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Three questions about the SZ series, and one about Sony in general.

post #1 of 14
3/17/06 at 5:14pm
Thread Starter 
Ok, I've been a Mac user for the last couple of decades, so excuse me in advance if these questions come off in such a way to make me seem like a complete douchecanoe.

Back story: I've been whinging incessantly about the lack of full-featured small notebooks (I'm sick of crippled processor and GPU options just because I don't want to carry around a lunch tray), until I read about the SZ series, so I'm going to go ahead and make the hop to the PC side of things. However, with my minimal PC-purchasing experience, I have a few questions..

1. When will Sony be offering custom builds on their website for these, just to play with options and such?

2. Is the RAM a standard module, something I can order from Crucial for $100 instead of through Sony for $500? I was planning on getting an SZ160 and bumping it to 2GB, most likely, unless the 2Ghz models are cheaper than I expect. EDIT: Is the SZ160 a single 1GB SODIMM, or does it use a pair of 512s?

3. I know Vista is still at least 6 months off, but is it expected to run well on these?

4. How is Sony's support? I don't expect anything to be wrong with the machine, but if something does, are they going to be evil about it? Furthermore, I actually live in Australia, but I'm in the US for uni. I plan to buy the machine before I move home in late summer/early autumn (northern hemisphere seasons, that is). Thus, I'm very curious about worldwide support issues.

Thanks in advance for your help.
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post #2 of 14
3/17/06 at 11:59pm
I can help you with a couple of your questions.

Try and order the 160 from an online vendor. That's where I got mine instead of waiting for Sony to get their act together. The 160 was stock anyway so you could not change the configuration.

The SZ 160 comes with 2 512 dimms (533). I bought a Mushkin 2 x 1GB pack for about $185.00. Sony has quite clearly gone............insane for what they charge for memory.

I believe Vista will run on this machine nicely, just not the 64 bit version.

I haven't had to deal with and I pray I will never have to deal with Sony support. My only experience was with their customer service people when trying to figure out when they were going to ship the customized 140 I ordered. I never got a straight answer, it was constantly delayed so I cancelled and bought this 160 through a dealer.
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post #3 of 14
3/18/06 at 7:41pm
Bossy, I apologize for the bad incident with customer support.

Spiceweasel, to answer some of your questions:

1) Personally, I really have no idea on this feature.

2) The SZ160 is in fact 2 modules, and yes you can buy memory upgrades from crucial.com. However any other type of maintenance or hardware upgrades will in fact void your warranty.

3) Again, not very sure.

3) The support is very well organized, if you have a problem and we come to the conclusion that your product needs to be worked on. We will fix your product and send it back to you within a week's time. All of the technicians you talk to on the phone are very professional and are also very able to fix any problem you have within the phone lines.
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post #4 of 14
3/19/06 at 1:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SonyTechnician
Bossy, I apologize for the bad incident with customer support.
Hey, I don't hold any of the customer service people responsible at all. I think the management really did not have its act together and left their support people to hang out to dry.

Appreciate the apology though....
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post #5 of 14
3/19/06 at 2:18pm
If we install our own memory, we void the warranty??

Is that right?
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post #6 of 14
3/19/06 at 3:21pm
why can't u spell vaio?
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post #7 of 14
3/19/06 at 10:53pm
I just sent my SZ140 back to Sony to get the LCD repaired, as it had some obvious shipping damage (white spots on the screen), on wednesday last week, and their site now says that it is repaired and ready to be sent back to me, if this is truly the case, then it has taken them less than a week to recieve the computer, fix it, and get it back to me. I suppose we shall see when I get it back (i hope they didn't reimage it...as i just got it set up the way i liked with uninstalling their bloatware).
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post #8 of 14
3/20/06 at 4:39pm
Mr.Lee- It could just be a typo. It wouldn't be the first time I mixed two joining letters. ie: hte(the), Viao(vaio), etc.
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post #9 of 14
3/23/06 at 8:53pm
Hi RussM,

Do you know if the Sony SZ-120p will support the 667mhz 1 gb memory at the 667mhz speed ? Crucial has that memory for the SZ, but someone on another forum said that the Sony SZ models for some reason won't run the memory any faster than 533, even though the hardware FSB is 667 ... any comments ?

Thanks!

Tony
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post #10 of 14
3/24/06 at 1:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tbonanno
Hi RussM,

Do you know if the Sony SZ-120p will support the 667mhz 1 gb memory at the 667mhz speed ? Crucial has that memory for the SZ, but someone on another forum said that the Sony SZ models for some reason won't run the memory any faster than 533, even though the hardware FSB is 667 ... any comments ?

Thanks!

Tony
Yes it does support 667 MHz. I have 1GB in my SZ and CPUID says that it is running at 667 MHz.
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post #11 of 14
3/24/06 at 2:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by duffy
Yes it does support 667 MHz. I have 1GB in my SZ and CPUID says that it is running at 667 MHz.

Thanks Duffy. That's good to know.
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post #12 of 14
3/30/06 at 7:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SonyTechnician
Bossy, I apologize for the bad incident with customer support.

2) The SZ160 is in fact 2 modules, and yes you can buy memory upgrades from crucial.com. However any other type of maintenance or hardware upgrades will in fact void your warranty.
I'm sorry, but this is just not true. Although manufacturers would love to have you belive that you HAVE to use THEIR part or void your warranty, there is a little thing called the "Magnuson - Moss Act" that very specifically states otherwise. According to M-M, the mfg has to PROVE that the part you used directly led to the failure you experienced. You DO NOT have to buy Sony memory to keep your warranty.
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post #13 of 14
3/30/06 at 11:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ksmith80220
I'm sorry, but this is just not true. Although manufacturers would love to have you belive that you HAVE to use THEIR part or void your warranty, there is a little thing called the "Magnuson - Moss Act" that very specifically states otherwise. According to M-M, the mfg has to PROVE that the part you used directly led to the failure you experienced. You DO NOT have to buy Sony memory to keep your warranty.

Ever see any of those stickers that say..."if removed warranty is voided"? they usually hold important parts of the computer together, lol
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post #14 of 14
3/31/06 at 3:34am
I think he meant more that if you wanted to swap out harddrive and such. I don't think the sony had a sticker to stop you from opening the case itself. I'm not at home so I cant check out my s360. But I'm pretty sure it doesn.t
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