Sony VAIO VGC-RC110G Desktop PC (Intel Pentium D Processor 830, 1 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, DVD+R Dbl Layer/DVD+/-RW Drive)Brand: Sony
Binding: Personal Computers
Warranty: 1 year warranty
Features: - Processor- Intel Pentium D Processor 830 3GHz / 2MB L2 Cache / Front Side Bus Speed - 800MHz
- Memory - 1GB PC2-4200 533MHz DDR2 (Expandable to 2GB)
- Hard Drive - 250GB 7200rpm SATA - RAID Ready
- Graphics - ATI Radeon X300 with 128 DDR SDRAM Video Memory
- Giga Pocket MPEG2 Realtime Encoder board with TV Tuner
Outstanding Machine at a fabulous price [Posted on 2005-10-13]
When my Dell died unexpectedly, I was in rush mode to find a new system. I looked at the Gateway and HP media center units, but the sleek black Sony box caught my eye. Turned out I favored the whole machine over the others. and here is why -
The specs are more than impressive - and for the price paid, no other machine even comes close. 1GB DDR2 ram, 250GB HD etc... etc...
What made this machine stand out for me, was the DVI port on the ATI graphics card, and the built in sVideo, and RCA inputs for camcorders and VCRs etc... also equipped with 2 Firewire (Sony's iLink) ports. You can hook practically anything up to this unit and start burning your own DVD's from tape.
The Pentium D 830 3.0ghz processor is screaming fast so far for me. You also can't hear this machine at all - sony has the liquid cooling system, so there is no audible fan.. a terrific plus for me. The front VAIO emblem illuminates in a bright white, for a super cool visual effect from anywhere in the room. (silly, but cool).
The Media Center 2005 seems way cool. I haven't really used it yet, but the interface is slick, and seems very intuitive to organize all your music and movies (this is also on the HP's Dell's etc...)
What I do NOT like about this unit is the following-
The included keyboard is PS2 and the mouse is USB. and they are cheap cheap cheap.. they could have bundled a wireless set and jazzed the keyboard up a bit.
The speakers are pathetic. If you are doing any type of gaming or music, you'll want to pick up a meaty new pair, with a subwoofer.. The included Sony's are just a joke.
There doesn't seem to be any fax software loaded at all - in fact, i had to revert back to the setup disk (preloaded) just to install the windows fax services so I could 'Print to Fax' from Word or other applications.
The lack of a printed manual is offensive. especially for the brand new user. They have a glossy foldout of what connects where - and even that, at best, is mediocre - and confusing. I understand the need to save the trees (as the actual manual on the Sony Support site is will over 150 pages) - but if a newbie can't get up and on the internet with their new Sony, they can't very well get to the web to look at the manual. and the funny thing is - on the cardboard flap that closes the box together it says 'IMPORTANT - Please read the product manual'..... just thought that was funny.
Sony does preload everything, so if your looking for hard copies, your out of luck. They partition part of the drive to hold all the original data, so you can always go back to square one in case of a system crash. I'd prefer the option to pay a tad more to get the program CD's - and also I'm not crazy about hidden partitions..
Other than those trivial things, i love this unit - and i can look past the weak keyboard / mouse and very bad speakers as I won't be using them anyway.
Its attractive, insanely quiet, and tremendously fast. I love it and would recommend it to anyone - gamer, video editor, whoever. There is more than enough power and features for just about anybody.
Buy one and Enjoy !
Lexus of PCs - Great but Not Perfect [Posted on 2005-11-01]
After buying two Dell PCs with quality problems, I was looking for a high-end PC for database-related work. After a detailed search, I hit on this PC, and I'm quite happy with it, except for some nit-picking complaints. I'd give it 4.5 stars.
Pros:
- It's a Lexus of PC, and it's such a pleasure to run a dozen different apps on a PC that barely slows down while staying virtually silent.
- The ergonomic design makes it easy to use, and the RCA-type RGB
connections (front and rear) makes it easy to plug in a VCR and transfer the existing baby videos to DVD.
- Many software are built in, and the quality of the PC is evident both inside and out. The remote control that comes with it is nicely designed and useful.
- For the price and quality, it's a much better value proposition over Dell XPS series.
- The fact that it doesn't come with a monitor is a plus. I hate the cheap monitors that Dell forces upon the buyers. I'd recommend the Samsung 930B enthusiastically.
Cons:
- The flaws are minor but cumulatively annoying. The keyboard is the cheapest (to look and feel) among all of the PCs I've owned. The speakers also match the keyboard's quality (or lack thereof).
- There is almost NO paper documentation to this PC. (Even the $50 Sony DVD player that I had bought comes with a 30-page manual.)
- In order for the remote control to register, you have to point it right at the remote sensor, and even then it often does not respond. Frustrating.
- The computer is designed to be a tower, but it'd been nice if it was designed to be narrower, so that it can reside on the desktop. It's so quiet and beautifully designed that it should stay on the desk, so that video and audio connects can be more easily made.
P.S. This PC is available at CircuitCity.
Failed Out of The Box [Posted on 2005-11-04]
Received a "CPU Fan Abnormal" error on the first restart. The fan is working but the CPU is running to hot at idle. I called Sony they are going to repair, not replace it. I purchased it from Circuit City and they are going to replace it, thank you for standing behind the products you sell! I have had trouble with other Sony products lately, so I think this will be the last Sony product I purchase!
Top of the line - Almost! [Posted on 2006-01-08]
I'll preface this review by revealing that this is the FIRST pre-assembled, brand name computer I have EVER purchased in my life. Up until this point, I have always built my own, believing that you had more control over the quality of the end product than anything a mass manufacturer would ever do. However, when my last system died due to some kind of yet to be determined motherboard defect, I had finally had enough! I couldn't bear to think of going through the process of reinstalling a new operating system and drivers from scratch again. I decided I just wanted something that worked right out of the box and a warranty so I could just return to the store and say "fix it" if anything ever happened.
Being accustomed to high-end, "pro-sumer" level hardware however, it didn't take me long to realize that most prebuilt systems are, to borrow from a historic phrase, a kind of "electronic opiate for the masses". They really don't possess all of the features necessary to satisfactorily run the newer data intensive, 3D graphics applications and games while still functioning as a full-blown digital media center. That is until I stumbled upon the Sony VGC-RC110G.
Pros:
CPU - The Intel Pentium 4 Dual Core (Smithfield) is where it's at now days. This CPU has the power to chew through anything you can throw at it without slowing down and can multitask like there is no tomorrow. The 830 (3GHz) is one notch down from the fastest 840 P4D (3.2GHz) so you avoid the premium price of the top-of-the-line with only a small reduction in performance.
CPU Thermal Solution - Sony contracted with a well known PC Case maker to design a HUGE heat-pipe cooler that does a good job cooling this notoriously hot CPU (up to 130W at full load)! Most of the time the CPU idles at around 45C and 55C at full load compared to the 65C+ reported by users of the stock Intel cooler (the thermal limit for the P4D given by Intel is 69.8C). The large heat-sink (one of the biggest I've seen) also uses a large fan turning at low speed making the system virtually silent. Most other high performance CPU coolers use smaller, high RPM fans making it sound like a Jet Fighter sitting on your desktop!
Memory - 1GB of high speed DDR2 RAM (533MHz) provides excellent performance. Contrary to other reviews, installation of more RAM (up to 2GB) is extremely simple.
Motherboard / Chipset - The system uses an Intel built motherboard based on the 945G north-bridge chipset. This provides for stable, high-speed I/O functions, support for up to 4 SATA Hard Drives with a built in RAID controller, and a PCI express 16x video card. Again, the 945 chipset is one notch down from latest 955 and 975 chipsets so you also avoid the premium price with only a small reduction in built in functions (most notably support for up to 8GB of ECC RAM).
Hard Drive(s) - The system ships with one 250GB fast 7200rpm SATA hard drive but is expandable up to four. With today's huge hard drives, you could easily upgrade this sucker to 1 Terabyte of storage (that's 1000 GB)! In addition, because of the built in RAID controller, I transferred my Operating System to a pair of 10,000rpm SATA drives in a RAID 1 configuration (mirror set - all data is simultaneously stored on two drives) for ultimate data security and fault tolerance. In case a drive should fail you simply install a new one and the mirror set is automatically rebuilt with NO LOSS of data.
Case - In addition to what has already been said about the extremely good-looking case, it is also one the most cleverly designed I have yet seen. The hard drives are housed in a separate compartment accessed by a separate small door providing extremely easy access without opening the entire case. This makes adding or removing hard drives almost as easy as the "hot-swapping" feature found in high-end servers.
Operating System and Software - The Windows Media Center Edition 2005 SP2 performs absolutely flawless. All of the multimedia functions are fully controllable via the remote. Two video ports on the card allow for watching TV on one monitor while simultaneously working on the desktop on another. Windows MCE allows the PC to function as a full-blown DVR just like a TiVo though you are limited only to basic, unencrypted cable channels unless you connect the PC to a cable box. I can also network to my TiVo and play recorded TV shows on the PC. Sony also has a Network Media Receiver (RoomLink VGP-MR100U) allowing the playback of any media stored on the PC (video, music, photos, etc.) on my HDTV in the living room via Ethernet! As for the rest of the installed software, enough is provided to allow just about any kind of video/media editing, transfer, etc.
Peripherals - Contrary to what others have said, I think the keyboard is fine, and it has convenient volume control keys built in. The mouse is cheap, but I already have a high-quality wireless. Plenty of optical drives (1 DVD read/write and 1 DVD ROM), 8 USB 2 ports, 1 Fire wire, an card readers to read just about any type of flash card that exists. Yes, the speakers are cheap but who buys a PC for its speakers?
Cons:
Video Card - The only real shortcoming in this system is the installed ATI Radeon X300 graphics card. While adequate for multimedia and office type applications, it performs absolutely abysmally on any type of 3D or Open GL application (Games, 3D rendering, CAD, etc.). This card scores 1299 on 3Dmark05 - pathetic! However, this is OK, as I prefer to be in control of what type of video card I want to install in my system, and no manufacturer is going to build a PC for the mass market with a high-end graphics card included anyway (due to cost). Thus, when I upgraded to a GeForce 7800GT video card I didn't feel so bad about tossing the Radeon X300 into my scrap pile (heck, I don't think you can even buy one retail if you wanted - the lowest ATI card I've seen for sale is the X800). Now I get a smokin' 8199 on 3Dmark05! So, in a way, this really isn't a con, as any serious graphics enthusiast will want to change the video card anyway.
Beware Sony Desktops [Posted on 2006-03-09]
The Sony Desktops seem to work well right out of the box, but soon problems develop. First the printer port failed, then a DVD-RW drive went out. Replacements don't fit right so you have to permanently remove the face plate of the computer--now it looks like trash. Then the software fails or starts to have problems--I mean the Sony video software. Lots of rebooting and freezes. Drive you nuts nd you are constantly losing work. You can't upgrade, you have to buy a whole new computer, and there are no software fixes. Sony support really sucks, you'll never get any help. And dron't try to find hardware upgrades, you can't find parts to fit your specific model, and no one at Sony gives two hoots. So beware. You'll be buying another computer in a few short months!
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