Sony said I can't upgrade the hardrive?!?

[miston]

I emailed Sony asking whether or not I could
1) upgrade to DDR-2 533MHz at a later date
2) whether installing a faster hardrive at a later date would be possible, and whether or not it would affect the warranty

Well, I found the answer to the first question on Tom's Hardware AND people correctly answered it in this forum as well (DDR memory is uses 184 pin while DDR-2 uses 240, so it wouldn't even fit, PLUS I'm sure they use different memory controllers).

Sony replied, affirming the memory issue, but they said that installing a different drive in a Sony Vaio notebook is not possible. The notebook I'm looking only offers a 4200RPM drive, which is way to slow, but the Sony screens are SO SO nice, its worth getting IF you can upgrade later.

Was Sony just saying that because they don't want Average Joe cracking open the laptop?

Surely you can replace it, unless they use some abnormal form factor and you can only get the drives from Sony or something?

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

You should be able to replace the drive, but laptop hard drives are slower...

 

[miston]

well, a laptop and a desktop hardrive of the equivalent RPM, the laptop is surely to be slower

but the norm nowdays is for laptops to have 5400 RPM drives, with most manufacturers giving the option for a 7200 RPM drive.

There's no excuse that Sony is using 4200 RPM drives, not to mention DDR 333MHz memory in their Sonoma laptops.

Their screens are just so f'in nice!

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Their excuse is weight and power consumption???

 

[bigtimeballer50]

first if u cahnge ur harddrive the warranty on ur sony or w/e is gona come off so if somehting gets damaged ur gona be screwed because u took out the sony harddrive but anyways yea u can change it they are just saynig no s o u can keep there harddrive and think that u dont need a change...

 

[miston]

Their excuse is weight and power consumption???

Well, the weight difference between a 4200 RPM and a 5400 RPM is surely just a matter of grams

And if they were so worried about power consumption they would use DDR-2 memory, which uses significantly less power than DDR

I think its just a matter of skimping AKA the bottom line

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

You are right about DDR2 using less voltage
However a 5400RPM hard drive would use up quite a bit more power.

 

[miston]

your right.....I could live with a 4200 RPM, since you mentioned battery life would be better

but with DDR-2 I could get plenty of RAM, which would speed, and save batter life due to less page file access (did I say that right....what was I trying to say)

 

[bigtimeballer50]

if its a laptop dont upgrade cuz laptops arent ment 2 be upgraded there for bussniss so just use it but if u want u can upgrade...