Sony VAIO PCG-GRV680 Laptop (2.60-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive)

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Product Details

Product Manual [2.29mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 14 x 11.8 x 1.6 inches ; 8.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 14 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000086K0M
• Item model number: PCG-GRV680
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,754 in Computers & PC Hardware (See Bestsellers in Computers & PC Hardware)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 9, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description
For those who settle for nothing but state-of-the-art performance, Sony offers the fully loaded Vaio GRV680 notebook. Measuring 1.8 by 14 by 11.8 inches and tipping the scales at 8.1 pounds (with one battery) or 8.7 pounds (with battery and optical drive), the Vaio GRV680 isn’t the smallest notebook on the market. But it is one of the fastest and certainly one of the most versatile.

Sporting a commanding 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with 512 KB of Level 2 cache, a 400 MHz bus, and 512 MB of DDR SDRAM memory, the Vaio GRV680 is built to blast through any computing situation. Sony has complemented the system’s powerful engine with an impressive 64 MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 video acceleration chipset to make quick work of graphics-intensive 3-D applications and all but the most demanding 3-D games. The unit’s integrated 60 GB hard disk offers plenty of room to store important files and programs, and its detachable DVD+/DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drive allows you to turn home videos into DVDs, watch the latest Hollywood releases, burn and play audio CDs, and back up data.

Multimedia enthusiasts in particular will appreciate the system’s massive 16-inch SXGA TFT viewing screen (1,280 x 1,024 resolution) and integrated stereo speakers. Other desirable amenities include a Memory Stick media slot, three USB ports, and a fast IEEE 1394 port for data transfers from peripherals such as digital camcorders. The unit delivers 1.5 to 3.5 hours of battery life with one battery attached and 3 to 7 hours with an optional second battery installed in its multipurpose bay.

The Vaio GRV680 is preloaded with a wide variety of software, including Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Money 2003, Adobe Premiere LE, and a broad array of audio, video, and photo utilities.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent compact, desktop, you can take with you., April 25, 2003

By	C. McManis "Chuck McManis" (Sunnyvale, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The key to this machine is understanding what it is. It is a compact footprint desktop with a built in UPS. If you think of it that way you will be very happy with it. If you're out to buy a kick butt gaming laptop so that you can frag your way from Los Angeles to New York, don't get this machine.

This machine has a lot going for it, very nice 3D performance, very nice ergonomics, clear bright screen, zippy P4 performance, and you can burn your own DVDs on it. All very nice. Ports are somewhat limited (3 USB + ethernet + firewire + parallel and VGA) but you get back your serial port of you buy the port replicator. For a limited time Sony is giving away WiFi cards if you send them a copy of your reciept and serial #.

Sony now offers this notebook with WinXP pro (the GRV680P) and you should get that as its the same price ... and XP Pro gives you some nice server like features. The not so nice part is that clearly this machine will be orphaned quickly. I say this because soon the only laptops worth buying will have WiFi built in, systems without it will become like laptops without Ethernet two years ago.

The software was somewhat thrown together as well. The built in CD-burning application (drag & drop CD) works, but if you try to use the "built in" XP software for dealing with writable CD's it doesn't work. Other issues arise when you try to use it as a portable machine.

First, the machine draws 100 watts. That means you can't really power it from an airplane power socket without blowing the circuit breaker. Second, the second battery (needed if you want to have long run time) requires that you remove the DVD drive. That means no games while you are "mobile." However, if you get a piece of code that "emulates" a CDROM drive using a disk image on the hard drive you can get by, and the generous hard drive makes that practical. It also weighs a ton with two batteries in it so if you're going to do this get the Sony VAIO back pack to carry the thing. Holding it over your shoulder will give you back pains.

There is a slot for a memory stick. That's great if you're into memory sticks but of little use to those who have cameras with CF slots or USB disk drives.

All that being said, if you are someone who has a small home office, or a desk that you use for both writing and email. Or you are a student who wants to be able to use their computer in the library or the dorm without all the cabling hassle. This is the machine for you. It is completely capable of running all of todays applications (from games, to spreadsheets, to databases) and it offers excellent data storage capacity and connectivity. Like many (most?) portables today it does not come with a floppy but it will read/write CDR's and CD-RWs, as well as DVDs (send a video this year a christmas rather than a letter!) and the fact that everything was designed to work together means no annoying driver/motherboard/OS compatability issues to deal with.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER SONY PRODUCT, August 29, 2005

By	R. Mosbarger (Normal, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I, like to many other people, bought this Sony laptop...The DVD-RW never really worked that great but after 1-year it died completely...My girlfriend also bought a Sony Vaio a few months after I did and the DVD-RW died on hers too...Its amazing how things like this happen right after the warranty expires...Almost seems like the Sony engineers design them that way...My laptop overheats like some of the other reviews have stated...I find that if I continually blow the processor fan off with compressed air to keep the dust down it helps a little...Sony Technical support is a Joke...My suggestion...Don't buy Sony...Go with Toshiba...You will be much happier...As for me...I will never purchase another Sony product again...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Over heating and unable to recharge, August 24, 2005

By	P. Parikh - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought vaio pcg-grv680 in nov 2003. Within few months, I noticed that cooling fan was always on, i contacted sony customer service they told me that i had a set up problem.
Since last 6 months, laptop was getting overheated and crashed so many times. Lately, i cannot recharge battery, it seems to me that due to heating, connection melt down. I tried to contact
SONY customer service, it is worst. I wasted $2000. I will
not recommand anyone to buy VAIO laptop.