SONY VAIO AR 17

Earth[Tera].bin · 13 Feb 2010 at 12:34

Need a desktop replacement and I was eyeing up a new laptop at £5-600 ish, but I've seen an AR 17 up for sale at £500ish. Now I know it's around 2 years olf but would this still be good value for money or should I be looking at an i3?

icedbullet · 13 Feb 2010 at 12:57

I have a Vaio AR11M. I've had it since 2006 and its a very good, well made laptop. It is definitely not value for money (I bought it new for £1200) but the screen is beautiful and its great to watch movies on. Even now my 2006 model is getting a windows score of 4.0.

Specs are: Core2Duo T2100@ 1.8GHZ, GeForce Go7600 128mb, 2GB RAM, Fujitsu 2.5" 5400rpm HDD 160GB. I recently put windows 7 on there from windows xp and have had no issues at all. It still flies in simple tasks, never played games with it (except Braid). These AR laptops make fantastic media pcs as the come with a remote and media centre, not to mention every other kind of connection you can imagine (HDMI, various audio connectors, TV arial connector, firewire, bluetooth, 2.4/5Ghz wireless....)

What are the specs on the vaio you are looking at?

Earth[Tera].bin · 13 Feb 2010 at 13:06

Yeah, I've read some reviews from 2006 when it was first launched but I'm worrying if it's really the best move - future proof wise as it's going to be a desktop replacement.

Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 - 2.06GHz (x2), 667MHz FSB,
2G DDR2
500G RAID
Geforce Go7600 256M

icedbullet · 13 Feb 2010 at 13:13

Those are some nice specs, I know which model you are talking about. In terms of future proofing its not a good option in my opinion. These laptops are limited to only 2GB of RAM (although you can put in 4GB but I've heard stories of faults arising from this).

If I was in your position I would be looking at getting a desktop base unit because you have way more options in terms of swapping components and they will be cheaper.

I recently enquired as to the price of a new battery for my AR11M....£100! the AC adaptor thing is around £90. The cost for me to get the keyboard replaced (after someone spilt tea on it) was £170...This is why I stick to desktops now because they just make a lot more sense all around (if you'r not after the mobility of a laptop...which you'r not).

Will you be gaming on the laptop?

Earth[Tera].bin · 13 Feb 2010 at 13:20

Purely console gaming these days, if at all. That's another issue, it will be out of warranty so It's going to be pricey if I get any problems. I was looking at the Samsung i3 R580 but the colour design isn't exactly me but for £550 and the accompanying specs you can't really complain.
I think I'll give the VAIO a miss, bit of shame but knowing my luck something will go wrong with it.
Cheers for the replies .

icedbullet · 13 Feb 2010 at 13:26

Mine was under 3yrs insurance and they managed to wriggle out of paying for the keyboard repairs on a technicality. I think you can go to a Sony Style centre and pick up a insurance cover pack if you did buy the Vaio...but I wouldn't recommend that from my experiences with their coverage.

I used to have a Samsung R510 for my uni work last year, those are very well built too, just not as appealing as the Vaio is and the screens aren't as good.

I would definitely go with the Samsung out of the choice between that and the Vaio