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sony vaio bx 14.1" now with ati x700

post #1 of 9
12/17/05 at 6:27pm
Thread Starter 
Not sure if its already been mentioned, but on the business side of sony they have finally updated the sony vaio bx series. You can now get the ati x700 with 256 hypermemory in a 14.1" bx.


Now i dont know which to choose. A Vaio s560 from a store, or a bx with x700? Too many choices! What would the major problems with the bx be?

Would it be safe to say this is now the best combination of power / small size you can get on the market today?
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post #2 of 9
12/17/05 at 11:37pm
I had the pleasure of choosing between a similar situation at Micro Center today. They had the Sony S560F/P and the new Acer 1640 series with an x700. I brought along Halo, UT2004, and SW:KOTOR today and tested on each system. Both were not able to really be playable at all with max details or high resolutions (1280x800). But, at a compromise of medium details @ 1024x768, they were pretty even with each other as far as performance and responsiveness goes. I ended up going with the sony because the screen was light years ahead of what the acer had.
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post #3 of 9
12/18/05 at 12:50pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks a lot for the reply! I am edging towards the s560 myself too,the laptop is just the right size and weight to carry around anywhere and a fairly decent graphics performance to boot. Thinking og picking one up in the week :-) cant wait!
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post #4 of 9
12/18/05 at 3:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by win32asmguy
I had the pleasure of choosing between a similar situation at Micro Center today. They had the Sony S560F/P and the new Acer 1640 series with an x700. I brought along Halo, UT2004, and SW:KOTOR today and tested on each system. Both were not able to really be playable at all with max details or high resolutions (1280x800). But, at a compromise of medium details @ 1024x768, they were pretty even with each other as far as performance and responsiveness goes. I ended up going with the sony because the screen was light years ahead of what the acer had.
I play UT2004 with all of the settings at "high" and shadows set to "blob" with the screen at 1280x800 32 bit and on indor maps I'm seeing tripple digit frame rates, falling to the 70-80s when fighting gets heavy. On outdoor maps frame rates can fall into the 40s during heavy fighting, but there is no lag. Odd that you felt the need to drop down to 1024x768. I own an S560 with a single 512MB DIMM -I'm expecting my performance to go up when I get more than one DIMM in the box...
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post #5 of 9
12/18/05 at 10:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalantech
I play UT2004 with all of the settings at "high" and shadows set to "blob" with the screen at 1280x800 32 bit and on indor maps I'm seeing tripple digit frame rates, falling to the 70-80s when fighting gets heavy. On outdoor maps frame rates can fall into the 40s during heavy fighting, but there is no lag. Odd that you felt the need to drop down to 1024x768. I own an S560 with a single 512MB DIMM -I'm expecting my performance to go up when I get more than one DIMM in the box...
Very interesting. I've spent some time today playing UT2004 on the S560P I bought, and you seem to be getting better performance than I am. At High/Medium details @ 1024x768, framerate averages at 60-70 and drops to no more than 40 during my experimentations on outdoor maps. Is this with an overclock on the GPU possibly? I've considered trying. People with desktop 6200TC's have been able to get up to 500mhz, so 450mhz might be possible on this one.

I've got mine going with an extra 1GB stick, Kingston brand. Cpu-z reports dual channel mode is active, at PC4200 CAS4 speeds.

If TES:Oblivion will be able to run on the S560 like UT2004 will then it will be even better! I got an excellent deal on the machine. It just so happened that CompUSA had a $200 Instant rebate going on top of the Sony $100 one yesterday when I was in there to return a BFG 7800GT that had been artifacting out of the box. It felt kind of eerie to be walking out of the store with a high end sony after only paying $1330..
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post #6 of 9
12/19/05 at 8:02pm
Well, back on topic!

Quote:
Originally Posted by holr
Would it be safe to say this is now the best combination of power / small size you can get on the market today?
Yes, I believe it must be! I don't think any other maufacturer offers a 14" notebook with a full X700. Acer has a couple of models with the 64mb X700, but with the BX we are talking about the real deal!

If anyone has any firsthand experience with the 14" x700 BX configuration, please post it here!

This is looking very tempting. I'd prefer widescreen, but with a package like this I might be willing to compromise...!
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post #7 of 9
12/20/05 at 1:23am
I will say this... My Sony S-series was out of commission for about 2 weeks. I took a look at a bunch of laptops with x700s, which were all 15.4" screens. I settled and tried an Acer Ferrari 4005 for about two weeks. Beautiful laptop, but I was REALLY unhappy with it. It was just too large and heavy to carry around. 13.3", 4.2lbs for me is the perfect size.
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post #8 of 9
12/20/05 at 1:02pm
i wish it was 14in widescreen omg it would hit the bill for my notebook
any1 know of anything with x700 GPU about the same size as the BX
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post #9 of 9
12/20/05 at 2:46pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mhx
i wish it was 14in widescreen omg it would hit the bill for my notebook
any1 know of anything with x700 GPU about the same size as the BX
Everything else is bigger. The BX is the smallest with the x700. I suppose you could consider its counterpart the toshiba tecra m3 with the nvidia 6600te, if an nvidia is ok.
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