RE: sony vaio laptops
I have a clone laptop that is 1/4 pound heavier than sony's top-of-the line,
yet about 150Mhz faster, 8gb more harddrive space and 64mb more memory, and
a bigger screen. Oh yes, it was $500 less than the best sony could offer.
(and I got it with a 8x DVD drive too.)
I recommend checking out M-Tech at www.discountpcsales.com. Look at their
MTech20U. My laptop is a p3-750, 320mb memory, 13.3" tft, 20gb drive,
10/100, 56k, 8mb ATI Mobility video, 8x dvd. This was $2485 with shipping
inc. Now faster processors are available.
These guys are resellers for this particular laptop. It is made by American
sunrex: www.usasunrex.com and Arm computers: www.armcomputer.com. The model
numbers are slightly different. Look for N20U or 200U, etc. It's also sold
by Sceptre, eportables.com and a few others.
You could buy it from them, but for much more. Get it from Mtech (I don't
get any kickbacks). Arm Computer has all of their laptops linux certified,
but it's nearly identical to the sunrex one.
I haven't had much difficulty with this laptop. It worked well with x3.3.6
at 1024. It works wonderfully with X4, allowing me to switch between 1024,
640x480, 640x400, and 800x600, without specifying *ANY* modeline settings.
It autoconfigured!
Nic works great. I haven't needed to use the modem, as I'm one of the lucky
few who have fast internet at school, home and work.
Sound was a little hoaky. It has a cs4281, which the kernel module doesn't
quite work with. However I'm running alsa, and it's just fine. I think
part of the problem here is that it's so new.
I also haven't needed to use the pcmcia socket, as it has a built in modem
and nic.
Did I mention it has a 20gb harddrive? How about that it weighs 4 pounds
with the battery. APM reports I have 3:20 on a full charge, but I haven't
explicitly timed it.
Needless to say, I can't say enough about this laptop. Super light weight,
with a wonderfully large screen! I did get the ultrabase in the picture
(for a little extra), but I haven't needed to use it. I think it might be
broken, but everything has a 1 year warranty.
Oh yes, and you can get the laptop WITHOUT windows!
If you(anyone) has questions, feel free to ask.
Cory
-----Original Message-----
From: Jordan Evatt
To: debian-laptop
Sent: 11/25/00 6:05 PM
Subject: sony vaio laptops
Hi guys. I've about had it with my Inspiron 3200 laptop; it's fixing to
hit
the dust. Falling apart, literally. I'm looking into getting a new
laptop
before I go to college, if I can raise the funds before that time comes
(next year). I've lately been interested in Sony's line of VAIO laptops.
Reason being, when I go to college, I want something that's extremely
portable - something that I can carry around campus easily in a
backpack,
because I hate laptop cases. I need something that's powerful enough for
what I want it to do - in reality, the basics, and I like to play games
like
Quake3 and Unreal as well.
When I saw the newer Vaio's, the Superslim Pro models, I was intrigued,
and
looked into them. I played around on sony's website for awhile with the
configuration stuff, and liked what I saw. They're not *that* expensive
for
a laptop - around $3500 for almost top configuration, which is what I'll
probably be getting. My Inspiron was $3400, and the best of the best
component configurations at the time. That was over two years ago though
:).
Anyway, I obviously want to make sure the Vaios have good video graphics
capabilities and excellent linux support for all that is included with
them.
The only personal drawbacks I have against the Vaio's (the superslim pro
model) is the fact that they don't have drive bays for dvd-rom/floppy
drive,
and the fact that it only has a 12.1" screen. Mine has a 13.3" screen,
good
grief. Does anyone have any good success stories installing/using linux
(debian specifically) on the Vaio's? Thanks. Oh, I'm on the list, so no
need
to reply to me directly.
- webfreak
webfreak@themes.org
http://e.themes.org php developer
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