My first notebook purchase - Vaio S-series with Radeon(TM) HD 6630M 1GB

[Clever Ghost]

So I'm currently trying to improve my quality of living, and with spring/summer approaching I have decided that I'd rather work outdoors than spending most of the time indoors - that's why I'm going to buy my first notebook ever;-)

I don't want the notebook to to replace my quite powerful desktop computer but it's rather intended as addition to it so that I can get on my new bicycle and find myself a nice spot outside to get some work done there.

My basic requirements are:

not too big / not too heavy / capable of running SL roughly 2 hours in a row without totally overheating / acceptable graphics performance/FTP rates (don't need SL's shinies for this purpose, basic shaders & low draw distance will be enough), and also very important long battery life.

A typical outdoors work day could look like this: 2 hours of SL, 2 hours general Internet stuff (Marketplace etc.), 2 hours GIMP (not going to buy a second Photoshop license) /Blender.

I've looked at a couple of notebooks and my favorite is a Sony Vaio from the S-Series - here are some of its specs:

 

Intel® CoreTM i5-2520M 2,50GHz

Windows® 7 Home Premium

500 GB Serial ATA (7200)

6 GB 1333MHz DDR3-SDRAM

13.3" Display 1366x768

AMD Radeon HD 6630M 1GB

WWAN

Extended Sheet Battery (power up to 15 hours)

 

Would this be enough to run SL ?

Also, I have noticed that on the Sony US-Site the AMD Radeon HD 6630M 1GB can only be ordered with a Intel® Core™ i7-2620M instead of the Intel® CoreTM i5-2520M 2,50GHz option in my country - does anyone know if there's a specific reason/advantage/disadvantage for this?

Also, I'm somewhat worried about the cooling capacities of such a slim/small notebook. As I have said before, I have no intention of running SL for more than 2 hours in a row, but I'm still worried that cooling capabilities might not be enough.

I'd appreciate any kind of feedback as this is my first notebook with literally no experience in regards of what to get.

Thanks a lot :-)

 

Edit: I couldn't find this specific graphics card here and don't know what to compare it with:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Typical_Frame_Rate_Performance_by_Graphics_Card/GPU

[Claireschen Hesten]

 

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Clever Ghost wrote:

Also, I'm somewhat worried about the cooling capacities of such a slim/small notebook. As I have said before, I have no intention of running SL for more than 2 hours in a row, but I'm still worried that cooling capabilities might not be enough.

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i've been using laptops/notebooks for years they get very hot if your going to have the laptop on your lap most of the time you will develop heat burn marks on your thighs these do disappear in time if you keep the heat away from your lap a cooling pad is essential get one with a large fan some have elevated feet perfect for tables you can also get models that allow for lap useas for the spec you should more than easily get at least mid graphics when you install your chosen viewer you may have to set it to run in XP sp2/sp3 compatibility mode if it doesn't work, if you're not going to use an external mouse with SL you won't be able to do anything that requires a scroll wheel

 

[Jenni Darkwatch]

In my own experience, Vaios seem to generally run extremely hot compared to some other brands.

Also, if you do run SL on _any_ laptop, don't expect much battery life. 3D graphics simply drain batteries, _especiall_ since SL is programmed in a rather cruddy way: It uses as much of your GPU as it can, with no way to throttle it that I know of. Reducing graphics quality doesn't significantly reduce the problem, as SLs framerate will then simply go through the roof even if it makes no sense to have FPS higher than the screen refresh. I do not know if Blender suffers from the same issue, though I'd hope not.

External/secondary batteries help, though they are generally quite heavy. I second the suggestion about a lap cooling pad. And for outdoors, do check if the display is even useable outdoors. Quite a few are nigh unreadable in the sun.

[Argus Collingwood]

I have a Vaio specs below: Works Great for me SL, and content creator;-)

 

 

CPU: Intel Pentium III/Pentium III Xeon (0.25 micron process) with external L2 cache (2260 MHz)

Memory: 4063 MB

OS Version: Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (Build 6001)

Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation

Graphics Card: GeForce 9600M GT/PCI/SSE2

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 7.15.0011.7622

OpenGL Version: 2.1.2

libcurl Version: libcurl/7.18.1 OpenSSL/0.9.8j zlib/1.2.3

J2C Decoder Version: KDU

Audio Driver Version: FMOD version 3.740000

LLMozLib Version: [LLMediaImplLLMozLib] - 2.01.40728 (Mozilla GRE version 1.8.1.21_0000000000)

Packets Lost: 345/139703 (0.2%)

CPU: Intel Pentium III/Pentium III Xeon (0.25 micron process) with external L2 cache (2260 MHz)Memory: 4063 MBOS Version: Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (Build 6001)Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA CorporationGraphics Card: GeForce 9600M GT/PCI/SSE2Windows Graphics Driver Version: 7.15.0011.7622OpenGL Version: 2.1.2
libcurl Version: libcurl/7.18.1 OpenSSL/0.9.8j zlib/1.2.3J2C Decoder Version: KDUAudio Driver Version: FMOD version 3.740000LLMozLib Version: [LLMediaImplLLMozLib] - 2.01.40728 (Mozilla GRE version 1.8.1.21_0000000000)Packets Lost: 345/139703 (0.2%)

 

[Clever Ghost]

Thanks everyone for your feedback :-)

I'll make sure to get a cooling pad then, from a first quick research they seem to be rather affordable and not that heavy!

What I particularly like about this specific Vaio is the way the extra "battery" attaches to the notebook's bottom, I haven't seen a similar solution for other notebooks. Also, I was allowed to take it outdoors for a minute and the display was still rather good, especially compared to other notebooks.

I know that SL drains power like crazy, which makes most of the notebooks I have looked at rather unusable for my purpose, many don't even come with a third of the Vaio's battery capacity. All in all it seemed to be the one covering most of what I have in mind, but like I said, this being my first one I'm always open to suggestions ;-)

One last question before I will probably order it this weekend - would it make sense to upgrade to the i7 processor instead of ordering the i5? It would cost an additional 100€ and I'm not sure if there would really be a noticeable difference?

Edit: I also like the option of switching between the built in Intel graphics card and the Radeon, this can help with reducing power usage when doing less graphics intense stuff.

 

[Blondin Linden]

 

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Extended Sheet Battery (power up to 15 hours)

 

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Wow. I'm impressed. I was going to recommend getting an additional battery but looks like you have that covered!