Sony VAIO PCV-RX540 Desktop (1.2-GHz Celeron, 256 MB RAM, 60 GB hard drive)

by Sony

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 14.6 x 8 x 14.2 inches ; 28.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 28.5 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005T3JF
• Item model number: PCV-RX540
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,369 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 15, 2001

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Whether you're looking for a desktop for business or home, hobby, and family use, the Sony Vaio PCV-RX540 holds a lot of appeal. Its price is lower than average for desktops as a whole and among similarly rated products. The product includes a 1.2 GHz Celeron CPU, 256 MB of memory (expandable to 512 MB), 60 GB hard disk, and dual 40x (read), 16x (write), 10x (read) CD-RW and 16x DVD-ROM drives, as well as an Intel 815E internal AGP graphics card, 56K modem, and 10/100 Mbps Ethernet network card. The installed operating system is Windows XP Home Edition, which combines the stability of Windows 2000 with better support for peripherals and games plus a new user interface.

Product Description

Sony brings performance and multimedia action within your reach with this PCVRX540 desktop. It has all you need to get the most out of your high-speed games and applications with a 1.2GHz Intel® Celeron® processor, Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition operating software, 256MB SDRAM, 60GB Ultra ATA/66 hard drive and features like dual CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives, front access i.LINK® and USB ports and a built-in Ethernet interface to make it all happen. MONITOR SOLD SEPARATELY.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm impressed...so far so good..., December 10, 2001

By 

C. Asaravala "FordMuscle.com" (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony VAIO PCV-RX540 Desktop (1.2-GHz Celeron, 256 MB RAM, 60 GB hard drive) (Personal Computers)

I've had the RX540 Vaio for a couple days now. I bought it on a whim, after spending a few days looking for a new computer. My problem with computers is that I dont buy them often (every 3 years or so) and when it comes to buy, I dont know what I want since for every component there is at least a dozen options...i.e. which processor, how much memory, which hard drive, how fast of a CDRW, etc etc.
I also dont like to spend more than [dollar amount] since the fast pace of computer technology makes it "yesterdays model" an hour after you buy it!

Well Sony made the decision extremenly easy with the 540 Vaio. I could not believe that it had everything I wanted...a huge 60gb HD. Lots of memory (256) out of the box. A CD writer and DVD-rom... and all for [dollar amount]?! I looked at emachines, compaq, dell and none of them offered all this for that price... let alone the little things that sony does, like four USB portS (2 front and 2 back), built in ethernet, extra HD bay ,etc.. very nice.

I got home, disconneted my old PC and plugged this one in. Fired right up, and the XP immediatley detected and configured my monitor, printer, scanner. I was shocked that I didnt have to even load the software for my Kodak digital camera... I just plugged the USB wire in, and boom, XP showed all the photos and made them available for transfer... My HP840C printer used to always have fits with my old machine with WIndows 98. It would spit out extra pages, never print correctly, etc. The new Vaio and XP combo fixed all that.

THe only negatives I had was with the network connection detection. I have a broadband cable modem ISP. With my work laptop (Win 2K) all I did was plug the modem to the ethernet card, and bam, it was done the machine detected and configured the TCP/IP and I was surfing. Well with XP it put me through this stupid utility where I checked "broadband" (rather than dialup or LAN) then it supposedly auto-configured my connection... wrong. So for an hour I had to get rid of all the dial-up connections it had tried to put into place. Then I had to manually config the LAN settings... anyway it seems okay now, but I am still not sure why XP made that so confusing when the win2K and even win98 had it simplified.

To transfer my files and stuff from my old machine, I took the hard drive from my old machine and plugged it into the Vaio (real easy to open the vaio case, no tools needed) and bingo, without a hitch the Sony picked up the drive.

anyway, I agree with the previous post that sony bundles too much [bad] software on their machines. So much so that it really makes it a problem when you want to do something as play a CD or mpeg... you get three+ applications (sony's own, Windows Media player, quick time, real player) trying to open up depending on where you activate the file... Real annoying. so plan on spending a few hours un-installing the junk you dont want.

Anyway, so far this seems to be a great machine, I highly recommend it... and I actually dont see why you'd spend [dollar amount] on the next level Vaio, which is a 1.5ghz Pentium 4.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good buy!, November 25, 2001

By 

Allen W. Smith (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony VAIO PCV-RX540 Desktop (1.2-GHz Celeron, 256 MB RAM, 60 GB hard drive) (Personal Computers)

I've only had my vaio pcv-rx540 for one day now, but in terms of setting up and getting started with it this has been a pretty good computer. I haven't had any problems whatsoever (not that you would expect any during the first day) and have been putting it through the paces with networking it to my other computers and moving many files over; plus, customizing the system to fit my needs. It seems to be a pretty solid machine at a decent price. I especially appreciate sony's design of the box itself, and the logical placement of ports and covers for the disk drive and front usb and i.link ports.

The only drawback (which is the same drawback to most computers nowadays) is the frivilous marketing oriented software they loaded up on the computer. Most of it is fluff that takes you to a website encouraging you to buy something. One item, corelplace (I think that was it) took me to a splash page saying they were out of business. I could do with out that stuff...otherwise, I'm pretty happy thus far.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding price for a top quality budget computer, December 6, 2001

By 

"lenierdw" (Virgina Beach, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony VAIO PCV-RX540 Desktop (1.2-GHz Celeron, 256 MB RAM, 60 GB hard drive) (Personal Computers)

I have extensive knowledge on computers and I must say this budget computer from Sony is well worth every penny. I have had it for 3 weeks now and it has not missed a beat. The processor and memory work well together to accomodate any user - be it novice or expert. The sofware package that is included is also pretty good, but Sony could have done better by including Microsoft Works 2002 instead of Corel Word perfect. However, at this price and quality of the hardware, purchasing the software separately to add to what is already onboard should be a breeze. For you gamers out there; at first I did not think the integrated graphics card could handle such games as Free Space 2 or NBA Live 2002, but these games run seamlessly with no hick-ups in frame rate like you would notice on slower computers. Also with frontside USB ports(2), you can easily hook up your joystick, gamepad etc... and commence your gaming experience within seconds. Another thing, AOL 7.0 is highly recommend for this computer. Do not install any earlier versions becasue this will cause problems within Windows XP. Also, always use the latest drivers for Windows XP from the vendors web site when you upgrade or install second party software or hardware to avoid lock-ups or freezes in Windows XP. Anyway, I highly recommend this computer to anyone and at the rate this computer is selling, you better grab one quick. Great price for quality hardware with a great warranty....what is next Sony? I am highly pleased!