Who Wants To Help Thadsman Find A Laptop?

[ThaDSman]

I am trying to get some help deciding if I should by this laptop or if I can find a better deal.
the Laptop is a Sony Vaio VGN-AR570. First of all sexiest machine I have ever seen, Black and chrome edges, 17" 1080P screen.
Its max res is 1920xsomething I forgot,hdmi out and svideo out(And it prolly has a blu-ray drive, not too sure).2GB ram, and a 180GB HDD, And it has a intel Dual core processor (can you change laptop proccessors?) And it comes with Windows Vista (Which I am definately taking off)

Its used, I'm getting it from a pawnshop and the guy wants $650 USD. Is that a decent price? I'm broke and will have to put it on layaway. Would I be able to upgrade the proccessor?(to an i7 or something maybe?) Or should I try to make him bring it down? Is this a good machine to get? Can I get a better deal elsewhere?

Edit:I spelled my name wrong in the topic? :0

 

[kingoddball]

You can change some laptop processors (I know you can change the Pentium M's).

Depends if the pins are the same, power is the same, voltage... Many variables and probably not wise to try and change a Core Duo/Core 2 with an I3/5/7. If it's possible.

You might be better off looking at a brand new lappy with an I? in it. Should be under $1000, maybe layby that?

Generally new ones are:

300++GB hdd
4GB ram
and whatever chip (auto overclock).
In australia some are toward the $1k price.. USA should be alot cheaper.

 

[fischju2000]

$650? Specs from what I've found:
Intel Core2 Duo Processor T7500 2.2GHz
2GB PC2-5300 (1GB x 2)
320GB (160GB x 2) SATA Hard Disk Drive
SuperMulti (DVD+-R Double layer / DVD+-RW Drive
GE Force 8600 GT Video card

Compared to current $650 laptops, I'd say it's a good price. Make sure to boot it up and see if the OS is genuine, make check temps with Coretemp and linepack on a USB drive, see if dust is clogging vents. If they are completely clogged you'll have to disassemble to properly blow them out with compressed air, blowing into them might cause the dust to seize the fans. Even if you are taking off Vista, create backups of the drivers first.

$100 more and you can get a i5 laptop that blows it out of the water though. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115733

 

[Mr B]

The Sony is limited to it's generation of CPU's so a "iX" something just wont do it. And the Newegg lappy, even tho faster, has a smaller screen. Priorities?
I would go with the Sony, but not at that price. I don't know what the market indicates "over there" but over here it's worth $500-550. Providing that it is in full working condition, looks like used, but not abused, and that all the software is included.
B!

 

[SNESFAN]

$100+ cheaper, just as good, if not better
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157166

EDIT: gpu is not as good

Nvidia 8600M vs Intell 4500MHD

GPU performance
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-4500MHD-GMA-X4500MHD.9883.0.html

 

[ThaDSman]

Thank you for your quick replies, I didn't know about those applications for the fan, Is there one for the processor to test its max speed, Because the guy said it was a 1.8ghz processor but he. wasnt too sure and it can easily be about 2.2ghz. as the specs sheet advertises. Also the main reason for getting this laptop is that its somewhat powerful but mainly because its aesthetically pleasing. Did I mention this was the sexiest looking laptop I have ever seen? I was hoping I could get some reccomendations on laptops of that type.

Sorry I couldn't post pictures and quote people but my internet is down and I'm forced to use Skyfire on my winmo phone...

 

[Ravnos]

I recently bought an Acer Timeline with a 1.4GHz Core2Duo and I'm fairly happy with it. I don't understand going crazy with laptop specs, usually that means the battery life sucks and it's heavy. I guess that Sony is not a bad price but honestly, I'd rather get something small and light to lug around with decent battery life that's "good enough" and have a beast of a tower at home. The GPU in that one looks ok though if it's what jb0yx says it is. Also check into how much RAM you can put in, and how the stuff that's in there now is configured (2x1GB or 1x2GB). 2GB isn't very much these days, you'll almost certainly want to upgrade to 4, especially since RAM is cheap.

You said you're planning on taking off Vista but you don't say what you'll be replacing it with. If you're going with Windows 7, you're probably ok but if you're making the jump to Linux, you might want to research hardware compatibility first, just to be safe. I would also look into how well it will handle OS X, just for fun.

 

[ThaDSman]

I recently bought an Acer Timeline with a 1.4GHz Core2Duo and I'm fairly happy with it. I don't understand going crazy with laptop specs, usually that means the battery life sucks and it's heavy. I guess that Sony is not a bad price but honestly, I'd rather get something small and light to lug around with decent battery life that's "good enough" and have a beast of a tower at home. The GPU in that one looks ok though if it's what jb0yx says it is. Also check into how much RAM you can put in, and how the stuff that's in there now is configured (2x1GB or 1x2GB). 2GB isn't very much these days, you'll almost certainly want to upgrade to 4, especially since RAM is cheap.

You said you're planning on taking off Vista but you don't say what you'll be replacing it with. If you're going with Windows 7, you're probably ok but if you're making the jump to Linux, you might want to research hardware compatibility first, just to be safe. I would also look into how well it will handle OS X, just for fun.

Battery life is something like 4 hours i believe, and thanks for the tip on ram I almost forgot. Ill be sure to check when I go later tonight. I was wanting to put 4gb to 8gb of ram if possible in it.
And yes I'm getting rid of Vista Ultimate and installining Windows 7 Ultimat (I love it kmicrosoft finally did something right) Fedora,ubuntu, and ill try to hackintosh the latest OSX and maybe some more linux distros.

 

[fischju2000]

Sony has all the drivers available, they *should* install in Windows 7. http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNAR570&LOC=3

An all in one program to show temps, current CPU speed, and do a stress test is OCCT: http://www.ocbase.com/perestroika_en/index.php?Download - The zip version doesn't need to be installed. Power settings can limit the CPU speed (if applied), CPU-Z will show the model of CPU, it's normal mhz, and the ram configuration (speed, number of slots, what's in what slot): http://www.filehippo.com/download_cpuz/ - Also can run from a thumb drive.

If the temps get near 70C after a couple minutes of OCCT, there is definitely a dust problem. If it's a couple of year old, the battery life may be diminished. If you do buy it, doing a couple complete discharge/recharge cycles will let you get the most out of it.