I'm a big fan of electrical gadgets and was browsing ebay when I came across a Sony Vaio N505X Ultra-Portable notebook going cheap - I paid just £90 for mine which was in pristine condition and included the official Vaio external CD-Rom drive, external floppy drive, port replicator, power supply, upgraded to 128MB of ram and upgraded 30GB hard drive. I already have a perfectly adequate desktop computer but thought it would be nice to make more use of my wireless router.
I personally think that the majority of laptops are rather bulky, the N505X, however, is one of the smallest laptops I have ever seen - its only 22mm thick and weighs around 1Kg! This product first hit the shelves about 8 years ago and even now in 2007 it doesn't look all that dated due to its size and clever
styling with the large Vaio logo embossed on the lid. The base and lid is cast from a magnesium alloy which is cold to the touch and emphasises the products’ quality – remember this was once a high end premium product which retailed at over £1500.
******Performance:*******
The Sony Vaio N505X was originally designed for windows 98 therefore its specification is very low by today’s standards. See below:-
Processor: Intel Celeron 333 Mhz Cache: 128 KB (on die) Memory: 64 MB (Upgradeable to 128 MB) Memory Information: 505-C1F 66Mhz (SDR) Hard Disk Drive: 6.4 GB Graphic Card: Neomagic MagicMedia 256AV Video Memory: 2 MB Display: 10.4" TFT XGA 1024x768
Ports on Unit: 1 PC Card Slot(s), 4 pins i.Link Port, 1 USB Port(s) (full / low speed ) Headphones Out, Docking Station Connector, Infrared, Microphone In.
PC Card Slots: 1 PCMCIA type I or 1 PCMCIA type II Keyboard: 84 Keys Mouse: Alps GlidePoint AC Adapter: PCGA-AC5E Operating System: Windows 98 Second Edition Weight: 1200g Dimensions (W x H x D): 259mm x 22mm x 208 mm Special Buttons: 1 PPK Buttons (Programmable Power Keys)
External Hardware: Included in the package is an External CD-Rom drive, External floppy disk drive and a Port Replicator.
Obviously, I didn’t want to be running Microsoft 98 so I installed Microsoft XP. (If you decide to do this then it is essential to have 128Mb of Ram installed) On installing XP I was pleasantly surprised to at how responsive the little Vaio was. In order to keep it like that it was important that I didn’t install loads of rubbish software, so I simply installed the basics:-
Microsoft Office 2003 Mozilla Firefox and Opera – (I hate Microsoft’s Internet Explorer) CCleaner Ad-Aware SE Peronal SpywareBlaster Spyware – Search And Destroy VLC Media Player – (Divx media works really well in this!)
This guide is extremely useful as following the steps dramatically improves your computer’s performance.
Unfortunately when I installed AVG Free antivirus software, the computer slowed right down to the point that it became really frustrating, so I uninstalled it. As I only use the Notebook occasionally as a second computer, I did not feel that this was too much of a problem, plus I have lots of anti-spyware programs on the machine so it is pretty well protected. I also run the CCleaner each time I finish using it which takes about 5 seconds and gets rid of all the temporary internet files and cookies etc. All the software listed above is FREEWARE (except Microsoft Office – obviously). They can be found at :-
In conclusion I am very happy with my purchase. Its really small and light making it ideal if you are on the move – it fits in the glove box of my car!! The performance is surprisingly good providing you only using it for word processing and internet browsing. It struggles a bit when playing media, however, it can do it. The battery life isn’t great – I have just bought a new battery and it lasts about 60mins. If you are looking for an ultra-portable laptop as a second computer on the cheap that looks the business then you should consider this or perhaps look at the N505SN model which has a Pentium II 400Mhz processor. They are going pretty cheap on ebay at the moment so take a look. If running XP, then I recommend you install the maximum 128MB of ram. Remember installing any antivirus software will slow this computer right down as it ONLY has an Intel Celeron 333Mhz processor!!! However, providing you don’t go on “dodgy websites” and install the software I have recommended above and update it and scan it for spyware regularly you should be okay.
I hope this has been of some help!! Kenzo123
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(+) cool and quite robust trackpad, good display,64-bit windows 7 (-) few connectors,dell drivers only, not realy for gameing (most models), finger print prone!
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