Sony VAIO FE11S or Acer Ferrari 4005

[bullraiser]

I am finding a great deal to go with either Sony VAIO FE11S (Intel Core Duo 1.83 Ghz) or Acer Ferrari 4005 (2.0 Ghz AMD Turion). Since AMD is planning to launch Turion Duo Mobile in the second quarter, I am rethinking on the Ferrari option but though have some few queries on FE11S benchmarks:

1. Is that nVidia go 7400 truly performs the dynamic memory usuage. I was comparing ATI X700 series and as per benchmark results, ATI is surpassing nVidia with the graphics performance. How's the support for LINUX from nVidia and ATI?

2. Hard drive spec is 160 GB 4200 rpm. Doesnt this makes the drive to perform read/write operations slower compared to 5200/7200 rpm? I was thinking 4200 rpm is out of market, but Sony is bringing up new VAIO FE series with this drive...

3. Memory spec was 1 GB DDR II PC 4200 (2 * 512). I dont think this really boost up the performance as compared to Acer Ferrari 4005 DDR III PC 4700. Is there an option to upgrade to DDR III ?

4. How fast the applications in Linux and Windows load on FE11S?

5. There was some additional eye-catching camera added by Sony (0.13 megapixel camera). I dont think thats really useful to provide nice conference real time images. Any idea abt this?

Anyways, whatever I've decided to go for either Sony VAIO FE11S or Ferrari 4005, my first action is to dual boot with Breezy and posting to this forum.

Cheers--

[YourSurrogateGod]

Acer. I've heard some good things about the quality of their products. It's the exact opposite for Sony.

[Iandefor]

Son'ys products seem to be plagued with poor design choices. One example: I bought one of their Vaio laptops. I got maybe 3 months with it before the disk crashed. I called up the previous owner, and, sure enough, the disk had crashed on them before (Twice!)... and it had only been off the shelf for a couple years. Three disk failures in about two years. Unacceptable, imho.

I'd go with Acer.

[aeiah]

although ATI may have the upper hand with mobile graphics, nvidia is A LOT easier to set up under linux, from what ive read. i use an nvidia 7800 in my desktop with little problem.

4200rpm is slow for a harddrive, the vast majority of laptop harddrives are 5200 and i assume the reason for the low speed is because its quite high capacity for a 2.5" HDD. or they're just being cheap :p

i doubt there's an option to upgrade the ram to a faster type. laptops are crap when it comes to upgrading. in a desktop, you'd most likely have to upgrade the motherboard.. laptop motherboards arent a set form-factor and so upgrading is usually impossible or expensive.

[benplaut]

i'd go for the acer, but that hard drive is a bit slow

[BWF89]

A friend of mine got a Sony Vaio a year or two ago and said he had to return the thing like 5 times before he got one that worked.

[xequence]

Dont get a sony.

Sony sucks.

[kingsidy]

acers are pretty i have owned 3 since 2001. Never had a problem with a single and linux ran on all of them. I jut purchased a travelmate 4202 with a 100 gig hard drive at 5400 rpm, 1 gig ddr2, intel duo, wireless is 3945 abg, but it has integrated graphics an intel 950 express graphic card probably not as good as ati or nvdia but i can play need for speed most wanted on it. However i can't get breezy to work on it. I am downloading dapper flight four as we speak and give it a try. as far as specs it is pretty comparable to your laptops just wish ubuntu would run on it.

[meriadoc]

Bullraiser,

I've came to the same conclusion you have too choose between the Sony VAIO FE11S or the Acer Ferrari 4005. And I would be interested in hearing which laptop you eventually choose.

I am leaning towards the Acer, as I really hate those bloody shiney screens too! If I want to stare at my reflection all day I'd buy a mirror.

However have you considered the Acer Travelmate 8202 (unsure if it has a shiney screen)? It is a similar spec, and similar price bracket in the UK. However I am unsure of linux support.

Merry.

[poofyhairguy]

1. Is that nVidia go 7400 truly performs the dynamic memory usuage. I was comparing ATI X700 series and as per benchmark results, ATI is surpassing nVidia with the graphics performance. How's the support for LINUX from nVidia and ATI?


Nvidia's Linux support is just as good as on the Windows side. ATI's support is bullcrap (the newest ATI cards are not supported in any way).

I would let the decision of any laptop rest on which one has an Nvidia card (get that one). ATI's Linux support is so poor that its not worth having.



5. There was some additional eye-catching camera added by Sony (0.13 megapixel camera). I dont think thats really useful to provide nice conference real time images. Any idea abt this?


Things like monitor cameras often do not work in Linux. So don't let it swing your decision.

[cityismine]

You should check out HP/compaq DV8000, it's got an athlon cpu and 17" screen.

[bettola]

in my opinion sony rulez! great notebooks with great design and components. Acer are pretty good but not like The Vaios.

[Sushi]

Sony: The Company that thought that installing rootkits on their customers computers and ripping off GPL'ed code in the process is a good idea.

I don't know about you guys, but I have decided to NOT buy ANY Sony-products. None.

[samir85]

I bought a Sony Vaio VGN-FE11H a month ago, which is also an Intel Centrino Duo System with nVidia 7400 go.
I think it perfoms very well under linux. You can check out the wiki page about it, which I edit: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/SonyVGN-FE11H