Mac to Sony and now maybe back to Mac ?

[bigbadneil]

I thought I'd chime in as I have both a Vaio Z and a 15" Macbook Pro.

To address some concerns of yours:

Size: the Z is significantly lighter and smaller than my MBP. While the MBP isn't heavy by any means, it is heavy relative to the Z.

Space: Seems to be your largest concern. You can easily mod the optical drive in the Z to fit a standard 2.5" laptop drive. I believe there is a 9.5mm height limitation, so currently the largest drive you can put in is a 750gb HD. There should be a 1tb 9.5mm laptop drive coming out later this year. So in total - if you just modded your optical bay - you could have a 750gb + 128gb SSD. The Z also now has an option for a 512gb SSD (I believe it's a quad raid 0 array).

The stock SSD in the Z is not very easy to replace depending on the model you have. Sony uses proprietary parts, so you cannot use just any old 2.5" drive in place of the stock SSD without modification. That said, if you have the cash - you can call Sony and order the proprietary 512gb SSD and install quite easily.

So in total - if money was no object - and you wanted to max out your Z and still have an SSD you would:

1. Pay the cash for the 512gb SSD upgrade
2. Remove the optical bay in exchange for a standard 2.5" bay and either buy a 750gb HD now, or a 1tb drive later this year.

Thanks but I have given up on the idea of the MB Pro and will get the 11"MBA and a iMac...............problem is I dnt want to have to wait for the customized iMac 4 to 6 weeks in Malaysia so I was just trying to find out if there was a huge difference in the stock iMac or the fully loaded iMac ($1800 worth)
Thanks

 

[Blu101]

Thanks but I have given up on the idea of the MB Pro and will get the 11"MBA and a iMac...............problem is I dnt want to have to wait for the customized iMac 4 to 6 weeks in Malaysia so I was just trying to find out if there was a huge difference in the stock iMac or the fully loaded iMac ($1800 worth)
Thanks

Do you even need an SSD??

 

[bigbadneil]

Do you even need an SSD??

I dont know, I am just trying to pick everyone brains to see what is best for me.
Money is not an issue "time is" can I just get the stock 27" and upgrade it later if I need to??

 

[six.four]

I dont know, I am just trying to pick everyone brains to see what is best for me.
Money is not an issue "time is" can I just get the stock 27" and upgrade it later if I need to??

memory + hard drive are "easily" user replaceable.

 

[johnnyturbouk]

how about the 13"MBP and do the second hdd caddy
buy 2 240 gb ssds and you will have 480gb of storage and all the unadulterated bliss of the macbook

god, im so glad the days of windows laptop are behind me

 

[bigbadneil]

Looks like I have some luck with getting the 11" MBA off the shelf in KL with 128 GB HD but it only has 2 GB Ram...............is that going to be OK
emails
internet
pictures
wathch movies while traveling
Could I take it to a local computer shop and have another 2 GB installed at a later date??

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Looks like I have some luck with getting the 11" MBA off the shelf in KL with 128 GB HD but it only has 2 GB Ram...............is that going to be OK
emails
internet
pictures
wathch movies while traveling
Could I take it to a local computer shop and have another 2 GB installed at a later date??

Yes to the activity, and no to the upgrade, as the RAM is soldered onto the logic board.

 

[gwsat]

bigbadneil -- I still think you should consider the 13 inch 2.14GHZ 256GB Ultimate MBA. I have had my 13 inch Ultimate MBA for 5 months. I run Windows 7 and a several Windows apps on it in VMware Fusion's Unity mode simultaneously with a bunch of OS X apps. Before I got the MBA I had been running the same setup on a 17 inch MBP for over a year. It works wonderfully well. It has been reasonably fast with no beach balling and no crashes. I store media on a Toshiba 1TB portable USP drive, so my 256GB of flash storage is only about 65 percent used. The Toshiba USB portable drive is available at Amazon for a little over $100. This has been the perfect solution for me and it seems to me that it might work just as well for you.

 

[bigbadneil]

bigbadneil -- I still think you should consider the 13 inch 2.14GHZ 256GB Ultimate MBA. I have had my 13 inch Ultimate MBA for 5 months. I run Windows 7 and a several Windows apps on it in VMware Fusion's Unity mode simultaneously with a bunch of OS X apps. Before I got the MBA I had been running the same setup on a 17 inch MBP for over a year. It works wonderfully well. It has been reasonably fast with no beach balling and no crashes. I store media on a Toshiba 1TB portable USP drive, so my 256GB of flash storage is only about 65 percent used. The Toshiba USB portable drive is available at Amazon for a little over $100. This has been the perfect solution for me and it seems to me that it might work just as well for you.

Thanks but the issue is I dont want to have to wait 4 to 6 weeks to get it. I live in Malaysia and work on an Oil Rig, I get home on Tuesday and want to walk into a Apple shop and walk out with it there and then, not place an order and get it 2 months later.

 

[gwsat]

Thanks but the issue is I dont want to have to wait 4 to 6 weeks to get it. I live in Malaysia and work on an Oil Rig, I get home on Tuesday and want to walk into a Apple shop and walk out with it there and then, not place an order and get it 2 months later.

In the US most Apple Stores keep 13 inch Ultimate MBAs in stock but I don't know whether stores in other countries do that or not.

 

[bigjobby]

Just curious but is the emailing system reliant on a Windows-only VPN system to gain access? If so, can the VPNing possibly be done on OS X? If so, you can do away with Windows altogether. I can't see the emailing system itself using non-standard protocols which OS X is more than capable of using.

 

[DarwinOSX]

Sony makes cheap crappy laptops which they don't support.

 

[MacCrackAddict]

i dont mean to be rude but if you really need to run windows programs, get a mac because they rock and just run parallels so you can use any windows program with ease, without having to constantly reboot to use your windows applications (programs)? sorry if this is off topic but it seemed to be in you original dilemma and the thread has no mention of it that i can see

http://www.parallels.com/uk/landingpage/dskd63-5/?source=g_uk&gclid=CKXv6-j0iKgCFQoZ4QodrDujqg

 

[Maven1975]

Sony makes cheap crappy laptops which they don't support.

I am a Mac fan as well, but perhaps you should take a strong look at Apples latest line of Notebooks. (15" in paticular)

Apple has service beat across the board. However, they have let their Mac line slip badly while they are swimming in their ocean of cash that is iOS.

I wish they never invented that thing.....

I would put Sony's top end stuff right there with Apple. Aside from service issues that may occur.

 

[bigjobby]

i dont mean to be rude but if you really need to run windows programs, get a mac because they rock and just run parallels so you can use any windows program with ease, without having to constantly reboot to use your windows applications (programs)? sorry if this is off topic but it seemed to be in you original dilemma and the thread has no mention of it that i can see

http://www.parallels.com/uk/landingpage/dskd63-5/?source=g_uk&gclid=CKXv6-j0iKgCFQoZ4QodrDujqg

Parallels (or any other VM) would be a good solution but I would recommend that the OP thoroughly researches any known issues that may occur before considering the implementation.

 

[bigbadneil]

OK I have had some luck and have found a Apple store in KL that has the Quad Core in stock with 4 GB ram..........I will upgrade that to 8 GB seeing as i will be running Parallels and that will be my base computer.
I am still thinking about the 11" MacBook Air but can’t find it anywhere in KL with 4 GB ram .........128 hard drive OK but the ram is the problem.

Found them on Amazon.com but they wont ship to Malaysia, I might have to get it on Amazon and ship it to a buddies house and get him to hand carry it to the rig in Angola for me.

Apple guy just emailed me and the extra 4GB of ram for the iMac is RM500 = $166

 

[iMackPro]

OK I have had some luck and have found a Apple store in KL that has the Quad Core in stock with 4 GB ram..........I will upgrade that to 8 GB seeing as i will be running Parallels and that will be my base computer.
I am still thinking about the 11" MacBook Air but can’t find it anywhere in KL with 4 GB ram .........128 hard drive OK but the ram is the problem.

Found them on Amazon.com but they wont ship to Malaysia, I might have to get it on Amazon and ship it to a buddies house and get him to hand carry it to the rig in Angola for me.

Apple guy just emailed me and the extra 4GB of ram for the iMac is RM500 = $166

you really wont need the ram since its a secondary computer and with the activities youre going to do on it. but im sure if youre anything like me, if you only get 2 gigs theres going to be those couple of times where youre just kicking yourself for not getting the 4 gigs. however, my buddy only has 2 in his and he uses it for the basics.. email facebook and watching tv and videos and his is wicked fast.

non of that porbably helped sorry

 

[gwsat]

bigbadneil -- I agree that if you can find an 11 inch MBA with 4GB of RAM it would be a good choice. VMware Fusion and Windows 7 run extremely well on my 13 inch Ultimate MBA, although it has only 4GB of RAM.

If you want to run Windows on any new Mac I strongly second the recommendation made by another poster that you get a virtualization program to allow you to run Windows apps in tandem with OS X apps. Although I have always used VMware Fusion and like it a lot, Parallels has a good reputation, too. You couldn't go wrong with either one. If you go that route with an MBP, however, by all means upgrade it to 8GB of RAM. RAM is reasonably priced these days and any virtualization program benefits from more RAM.