Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony VAIO PCV-RZ36G Desktop (3.0-GHz Pentium 4 (Hyper-Threading), 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW/CD-RW Drive, DVD-ROM Drive)

Before I bought this computer, I have owned HP computers. They were of great quality and served me well. When we had to get a new one, we initialy went for a new HP, but Compusa was out. So, we decided to go and buy the other 3 gig computer. It was this sony. It wasn't my first choice, but it is an excelent computer! It is fast, has plenty of memory, comes loaded with an OK graphics card, and is much nicer looking than other computers on the market. Sure it is a little pricey, but the speed and it's versatility are what you pay for. Sony's are made to last and I'm sure this beast will dominate as long as it's the fastest avalible!

I bought this CPU in July of 2003. I have burned hundreds of DVDs and CDs and this machine has never needed tech support or had a hardware problem. I do high end graphics editing and creation here. I own numerous computers, but only trust this Vaio with my core computing.

i found out the same results you cant use your media restore disc but i did foind out you can get the full system restore disc fom sony its a two dvd set for $17.99 plus tax and shipping
remeber to refer to the model number pcv rz36g its still available

After looking at other systems in the same category, I think I paid to much for what is otherwise a sound hardware configuration. The system could use an upgraded sound card and the speakers are a little on the cheap side as well.

For those of use who HATE XP Home, the upgrade process to XP Professional is a little painful. I made the recovery media and than wiped out the system to load a clean version of XP Professional. Because of the way the recovery media is designed I could not install any of the Sony provided applications onto the newly loaded system. Sony recommended reloading the recovery media onto the system and then upgrading to XP Pro. This resulted in a very messy system full of lots of items I don't use and don't want. There is also a problem reloading Gigapocket, but if you fool with the system you can get it reloaded.

If I had to do it all over again I would consider other vendors or buy a custom configured system from Sony's website. I had originally tried to build my own system on Sony Style, but they were delayed several weeks due to a lack of parts. I canceled the Sony Style order and purchased this system from another retailer.

I have purchased this system and a Dell in the last three years. I was much happier with my Dell buying experience though I did not find a Dell that had the editing features that came with this system. Sony seems unfriendly to more advanced users and they spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to avoid helping you. I would love to upgrade some parts of my system (specifically the sound), but so far I have found Sony less than helpful in this regard as well.

I originally purchased this system for transferring my home videos to DVD. The video quality from my analog DVD player was pretty bad, but I am not sure if this is because of Gigapocket or because of the Sharp video recorder I own. Either way, this did not workout as I had hoped.

The Adobe tools for this system are not the full version though you can upgrade for several hundred dollars more. I found Adobe Premier 6 LE to be very useful once I learned how to use it. For several hundred dollars more you can get the full version, but I am not sure that most home users will find that expense worth the effort.

For most people the Microsoft Works that comes with this system is inadequate. For those who have school age kids, power point and Excel are excellent additions to the system. Because this system comes with Microsoft Works you may have issues (as I did) configuring other Office Products on this system. You should make sure that Sony will support your system if you upgrade to another version of Office.

Expect very little paper documentation to come with your system. The help file that Sony loads on the system and the help files from the vendor are all you have to go on. This can make learning the system a little difficult. I still don't know what the fiber optic port is for and I have no idea what the Gigapocket specifications are.

The system gets high marks for performance but gets low marks for documentation and cost. I would only buy this system if it is exactly what you want. Any changes will be difficult and may result in support issues when dealing with Sony support. I believe a little searching would give you more features for less money. If I had it to do over again I would not buy this specific system put would probably still consider a custom configured Sony or maybe an HP which also has some nice multimedia systems.

I (myself) have the problem after recovering its original system from either created media kit or the image (in hard drive). When I turned on the PC for the first time, the reminding message alerted me to make the recovery media kit. After doing that, three times, one DVD and one CD, and two times making recovery CDs with 8 CDs in case of writing any errors, I tried to replace the original hard disk drive with the new one because I didn't want to have any mistake with the original one. During the installation, the message appeared that it can't execute from the exteranl device H:\GIGA400313909.EXE -GUI. I re-installed again and again but the same problem still persisted. Finally, I put back its origianl hard drive then played around with Giga pocket, it functioned properly. But when I decided to make the system recovery from the internal image just following the instruction, the same problem happened the same thing. FINNALY, I DON'T HAVE GIGA POCKET ANY MORE. Plus, its optical drives seem to work very hard (kind of error - make noise - unable to duplicate my home DVD movie using veritas software except using Roxio 6). I am so disappoited to see that no system CDs come with the product and its integrated sound card.