PCG-Z: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 02:23, 9 December 2024

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PCG-Z505SX booted to the Windows 98 desktop

Overview

PCG-Z505 from side with CD drive

The Sony VAIO PCG-Z505 (sold in the US and Japan) or PCG-Z600 (sold in Europe) was a subnotebook released by Sony in April of 1999. It looks like Sony made a sort of design refresh of the PCG-505/N505 with a slimmer, rectangular battery compared to the round battery found in the previous models. The bezels were also slimmed down compared to the already slim bezels of the N505. Other than that the laptop is pretty similar compared to the N505. Features depended on the model, for example some Z505 models came with a MagicGate Memory Stick slot whereas some such as the Z600TEK had a standard slot. Some Z505 variants were also available with infrared next to the modem jack. All PCG-Z models featured a mini-USB connector on the side next to the Memory Stick reader, this was supposed to be a secondary USB port in case you were using the floppy disk and wanted to use another USB device at the same time.

Sony was really showing off their skills of miniaturisation in the 505 line, making laptops so thin and stylish that people would walk into Sony shops just to gaze at them. On the right side, a jog dial was added, which is used by the jog dial utility to launch applications and control various settings. The jog dial also functions as a power button, by pressing it when the computer is off. The VAIO uses a full metal construction, so it feels extremely solid.

PCG-Z505

Detailed Specs

Processor: Pentium II 333MHz, Pentium III 650-800MHz, Celeron 500-600MHz

Graphics: ATI RAGE Mobility-M1 or NeoMagic MagicMedia256XL+(NM2380)

Chipset: Intel 440ZX AGPset 100MHz

Memory: Standard 64MB/128MB - Maximum 256MB

Display: 12.1" TFT color, XGA, 1024 x 768

Storage: 6.4GB - 15GB IDE HDD (Maximum 65GB shown in BIOS, full capacity available in OS)

Weight: 1.7kg

Original OS: Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition or Windows 2000 Professional

MSRP: ~$2000 (Unconfirmed)

Daily Usage Today

This laptop is unusable today apart from some offline office tasks like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and some extremely basic websites. Don't expect late 90s-2000s games to run on the laptop, at least at high settings, these are better suited for MS-DOS gaming due to the low power graphics chip, however the ATI chip is more capable than the NeoMagic for gaming. They will not run any OS beyond Windows 7, due to the missing PAE-NX support on the Pentium III, and any OS above Windows XP will run very poorly on this hardware. You will need the external CD drive in order to get an OS onto the laptop easily, this can potentially be very expensive as it only works with the original VAIO CD drive (PCGA-CD5 (meant for PCG-505 but still works), PCGA-CD51, PCGA-CDRW52, PCGA-CDRW51) that uses a PCMCIA interface. Sadly resellers have picked up these drives and are selling them at expensive prices as "Amiga compatible", however they can be found easily from Japan at a much more reasonable price.

Resources

PCG-Z505 Overview Video

PCG-Z505 Recovery Disks

PCG-Z505 Application Recovery

PCG-Z600TEK Recovery (Windows 2000) (Bad dump, but driver disk is valid)

Credits

PC-Watch

Anniversary-Net

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 ==Overview==
 [[File:PCG-Z505 from side with CD drive.jpg|alt=PCG-Z505 from side with CD drive|thumb|PCG-Z505 from side with CD drive]]
-The Sony VAIO PCG-Z505 (sold in the US and Japan) or PCG-Z600 (sold in Europe) was a subnotebook released by Sony in April of 1999. It looks like Sony made a sort of design refresh of the PCG-505/N505 with a slimmer, rectangular battery compared to the round battery found in the previous models. The bezels were also slimmed down compared to the already slim bezels of the N505. Other than that the laptop is pretty similar compared to the N505. Sony was really showing off their skills of miniaturisation in the 505 line, making laptops so thin and stylish that people would walk into Sony shops just to gaze at them. On the right side, a jog dial was added, which is used by the jog dial utility to launch applications and control various settings. The jog dial also functions as a power button, by pressing it when the computer is off. The VAIO uses a full metal construction, so it feels extremely solid.
+The Sony VAIO PCG-Z505 (sold in the US and Japan) or PCG-Z600 (sold in Europe) was a subnotebook released by Sony in April of 1999. It looks like Sony made a sort of design refresh of the PCG-505/N505 with a slimmer, rectangular battery compared to the round battery found in the previous models. The bezels were also slimmed down compared to the already slim bezels of the N505. Other than that the laptop is pretty similar compared to the N505. Features depended on the model, for example some Z505 models came with a MagicGate Memory Stick slot whereas some such as the Z600TEK had a standard slot. Some Z505 variants were also available with infrared next to the modem jack. All PCG-Z models featured a mini-USB connector on the side next to the Memory Stick reader, this was supposed to be a secondary USB port in case you were using the floppy disk and wanted to use another USB device at the same time.
+Sony was really showing off their skills of miniaturisation in the 505 line, making laptops so thin and stylish that people would walk into Sony shops just to gaze at them. On the right side, a jog dial was added, which is used by the jog dial utility to launch applications and control various settings. The jog dial also functions as a power button, by pressing it when the computer is off. The VAIO uses a full metal construction, so it feels extremely solid.
 [[File:PCG-Z505.jpg|alt=PCG-Z505|thumb|PCG-Z505]]
@@ Line 18: / Line 20: @@
 '''Display:''' 12.1" TFT color, XGA, 1024 x 768
-'''Storage:''' 6.4GB - 15GB IDE HDD (Maximum 64GB size limit - BIOS limitation)
+'''Storage:''' 6.4GB - 15GB IDE HDD (Maximum 65GB shown in BIOS, full capacity available in OS)
 '''Weight:''' 1.7kg
@@ Line 26: / Line 28: @@
 '''MSRP:''' ~$2000 (Unconfirmed)
 ==Daily Usage Today==
-This laptop is unusable today apart from some offline office tasks like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and some extremely basic websites. Don't expect late 90s-2000s games to run on the laptop, at least at high settings, these are better suited for MS-DOS gaming due to the low power graphics chip. They will not run any OS beyond Windows 7, due to the missing PAE-NX support on the Pentium III, and any OS above Windows XP will run very poorly on this hardware. You will need the external CD drive in order to get an OS onto the laptop easily, this can potentially be very expensive as it only works with the original VAIO CD drive (PCGA-CD5 (meant for PCG-505 but still works), PCGA-CD51, PCGA-CDRW52, PCGA-CDRW51) that uses a PCMCIA interface. Sadly resellers have picked up these drives and are selling them at expensive prices as "Amiga compatible", however they can be found easily from Japan at a much more reasonable price.
+This laptop is unusable today apart from some offline office tasks like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and some extremely basic websites. Don't expect late 90s-2000s games to run on the laptop, at least at high settings, these are better suited for MS-DOS gaming due to the low power graphics chip, however the ATI chip is more capable than the NeoMagic for gaming. They will not run any OS beyond Windows 7, due to the missing PAE-NX support on the Pentium III, and any OS above Windows XP will run very poorly on this hardware. You will need the external CD drive in order to get an OS onto the laptop easily, this can potentially be very expensive as it only works with the original VAIO CD drive (PCGA-CD5 (meant for PCG-505 but still works), PCGA-CD51, PCGA-CDRW52, PCGA-CDRW51) that uses a PCMCIA interface. Sadly resellers have picked up these drives and are selling them at expensive prices as "Amiga compatible", however they can be found easily from Japan at a much more reasonable price.
 ==Resources==