Replace My 5 Yr Old Sony Vaio With....???

[itsjinx]

I am hoping to get everyone's opinion on what to "upgrade" to from my 5 year old Sony Vaio. I work at home and use a 2nd monitor as well. I used to upgrade every few years but they dont make Vaio's anymore and I am having trouble finding a laptop with newer/better hardware to replace my aging Vaio.

My Sony Vaio VPCF127FX consists of:
- Windows 7 64bit
- Intel i7 CPU (740QM @1.73GHz)
- 8 GB RAM (full capacity)
- 500GB SSD Samsumg EVO(upgraded from original HDD)
- 16.4" screen size

I need:
- Atl east 15" screen. bigger the better
- MUST BE A LAPTOP
- SSD

I have gone to all the local computer shops such as best buy, office depot, frys, etc but I have yet to find a laptop that is a significant upgrade to this one. I have seen some samsung laptops that look nice but aren't much faster. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Essence_of_War]

I need:
- Atl east 15" screen. bigger the better
- MUST BE A LAPTOP
- SSD

Do you have a budget? And retailer(s) that you're considering purchasing from? Any specific software needs? What do you need it to be "faster" at? In other words, what do you need it do for your work-at-home?

 

[Deders]

You can always transfer your SSD over.

 

[dark zero]

You can always transfer your SSD over.

Warranty... If he opens the laptop, Warranty is over.

Maybe he can try with a Core M who are fanless.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I am hoping to get everyone's opinion on what to "upgrade" to from my 5 year old Sony Vaio. I work at home and use a 2nd monitor as well. I used to upgrade every few years but they dont make Vaio's anymore and I am having trouble finding a laptop with newer/better hardware to replace my aging Vaio.

My Sony Vaio VPCF127FX consists of:
- Windows 7 64bit
- Intel i7 CPU (740QM @1.73GHz)
- 8 GB RAM (full capacity)
- 500GB SSD Samsumg EVO(upgraded from original HDD)
- 16.4" screen size

I need:
- Atl east 15" screen. bigger the better
- MUST BE A LAPTOP
- SSD

I have gone to all the local computer shops such as best buy, office depot, frys, etc but I have yet to find a laptop that is a significant upgrade to this one. I have seen some samsung laptops that look nice but aren't much faster. Any help is greatly appreciated!

My advice? Wait if you are able to. Skylake-based laptops should be here soon.

 

[MongGrel]

My advice? Wait if you are able to. Skylake-based laptops should be here soon.

I really do not know much about laptops, there is a separate area for those on ATOT here also.

http://forums.anandtech.com/forumdisplay.php?f=23

But I would think waiting on something Skylake based there would be a good idea.

+1

 

[Techhog]

Warranty... If he opens the laptop, Warranty is over.

This is definitely not true of all laptop manufacturers.

 

[phexac]

Not really sure why you want to upgrade that laptop.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Not really sure why you want to upgrade that laptop.

Maybe it's falling apart by now? That's the only reason I see to upgrade. Spec-wise, "modern" laptops aren't much better. The one the OP has is a true quad-core, "QM" is Quad Mobile. Those are fairly rare these days.

 

[mikeymikec]

Warranty... If he opens the laptop, Warranty is over.

That may depend on the manufacturer. Toshiba have been fine with me removing hard drives prior to sending a warranty-failed laptop back to them (at least from the UK).

Lenovo on the other hand are quite strict about it (they even wipe a laptop's HDD and factory install it even if there wasn't a reported problem with the HDD... "to test it", according to one of their support reps).

 

[Arachnotronic]

Maybe it's falling apart by now? That's the only reason I see to upgrade. Spec-wise, "modern" laptops aren't much better. The one the OP has is a true quad-core, "QM" is Quad Mobile. Those are fairly rare these days.

Modern laptops are significantly better, but yes, for the workload the OP described I think there's still life in that system assuming it's not falling apart.

 

[JWade]

though the 740qm is base clocked at 1.73ghz it has turbo up to 2.93ghz. unless it is falling apart, I would stick with it, you stated that the max ram is 8gb, is that according to sony? if it is more than likely 16gb will work in it with no problems

 

[itsjinx]

Thank you for all the responses! please see my replies below:

Do you have a budget? And retailer(s) that you're considering purchasing from? Any specific software needs? What do you need it to be "faster" at? In other words, what do you need it do for your work-at-home?

I dont have a budget as that doesn't matter. I dont do gaming but alot of graphic design, programming, some resource-heavy programs like camtasia/photoshop.

My advice? Wait if you are able to. Skylake-based laptops should be here soon.

What exactly is Skylake-based laptops? I've never heard of it...

though the 740qm is base clocked at 1.73ghz it has turbo up to 2.93ghz. unless it is falling apart, I would stick with it, you stated that the max ram is 8gb, is that according to sony? if it is more than likely 16gb will work in it with no problems

The 8GB ram is after adding max ram from the factory. I have been told by many places that I cannot have more than 8GB either due to my machine or windows 7.
You mentioned Turbo up to 2.93GHz.... How do I verify that this is enabled and working? To my knowledge there is no Turboing going on unless it is always enabled by default as I dont have any windows software that is running which would be monitoring the turboing.

 

[Indus]

The 8GB ram is after adding max ram from the factory. I have been told by many places that I cannot have more than 8GB either due to my machine or windows 7.

Here are the upper RAM limits for the different editions of Windows 7:

Starter: 8GB
Home Basic: 8GB
Home Premium: 16GB
Professional: 192GB
Enterprise: 192GB
Ultimate: 192GB

So it's most likely not windows 7 that's the problem but most likely the motherboard.

As a photoshop user and a constant on the go person who works in advertising and graphic design.. I had a laptop like yours that I bought in 2010 and not too long ago I also wanted to upgrade my laptop but decided instead on..

1. Having my laptop professional cleaned.. you'd be surprised how much lint and dust has accumulated after 5 years of use.. once that was removed, my laptop behaved good as new.

2. For my work desk, I got a desktop Core i5 3570k, 32GB ram and a couple of SSD's. The best part of the desktop was I got myself a 2560 x 1440 monitor which makes my work so much easier compared to a laptop. I also got a GTX 660.. not that I need it for gaming but still much better for multiple monitors and it supports 4k too.

I routine switch files between the 2 when I have to as they're networked and I also have dropbox if I am away from the office.

My only semi limitation on the laptop is that it didn't have any USB 3.0 but apart from that I'm very happy I invested in a desktop.

P.S. I've never seen memory use go above 14 GB of RAM in my experience so you could get away with just 16GB if you want to save a little money.

 

[JWade]

can download it here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/intel_turbo_boost_technology_monitor.html

 

[JWade]

on another note, I have had many instances of people being told that the max their systems will support is 8gb (because that's what the manufacturer's website says and the specs) but have upgraded many to 16gb. it takes dd3, I would say your chances of 16gb working is extremely good.

 

[ehume]

. . .

As a photoshop user and a constant on the go person who works in advertising and graphic design.. I had a laptop like yours that I bought in 2010 and not too long ago I also wanted to upgrade my laptop but decided instead on..

1. Having my laptop professional cleaned.. you'd be surprised how much lint and dust has accumulated after 5 years of use.. once that was removed, my laptop behaved good as new.

2. For my work desk, I got a desktop Core i5 3570k, 32GB ram and a couple of SSD's. The best part of the desktop was I got myself a 2560 x 1440 monitor which makes my work so much easier compared to a laptop. I also got a GTX 660.. not that I need it for gaming but still much better for multiple monitors and it supports 4k too.

I routine switch files between the 2 when I have to as they're networked and I also have dropbox if I am away from the office.

My only semi limitation on the laptop is that it didn't have any USB 3.0 but apart from that I'm very happy I invested in a desktop.

P.S. I've never seen memory use go above 14 GB of RAM in my experience so you could get away with just 16GB if you want to save a little money.

Given your experience, I'd say that's great advice.

Around here, our laptops die mechanically or break a wire before we have any reason to move on to something better. But my younger daughter wants a tablet to draw. The older daughter needed something to go back to school, because her old machine broke at school, and my old rescued-by-SSD 2008 laptop was good enough for home use but it wasn't going to cut it for grad school. She got a Surface Pro 3. But we can wait with the younger daughter, so she will get a Surface Pro 4 with a Skylake chip in it. The Skylake CPU's really were made for laptops. If you can wait, wait.

Also, somebody felt like you do, and they have resurrected the Vaio brand. Time will tell if the new ones measure up to the old ones.

 

[docp]

i would recommend retina macbook pro 15.
if u want it on budget,do explore various deal sites like 9to5toys.
if u want to save even more then do explore apple refurbished store.

 

[Deders]

can download it here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/intel_turbo_boost_technology_monitor.html

I find this particular monitor is slow and doesn't really represent what the CPU is doing very well at all. Argus monitor will show you exactly what any given core is doing in an instant. Try them both, I'm sure you will agree.

http://www.argotronic.com/en/

 

[Rayb]

The Dell XPS line is a great alternative with some of the best 4K UHD LCDs available now. Although, a refresh should be coming to the 15" with Skylake CPUs and InfinityEdge screen similar to the XPS 13 that was released earlier this year.

The RAM limitation refers to the maximum memory capacity (in GB) supported by the processor.

 

[JWade]

I haven't tried 16gb ram personnaly in a 740gm, but I have in a i5-520m and it saw and worked with 16gb no problem, intel specs says for he 520m it only supports 8gb as well. I did some research and found a lot of instances where 740gm laptops were sold with 12gb ram, and people upgraded from 8gb to 16gb ram

 

[JWade]

here is the answer on thre 16gb ram: I ended up calling Intel and Crucial on this. Intel's response to this was most important to me too because if their CPUs onboard memory controller couldn't see more than 8gb of ram then an upgrade over 8gb wouldn't be worth it. But - Intel support did tell me that when they produced their specs it was based on current available HW - AND (big one here for me) theoretically it could see more than 8gb, even up to 16gb, if the software drivers from my laptop manufacturer were written to support this. Thus he clarified - the limitation was in software, and not in hardware. This pretty much told me, along with all the other research I've found on the web regarding this subject, that it is possible to upgrade past 8gb and up to 16gb.

the above cut-n-paste is from a memory website asking if the 740qm will support 16gb of ram.

 

[Ajay]

Huh? There are no specific software drivers for RAM, AFAIK. Maybe the Intel rep was referring to the BIOS - which could limit the amount of RAM that the OS is able to see.

This thread may shed some light on your issue: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/sony-vaio-z13-upgrade-to-16-gb-ram-possible.638526/

 

[JWade]

software limit I know is 32bit and 64bit

 

[frozentundra123456]

If you are looking for a performance increase, a Haswell quad mobile should give a significant increase. For instance the 4720HQ has a base frequency of 2.6 and turbo of 3.4 ghz, plus probably a 25% or so ipc increase over the processor you have now. Depending on turbo behavior, I would think bottom line at least 50% faster.