Picked up a sony s460

Well I was able to get the last one at circuit city (not the demo) for $150 off. Not including the mail-in rebate of $100 I can still get.

Bad news:
-Battery does creak and feel loose.
-No lock for screen when closed (never noticed this on display as you cant close it.
-It does get hot under full load. As much as my xps2 so I'm not worried. Except I swear the hot air smells like solder(sp?) and since it blows to the right, that's where my hand is moving the mouse. That can get hot.
-Screen isn't completly dark. But it looks the same as very other screen I seen recently so it ain't too bad.

Good news:
-fan isn't as loud as people make seem.
-no dead pixels.

Now the bad news for me. No bluetooth. Never noticed that because the Bluetooth icon is in the Control Panel so I thought it came with it. And Sony added 2x256mb for memory.
Now about World of Warcraft... After adding in the extra ram (I upped it to 1gig from my xps2 for testing) I didn't see as much bad lagging. I updated to the newest drivers 77.72. With everything on high and on 1280x800, the came runs around 12-20fps. Just enough to play smoothly. Havn't tried mass combat, but something tells me that isn't gonna look nice.

I can probably live without bluetooth, but 12-20fps isn't gonna cut it. I could return this and get a s360. Compusa has one left... BUT I don't know if I can live without the 4xdvd burner. I do alot of burning of my business software. Now there are people out there saying NO OVERCLOCKING with the 9700 and they can hit average 30fps. That I would think is great... Augh head hurts. gonna think more.

hmm.. strange. I'm getting better framerates but I dont know why. I hit anywhere from 15-25fps. doesnt seem like much, but now its playable.
What powersave mode should I be on the vaio power manager when I play a game?

read the post on installing updated drivers. Sorry I cant remember the site. drivers2go.com or something... but its a few posts below.

And for those wanting to see benchmark scores, these are from 77.72 drivers non-overclocked.
3dmark01: 9223
3dmark03: 2604
3dmark05: 951
Aquamark: 21596

S460,1gig ram,6200 nvidia

love your xps2. Mine only has 1gig memory tho.
DOn't have bf2 so I cannot answer you on that thought.

what is the "normal" gforce6200 clock and core speed for performace? I thought I read somewhere in another post that Sony keeps theirs safe and could be OC safely.

Only problem I have is OC on a laptop isn't as safe as my desktop so I really wouldn't want to do that too high. I'll let you know what OCing will do in my other post.

whats your specs?

here are my numbers overclocked:
core: 342
mem: 647

3dmark01: 9900
3dmark03: 2865
3dmark05: 1013
auamark: 23563

btw, even with no overclocking, sony needs to move where teh airvent is. Everything blows to the right. Right whee your hand would be if using a mouse. VERY hot.
Oh, World of Warcraft is playable now. 17-37fps. average is around 20 but thats fine.

btw, 512mb will hinder you in playing games. I would go around 1gig if you can.

oh, anybody know how to check temp and fan speed? On a Sony? I know fangui for Dell. but whats out for sony?

thats the only reason why I went with teh s460. faster drive and burner.
btw, my cpu temp with or without overclock stays at 68deg cent. on full load.
btw, that program doesnt tell me gpu temp. too bad. would be nice to know if I'm pushing to hard. I get NO artifacting, and after running all the tests, its still stable.