Sony VAIO PCG-GRZ630 Laptop (2.40-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive)

by Sony

Product Details

Product Manual [1.40mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 7.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 14 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000083GME
• Item model number: PCG-GRZ630
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,502 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 9, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Lightweight and more powerful than many current desktops, the Sony Vaio PCG-RGZ630 notebook is a portable workhorse that will effectively handle all your mobile computing tasks without incapacitating your bank account.

Driven by a robust 2.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor and an impressive 512 MB of DDR SDRAM memory (expandable to a whopping 1,024 MB), the PCG-GRZ630 is ready for even the most demanding applications. The unit’s 32 MB ATI Mobility Radeon 7500C graphics chipset may have trouble smoothly rendering complex 3-D games and animations but will easily handle everything else. The most noteworthy difference between this and the pricier top-of-the-line machine in Sony’s GRZ series, the GRZ660, is DVD writing capabilities. You can’t burn DVDs with this unit, but you can use the removable DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive to watch movies, record and play audio CDs, and back up data. An integrated 40 GB hard disk is ready for your programs and frequently accessed files.

Measuring 1.8 by 12.9 by 10.7 inches, the unit is of average size. It is, however, rather lightweight at 6.9 pounds with one battery or 7.5 pounds with battery and optical drive. Sony has installed a large 15-inch XGA TFT viewing screen (1,024 x 768 resolution) and integrated stereo speakers to enhance your multimedia experience, and an 86-key QWERTY keyboard with electrostatic touchpad to help you better control your applications. Other useful amenities include a Memory Stick media slot, three USB ports, a super-fast IEEE 1394 port for data transfers from peripherals such as digital camcorders, a 56K modem for low-speed Internet and e-mail access, and a 10Base-T/100Base-TX Ethernet interface for high-speed connectivity.

The PCG-GRZ630 is preloaded with a wide variety of software, including Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Money 2003, and an impressive array of audio, video, and photo utilities.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very portable desktop., April 24, 2003

By 

"dardenkoa" (Charlottesville, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony VAIO PCG-GRZ630 Laptop (2.40-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive) (Personal Computers)

I have had my Sony GRZ630 for about 1 month now. I am more and more pleased and impressed with it every day. This laptop's power and speed is certainly comparable to most of today's desktops.
I was debating between a Dell Laptop and a Sony Vaio. I wanted desktop performance since portability is not that big of an issue for me. This laptop weighs in at 7.5 lbs not including the large power adapter. I think the total weight with all my accessories (power adapter, trackball mouse, portable surge portector, and wireless pc card) and the laptop combined is about 10 lbs. Yes, that's pretty heavy to carry around on foot. BUT I don't mind carrying the weight from my house to my car, from my car to work. I do carry my laptop to work everyday. The weight has yet to bother me. I would not recommend this laptop for people who go to work on foot. However, if you commute to work via a car, carrying this for 20 feet at a time is certainly not bad at all.
The little touches that Sony added for the laptop make this machine that much more superior than others. I compared the GRZ630 to my friend's Dell.
1. Sony has added flaps on the PCMCIA slots. When no cards are inserted, the flap protects the ports. Dell left the PCMCIA slots wide open.
2. Sony has a cover for the monitor and parallel ports while Dell again left those ports wide open for dust and what have you.
3. This laptop has 3 USB ports instead of the normal 2 USB ports for most laptops.
4. Memory stick and iLink abilities are awesome. If you have a Sony digital camera, you will fall in love with the memory slot on the laptop. Not only can you transfer your photos from your camera to laptop quickly without wires, you can also use your existing memory sticks as extra storage.
5. the pegs to raise the laptop for better cooling. not many laptops include this much needed feature.
This machine's processing speed and included memeory more than serves the needs of having multiple resource hungry applications opened at once. I am a web designer. I can have my Photoshop, Flash MX, Dreamweaver, FTP manager, messengers, and outlook express all opened at once without any decrease in performance. Now that is power! The 32 mb video card is great. I often hook up my 19 inch Trinitron monitor to the laptop for duel monitor usage. I can display both screens at 1024 by 768 at 32 bit color at the same time without any problems what so ever.
In short, if you are looking for a desktop replacement, this is the laptop for you. At 7.5 lbs, it is not truly mobile, but it is portable. But hey, this one has the DVD/CD-Burner combo drive, P-4 2.4 ghz processor, 512 mb of ram, 32 mb radeon video card and a 15 inch screen. I doubt you can find this spec in any laptop weighing under 4.7 lbs (which qualifies as mobile in my view) at this price.

The only complaint I have for the laptop is that the USB ports are 1.1 instead of 2.0. But the firewire port makes up for the lack of 2.0 USB ports.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars List of Consecutive Problems, May 2, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Sony VAIO PCG-GRZ630 Laptop (2.40-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive) (Personal Computers)

I've had CPU cooling fan problems (it doesnot work) the unit becomes so hot you can probably prepare your Omelette on it. I spent lot of hours on call for service. Also I had DVDROM/CDRW Drive Problems, Keyboard Problems, Video Display Card Problems. I asked for unit replacement and they wont do it. They will change all the parts but they will not replace it. I would NOT recommend Sony Laptops to anyone. Their Customer Support is not at all Good .. Please do not get deceived by the looks or features or Software they offer. I would recommend IBM or Dell for Professional, Business or even Personal Use atleast you will have peace of mind and I am using IBM since last 4 Yrs and I havenot seen any problem and it never crashes .. so much for all the Money we Spend on this Unit is not Worth.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Look elsewhere for happiness!, October 8, 2004

By 

Abigail Ehlen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony VAIO PCG-GRZ630 Laptop (2.40-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive) (Personal Computers)

This is not the computer you think it is! It's a little demon, wrapped up in silver grey plastic with a friendly logo.

Really, I should have read the amazon reviews BEFORE I bought this machine. I was blinded by my excitement of having my first laptop - a SONY, at that! I was moving on up in the world. Unfortunately, I wish I could've not moved at all. It has been nothing but horrible since day two. Day two? Yes, day one, it was perfect, like a child in its mother's eyes, it could do no wrong. Then, on day two, it overheated. The LCD hinge became loose. The IEEE 1394 port shorted out. Things just went wrong.

I had the latter of the two issues fixed, but there was still the issue with overheating. No matter what I did, whenever I started to play a game (Unreal, Quake, etc), it would go black and die on me. I tried everything short of holding a bag of frozen vegetables with a towel underneath it to get it to let me play my games. After all, that's what I'd gotten it for! But eventually I found that even if I wasn't trying to play a game - just doing some work online, if I left the computer on for more than ten minutes on my desk, it would overheat and crap out. That was more than not good. Finally, after a few months, I broke down and purchased a cooling tray with dual fans, and that did the job. It let me run my computer for ages at a time without shutting down to cool off. It does drain battery power, though, but it's a trade off. That brings me to my next issue...

The battery life on this thing is for the CRAP. On max battery power, I get an hour, MAYBE. It could be just that my system is running so hot even on the cooling profile it's taking up power, but it could just be that it's made of crap. I haven't figured out which! On normal activity, this battery will last possibly half an hour, if you're lucky. I suggest either buying a better battery, or not buying this computer.

About a week AFTER my warrantee expired, I came upon an unfixable problem. If this is the sole reason you make your decision, it will be justifiable. This is the reason I do not want my computer anymore. The socket in which you plug the AC adapter into the computer has a short in it. At first, I thought it was my AC adapter, so I went off the edge and spend $60 on THAT. But it didn't solve the problem. I took it to two different computer repair shops and they both told me that the problem was of the motherboard malfunctioning type and that they wouldn't dare try to fix it, lest they make it not boot up AT ALL. No computer shop would touch this thing with a fifty foot pole. (PS: They said most sony models will have this problem eventually, so stick with sony stereos and DVD players, NOT computers!) I couldn't even send it back to Sony for a refund or repair!

And yes, it's HEAVY. But I should have known about that. With all the accessories it takes to cool and supplement this computer, it just gained about five pounds. That is not cool. It's also loud, no matter what you do. I didn't really mind the noise because it was always drowned out by the sound of my four desktops, which always sound like they could fly off at any given moment. But in class, this is a miserable laptop to have.

As sad as it is, my pride and joy was actually a POS. I can't stand to look at it anymore. I'm gonna scrap it on e-bay for parts or something, because as a computer, it's worth little more than the plastic bubble wrap it came with.