Sony VAIO VGC-LS30E All-In-One TV PC - Intel Pentium Dual Core T2080 1.76GHz, 2GB DDR2, 250GB SATA, DVDRW/RAM, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400, Tuner, Wireless LAN, Windows Vista Home Premium, 19" WSXGA LCD

List Price: $1,049.99 Discount Price: $1,049.99

Features:

• 1.66 GHz
• Intel Core 2 Duo (Dual Core)
• Computer- Desktop PC

Customer Reviews:

************** WARNING ******************* [Posted on 2008-02-05]
System or Application Recovery Disks are not provided with this PC.

What this means is that you are placing you data (your life's work) in the hands of SONY's Recovery software that is hardware dependent.

Sony has a habit of not providing Operating Sytems disks. Which is stupid beyond belief. It saves them money, and allows them to force a bunch of useless garbage software down your throat if you are successful in using their Recovery Software.

But you may not be successful. Their "Recovery Center" is your only means of recovery when things turn sour. But, say for example you want a bigger hard drive. Install it and, even if you carefully clone your software from one drive to the other, the Recovery Center WILL NOT WORK. This is unlike installing any other software which is not hardware dependent.

What this means is you will have to purchase the operating system all over again. If you purchase an OEM copy, you will have to install on a bare "empty" drive, and lose all the other software SONY provided. Otherwise you will have to purchase the full version of windows. Factor that cost--an extra $300+ into your purchase decision.

Any other software that SONY provided that you might use like DVD burning software will have to be re-purchased. You can't pick and chose what you want to reinstall off the recovery disk. It is set up so that it is all or nothing, and if it's nothing, as it was in my case, you basically bought SONY hardware, and everything software will have to be replaced and paid for again.

My advice is to buy an iMac. It is the same amount of money and you get a reliable computer. And you won't find yourself furious at SONY when you realize the recovery software was a time-bomb waiting to blow up after your warantee has expired.

I'll never buy another SONY computer. I'm in the market for a laptop. I would not even consider SONY. I'll look at HP and Apple.

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