Sony VAIO RA820G user reviews (P4 540 3.2 GHz)

2.5 stars

"Flashy, non-intuitive features" on January 26, 2005

Pros: Fast, quiet, seems like a lot of great features.

Cons: Documentation might as well be non-existant. Use of features non-intuitive to downright confusing. Frequent lockups when the system shouldn't even be stressed. I'm ready to return mine.

4.5 stars

"Great PC but rather pricey" on July 19, 2005 by afriet223

Pros: Very fast and lots of features

Cons: No fm tuner for Media Center

Summary: This was my first Sony and I couldn't be happier. The only thing I would like to have is the fm tuner. It is VERY fast and customer support from Sony has always been premier. CPU is a little on the large side but it is styled very nice and is silent.

4.5 stars

"Amazing. Simply amazing." on March 17, 2005 by ExasperatedElite

Pros: quieter than anything else; dual-layer DVD burning; media center 2005; innovative design.

Cons: The little panels on the front are kinda flimsy; no monitor by default

Summary: I've had this PC for about a month now and it's the greatest piece of technology in my house; my other PC I had before this, even after routine, bi-weekly, maintenance, is acting up. This is the greatest thing I've ever had... nothing compares. Once again, Sony did it.

4.5 stars

"Amazed at power" on March 11, 2005 by Sat Kartar

Pros: Extremely Quiet

Cons: Proprietary limitations

Summary: I purchased this computer for value ($999 because JR world was about to go with the 830g) and the near silent operation that has been touted. Not let down in the least, rather I have been amazed after living with a 500 mhz dell inspiron 7500 on its last legs--I didn't know computers could run so fast and clean. I did have an audigy 2 zs preinstalled so I could keep the warranty and run the klipsch gmxa 2.1 speakers I so love with best support, frankly I was surprised by the mediocre audio that comes standard and would never have considered this computer without being able to upgrade the soundcard. Purchased the sony hs95p monitor to go along with it and get the ergobright features, also very nice but I'm sure the contrast is not the best for text, at least it doesn't seem to be.

I was inspired to write this to correct the post that says it doesn't come with advertised os, which caused me to waste a bunch of time, which maybe I can save others from. If you click on control panel--> system it does indeed list mce 2002 as the os, however, there are a bunch of other system information tabs you can bring up within the comp that list xp professional or whatever as the os, and it turns out these are one and all inaccurate. If you fire up mce itself, you notice that all the advertised features are present, and if you go to settings-->general-->about media center-->software version you'll see that you are in fact running mce 2005, plus the windows update site will offer you rollup 1 with hdtv support for mce 2005.

I should also point out that sony in its more or less unforgivably arrogant proprietary fashion has utilize a dc power in plug on the stereo speakers which fits no universal adaper I can find, which means you can't use the speakers on any other computer (the speakers run on dc power that has to be plugged into the back panel), so I couldn't try and upgrade my 4-year-old daughter's pc. I admit to believing the speakers were more or less useless, but come on, that's creating garbage to fill landfills on purpose just so as to make money.

Enjoy!