Sony Vaio Laptop - 15/Jan/08
I feel sad that I’ve finally replaced my old PC which my dad gave me as a 21st birthday present. It was just too sluggish, even for browsing the web.
I bought a widescreen Sony Vaio. It’s interesting to compare the specs because it shows how much technology has advanced in the last 7 years:
| Mesh (Elite P4) | Sony (VGN-AR51E) | |
|---|---|---|
| Date | April 2001 | Jan 2008 |
| Price | £1750 | £700 |
| Size | Desktop Tower - 20kg | Widescreen laptop - 3.9kg |
| CPU | Intel 1.4GHz Pentium 4 | Intel 2GHz Core2 Duo T7250 |
| RAM | 128MB (PC800 RAMBUS RDRAM) | 2GB (DDR2 SDRAM) |
| Hard Disk | 20GB 7200rpm | 200GB 4200rpm |
| Video Card | 32MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX200 | 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT |
| Optical Drive | 16 speed DVD ROM | 24 speed DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM |
| Screen | 21″ CRT | 17″ LCD |
| Other | Zip drive, floppy drive | Card reader, Wi-Fi a/b/g, built-in webcam |
Kix also bought a Sony. She chose one quite a lot smaller and lighter so it wouldn’t be uncomfortable on her lap (VGN-FZ21S). It only weights 2.8Kg’s but she has a smaller screen (15.4″ instead of 17″). Hers has a Blu-ray drive, bluetooth, Wireless N, faster HDD, extra 0.2GHz CPU and a extra 128MB of Video memory.
Old PC:
New Laptop:
I was very impressed at how well Ubuntu 7.10 runs on the laptop. The webcam, memory card reader, headphone jack and hibernation doesn’t work but the wireless, battery indicator and everything else works fine.