Sony VAIO VGC-RA826G Digital Studio PC (Intel Pentium 4 Processor 550, 1 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW Dbl Layer, DVD-ROM Drive) | List Price: $1,799.99
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Platform: Microsoft XP Media Center Edition
Brand: Sony
Binding: Personal Computers
Warranty: 1 year warranty
Way-cool system [Posted on 2004-12-01]
This Vaio is VERY nice. Not the absolute top-of-the-line, but close. Very fast and powerful, as you would expect; and I love being able to watch and/or record my cable shows that my better half doesn't care for. :) The Vaio has better capabilities than the DVR from my cable company, and with no monthly rental.
Another great thing about this PC is convenience. For example, I moved my TV/DVD player out of my crowded home office, now that my PC can do the same thing as a TV/DVD and more.
Better still is the well-thought-out placement and generous quantity of drives, ports, and jacks on the Vaio. Now my kludged-together mess of USB hubs, extension cords, external DVD writers, and other various cr-p can all go to Goodwill, and I won't have to stand on my head to use my little Flash drive--just reach down and plug it into one of the THREE front USB ports. This was money well spent.
Quiet as a mouse! [Posted on 2004-12-05]
Gamers, digital photo enthusiasts and home video/TV series fans will love this computer.
This comes with lots of pre-installed programs to satisfy almost every taste. Power users will appreciate the expandable ram, SATA hard drives and multitude of audio/video, USB and firewire ports. Sensible case design makes this a desktop PC you actually want to keep on your desktop. The best feature (for me) is how quiet it is!
I've had mine for a few months now and I'm very satisfied with it.
Now the bad news: poor documentation - you should download the manual from the SONY support website. Only one open PCI slot. TV resolution not as good as I had hoped but still very good for what it does.
If you're looking for a good "out of box" experience, I'd recommend this comuter. Its my first SONY computer and I was a bit skeptical at first. Get it. You won't regret it.
Lots to like, but disappointing overall [Posted on 2005-01-19]
I've had a fully loaded version of this computer since November 15, 2004. I use it all day every day at work and stress it out pretty heavily.
The biggest plus is that the machine is whisper quiet. The only sounds you hear are spinning media and CD/DVD doors opening and closing (more on that later). It's also quite fast and comes with some great multimedia applications.
I bought Sony's 23" LCD display, which is absolutely fantastic - by far the best PC monitor I've ever seen.
But there are too many minuses for me to recommend this machine overall:
1. The audio chipset sucks and the speakers are very weak. Not what I expected from Sony, especially for a multimedia PC. Even at full blast, speaker volume is very low and the subwoofer is overpowerwing. And I can't record anything. I had hoped to use this machine to create Flash presentations with voiceovers but I can't find a single microphone that will work with the sound card. So I threw a $20 SoundBlaster into my old Dell and it works just fine. This is infuriating considering what I paid for the unit, and I can't get any support from Sony or RealTek for the problem.
2. The keyboard has eject buttons for the CD and DVD drives that toggle the drive trays open and closed. Neat feature, but the drive trays often get into an infinite loop of rapidly opening and closing, and the only way to stop it is to log off of Windows. Funny to watch, but once again very infuriating considering the price paid.
3. The video driver is buggy, causing my machine to crash and reboot at least once every 5 times I power it up. Downloaded the latest version of the driver but there's been no improvement.
4. Support from Sony and 3rd-party vendors (RealTek, ATI, etc.) is nonexistent.
Stick with Dell. I know I will from now on.
Best PC I've ever owned. Lots of software. Extremely quiet [Posted on 2005-01-20]
I purchased this PC about two months ago with a 19 inch Sony X-brite LCD so I've had time to play around with it and I'll tell you that this PC is awesome. Having had a Dell and Gateway computer beforehand...I'd rank this particular Sony better than those other PCs. Compared to the others, build quality is excellent and Sony managed to pack a lot of hardware into a very small and attractive package.
Side by side, I can't tell you how whisper quiet this Sony is compared to my Dell and/or Gateway. You can barely hear the Sony...it is that quiet!!!
I love the fact that I can watch, pause, and record live TV using the Sony. I simply plugged in the cable line directly from the wall outlet to the PC and was able to perform TIVO like functions using the PC and display....all WITHOUT having to pay for a monthly service charge. The program automatically updates the latest program guide via the Internet so you are always up-to-date to what is available on TV.
Another feature I liked about the Sony is how easy it is for me to convert old video tapes to DVD using the PC. The front of the Sony has all of the connections to directly hook up your VCR and begin converting video tapes to DVD.
Additionally, the Sony is very expandable in terms of swapping out a new graphics card in the future Or adding add'l hard drives. In fact, I purchased another 250 gig SATA hard drive and put it into one of the 2 extra hard drive bays. Installation was a snap...no need to go into the BIOS and opening the PC via the side panel required NO add'l tools...it was that simple.
Compared to my Dell and Gateway, this Sony does a LOT MORE for me for the money!!! I HIGHLY recommend this computer for anyone.
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