Sony Vaio Z upgradability?

fuzzybabybunny

Moderator<br>Digital & Video Cameras
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Jan 2, 2006
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I'm thinking about getting a Sony Vaio Z and I'm wondering how hard is it to upgrade them? I know that Sony is known for pulling proprietary connector crap on their products, so...

Can I swap out the existing SSDs with larger/faster ones in the future?

Can I add RAM sticks?
 

wwswimming

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Jan 21, 2006
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I'm thinking about getting a Sony Vaio Z and I'm wondering how hard is it to upgrade them? I know that Sony is known for pulling proprietary connector crap on their products, so...

Can I swap out the existing SSDs with larger/faster ones in the future?

Can I add RAM sticks?

does this mean you're going to be selling your Lenovo with the crappy display ?
 

fuzzybabybunny

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Jan 2, 2006
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does this mean you're going to be selling your Lenovo with the crappy display ?

No, it means that my car got broken into and my Lenovo got jacked and now I need a new laptop - again. Thinking about splurging this time and just getting the Sony.

The Lenovo, after SSD and extra 2GB RAM came out to about $1,500.

For an extra $600 in the Sony I can get the same size SSD (64GB x 2 in RAID0, but not upgradeable), a vastly better screen, a vastly higher screen res, lighter weight, longer battery life, an optical drive, and a small jump in speed with a i7 vs i5.

With a decrease in build quality and durability.

Do you think it's worth it? The non-upgradeable SSD bothers me. A lot. They're Samsung SSDs.
 

vbuggy

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Nov 13, 2005
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Personally I've not found the Z11's particularly delicate in use as long as you realise that these are plastic notebooks and don't take the 'carbon fiber' to mean 'indestructible', and the build quality is decent - back to form for Sony after an indifferent '08-09. Also, a dose of common sense (sadly lacking on many people I see) wouldn't hurt - you can see that the screen is whippy. So don't put effin' books on it all the time then complain that the keyboard is marking the screen later.

The lighter build does certainly make it seem more insubstantial, but I've (well - for the most part it's other idiots who drop it for me, e.g. by forcibly pulling their bag out of the overhead and dragging my bag with it, etc) dropped enough previous-generation 'carbon fiber' machines to know that they survive better than many apparently more solidly-built machines. In terms of actual durability / surviveability, I'd rate the plastic Sony's pretty high - certainly way over more obvious-metal machines.

I have extremely rapid refresh cycles combined with a 'buy-em-all-and-personally-see-which-is-best' approach, and I'd have to say the Z11's are easily my best mainstream, actually portable, notebooks to date in terms of overall utility.