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Dell Vs Sony VAIO

post #1 of 8
8/8/08 at 5:43am
Thread Starter 
Hello Everyone,

As you can see I need to purchase a laptop and I am kinda confused which one to buy.

My sister needs a laptop as she will be going to purse a course in journalism. She says she needs a laptop with decent processing power and good graphics card so that she can work on a bit of animation or video editing etc.

Now so far my family has been using DELL laptops and we are happy. But right now I have come across sony vaio laptop and now I am confused which one to buy.

Budget max ($1400) and came across Dell XPS 1530 which costs $1400 approx. Sony VAIO VGN-FZ35GN also has a similar price. Though dell has a bit more power thant vaio but what do you guys recommend??

The reason I put VAIO in the picture was it is a bit pretty and she was kinda inclined towards that machine. She also need a screen size of around 15" so cant go for 14" or lower.

Actually a laptop with a lower price would also do the job but I need a machine with a decent graphics card so that she can do video edition and other stuff. It because of this the price has gone up.

Moreover the laptop shouldnt be too heavy because she might take it to her classes. I live in Asia and thus the prices of machines here is a bit higher than the US.

I don't have any specific spects in mind: I mean it should at least have 2 GB RAM, 128 MB (at least) video memory and Intel core 2 duo.. rest is flexible.

Kinda confused as to go with xps or vaio or any other model in dell. Any advice guys ??

Thanks,

Cheers,
JG
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post #2 of 8
8/8/08 at 5:40pm
For editing video from a camcorder to author your own DVDs really isn't anything special, an integrated GPU will handle that just fine. Now RENDERING (as in making 3D Models on your system) or CAD work can benefit from a higher end video card.

I would also look into the service offerings you'd get with each system. Here in the states Sony service and support rather sucks. Most of my Sony customers have said it takes an act of congress to get them to dispatch an on-site technician, whereas with Dell they'll send me onsite for when they can't figure out exactly what the customer's issue is.
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post #3 of 8
8/8/08 at 10:37pm
No to the dell because it has an 8600m which is defective as of recent. And the dell is also way more power than your sister would need (a 128 gb SSD is way expensive and way unneeded). Your should be looking for a laptop that costs ~$800-$900 with 2.0 ghz core2, 2 gb ram, 250 gb hdd, and pretty much any gfx card will do for basic video editing.
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post #4 of 8
8/9/08 at 3:28am
The 84xx and the 86xx gpus are being marked as "defective"; but i personally have yet to come across any comps that get hit - dell and sony and others alike.

Sony is cool, i own 2. But Dell can trump it on the support side, as MrEvil mentioned above.

cheers ...
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post #5 of 8
8/9/08 at 3:31am
IMO, Sony is like the Mac's of Windows. They look clean and crisp, but come with a big price tag. That's my "general" sony reaction if someone were to ask me in CC or BestBuy

Anyways, I've heard a lot of stuff with these defective gpus. Some are saying it's only certain batches made months ago, others are saying it's a complete design flaw. The problem is nVidia isn't coming clean about it so damage can be assessed.
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post #6 of 8
8/9/08 at 3:46am
True, as i happen to own both sony and mac. And true again about the "damages" accessing from nvidia, as it happens that my sony comes with this "defective" gpu.

But also true, is that sony and mac are getting very competitive in pricing nowadays.

cheers ...
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post #7 of 8
8/10/08 at 1:57am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the input guys. I think I will stick to Dell. It is a safer bet and I can customize it to suit my needs. Moreover for the price dell offers more power (for e.g. 1 gb ram eXtra, and better video card) so why not go for it. I just hope the machine is not too heavy.
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post #8 of 8
8/10/08 at 5:20am
You can usually find how much it weighs either on their website or through google ("model + lbs"). But you have to know what is "heavy" for it to be useful. I found my hp to be fairly heavy and it turns out it weights around 6 lbs.
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