Sony Vaio Core 2 Duo 15.4'' Notebook w/ Blu-Ray and HDMI

#1
#2

Price comparator post ! - Is this a good deal ? Let’s see ! :slight_smile:

Refurbished Sony Vaio Core 2 Duo 15.4" Notebook w/ Blu-Ray & HDMI, for $999.99 + $5 shipping
Product: 1x Sony VGN-FZ260E/B 2GB DDR2 250gb Blu-Ray w/ HDMI DVD±RW DL 15.4” LCD

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http://lucy.cykian.net/wts/pic0.pnghttp://lucy.cykian.net/wts/pic1.png

#3

Wow, what an awesome laptop. It pisses me off that I paid 100 more for my P.O.S.

#4

Carp… Resolution sucks for something with a blu-ray drive. Really slow hard drive.

#5

refurb?

would buy this instead.

http://officedepot.shoplocal.com/officedepot/default.aspx?action=detail&flashbrowse=y&storeid=2434884&rapid=566129&pagenumber=1&listingid=-2091305238&ref=%2Fofficedepot%2Fdefault.aspx%3Faction%3Dbrowsepageflash%26storeid%3D2434884%26pagenumber%3D1%26rapid%3D566129%26prvid%3DOfficeDepot-080720

#6

STOP. I just noticed the specs.

This GPU is one of nvidia’s defective mobile chips! It produces too much heat and will likely reduce the life (and the battery life) of the laptop! DO NOT BUY.

#7

would buy this brand new Dell for $754 instead
better everything except no blu-ray drive

#8

And… with a sure-fire 90 day warranty…

#9

conhopper… im not sure your post even validates a response, but my m1330 gets 5+ hours of battery life, great FPS in quite a few games, and has the “defective” nvidia 8300m

not ALL the chips are defective, just a fair bit of them. most of those dont get into the laptops too, they are caught before being shipped out. the defective chips just lead to increased manufacturing costs. these laptops are safe to buy.

#10

Another downfall is they only put a 4200 RPM HDD in it… I guess it won’t really bother you if all you do is watch Blu-Ray’s on it, otherwise, I’d look at getting a new HDD.

#11

And now for the obligatory question: (How well) Does it work with Linux?

#12

Ratings on Vaios range from 3.5 to 5 stars on Amazon…
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Sony+Vaio+Core+2+Duo&x=0&y=0

and 4.0 to 5 stars on Buzzillions…
http://www.buzzillions.com/x/s?Ntt=Sony+Vaio+Core+2+Duo&N=0&D=x&x=0&y=0

#13

“validates” isn’t the word you’re looking for. Also, that’s particularly offensive. If you don’t feel my post deserves a reply, then don’t. Seriously, that line was not necessary whatsoever.

Anyway, the problem is that the fix nvidia issued forces the laptop fan to spin more often and faster than usual. This results in a number of things:
[list=1][]The life of the fan decreases
[]battery life decreases due to the fan being used more often
[]GPU life decreases due to more exposure to higher temperatures
[]The life of the laptop itself is at risk, especially when the fan gunks up faster due to being spun more often.[/list]

Avoid all 8 series mobile nvidia GPUs. Stick to the latest two (the 9 series and the series after it)

#14

Good deal already- Blu-Ray just sweetens it. It’s a little too big for my tastes though…
I just bought a 12.1" HP tablet (tx2500z) and I love it. It’ll be great to carry from class to class in college.

#15

Didn’t the Vaios have a problem with motherboards cracking? Would this refurb be one of those with a replaced board or would we just have to cross our fingers and hope?

Also with a potentially garbage nvidia gpu chipset in it… not worth the gamble at the pricetag.

Thanks anyway Woot!

#16

lawl, I was looking at this woot, thinking to myself, “say, that laptop looks strikingly similar to the one I’m on right now!” sure enough, upon finding Iout what model it was, it’s exactly the same one.

Well, I got mine from Fry’s a few months ago on a special for the same exact price… only, I got mine brand new… so I guess that means I got a good deal on it… It did have some issues at first. For some reason, it had problems connecting to wireless networks (it’d connect, but it’d be uber slow). And it’d freeze up for whatever reason.

Then I did a system restore on it, which basically brings the thing back to default factory settings… Lo and behold, network issues disappeared, it didn’t freeze anymore, and it was (and still is) running AWESOME. Virtually all my previous issues were resolved. I guess someone who was testing my unit did something inadvertently and tweaked it somehow… I used to wanna throw this laptop out the window of a moving vehicle, but since the system restore it’s been running FLAWLESSLY. Based on the current status of my VGN-FZ260E/B, I definitely recommend it. Blu-Ray is a great feature and the display is super crisp as well.

Oh, and one more thing… for anyone wondering how easy it is to access the RAM sticks, it’s super easy. Sony used to have a bad rep for making their laptops almost impossible to upgrade… I can’t remember what the specs are on this board, but I DO know that it’s super easy to get to the RAM… I’ve done it.

#17

Bad deal
slow HD (4200 rpm)
Resolution isn’t even HD for the blu ray, making it a glorified blue ray player that you have to hook up to an hd screen
apparently defective chipset too?
oh and its refrubbed

#18

i agree, i have the 8400 in the laptop im on now, and its fine. and the battery life is normal.

#19

How cute! Anyone have a full size image of that kitten picture for a wallpaper? My wife loves it!

#20

Woot, Please give your loyal customer base access to the kitteh wallpaper. Now that I’ll soon be using my Oppo instead of my computer to play DVD’s, I’ll be seeing a lot more of my desktop background.

Thanks.