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VGN S-580 need advice please

post #1 of 16
11/1/05 at 12:50pm
Thread Starter 
I’m going to buy a Sony VGN-S580 shortly but I’d like to have some advice from you:

1. I’m going to travel a lot with this notebook do you think it’s a good pick for traveling (weight/dimensions)?

2. I use to fly Lufthansa from Chicago to Munich and aboard some of their newer airplanes they offer a PC power point with no adaptor necessary in business and first class seats only and WLAN access through the Boeing Connexion system everywhere in the main cabin. Is the wattage output enough to power up/charge batteries of a S-580 notebook.

3. I’m undecided between a Pentium M 2.0Ghz 760 or the newer 2.26Ghz 780. Will I feel a 260Mhz difference between these two CPUs? I’m afraid the 2.26Ghz is going to need more power drastically reducing battery life and generating a lot more heat.

4. I read that a lot of you got two or more batteries with you S-series. How do you charge them? I mean, do you physically plug the battery into the notebook and swap it with another one once it’s fully charged or did someone get a VAIO® Battery Charger (VGP-BC1)?

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...tiqueBatteries

THANKS A LOT!
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post #2 of 16
11/2/05 at 12:27pm
1) Yes, the Sony S series is incredible for travel. Most people buy this notebook because of its power, small size, great screen, and gaming capability. You will be very happy if you travel a lot and want a laptop for productivity applications, watching DVDs, and/or gaming.

2) The wattage output will be enough to power up the S580 batteries. The only question is whether "no adapter" means US 120V AC voltage, or standard 12V airplane / car voltage. You might need to buy an adapter, depending on the AC/DC voltage, just so you can plug a power adapter in. If you are travelling in many countries, I would recommend an iGo power adapter. It is basically 1 power brick that plugs into wall/car/plane, and can charge 2 devices (laptop/phone/pda/ipod) simultaneously. $150 US.

3) I would save the money and stick with the 2.0Ghz. There really isn't a difference between 2.0Ghz and 2.26Ghz, because other components in your laptop will be slowing it down. I would save the money, and invest in more RAM (at least another stick of 512MB RAM for about $130 or so), or a faster 7200rpm hard drive.

4) Personally, I physically plug a battery into the notebook. When that battery is charged, I swap the battery with a 2nd one, and put the fully charged battery in my laptop bag. When one laptop battery runs low on juice, I swap it out with the battery I keep in my laptop bag. That battery always has between 95% - 100% charge when I need it.
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post #3 of 16
11/2/05 at 12:44pm
Thread Starter 
THANKS a lot! I appreciate your help!
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post #4 of 16
11/2/05 at 5:24pm
Thread Starter 
I have another question: I own a lot of dvd(s) bought in Germany (area 2 if I remeber well) will I be able to play these movies in the dvd player or is it US Area 1 locked?
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post #5 of 16
11/2/05 at 7:31pm
you can change it 3 times max
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post #6 of 16
11/3/05 at 7:22am
Thread Starter 
No way to make the dvd drive region free?

Just another question:

do you guys think that upgrading to WIN VISTA from XP PRO is going to be easy once the new OS will be released? Is A 2Ghz S-580 with 1GB of ram enough to run the new OS smoothly?
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post #7 of 16
11/3/05 at 2:22pm
Well, nobody will know until Vista is actually released. Right now, it looks like 1GB is the recommended min to run Vista, plus a GPU. I have heard rumors that Vista might require 2GB to run well, but we won't know until it's actually relesed.
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post #8 of 16
11/8/05 at 3:43am
buy your ram from outside.. sony charges way too much for their ram.. for a single stick 512mb for 90 more is a total rip.. you can get a ddr2 notebook ram a brand name one for around 80-90 @ newegg.com
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post #9 of 16
11/8/05 at 5:06am
quick question, how to get in cmos in s480 or any sony notebook?
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post #10 of 16
11/14/05 at 2:26pm
do the S-580 still have the battery rattle problems?
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post #11 of 16
11/17/05 at 12:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EPluribusUnum
No way to make the dvd drive region free?
get "dvd region free".
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post #12 of 16
11/18/05 at 4:57pm
Thread Starter 
How can I get "dvd region free"?
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post #13 of 16
11/18/05 at 5:00pm
Thread Starter 
How can I get "dvd region free"? Do you mean getting dvds (movie titles) that come without the indication of a certain area?
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post #14 of 16
11/19/05 at 11:47am
hi mate, sorry for not rpelying sooner. Its software, called "dvd region free" take a look at http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm

its a great program, it sits between your hardware (dvd drive) and your software (powerdvd, windvd etc) and sorts out all the "regions" so that the movies just work, like the should!
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post #15 of 16
11/20/05 at 7:11am
Thread Starter 
Don't worry posts 12 and 13 were meant to be one... I messed up things a bit. THANKS for your advice that software looks really good, I'll try it as soon as I get my S580.
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post #16 of 16
11/20/05 at 9:07am
Does anyone know how fast is the 40GB HD in the S580?
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