Laptop Question please help!!!
 

Ok guys.

I'v been debating with myself wich laptop I should buy:
Both of them are Sony Vaio

The first one:

Sony PCG-GR250P VAIO
CPU Intel® Pentium® III
Speed
933 Mhz
HD 20 GB Enhanced IDE
Installed RAM 256 MB SDRAM
Display 14.1" XGA TFT
Other features:
Graphics ATI RAGE? Mobility RADEON?-M graphics chip w/ 16 MB video DDR SDRAM and 3d acceleration
Resolution 1024 x 768
Cache 512KB external L2 cache
MPEG MPEG1 and MPEG2 digital video Supports full screen playback
CD-Rom 32x DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive
Modem Integrated V.90 modem and 10T/100TX Ethernet
Battery 9-cell Lithium ion (supports dual batteries)
Battery Life 3.5 (St) 7.0 (DC) hrs
Speakers Built-in stereo
Mic Built-In
Pointer Electro-Static touch pad w/ Center Jog Dial? control with back button
Keyboard Stainless steel keyboard mechanism with reflective lettering w/ 82 key QWERTY layout 19mm pitch and 3mm stroke
Power 73.2 watts maximum (19.5V DC / AC100-240V)
OS Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional Edition
Weight 5.6 lbs (2.52kg)
Size 1.4 X 12.3 X 10.3
Supplied DVD/CD-RW combo drive
Battery
AC adapter
Cables
Free Software package


And the other:


Sony PCG-FX370 VAIO
CPU Intel® Pentium® III
Speed
1000 Mhz
HD 20 GB Enhanced IDE
Installed RAM 256 MB SDRAM

Display 15" XGA TFT
Other features:
Graphics Intel® 815EM graphics chip with up to 11 MB video SDRAM (shared) and Intel's Dynamic Video Memory technology
Resolution 1024 x 768
Cache 256 KB integrated on-die level 2
MPEG MPEG1 and MPEG2 digital video Supports full screen playback
CD-Rom 8X DVD-ROM / 4x/30x CD-RW combo drive
Floppy Removable 1.44 MB, 3.5
Modem V90 modem and 10Base-T/100Base-TX Ethernet
Battery Lithium-ion battery
Battery Life 4.5 (St) 8.0 (DC) hrs
Speakers Built-in stereo
Mic Built-In
Pointer Electro-Static touch pad
Keyboard 86-key QWERTY layout; 19mm key pitch 3mm stroke
Power 58.5 watts maximum (19.5V DC / AC100-240V)
OS Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Weight 7.1 lbs (3.19kg)
Size 1.6 x 12.8 x 10.5

The price difference is minimal.
I just want to know which one is better and why
So any computer gurus here?

throw away, buy new

I don;t wanna spend a lot of money and those two are good enough
So anyone else?

I treated myself to HP ZE5170

Its ok, gets me from point A to point B :)


Microprocessor Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 2.0GHz Front-side Bus 400MHz Memory

512MB DDR SDRAM at 266MHz (2x256MB) Max memory 1024MB (2x512MB)
Hard Drive 40GB ATA 100 (Gigabyte (GB) is defined as 1,000,000,000 bytes, accessible capacity may vary) Multimedia Drive DVD+CD-RW combo drive (24x8x8x8x) Video Graphics ATI MOBILITY? RADEON? (M6P AGP-4X 3D Graphics) Sound 16-bit Soundblaster Pro Compatible with dual built-in stereo speakers Network Card Integrated 10/100 Ethernet Connectivity - Wireless Optional 802.11b card available Keyboard 87 key, full size, spill resistant keyboard Controls 4 User programmable buttons; Power/suspend Pointing Device Touch pad on palm rest with On/Off button and Up/Down easy scroll pad PC Card Slots 2 type II PCMCIA card slots Total External Notebook Ports (2)USB, (1)parallel, (1)RJ-45, (1)Port Rep, (1)RJ-11 modem port, (1)microphone, (1)headphone, (1)Lock, (1) S-TV out,(1) PCI Dock connector, (1)VGA, (1)IEEE1394 Display 15.0\" XGA-TFT (1024x768) Video Memory 32MB DDR RAM dedicated Processor Cache 512K (L2) on die Power Universal AC adapter, built-in 8-Cell Lithium Ion battery. Low battery warning. Notebook Dimensions 12.96\" x 10.72\" x 1.79\" (Thickness may vary at different points on the system) Weight - Notebook 7.5lbs; Weight may vary due to vendor component changes and manufacturing process Security Systems diagnostics by HP-Kensington lock slot, user and system passwords Warranty 1 year limited warranty, 90 days software support; 24-hour/7-day a week phone support (2nd & 3rd year warranty options available for upgrade) Diskette Drive 3.5\" 1.44MB Floppy disk drive Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition (including Microsoft® Outlook Express 6.0, Microsoft® Fax Services, Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6.0, Microsoft® Firewall) Internet Solutions Easy Internet Sign Up
CompuServe®2000
AOL® 6.0
EarthLink® 5.0 lite
MSN® 6.0 Multimedia Arcsoft® (photo editing), Funhouse, Photo impressions4, Greeting cards
HP Memories Disc
InterVideo? WinDVD (DVD playback)
HP RecordNow? (CDRW recording)
Cyberlink® PowerDirector? Pro VE; (video editing)
MusicMatch Jukebox 7.0 (CD and MP3 Playback)
Wild Tangent My Games (3D Games) Post-purchase Promotion DVD Rentals - Netflix
OnLine Print center - mimeo.com
Data Migration - Smart Clone Productivity and Finance Quicken® Financial Center by Intuit® including Quicken® New Users Edition 2002
Encyclopedia Britannica Ready Reference
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader? 5.0
HP ToolKit
Corel® WordPerfect 9 (word processing)
Corel® Quattro Pro 9 (spreadsheets) Security and Support Symantec? Norton AntiVirus 2002? (90 days live update)
Electronic registration
HP Instant Support
e-diagnostics for Windows (diagnostic software)
OnLine users handbook
Zone Alarm (Firewall)


I love it!

Thank you for enlightening me about you great laptop, but this wasn't vey helpful to me.

Anyone else?

I must have missed the Dell option.

Are you going to need to connect this to a Windows domain? There are a few benefits with going on Windows XP Pro versus home edition. Otherwise, the one with the home version has better hardware specs, which is kinda odd... Maybe that is why the pricing is similar...

Yassi, just a suggestion on a good laptop

I personally have the Sony PCG-FX370 VAIO


Excellent laptop,

Built in CD burner, Nic and Modem, the screen clairity is AMAZING. I also like the fact I can run dual Batteries. Plus the 370 had Win2k instead of XP which I preferred.

Haven't had any problems and I bought it the day it came out last year.

Oh, and get the 370 over the other Vaio because you want the 15" screen instead of the 14.1.

Also, goto ubid and buy 2 x 256 133mhz chips > should cost you around $80. Your lapto will run 5 times faster. The stock 256 megs of ram is 100 mhz, so double your memory and get the 133mhz speed.

Sony Rocks.

out of those two, definitely the first (PCG-GR250P VAIO), the second model you outlined uses an aging Intel video chipset that leeches system memory and is going to offer lackluster video performance and slow, crappy desktop. the GR250P includes the 'Mobile RADEON' chipset w/ its own video ram, and will be overall a faster machine (tactilely) to work w/, especially in graphics-intensive tasks like PhotoShop, Flash, etc... hope this helps some, VAIO notebooks are great. Sony's tech support is kinda lame but their products are top-notch, consistantly good build quality and good warranty..

jamie, i've got to call you on this one... since both units only pump out a 1024 x 768 resolution, the extra screen real-estate is wasted on the 370... if it offered a 1280 x 1024 resolution it would be different, but since it is the same, it will only make the desktop more grainy and pixellated IMO... if you've got a CompUSA near you, try to go check out both screen types and see what you prefer... many would like a tighter pitched display at that resolution instead of an enlarged one w/ a horrendous, near-antique video chipset..

My Wife has one of the new Sony laptops and I just got a new G4 Apple Powerbook. Even though the clock speed of my wife's if 2 GHZ. My Powerbook smokes it in Word, photoshop and loading web pages. Not to mention it came loaded with Apache already in it and setup as a web server right out of the box, and never crashes. OSX is the bomb.

Incredible!!!

Mitch

Why the hell would you run a webserver on a laptop?

I have the PCG-FX770K, been using it as my main machine for 18 months. I have a slightly faster desktop machine still sitting in the cupboard from my last move.

I would go for the model with the larger screen

i've got a couple G4 powerbooks - here's one:

http://207.240.40.4/uvlight/images/pb01.jpg

Jamie,

I run it occasssionally for remote training sessions.

Quiet,

Nice setup.... love those speaker sticks. They sound great.



Mitch

Thanks to everyone for the great replies :)