Great machine, reliable
Written: Nov 04 '03
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Pros: Quiet, fast, lots of software, burns DVDs nicely, sleep mode works well.
Cons: CD and DVD drive bays are awkward, speakers are crappy, no additional expansion bays.
The Bottom Line: It's fun to use, works fast and reliably, great to look at, loaded with software.
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| mrplow412's Full Review: Sony Vaio PCV-RS310 P4-2.4GHz/256/80/DVD-RW/CD-RW/... |
I've had this machine for about 2 months now, and I have been extremely happy with it. I opted for the matching monitor, a flat screen 15" from SONY, and together this makes for a great package.
Previous to this machine, I owned a Dell for about 3 1/2 years. I took good care of it and kept upgrading it, but it was time to upgrade to a brand new machine. With the purchase of a digital video camera recently, I needed a PC that could handle the load, as well as burn DVD's too. This machine allows me to do just that. SONY bundles the machine with a bunch of software that I haven't even gotten around to using yet. It has a bunch of music and movie applications, varying from standard windows applications, to more advanced music organization software called SonicStage. SonicStage is a neat application for organizing your music digitally, but the software basically does not allow you to rip your CD's into mp3 format, you have to rip them into a proprietary OpenMG format which is not broadly used today. If you have an iPod you are outta luck because it does not support this format. Big turn off.
DVD burning has been fairly successful. I've tested burning home movies onto blank DVD-R and DVD-RW discs and they both play in my Phillips DVD player. However, when I format the DVD-RW and re-burn a movie, it won't play in my home DVD player, but it will play on the computer through the PowerDVD software which runs nicely. The SONY DVGate software makes DVDs with your home movies, and they offer a bunch of great templates for DVD menus. However, all you can really do is compile video clips and burn the DVD. No transitions or music can be added (at least I have yet to discover that you can do this).
There are 2 USB 2.0 ports on the front, as well as 2 in the back. They've worked great, and it's nice to plug in my digital camera to the front ports without having to fiddle around in the back.
There are some small issues that I don't like about the machine, one thing being the physical cd drives. There is an outer flap that goes down when you push the button to eject the trays. In order to make the tray go back into the computer, you must push the tray partially until the computer pulls it the rest of the way in. For some reason I've always felt awkward doing this, like somehow I would break the CD and DVD drives, but I don't think that'll happen if I'm careful. The speakers that come with the machine are crap. Horrible sound. I actually hooked up my speakers that came with my old Dell and the sound is much better with them (harman/kardon speakers). There are no extra drive bays on the PC, so installing a Zip drive won't be possible unless it's external. I purchased an external USB 2.0 drive case to house my Zip drive and it works nicely. I just turn it on when I need it.
Overall I am satisfied. Fast machine, only one program crash so far (Windows Internet Explorer), the machine is quiet and there is a neat glowing blue VAIO symbol on the front when the power is on. The sleep feature works great. I push the button on the keyboard and the PC basically shuts off, but not fully. Dead quiet. I hit a key, everything springs back to life, just the way it was before I hit the sleep button. Works great.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 750
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
mrplow412
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Location: New York
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 0 members
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