Sony Vaio?

[Jagular]

Hi guys!!

This really isn't related to recording, but I know a lot of you guys are knowledgeable about these things.

I know nothing about these machines. My Mom is looking for a machine to use for movie editing as well as general use. She has a $700 in-store credit at Best Buy that she would like to use and this is the only machine they have there that can do what she wants (supposedly). She needs to captupre analog video a well as digital video.

What do you guys think about these machines? I'm clueless.

TIA

 

[elevate]

Among other things, I'm the de facto IT guy here at work. We've got two VAIOs here, a laptop and a desktop. I want to drop-kick both of them.

this is the only machine they have there that can do what she wants (supposedly).

Doubtful.

I'm hesitant to even mention it, but eMachines has apparently done a complete 180 from where they used to be in terms quality and support. I have no first-hand knowledge of this, but it's been relatively big computer news recently. Anyway, I know they sell eMachines at Best Buy so I thought I'd mention it.

 

[DAFFYDRUNK]

Whatever you buy at Best Buy, research what their machines can do since alot of sales people will tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to buy and get out of their hair. Most of the VAIOs I fix are overpriced garbage. They tend to be about a year behind the curve on mainstream vid cards which causes some confusion when people try to play a new game on one. (I guess these days, anything that's not integrated is a stroke of luck though) As for Emachines: Still not the fastest things but at least an Emachine is somewhat standard ATX so you can gut the thing after you find out it can't do what you want it to do...
Try to avoid anything with onboard or "shared" video if you can. If you're video editing, this will cause slow downs as the video subsystem and the OS compete for memory bandwidth.
Oh... And NEVER buy any Celeron. They use to be pretty decent little chips a couple years ago when they were Coppermine/Tualitan based, but the P4 based Celerys are worthless. A "lowly" AMD Duron runnning only 1.6 GHz will fully smoke a 2.6 Celeron. Actually, I'd try to find an AMD based machine since even the higher speed Durons are pretty powerful for the money. They just don't have the super high clock speed that sounds fast.

 

[DAFFYDRUNK]

Looks like the best thing at Best Buy is the Compaq Presario XP 3000 (S6500NX) for $750. Then grab a $200 19" CRT monitor and hit pricewatch.com for a new Asus 9600XT video card that has svideo and composite video inputs for analog video in. $200. After you add the video card, you'll have a decent machine that can get video from USB, Firewire as well as the 9600 XT's analog video input. It will also play games pretty good. You'll have to buy the vid card off the net since Best Buy would charge $275 for the same card if they even have it. They'll probably try to sell you some cheese ball card with video inputs while you're there though...

Total Cost ~$1150 + tax

 

[Polaris20]

$619.99.

This looks like a pretty damn good deal to me.

 

[Jagular]

Thanks guys for your help!!!

I had some sort of bad vibe going on about the Vaio but I didn't know what it was from. Probably something I read at some point. You have solidified my "feelings".

I talked my Mom down off the edge and had her crawl behind her computer (a Gateway) and tell me over the phone what she saw back ther and it really looks like she already has most of what she needs with her video card (some sort of ATI with 64mb). She needs to get a DVD burner installed and probably some more RAM. Since she's so far away, she'll probably have it taken in to Best Buy to have it installed. I would do it if I was there. She said that will cost her about $300. I'll thow some RAM in for her next time I get up there. She has a 1.8 Ghz pentium 4 for crying out loud. I think that will work just fine for her for awhile yet.

Thanks again for your help!!!

 

[j0s1ah]

hmmm...i wouldnt go with emachines or an amd personally...

 

[brzilian]

hmmm...i wouldnt go with emachines or an amd personally...

Why's that?

I just picked up their M5309 laptop and abosolutely love it.

$1000 got me all this:

AMD XP2500+ Mobile
60Gb HD
512 Mb RAM
3 USB 2.0 ports
1 Firewire Port
15.4" widescreen display running at 1280x800 (the biggest reason I bought it)

I'm running Cakewalk Home Studio 2004XL and have not encountered any problems so far.

 

[DAFFYDRUNK]

Yea.. If your mom currently has a P4 1.8 then she'd probably be best off throwing some money at her existing computer. The biggest road block she will have is finding a way to have an analog video input. There's dedicated cards made to do that, but she'll probably have to fork over the big bucks for a video card that has it built in. For digital camcorders, USB 2.0 cards and firewire cards are cheap though.

As for anyone not digging AMD, I ask the question, why? I've had nothing but luck with AMD and I've probably built a couple hundred Athlon based machines since the Athlon came out in 1999.

 

[Jagular]

Yea.. If your mom currently has a P4 1.8 then she'd probably be best off throwing some money at her existing computer. The biggest road block she will have is finding a way to have an analog video input. There's dedicated cards made to do that, but she'll probably have to fork over the big bucks for a video card that has it built in. For digital camcorders, USB 2.0 cards and firewire cards are cheap though.

As for anyone not digging AMD, I ask the question, why? I've had nothing but luck with AMD and I've probably built a couple hundred Athlon based machines since the Athlon came out in 1999.

From what she described I'm pretty sure her machine already has a video capture card. Than makes the decision even make more sense .

 

[ssb7171]

Just throwing in another vote for the "Vaio is shit" camp. I've had several reliability problems with one. Thank goodness I happened to get it for free, I didn't feel bad about dropkicking it.

 

[Polaris20]

hmmm...i wouldnt go with emachines or an amd personally...

I think you're basing your opinion off of advertising alone. I've personally worked on both Sonys and eMachines, and believe me, eMachines are on par or better build-wise than Sony.

I love my Sony digital camera and TV, but their computers are shit.

I am totally digging the Athlon 64 notebook. MMMmmmmm

 

[detuned6]

Hmmmm....well i have a vaio, i only use it for recording and internet. Ive havent had any problems....yet?

 

[christiaan]

Why's that?

I just picked up their M5309 laptop and abosolutely love it.

$1000 got me all this:

AMD XP2500+ Mobile
60Gb HD
512 Mb RAM
3 USB 2.0 ports
1 Firewire Port
15.4" widescreen display running at 1280x800 (the biggest reason I bought it)

Shiiiiiit, I'm not familiar with emachines but that's a great deal.

I'll be paying more for less when I'm picking up my new laptop (a XP2500+ HP Pavilion) somewhere in the next few days. The only I'm getting it, at one particular (dutch, and not all that cheap) store is that I'll get a full refund when I graduate when I buy from them...

I asked a friend who has a lot of experience with laptops what is good and what not. In short
Vaio: too expensive for what they're offering.
HP: Good
Dell: Better

 

[brzilian]

Here's the link if you're interested:

http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachines_M5309

 

[Jagular]

hehehe....this turned into an interesting thread

My Mom decided to upgrade her current machine. I think she made the right choice.

Thanks guys!!