory chips from Infineon. So, now I have 1GB.
XBrite Display - Well, you basically can’t NOT get XBrite. Everyone and there mom is now trying to copy XBrite because it is that good.
Radeon 9700 64MB - I knew that I did occasionally want to play games (DX9 ones) on my S so it was a no brainer. Also, I have a few 3D apps that need the extra speed. I still think I would have got it simply because it has 64MB over the 32MB of the 9200.
80GB 5400RPM hard drive - I thought about putting in a 7200RPM drive but the 60GB size seemed like a limitation for me so I went with a 5400RPM factory installed 80GB drive. I could have saved money here but since they had it for just a little more and they were saving me the convenience of tearing open my S I decided to get it. The space is really really nice and the performance is good. I suspect that the battery hit is very marginal compared to that of the 7200RPM model.
802.11g/Bluetooth - Well, this is pretty obvious if you know me. I need both. I am thinking about moving over the Netegriti card so I can add 802.11a abilities but I won’t do it just yet.
DVD-RW - I do occasionally need to burn DVDs on the road for myself and some of my clients so it’s nice to be able to do it on the spot. Yeah, it’s only 2x but typically I’m not burning anything huge. For big stuff I have an external 4x and 8x unit that I can use.
Well being in the UK, i only had two choices really, so i went for the top one, the S1XP.. which is exactly the same specs as gr00vy’s spec, except with a 60gb 4200rpm drive.
I’ve since added another stick of ram, and done the 7200rpm hdd upgrade.. Running perfectly, and even smoother since i reformatted with a slip streamed winxp sp2 install.
Not missing the 802.11a of the netegriti at the moment, but i may have to get one of those rumoured tri mode intel mini-pci cards when they are available, just for completeness sakes.
There’s always some amount of risk involved. You just have to remember to be very careful and to take your time. The ribbons are fairly sturdy but if you jam them in then it’s possible to damage them and the contacts.
As I’m in the Uk, my options were limited also - I went for the S1 XP as described above, but have upped the ram to 1gb and am seriously considering a hard drive upgrade.
Anyone else’s S series have quite dark edges on the screens, especially in the bottom left and right corners? Seems to me that the screen isn’t quite as bright as some other machines I’ve used….
i needed another computer fast so i just bought the s150 in circuit city didnt even realize at the time i could configure one at sonystyle but with rebates and amex price adjustments final price was $1750
100GB is nice. I “only” have 80GB….haha…but I that notice most people’s eye bulge out when I tell them I have 80GB in my notebook. I can only imagine what people will do when you tell them you have 100GB.
If we’re lucky, Intel will release their 802.11a/b/g chipset by the end of the year and early next year we’ll be able to get it for cheap and throw it in our Type S (and TRs and Ts). Then, we’ll have all of our wireless needs covered….err….until 802.11n comes out.
100GB is nice. I “only” have 80GB….haha…but I that notice most people’s eye bulge out when I tell them I have 80GB in my notebook. I can only imagine what people will do when you tell them you have 100GB.
If we’re lucky, Intel will release their 802.11a/b/g chipset by the end of the year and early next year we’ll be able to get it for cheap and throw it in our Type S (and TRs and Ts). Then, we’ll have all of our wireless needs covered….err….until 802.11n comes out.
Thanks, it’s tough (and expensive) staying on the cutting edge of technology. I wonder if the Netegriti triband upgrade will work on the S, I’m not too squeamish about opening it up.
Took the plunge to replace my TR2AP, since it was not adequate to handle the demands of SQL and Crystal Reports.
Ordered the S270, 2Ghz, 256MB Ram, 40 GB HDD, Radeon 9700, BT, DVD+-RW, BP3S from Sony. Add a 7,200 RPM Hitachi HDD and 1GB Ram from Kingston and I should have a screaming fast machine. Apparently I could have it by the end of this week, although I am not convinced.
I am planning to use Nlite to build a custom Windows XP Pro installation disk so that I load only what is absolutely necessary. A smaller footprint for Windows XP should keep my registry only as big as is absolutely necessary.
[quote author=“vaioguy”]Took the plunge to replace my TR2AP, since it was not adequate to handle the demands of SQL and Crystal Reports.
Ordered the S270, 2Ghz, 256MB Ram, 40 GB HDD, Radeon 9700, BT, DVD+-RW, BP3S from Sony. Add a 7,200 RPM Hitachi HDD and 1GB Ram from Kingston and I should have a screaming fast machine. Apparently I could have it by the end of this week, although I am not convinced.
I am planning to use Nlite to build a custom Windows XP Pro installation disk so that I load only what is absolutely necessary. A smaller footprint for Windows XP should keep my registry only as big as is absolutely necessary.
Any other suggestions to improve performance?
I hope you enjoy you type “S.” There very nice machines…..Too bad the TR couldn’t handle you needs. :(
100GB is nice. I “only” have 80GB….haha…but I that notice most people’s eye bulge out when I tell them I have 80GB in my notebook. I can only imagine what people will do when you tell them you have 100GB.
If we’re lucky, Intel will release their 802.11a/b/g chipset by the end of the year and early next year we’ll be able to get it for cheap and throw it in our Type S (and TRs and Ts). Then, we’ll have all of our wireless needs covered….err….until 802.11n comes out.
Thanks, it’s tough (and expensive) staying on the cutting edge of technology. I wonder if the Netegriti triband upgrade will work on the S, I’m not too squeamish about opening it up.
The netegriti should work fine although I’ll probably wait for the new Intel one…unless I can find a more updated Atheros card.
I wonder if the Netegriti triband upgrade will work on the S, I’m not too squeamish about opening it up.
