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Sony VAIO PCV-RX741 Desktop (Athlon 1800+, 512 MB DDR RAM, 60 GB hard drive)

Sony VAIO PCV-RX741 Desktop (Athlon 1800+, 512 MB DDR RAM, 60 GB hard drive)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Top Of the line.
Review: First off if you are a serious gamer and don't plan on upgrading the video card, look elsewhere. Sony does a good job at outfitting their desktops with good features and software for home users, however the graphics sub-system on their low to mid priced desktops (Sis Real256) is not for playing the latest games at high quality settings. Their high-end systems (RX780-790) have entry level gaming cards that will play the latest games for another 6-12 months at high quality settings (a Geforce 4MX, which a cleverly renamed GeForce2).

Okay, if you are still interested in a Sony then this isn't a bad choice. However as a "budget" oriented computer the pricing is on this system out of line with the rest of their lower end value line (RV74* series). I suggested instead:

For ... less you can get the RX740 with the same basic features (same CPU, graphics sub-system, software, etc) just half the memory (256M). Since you can by 256M of PC-2100 DDR for ... and stick it in two minutes, this makes more sense to me.

If you want a fairly powerful desktop for home video, music, and moderate gaming, then spend ... more and get one of the 750 series like this:

RX755 - 2 GHZ P4, 512M DDR-Ram, all the features of the above system and a few more.

Frankly I think that right now the P4 is a better investment in the long term. The Athlon CPU line doesn't support SSE2 (special instructions that speed up software), has a much slower memory sub-system (about 1/2 the bandwidth), and less on-die cache than a P4 (again about 1/2). The Athlon used to be a better value for your money, but with 1.5GHz Athlons (aka "Model 1800") selling for just ...less than a 2.0 GHz P4 it seems crazy not to spend the few extra bucks and get an extra year of life out of your computer. Plus whereas Athlons are designed to last for about 5 years, P4s are designed to last over 10, something to think about if you want to pass this system on to a relative or kid in a few years.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not bad but there are better options
Review: First off if you are a serious gamer and don't plan on upgrading the video card, look elsewhere. Sony does a good job at outfitting their desktops with good features and software for home users, however the graphics sub-system on their low to mid priced desktops (Sis Real256) is not for playing the latest games at high quality settings. Their high-end systems (RX780-790) have entry level gaming cards that will play the latest games for another 6-12 months at high quality settings (a Geforce 4MX, which a cleverly renamed GeForce2).

Okay, if you are still interested in a Sony then this isn't a bad choice. However as a "budget" oriented computer the pricing is on this system out of line with the rest of their lower end value line (RV74* series). I suggested instead:

For ... less you can get the RX740 with the same basic features (same CPU, graphics sub-system, software, etc) just half the memory (256M). Since you can by 256M of PC-2100 DDR for ... and stick it in two minutes, this makes more sense to me.

If you want a fairly powerful desktop for home video, music, and moderate gaming, then spend ... more and get one of the 750 series like this:

RX755 - 2 GHZ P4, 512M DDR-Ram, all the features of the above system and a few more.

Frankly I think that right now the P4 is a better investment in the long term. The Athlon CPU line doesn't support SSE2 (special instructions that speed up software), has a much slower memory sub-system (about 1/2 the bandwidth), and less on-die cache than a P4 (again about 1/2). The Athlon used to be a better value for your money, but with 1.5GHz Athlons (aka "Model 1800") selling for just ...less than a 2.0 GHz P4 it seems crazy not to spend the few extra bucks and get an extra year of life out of your computer. Plus whereas Athlons are designed to last for about 5 years, P4s are designed to last over 10, something to think about if you want to pass this system on to a relative or kid in a few years.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Yesterday's news
Review: Give me a break! The Athlon 1800+ (which only runs at 1.50GHZ - don't be fooled) is a dinosaur. It is more than 1GHZ behind the top of the line. Why spend over a grand for this when you can get a 2GHz + machine for the same money?

And the graphics on this thing are even worse - ancient technology from a tiny chipset company. Did you know that the embeded graphics (not a card) doesn't even have it's own memory? It steals it from your main memory.

Stay away from this thing - it's too little for too much.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Top Of the line.
Review: I have been using this system for a while now, I must say it is very fast! I did some comperasment to Penium4 1.8 Nothwood.
The Athlon 1800+ smoked Penium4 in almost evry aspect.
Without a doubt AThlon XP is much faster from Peniums (same clock) Athlon have diffrent architecture from Penium4, they meke more operation per second thats why the are faster.
Athlon XP + Windows XP = Extreeme Perfomace

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very good system.
Review: This is the first time I have given 5 stars to a Sony PC. In the past, I have found most of them to be overpriced, but this time they have hit the price-point on a very capable machine. This unit has as its heart the AMD Athalon 1800 chip, which effectively gives it a speed of 1.5 gigahertz. This is enough for any task you'll need to run. Its RAM is a very fast (DDR) 512 megabytes, while its video card is a respectable 32 megs (this may be the Achilles Heel here, but a new card for serious gamers or folks running CAD pgms isn't hard to buy or install). There is a good CD burner, an ample 60 gig hard drive and some nice speakers as well. A monitor needs to be added, and for a PC like this, the now much cheaper 17" flat panels (look at the Envision for a good bargain) would make for a great match. Kudos to Sony for making an affordable machine (that's nice to look at too) that 99% of PC users will be happy with as shipped.


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