is this a good deal?

badcompany · 1 Oct 2010 at 20:57

Sony Vaio £656 delivered

Intel® CoreTM i3-370M, 2.40GHz
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium
Black
320 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
3 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
DVD disc drive
39.4 cm LCD, 1366x768 + webcam
ATI MobilityRadeon HD5650 1GB

are the vaio's quality builds as you are led to believe?
what can I get for the same money or how cheap can I get similar spec?
what are toshiba's like now days?

HD5650 is it man enough to play fallout 3?

thx for your input.

Range · 1 Oct 2010 at 22:03

Good deal but go for a laptop with GT 330m, and toshibas are better builds if you can find one. Vaios are very good builds though. I got myself a Toshiba AGL for about £680 with 4gb ram, truelife HD, 500GB ram, Gt 330m which plays every game in high

big tom 83 · 2 Oct 2010 at 00:33

looks like a really good deal, pity i didn't find this a few weeks ago before I ordered my new laptop as I prob would have went for this instead

whats the condition of it - is it new?

badcompany · 2 Oct 2010 at 07:15

yes I just configured it on the sony website, HD5650 half decent video adapter?

olivier renault · 2 Oct 2010 at 12:52

very much so. On par with a GT335M. It will play fallout no problem. The price is good for a i3 + HD5650.

EDIT : The GPU could be underclocked, but even then, it will play any games.

badcompany · 2 Oct 2010 at 16:45

solid state drives can be fitted to these? what is the biggest you can get and is there a recommend drive?

olivier renault · 3 Oct 2010 at 03:09

SSD's are 2.5'' in size, same as HDDs. I have a SSD in my UL30A (128GB Samsung). However, knowing Sony, they like to obfuscate things so it may not be as straight forward as it should be.

ninja2000 · 3 Oct 2010 at 03:34

Range said:
Good deal but go for a laptop with GT 330m, and toshibas are better builds if you can find one. Vaios are very good builds though. I got myself a Toshiba AGL for about £680 with 4gb ram, truelife HD, 500GB ram, Gt 330m which plays every game in high

Why on earth would you want a 330m over a 5650??? I have owned both and the 5650 is a good 25-30% better in most games.

Also the 5650 is not actually underclocked but is clocked at lowest spec for a 5650 (they can be clocked from 450-650 according to ATI and sony choose 450). Most users can over clock these to at least 550mhz but not a great deal more as sony also undervolt to keep temps down.

I have an Envy 14 with 5650 and it is clocked at 450, although I can overclock I rarely bother as it still plays everything I throw at it although maybe not at max settings.
I play: BFBC2, TF2, COH, SC2, DOW2, Empire TW

olivier renault · 3 Oct 2010 at 13:18

The 5650 is DX11 as well. It's the go-to card, for non-gaming laptops. NVIDIA is bringing some competition soon (GT4xxM series).

ninja2000 · 3 Oct 2010 at 15:31

Yeah I am looking forward to some 425 and 435 benchmarks. Hope the 425 is a good clocker like the 230/330 chips then it should be easy to raise it to 435 levels

raikesi · 3 Oct 2010 at 15:45

thats a good deal! paid about the same 6 months ago for the machine in my sig

ste-sim2x9 · 4 Oct 2010 at 08:15

Sounds like a very good deal indeed.