Sony Vaio laptop, need advice

[Suy]

Hello,
I am planning to buy this http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834127278
laptop, but there are some question i want to know..
1)How long do you think ATI 5650 will last, ? what I mean is like, will this laptop able to play game like diablo 3, guild war 2 .... those type of future game ...

I know we don't have the requirement for those game, but they officially stated that it will run on the mid-range computer,,so do you think 5650 is in the mid-range for 5 years?
And, I would like to know if I can run these at mid- setting, and guild war 1 and World of warcraft , Highest setting?

2)What do you think of this computer,(is it good, in term of performance for 5 years) if i can get this by 630$ CAD

3) sony vaio reliable?

4)is the cooling system good , when gaming?

5)is it possible to create a new partition when I reformat the laptop, but not in the disk management where you use shrink?
So if the laptop originally has C drive only and I created a new D drive .... and when I use the recovery partition, is it going to remove everything including my my new partition or D drive?

Thank you !!

 

[WR2]

1. Reviews and benchmark tests for Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics.
http/www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5650-Graphics-Card-Review.24035.0.html
http/www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5650.23697.0.html
WoW at highest settings, no problem. Future? Outlook dim for adequate performance 5 years down the road. Just look back 5 years and see how the Mobility Radeon x1300 performs with todays games.

2. SONY VAIO E Series Core i5 460M 15.5" LCD HD 5650 4GB RAM 320GB HDD is a very good value $CAD 630. It's going to have good overall performance in everything but gaming over five years.

3. Yes, one of the better brands for reliability over time. (unless you drop it, spill liquids or otherwise abuse it)

4. Cooling is adequate.

5. Yes, you can create multiple partitions. You can only format a partition that's already been created. At some point you'll have to use a disk management utility to create a new partition. You can have up to 2 primary (bootable) partitions per physical disk. You can have as many logical partitions as you want. When you use the OS restore/recovery utility you'll be reinstalling the OS into the C drive. You might have the option to do a OS reinstall into a different primary partition, but I wouldn't plan on being able to do that with the default recovery utility program..


Review of a similar, but not identical Sony Vaio E VPC-EB3 laptop: http/www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Sony-Vaio-VPC-EB3Z1E-BQ-Notebook.40121.0.html

 

[Suy]

Hey, thx for replying
For question5 , I'm still confused...cause I heard sony vaio usually only have C drive,
I was just thinking, so if i create a new D drive...in case if the OS corrupted, and I have to use the recovery utility, will the D drive removed, so which mean all my file in D drive will be deleted...
that's not what I want

 

[WR2]

1 physical drive.
That can be partitioned into 2 primary bootable partitions.
And as many logical partitions as you want... on all the one physical hard drive.

More than likely your laptop will have a D: drive on it. That will be the 'recovery partition'. And if you run the recovery option it will restore drive C.

 

[Suy]

Sorry, I probably did not explain very well
recovery partition= recovery utility
The D drive I am referring is not the recovery partition, it's the new D drive I created,

C for OS, D for storage, X drive whatever it is called (the recovery partition)
so I use the recovery utility(everything is restored and new partition (D drive) is created), now I have C and D drive..
now, when OS is corrupted, I can't access D drive... I have to use recovery..
so do you think they will give you the option to restore the system in C, while keeping the file in D drive?(not repair option, it's new format in C drive) As you know the factory settings has C drive only

 

[WR2]

Sorry, I probably did not explain very well
recovery partition= recovery utility
The D drive I am referring is not the recovery partition, it's the new D drive I created,

Your laptop will arrive with a D partition already on it. It will be the recovery partition - usually about 10GB in size and will have an ISO image of your factory installed OS and software.
C for your primary OS, D for the recovery partition as shipped from the factory.

 

[Suy]

what about the new drive I created for storage?
and I don't understand why you keep saying the new drive that I created is the recovery partition??
I am confused...

 

[WR2]

Don't be confused.
Before you ever touch the laptop it will have a C and D partition. D will be the recovery partition.
Anything you do after you get the laptop ... will have drives letters beyond the C..D and DVD drive letter.

 

[Suy]

Oh, I got what you mean...
ok , so my new drive for example is F

can you still answer this question?
"
C for OS, F for storage, D drive (the recovery partition)
so I use the recovery utility(everything is restored and new partition (F drive) is created), now I have C and F drive..
now, when OS is corrupted, I can't access F drive... I have to use recovery..
so do you think they will give you the option to restore the system in C, while keeping the file in F drive?(not repair option, it's new format in C drive) As you know the factory settings has C ,D drive only "

and the resson why I use recovery utility at first ,because I don't want to use the disk management to create partition

 

[WR2]

Each partition is a separate 'logical drive'.
When you use the system recovery tool it will only work with 1 logical drive. You may, or may not, have an option to choose which logical drive to use for the OS restore.

The recovery utility will probably not create a new partition for you. You will need to use some type of disk management software (with Win7's own Disk Management utility) or an utility program like Easus Partition Master.
Physical hard drives are identified with numbers; disk0, disk1, etc. (optical drives and removeable media are a special case)
Partitions are identified with letters; C, D, etc.
Drive C: gets assigned to the first active primary partition recognized on the first physical hard disk in the system.

Why do you feel you need a data partition on your HDD?

 

[Suy]

because if my OS failed, I want to restore back to factory settings,
then the C drive will be restored and formatted, and my new drive like F still keeping my file... I don't want to lose all of my file just because there is some problem in C drive and I have to use recovery..
My old laptop work that way pretty well, it will only format C drive when I restore it...but my old laptop originally have two drive C and D, plus the recovery partition
but the factory setting in sony vaio only have C drive, so the new drive I created might be deleted
That's what I am concerning..

 

[WR2]

It's very unlikely you're 'OS will fail' beyond the ability of System Restore or a 'repair installation' to recover from.

Don't think for a minute that having your data on a separate partition on the same physical hard drive gives it any more than a fractional amount of extra protection.

You're much more likely to have a hard disk mechanical failure take the whole drive out.

Get yourself an external HDD like a Seagate Freeagent go and do some real backing up.
Use a USB thumb drive for date backups between whole system backups.

 

[Suy]

Best answer selected by Suy.

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar