MESSAGE
| DATE | 2006-06-21 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Blue Tooth Laptop
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Joel Santo Domingo - PC Magazine
June 21
The Sony VAIO VGC-RC310G ($2,249 direct, without monitor) is the
latest version of the company's well-received RC series of Media
Center desktops. Following on the heels of the RC110G and the RC210G,
the new RC310G notably features the first Blu-ray optical drive I've
seen on a PC. Blu-ray drives, in addition to DVD and CVD recording,
are capable of burning data-rich optical discs in capacities of 25GB
(single-layer) and 50GB (dual-layer). This is a potential boon to film
students and other home-video enthusiasts, since it means that you can now
download your HD content from a camcorder and then burn it to BD (Blu-ray
discs). Unfortunately, like all emerging technologies, the Blu-ray drive
and associated software in this machine are very "version 1.0."
The RC310G sits in a case similar to those of the RC series systems before
it: a dark tower with slick chrome accents. I particularly like how the
backlit "VAIO" logo shines through the case while the system is powered
up and virtually disappears when it is off. The only outward indication
that this is a Blu-ray PC is a subtle logo sticker on the drive door.
Like its forebears, the RC310G has a separate prewired compartment for
SATA hard drives. Though my test system came with only one 300GB drive,
the VAIO's hard drive area is easy to access and can hold up to three
more drives. You can use the included Intel Storage Matrix software to
link these drives together in a RAID 1 array for data integrity or in a
RAID 0 configuration to glean more drive speed. Since the RC310G uses a
tower-style case, it has the expansion room that a digital-living system
like its sibling, the Sony VAIO XL2, lacks. It is, however, still a tower,
so shoehorning the system into your A/V rack will be difficult.
The RC310G is powered by a dual-core Pentium D 940 processor running
at 3.2 GHz and a 256MB nVidia GeForce 7600GT graphics card. Both are
improvements over the last-generation RC210G model (a 3.0-GHz Pentium D
930 and 128MB ATI Radeon x300), though the faster graphics card is the
system's biggest boost. The combination gives you the power to encode your
own video from various sources, including the latest-generation 1080p HD
camcorders and plain old standard-def TV content from the Media Center
Edition DVR. Thanks to the graphics card, the RC310G is able to run games
without stuttering. In testing, I got a smooth 108 frames per second on
the Doom 3 test at 1,024-by-768, so you can certainly play 3D games at
modest resolutions. Results on other tests, such as on Adobe Photoshop
CS2, were above average, and the RC310G's Windows Media Encoder score
of 8:35 is very good for a media-oriented dual-core system. Overall,
the system is a content-creation workhorse.
Burning Blu-ray discs (BDs), though, was trickier than I expected. One
of my first attempts at minting one proved unsuccessful. The included
Roxio DigitalMedia SE program works in the typical fashion: You
choose which files to burn, click Record, insert a disc, and then wait
around for a while. I chose a mix of files (22GB in all) to burn on the
single-layer BD and started the burning process. (The drive in the RC310G
is dual-layer, but so far, we've received only single-layer media from
the vendors.) DigitalMedia SE reported accurately that a 2X BD burn
takes approximately 44 minutes, so I walked away for a bit. About 20
minutes later I came back to check the system, moved the mouse, and
closed a few background windows I had inadvertently left open. After
this, DigitalMedia SE stopped burning and gave me an ominous message
that the burn had been interrupted by a background process, and that all
applications should be closed during operation. I was shocked, because
this isn't an issue with DVD or CD burns—at least not since the early
days of DVD and CD-RW drives.
To my dismay, I had my first BD coaster! This regrettable event may
have been caused by quirks within the DigitalMedia SE software, or,
since the Blu-ray drive is a first-run piece of hardware, it may have
unresolved or undiscovered problems. Still, a system shouldn't spit
coasters fresh out of the box. Anyway, a subsequent burn to a Blu-ray
rewritable disc worked just fine, as did other BD-R archive attempts;
I'm assuming this is because I left the system alone and had no extraneous
software running. My initial mistake was a painful one, with 25GB and 50GB
BD discs costing $20 and $60 a pop. And the post-burn data-verification
process was just as tedious as the burn (it took about 44 minutes).
Sony included Ulead's BD Disc Recorder for converting HD video from
a camcorder to HD-quality Blu-ray video discs. (Sadly, at the time of
testing I couldn't get my hands on an HD camcorder, so we couldn't try
out the HD video aspect of the RC310G, but stay tuned.)
If you accept that BD is a great backup medium, then the RC310G is a fine
MCE PC for media hounds who want to live on the bleeding edge. It is also
notable that the BD-drive equipped RC310G is ahead of HD DVD−equipped
PCs such as the Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650, since for now HD DVD is
read-only. So far, however, commercial BD video titles are few and far
between, and since home players are scarce, it may be a while before you
can burn an HD title onto BD for your family and friends. Once media
prices go down and more living rooms have BD players, the RC310G and
its successors should become more attractive.
See how the Sony VAIO VGC-RC310G measures up to similar systems in our
desktop comparison chart.
Benchmark Test Results Check out the Sony VAIO VGC-RC310G's test results.
More Desktop Reviews:
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