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Sony S260/270 which to get??

post #1 of 17
10/30/04 at 8:20pm
Thread Starter 
Hi all thanks for such a great site on Laptops, I appreciate all of your thoughts and ideas.

With the Amazon rebate and the manufacture rebate, its hard to pass the S260 up (even better than the edu discount at Sonystyle, adding tax and shipping killed the discount)

The biggest issue for me is the video card between the 260 and 270.

I am not much of a gamer but I dont want the machine to be outdated too quickly. The laptop will be used more for School. Mostly note taking, paper writting and web surfing for research. I do like to play games here and there but in all honesty, it would be maybe 15-20% of the time.

Will the 32 meg video card work well for me? Will it last 2 years? I tried the Dell 700M and sent it back in favor of the sony. What do you all think? Any help would mean alot THANKS ALL!!
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post #2 of 17
10/31/04 at 1:28am
If you don't play games, neither will be outdated too soon.
The radeon 9700 64 MB is IMO is outdated already, so forget about the 9200. And forget about next year after PCI Express Video cards become mainstream.

There are many alternatives if you don't play games. IBM t42 has the 9600 for example.

I honestly feel that no one should buy the S series for an ati 9200. There are better priced alternatives.
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post #3 of 17
10/31/04 at 1:50am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the ideas SD. Who else would you recomend? I tried the 700m and it was too small. I like the size and weight of the sony. I also like the Xtrabrite and the widescreen. Any others with these features? The difference between the 260 and 270 right now is about $200 is the 9700 worth the $200 over the 9200?
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post #4 of 17
10/31/04 at 5:54pm
Lots of laptops have the xbrite-type screen now (compaq/hp, toshiba, dell, etc) but once you throw in "widescreen" as a requirement, your choices slim down considerably, especially at the more portable smaller screen sizes. Right now, the Sony S-series is one of the few that meets your requirements. I also tried the HP DV1000, which was decent but ultimately, I returned it because I felt the video card (or lack of a dedicated-memory one) hindered its performance. If you play games that require any decent amount of performance, you should spring for the 9700.

If you're not bent on the widescreen and xbrite, try look at the acer 3201....that's a nice looking machine and has some decent specs.
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post #5 of 17
11/2/04 at 1:51am
Thread Starter 
I really like the footprint size of the sony as well. Easier to fit on a small desk at school. The SOny X-Brite while reflective is less so than others. Its the whole package really. I just am trying to decide on two configurations. The prebuilt S260($1719 total after rebates) or a S270($1890 total shipped and tax included) with a 40 gig drive (instead of a 60) and a 1.6 processor (instead of a 1.7) in favor of the 9700 GPU....the S270 would be about $175 more expensive. Any other thoughts? Thanks
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post #6 of 17
11/2/04 at 2:16am
i am seriously thinking about selling my powerbook and getting an s270. But I HATE sony like most people hate microsoft. This is the style of machine i have been loking for, but it's made by a monopolistic shit company with crap support. I have also had bad luck with sony quality control, although admittedly on the typically lower end stuff..

How is your 270 holding up, how long have you had it, how is the build quality, and battery life?

Cheers.
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post #7 of 17
11/2/04 at 2:32am


I just ordered a s170 from mwave.com it comes with a 1.5 (ill slap in a 2.0 after xmas), 512 meg o' ram,a 60gig hd (will be upgraded the same time as the cpu) the 9700 and a copy of xppro for $1893.73 (overnight shipping, no tax )

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post #8 of 17
11/2/04 at 2:57am
I just checked out that site and it comes with the 9200, not the 9700.
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post #9 of 17
11/2/04 at 3:02am
Thread Starter 
Yea, the S260 with a 1.7 and the 9200 $1720 from Amazon....after rebates.
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post #10 of 17
11/2/04 at 3:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmcooper24
I just checked out that site and it comes with the 9200, not the 9700.
If your reply was refering to me, you checked the wrong model.There are 14 retailer models with the the 1.5A , only 2 of them have the 9700. models VGN-S170B14 (combo drive) and VGN-S170P16 (dvd-rw). http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/B2B/downloads/S170_skus.htm

Quote:
Originally Posted by mwave.com
Features:


Processor Type & Speed - Intel Pentium M 715 1.5GHz
Processor Bus Speed - 400MHz FSB
Processor Cache - 2MB L2
Chipset - Intel 855PM
System Memory (Standard) - 512MB DDR SDRAM
System Memory (Expandable) - 1GB DDR SDRAM
Memory Speed - 333MHz DDR333/PC2700
Memory Slots
- 2 Populated
- 0 Free
Hard Drive - 60GB IDE 4200 rpm
Optical Drive - CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive Integrated
Optical Drive Speeds - 24x 10x 24x CD-RW/8x DVD-ROM
Removable Media Drives - Sony 3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive USB External Optional
Modem - V.90 56Kbps Integrated Fax Modem
Network
- Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g Integrated
- Fast Ethernet 10/100Mbps
Display Screen - 13.3" WXGA With XBRITE technology
Graphics - ATi Mobility Radeon 9700 64MB VRAM
Resolution - 1280 x 800 Internal Support
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post #11 of 17
11/2/04 at 3:52am
Thread Starter 
Still have the same dillema, why not spend $200 less and get the S260? Same machine except the 9200 AND it already has the 1.7ghz in it.
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post #12 of 17
11/2/04 at 4:34am
Alt:
I was replying to you, but I didn't realize there were multiple models on that site. Good to know.

Is the 170 the exact same as the 270? Does it supposedly have more noise issues?

Because there's a 170 model on mwave with a DVD-R and a 9700 which I can't even get on sonystyle with the 270, and it's cheaper.
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post #13 of 17
11/2/04 at 5:19am
The only differance between the s1xx and the s2xx is that the s1 had a dvd-rw option.The s2 had an dvd+-rw option(if I remember correctly), but that was taken away for some strange reason.
I hear the fan is the same, but it has a new charger.
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post #14 of 17
11/2/04 at 5:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by testpilotb
Still have the same dillema, why not spend $200 less and get the S260? Same machine except the 9200 AND it already has the 1.7ghz in it.
That all depends on if you have a use for a more capable graphics solution.If you dont do any 3d work and/or dont care to play any of the latest/future games save the $200. But be aware that the GPU is the only part that you can't upgrade.Also be sure you are getting Xbrite with your 9200, as most of the upgrade price is for the screen, not the vid card.
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post #15 of 17
11/2/04 at 12:50pm
Thread Starter 
Yes, thats my exact delema, I am not much of a gamer, but dont understand that the video is the only part not upgrageable. The 260 does have the Xbrite just has the 9200. There are 2 rebates that make the price very attractive. Search for VGN-S260 on Amazon.com
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post #16 of 17
11/2/04 at 3:09pm
You might also want to consider the resale value. You would get more for a radeon 9700 notebook if you sell it in the future. IT makes it a lot easier to upgrade in the future if you could get some money from an old laptop.
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post #17 of 17
11/3/04 at 4:18am
Thread Starter 
I ended up getting the S260 from Amazon. Ended up at about $1650 after rebates,sales and markdowns. Thats almost $400 off the S270 from Sony. For my needs the ATI9700 GPU wasnt worth the difference. Again I am not a gamer and wouldnt see a huge difference in resale value. Again not enough to justify the $400. S260 also had a bigger drive and faster processor Thanks for all your ideas and thoughts!
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