sony vaio laptop any use?

[samiam]

howarye, will shortly be purchasing a laptop for production and performance... so i'm needin something cut out for a serious bit of toil. hearin lots of good blah about toshiba and hp but what about sony vaio? i'm not fussed about what it looks like so i dont want to be forkin out 4 digits for a nissan motor in a mercedes shell (it just needs to be robust and fast). will be running ableton/reason for sure, but i'm yet to ascertain what soundcard or controllers would be best... i've had a lot of issues with incompatible hardware so i dont wanna mess that one up. anyone know if the Edirol FA101 is any use?

i love my pods and faders for controllers, and i'll need at least 4 ins/outs on the card... aside from that i just want pristine sound quality. yet it still seems like the sea of options available to the consumer yeilds no edge. does anyone know how to decipher the meaning of all this hideousness and buy the right stuff? are there simple codes of conduct to follow?

truth be told, i'm blind in the water when it comes to whats hot (or not) so recommended specs, tips or cautions would be greatly appreciated. sorry for goin on and on, just wanna get it right.

thanks people.

[vadarfone]

DO NOT BUY A VAIO.

Everyone I know (including myself) who has a Vaio thinks they are shit.

Terrible battery life, weak construction, aweful customer service when something goes wrong, rubbish esoteric generic drivers.

Basically you would be better off buying ANYTHING else.

[samiam]

cheers mate.

is your vaio old or new? i heard there's a new 2006 range out in a couple of weeks thats supposed to be spankin (direct from the salesmans mouth...).

have ye heard of or used anything in particular that you'd suggest as preferable.

thanks again.

[vadarfone]

Hi Mate...

All the new Vaio's look good on paper and look good when you play with them for the first time. I have had two Vaios. One bought in 2004 and one replaced (after a FFUUCCKIING hassle in 2005). Both are toss.

I think of all the Laptops I have used, Toshiba, Panasonic and IBM are the ones I liked the most, although Samsung are pretty solid from what I hear.

Basically forget the RAM and HD spec and concentrate on the quality of the other stuff... You can upgrade a Laptop Hard disk in 2 seconds (you will most probably want to if you are doing audio stuff (the standard 5400rpm jobby that comes with most Laptops is not up to the job)) and RAM is easy to get too... Just make sure it has space for a shit load of aftermarket RAM, a proven track record of not ****ing up (hit the forums) loads of USB ports, a big screen, a solid build quality (rag the show model around till the screen distorts, that is what they are there for) and a good warranty.

Good luck mate, and remember...

DON'T BUY A VAIO. EVER

[vadarfone]

Come to think of it mate, I have used a shit load of Laptops and Hardware in my time... If you want to have a chat about it, hit me up on MSN Messenger. I live in Japan so the times are going to be ****ed up a little, but I will help you where I can!

mrgame_cat@hotmail.com

Nice one.