Sony SZ240?

[powderskier]

Hey everyone!

this is my first post here, but I'm a long time Mac guy and I've been following this project off and on for most of the past year. Anyway, I'm starting at college this fall and I'm considering upgrading from my 12" Powerbook (i was looking around ebay and they still sell for pretty good, and I really would like to be able to run windows becuase I'm going to need to run some engineering software).

 

Anyway, I really don't like big laptops, so at first i figured my only real option was to get a Macbook... but I'm not a big fan of the intigrated graphics... and it's relatively heavy. I've always liked the looks of Sony laptops, so I checked out their website, and the SZ series sounds like a pretty sweet machine... more than a pound lighter than the macbook, with a much better video card and a dual layer DVD burner to boot. But... there is no way that I'm running windows for a primary operating system. I did a little searching around here, and I came up with the following:

 

It sounds like OSX86 installs, but out of the box the sz's wireless card doesn't work... but you can buy a different one (mini-PCI?) to upgrade? No one has successfully gotten the sound to work? Also possible wide-screen not working (displaying as full screen).

 

So if you have any experience running this configuration, please post your experiences!!! I'm especially interested in how usibillity would compare to a real mac... is it feasible to use OSX86 as your main OS? Do functions like sleep work, and do they work the same as on a real mac? From my reading it seems like the SZ has an option to select either a lower-power intel graphics on the motherboard, or an Nvidia stand-alone card... does OSX86 work with both?

 

Finally, my computer experience: I've had a lot of experience with both mac os and windows XP. My family has had macs since the first g3s, and I've had my powerbook for almost 2 years and have been very happy with it. I've built my own AMD windows computer as well, and replaced a motherboard in my friend's Dell laptop successfully (just adding that to show I don't mind working inside the computer... if there are any hardware swaps that make it run better).

 

thanks for any comments! I'm really torn between the macbook and the sony!