Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO VGC-RB50 Desktop PC (Intel Pentium 4 Processor 640 (H-T), 512 MB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, DVD+R Dbl Layer/DVD+/-RW Drive)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought my VGC-RB50 in probably April of 2006. I paid $800 at Fry's, and it didn't come with a monitor, but it did come with speakers, keyboard, mouse and a free printer.

I've upped the memory to 2GB (from factory 512MB) and purchased an ATI video card and a new case (all from Fry's) and this computer is still going strong. It came pre-installed with XP:MCE but has endured XP Pro, several incarnations of Linux, Vista and now runs Windows 7 just fine.


The good:
--Processor runs close to 3.2 GHz almost all the time.
--Works with any hardware I throw at it
--Runs 32- and 64-bit operating systems (64-bit capable processor)
--Runs Win7 like a native operating system
--Upgradable without much fuss

The bad:
--Network port took a crap after 2 years
--The DVD drive failed on me after 2 years, but I'm pretty sure that one was my fault. I'm rough with my drives.

I dont know whats wrong w/ the other people who bought this PC, but this is the 2nd Sony Vaio I have purchased, each have lasted many years (the first 7 years and still going strong) without any issues. If you want more documentation on your PC, get something else.... OR OPEN THE UNIT. Memory, motherboard and other information can be found printed on stickers and on the boards inside the PC. This PC is built tough and runs very quiet. I run many different types of software on it: Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Photoshop, MS Office, Adobe Premiere Video Editing, ProTools Music Editing Software, etc, not to mention high end games. My only suggestion would be to upgrade the memory.

Also, people who run technical support for companies are only rude if you are rude to them first. If you act nice, they will be nice too. I've called Sony 2-3 times for different things and NEVER had someone be rude to me.

I bought this last March'06.. I use the desktop sparingly.. But still the Motherboard failed in Oct'06. Called Sony, they replaced it. In Dec'06, failed again.. Called Sony, they replaced it.. In Feb'07 failed again.. I was mad, as the warranty was in the last month and I insisted that they need to fix the route cause instead of replacing the mother board... but instead, replaced again and the system was sent back to me.. I travelled abroad for 3 months & came back last month.. in 3 weeks, it failed again..Sony was rude and was not ready to replace or repair.. The rep, then their supervisor replied, I am out of warranty and didnt want to listen. It is a piece of Junk..

The VGC-RB50 has the ability to handle photoshop and the other programs I use for illustration. I wish it had two DVD/CD drives, but I can always add one later on.

I bought this computer 10 days ago. When I opened the box I found there was just one piece of paper for computer specs..and they didn't say much. I wanted to upgrade RAM 512 just doesn't go far these days. I went to Sony support and they had 2 documents...one was the paper included in the box and the other is a .chm file. I have yet to find anything that works to open it and make it readable. I called sony and that wasn't much help, emailed them no response yet, started a chat session with tech support and was told detailed motherboard specs are not published. Emachines and Compaq are both much better in allowing you to access infomation about your computer. If you work on your own computer beware there is no motherboard support...even intel doesn't list this board even though they manufactured it. For the money you can buy a better system from companies much more customer friendly. I gave it a 1 because so far it does run and 1 is the lowest rating. I expected more and got so much less.