Great Computer!

Author's Rating:

Pros: fast, good quality, bonus software

Cons: shared video memory, bad speakers

The Bottom Line: 
This is one of the best computers you can buy.

Author's Review
Before I purchased this computer I carefully researched various computers to make sure I was getting the best computer that I could get for my hard earned money. I spent several hours reading online reviews and talking to computer salesmen/technicians. I came to the conclusion that the Sony Vaio PCV-RX850 was the computer to get. I have owned it for 4 months and I am still very happy with my purchase.

Believe it or not, all the electronic stores that I went to said that this Sony Vaio was the best computer to buy. They all said that they had never received any consumer complaints from people who bought this model of computer. This did say that Sony's lower-end models were prone to problems but not this one.

The Sony Vaio comes with over $300 worth of bonus software. This includes Sonic Stage, DVgate, and Movie Shaker. It is nice to have these bonus programs but so far I have not used any of them except for Sonic Stage. I found Sonic Stage to be very confusing so I use Windows Media Player instead. The other programs will become useful if I ever buy a DV camcorder. I can use some of these programs to edit my home movies but Sony warns that these programs do not work well on a professional level. In other words, if you are extremely picky you should upgrade to a more expensive editing program.

Windows XP Home Edition comes with this computer. It is made to be very simple for even beginners. Any idiot can use this program with no serious problems. I like it much more than Windows 98. Everything being made on the computer market right now is designed to work best with XP.

This computer does not come with a monitor so you will have to buy one separately. The matching monitor that says Sony is in fact made by a unknown company that sells this monitor to Sony. Sony merely slaps their logo on it. This monitor is very expensive and poor in quality. I decided to buy a ViewSonic monitor model# A70f instead. This monitor was the cheapest monitor in the store and surprisingly had the best picture quality over all the other monitors on display. Also, it came with a 3 year warranty. The Sony only came with a one year warranty.

The speakers that came with this computer are very lousy. They sound awful. The sound is very rough and unrealistic. They have no subwoofer so I don't get any bass. They do have a headphone jack so I can use my headphones instead. Also, these speakers plug directly into my computer so I don't need to plug them into the wall. This is greatly appreciated since I have a major lack of plug ins at my house.

The keyboard and mouse that came with this computer are very good. The keyboard has a plastic flap at the front for me to rest my hands on. It also has buttons at the top for me to use as shortcuts such as music, mail, internet, picture, and video. For example, I push "music" and I automatically go to my music program. This makes things very simple. The mouse has a thing on the top that I can roll back and forth which enables me to scroll web pages very easily.

This computer comes with an 80GB hard drive. When I add up C drive and D drive it only totals 74.5GB. I am not a computer technician so I have no idea where the rest of the hard drive is located. C drive only contains 16GB but everything automatically downloads to this drive so I sometimes feel annoyed by this. I am told that I can change it so D drive is smaller and C drive is bigger but I have been too lazy to figure out how. I usually only use about 13GB of my hard drive so I didn't really need an entire 80GB. I am not sure why anyone would need an 80GB hard drive.

This Sony uses a Pentium 4 2.4GHZ processor. It is really fast. I usually don't need to wait more than half a second for the computer to do a task. I am told that this processor is much more than I really need but I am not sure how a slower processor would compare. I found that getting a 2.4 is only a little more money than the slower processors. If you get a 2.5 or faster you end up paying a lot more for only a little more. 2.4 is the most cost effective at this time.

This computer has 512MB of ram. This is lots of ram. I will not want more for a very long time. When I do want more ram I can easily add more sticks of ram. I can upgrade to an amazing 1.5 GB of ram.

This computer uses 32MB of shared video memory. This means that instead of having its own video card it uses 32MB of the ram. I am not really into computer games so I have not found this to be a problem. My most elaborate game is Clive Barker's Undying. This computer has had no problem operating this game. If you are a heavy gamer then I suggest upgrading to a video card. I am told that you can upgrade to a video card very easily. There is already a slot inside the computer.

This computer has a 1.4MB floppy drive. It is hidden so you may not notice it at first. It is located under a flap on the front of the computer. This is good to have if you need to transfer word documents.

This computer comes with a cdrw burner and a dvd player. The cdrw burns cdrs at a speed of 32X. I have burned many cdrs and have had no problems. It only takes me 6 minutes to burn 80 minutes worth of music videos. The dvd player is excellent quality. Most dvd players pause for a split second in the middle of any movie that is dual-layered. I have never noticed any pausing with this player. I decided NOT to get a dvd burner because they are still very expensive. They are NOT worth the extra money. The cdrw burner is made by Nec and the dvd player is made by Toshiba.

I have only had a couple of minor problems with this computer so far. I once had too much stuff on C drive and my computer started to not work. I solved this by erasing a few things. It is important to make sure you have at least 2-3GB free on this drive for Windows to function properly. I have also had a problem with the "play all" function of my music folder. I click on it and nothing happens. I emailed Sony tech support and they took a few days to reply. I got a very long email on how to fix the problem. I have not bothered to follow the instructions yet. It seems like an awful lot of work to solve a minor problem.

You will not find a better computer for the price. It is only slightly more money than a clone. It is the exact same price as the HP with similar features. Sony doesn't actually make the contents of the computer but they do an excellent job of putting everything together. I got this computer discounted because I bought lots of stuff to go with it such as a printer. I got this discount my simply asking the manager at a store for one. I threatened to take my business elsewhere if he refused. This is a competitive world so don't ever pay full price.

Normally, I don't recommend Sony products because they are over-rated but this computer is definitely a good product. You simply can't go wrong.

UPDATE: I must add one more piece of information. When you restart this computer you must make sure there is nothing in the cdrw, dvd, or floppy drive. Once I forgot to take out a floppy disc and I tried to restart my computer. I got this message that said I had a non-system disc error. I could not get my computer to work so I took the floppy disc out and this fixed the problem. Apparently, this computer is designed to automatically attempt to read the floppy first thus preventing the computer from properly restarting.

Another important thing I must add is in regards to the headphone jack. There is a lot of plastic around the jack so some headphones don't fit properly even if they are the same size. The most compatible headphones are the ones that are factory angled because they fit the best. If your headphones are not angled you can buy attachments for only a few dollars to make them compatible. For more clarification on this subject you can email me at roadtocanada@hotmail.com