Sony Vaio good for value or better at pc specialist?

[memphis12]

I have just purchased a Sony Vaio VPCF23N1E because I got vouchers from pc world for a right off.

Here's Link: http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vn-f-series/vpcf23n1e

Is this a good laptop for around £899 to be a 'gaming laptop'?

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium with Service Pack 1 64bit
Architecture

Platform

2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7 processor
Chipset
Intel® HM65 Express Chipset
CPU

Processor Name
Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM Processor

Power and Performance
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology, HT Technology Supported

Processor Speed (GHz)
2.20 with Turbo Boost up to 3.10

L3 Cache (MB)
6

Number of Cores
4
Memory

Memory Size (GB)
4

Memory Type
PC3-10600

Memory Specification
DDR3 SDRAM

Memory Composition
4 GB (SO-DIMM) x1

Memory Speed (MHz)
1333

Max. Supported Memory
8 GB

Hard Drive Type
Serial ATA

Hard Drive Capacity
640 GB
Hard Drive Speed (rpm)
5400



Resolution Name


WXGA++ (1600 x 900)

Max Resolution External Display
1920 x 1200
Graphics

Graphic Card Name
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M GPU
Video RAM memory size
1 GB

 

[Buzz]

My opinion of the Vaio

showthread

The friends who I know with Vaio rarely use it for gaming, as is just 2 slugish, But I do believe that the NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M GPU is pretty decent and stands up roughly between the Radeon HD 5650 and 5730.

I just HATE Vaio's myself

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

I agree with for_the_buzz, i have just replaced my Vaio and the amount of exclusive software they put on it is stupid, stuff that i never used which slowed things down right from the first start up and it felt like it was dying already. 2 years later the thing had multiple full restarts with fresh Windows Retail editions and never got any beter. It feels burned out. My dad has a newer model and has excactly the same problem and just bought a Mac.

I'd never buy or advise anyone to buy a Vaio again.

Just my opinion though. Im just someone out there likes Viao?

 

[matcou]

heres a pretty much identical formulation from here

Chassis & Display
Enigma III 540: 15.6" Glossy FHD LED (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M - 2GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD7500BPVT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC, MS)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
ENIGMA GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 3.0
USB Options
1 x USB 3.0 PORT + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Enigma Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM

And all for £727 chopping almost £200 off, so more money left for stuff like a better HD more RAM and whatever else you feel likes

 

[Karnor00]

I agree with for_the_buzz, i have just replaced my Vaio and the amount of exclusive software they put on it is stupid, stuff that i never used which slowed things down right from the first start up and it felt like it was dying already. 2 years later the thing had multiple full restarts with fresh Windows Retail editions and never got any beter. It feels burned out. My dad has a newer model and has excactly the same problem and just bought a Mac.

I'd never buy or advise anyone to buy a Vaio again.

I'd agree with this - any of the computers from the 'big brand' retailers seem to come pre-loaded with a huge amount of completely useless exclusive software on them.

My dad had a Dell for several years and when he first got it he was disappointed with how slow it was. When I took a look at it I discovered it was loading a huge amout of unnecessary Dell software at startup which I turned off. After that it ran a lot quicker, but it's much easier to start with a clean system than have to clean it out yourself (expecially if you aren't happy poking around under the bonnet of the computer to do it).

 

[Wolvo7]

I've had a VAIO VGN-FZ38M for the past 4 years and I kinda agree there are loads of VAIO branded software installed that I have never used and some of them don't even work anymore without downloading new software which I haven't bothered doing.

The Fn keys are useful but often stop working, and it's starting to feel pretty slow overall. I bought it cuz I like Sony products and wasn't really aware of the custom PC market at the time, but if I had to choose now I'd rather buy a custom one and pay for the components I want instead of the brand.