Sony VAIO FZ180EB Notebook PC - Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless, 2GB DDR2, 200GB HDD, Dual Layer DVD RW, 15.4" WXGA, Integrated Webcam, Windows Vista Home Premium

For over 50 years, Sony has been developing world-class products and services that add excitement and creativity to your life. Sony is committed to applying that same ongoing innovation to build a sustainable future.

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Engineered to pioneer
Thinner, lighter VAIO® notebooks require less energy and reduce consumption and depletion of materials.  The majority of VAIO computer models are ENERGY STAR® 4.0 compliant and have received either EPEAT Gold or Silver rankings. This means they use less power, affecting energy bills, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

More picture quality, less energy wasted
Sony® BRAVIA® TVs and LCDs are developed with the environment in mind. This includes reduced costs throughout the product lifecycle -- from buying to maintaining to running your Sony TVs and LCD displays. Most of the BRAVIA® HDTVs are designed to exceed ENERGY STAR® 3.0 Specifications, saving you money on energy costs while still delivering stunning images. The BRAVIA® VE5 LCD HDTV 52" version, for example, exceeds ENERGY STAR® 3.0 Specifications by 65.5%*. The ECO-Panel, on a selection of our newest models reduces power consumption while in use, and the new Eco-Switch on selected models enables zero power consumption when the display is off.

Sony BRAVIA® HDTVs also feature innovative technology that self adjusts backlight to save power. Light sensors automatically adjust the brightness of the screen to maximize viewing quality and minimize energy usage. And on the BRAVIA® KDL-VE5, a Presence Detector sets the television into standby mode when no motion is detected within a preset amount of time. All to support the conservation of valuable resources and limit green house gas emissions.

Blu-ray Disc™ Players go green
In 2008, the unit features 21 percent less power consumption in playback mode and 43 percent reduced power consumption in stand-by mode.

More than just talking the talk
Sony Ericsson is proud to deliver the most efficient chargers from a standby power point of view, with all new models after 2005 meeting the requirements for ENERGY STAR®. Sony Ericsson also makes continuous efforts to reduce energy consumption from all activities. At the Sony Ericsson manufacturing site, the electricity per manufactured unit was significantly reduced by 24% in 2007 compared to 2005. The goal is to reduce the carbon footprint from Sony Ericsson's own activities by 15% per produced unit by 2009 and 20% by 2011 based on the 2007 figures.

A Sony innovation, 10 years in the making
Every once in a while, a new technology emerges that changes everything. At just 3mm thin, Sony has developed an unbelievably thin TV - while advancing image quality to levels that no other TV can match. This technology is called OLED.

Organic Light Emitting Diode, or OLED, is a technology that uses carbon-based organic material in a process that converts electric energy into light. This light is used to illuminate the screen and produce the most astounding results ever seen on a television. OLED emits light and does not require a backlight-realizing a new TV form of approximately 3mm at its thinnest point. And when these elements are in their "off" state, they consume no power. The result? OLED TVs use less energy than LCDs. The OLED display consumes less electricity compared to conventional displays because OLED's light-emitting structure does not require a separate light source and can be powered using very low voltages.

Participation in EPEAT™ Program
As a committed participant in the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT™ ) program, various VAIO® notebooks have been registered for their environmentally conscious design and the overall eco-conscious efforts of Sony. EPEAT is a tool designed to help you compare and select products based on their environmental attributes. The majority of VAIO notebooks and desktops are either registered as Gold or Silver.

Meeting the RoHS Directive
All Sony VAIO computers have PVC-free exterior product casings and packaging. They are also EU Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive compliant. The RoHS directive restricts the amount of certain materials such as lead and mercury, used in electronic products. By limiting the use of hazardous substances, RoHS aims not only to help prevent harmful materials from leaching into our ecosystems but also helps minimize potential exposure to these substances and promotes easier recycling at the end of a product's lifecycle.

 Sony adopted the use of recycled and reused materials in several models of our LCDs, and all are EU Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive compliant, helping prevent harmful materials, such as lead, from leaching into our ecosystem when improperly disposed while also helping increase recycling and reduce potential chemical exposure from the manufacturing process. And further keeping green in mind, suppliers for products are certified as green partners based on Sony's stringent standard for chemical substances used in products.

All Sony® Blu-ray Disc™ Player parts, and all other Sony products, are lead and cadmium-free, based on EU RoHS directive restrictions, and major plastic parts of the Blu-ray Disc Player are free of brominated flame retardants.

 Sony Ericsson is the first company to remove brominated flame retardants from its mobile phones and the first to manufacture a full range of products, including accessories, which are also brominated flame retardant free.

They were also the first in ensuring that every device in their range was fully compliant with the EU Directive on the restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS). Sony Ericsson phones are PVC free, and we are currently working to phase out antimony, beryllium and phthalates from our products.

Sony Packaging Is More Than Just Style

Cutting Down on Package Size
Sony is looking at minimizing its impact of its computers on our environment, by reducing the size of our packaging. VAIO® products utilize 30-95 percent post-consumer recycled content (actual percentage depends on manufacturing). They also use non-VOC vegetable oil-based ink in all Japanese made units. On the inside of the box, all Sony-created documentation uses 85% post-consumer recycled content.

Creating Manuals from Recycled Materials
On the BRAVIA® Series, the product information and packaging, including instruction manuals, Quick Set-Up Guides and box packaging are made from recyclable materials. Inside the box, the styrofoam packing cushions are made from reprocessed EPS that's been taken from original parts packaging, shredded, compacted and recycled into Television packaging cushions. This process resulted in saving 28 metric tons of polystyred plastic from landfills.

Cutting Down on Emissions from Shipping
Compared to Sony’s previous BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc™ model, the new BDP-S350 model reduced the overall unit size by 55 percent, reduced packing material by 52 percent and reduced the unit’s total weight by 38 percent. The compact size of the finished package allows Sony to reduce the C02 emissions related to shipping by approximately 43 percent.

Enjoy the latest in HDTV performance with the BRAVIA Z-Series and W-Series televisions, featuring Motionflow™ 240Hz technology. Incorporating advanced power saving features such as Light Sensor® technology and Dynamic Backlight Control, these HDTVs exceed Energy Star® 3.0 guidelines for energy efficiency by over 15% in Home mode.

Shop now for BRAVIA Z-Series HDTVs »

Shop now for more BRAVIA HDTVs and Home Theater Products »

BRAVIA S-Series HDTVs put Full HD 1080p and stunning contrast in reach, offering advanced image processing features and a variety of HD input options at a great value. Energy Star 3.0 qualified.

Shop now for BRAVIA S-Series & All Sony HDTVs »

Keep It Private!
3M Privacy Filters Help You Comply with Federal Confidentiality Laws
3M Privacy Computer Filters help companies comply with federal legislation requiring confidential personal information be kept confidential. 3M Privacy Computer filters can help medical facilities (i.e. hospitals, clinics, health insurance companies, etc.) comply with the Health Insurance Portability & Accessibility Act (HIPAA). The privacy filters are a simple accessory to desktop monitors, both LCD and CRT, as well as laptop computers. They darken the viewable area of the monitor screen when viewed from the side, which helps prevent the release of confidential personal information that must be protected. Similar legislation exists for those in the financial industry. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) places the same restrictions on banks, finance companies, mortgage companies and credit card companies, to name a few. They even help with PCI & SOX!
Click Here to See all our 3M Privacy Filters »

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (See The New Law!)

Here’s some great news for our customers who want to cut the costs of sending their kids to college!

Under the new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,  taxpayers who buy PCs for their children in 2009 and 2010 can claim those Desktops, Notebooks, and Netbooks as qualified higher education expenses.

The Act defines computer-related qualified expenses as any expense incurred for buying any computer technology and equipment, as well as Internet access and related services as long as the equipment and technology is used by the student and the student’s family during any of the years the student is enrolled at an eligible educational institution.

All of you who have college-aged kids know that tuition costs have skyrocketed – so this additional perk is a welcome benefit.  This tax break is only in effect through 2010, so those who have children in college or kids ready to start school in September need to start shopping for new PCs now!

• For our selection of Desktop PCs click here »
• For our selection of Laptop/Notebook Computers click here »
• For our selection of Netbook Computers click here »

Not to be construed as tax advice, see your tax professional.
Applicable to U.S. Tax Filers only.

• High Capacity USB Thumb Drives:
  USB Thumb Drives are now available in sizes as large as 64GB (soon to be even more).  While the USB interface is somewhat slow, these make an ideal solution for their small compact size.  Thumb drives are perfect for storing in files, or other compact spaces.  While their cost per GB is somewhat high, their convenience, USB interface, size, and extremely light weight, make them a very attractive option.
  
  Click Here for 32GB Thumb Drives or for 64GB+ Thumb Drives
   
• External Hard Drives
  Now you have a wide variety of options for external hard drives.  1TB (Terabyte) External Drives are now available for less than $200.00.  External drives come in a wide range of sizes, speeds, and interfaces.  They are available with USB (the slowest), Firewire (medium speed), and SATA/eSATA (the fastest). 
  
  When selecting an external drive, it is important to consider how you will use the drive, and the interface limitations of your computer.  If you have a laptop that only has USB ports, this would be your best (possibly only) option.  If you have USB & Firewire, get a drive that has Firewire for the performance boost.  If your system has a SATA or eSata port, get a drive with this option - it will give you true hard drive to hard drive performance. 
  
  However, also consider where you might need to restore the data.  USB is the most universal, in that almost all systems have USB ports.  If your system dies, and you need to restore your data, this may be your most important consideration.
  
  One last consideration is to keep your backup drive continuously connected, or only connect it during backups.  The general idea of backups is to have a copy of your data in case your system fails - which they do.  But you may also want secure protected backups in a safe or safe deposit box.  Regardless, external hard drives offer an outstanding solution for backing up your data, and the cost per GB is quite low.
  
  Click Here for External USB/Firewire Hard Drives
   
• Hard Drive Docks (Toasters)
  An incredibly simple, yet functional new product category emerged in 2008: Hard Drive Toasters (Hard Drive Docks).  This device lets you plug in regular internal hard drives as though they were pop-in flash drives.  You drop in your hard drive, and the dock instantly gives your system access to that drive, without wiring, or power connections - it's all done by the hard drive toaster.  This way you can use any compatible hard drive as an external removable hard drive for backup purposes!
  
  Click Here for Hard Drive Docks
   
• Online Backup
  Still another option is to use an online backup service.  These come in two forms:
  
       • Backup to another computer over the Internet
       • Backup to a central server using the Internet
  
  The first of these can work very well, and automatically backups when you are online.  The Microsoft OneCare service is one example.  It can backup your data from your system to another in your OneCare account across the Internet automatically, regardless of where you are.
  
  The second involves trusting your critical data to someone else's servers, and usually no real guarantee that your data will always be there.  If they loose your data, they just refund your fee.  This service may be fine for a couple of letters, but business critical data needs to be accessible forever.  For this reason, you are better advised to look to a hardware solution that you control.
   
• Backup Software
  Many products come with backup software included, such as External Hard Drives, and Antivirus products like CA Security Suite.  Most offer excellent features for automated backups.  But remember, backup software and devices, are only as good as your willingness to use them!  So backup regularly, and backup often.

1. The way size is calculated and displayed.
2. Any "Partitions" on the disk will change the total in a specific partition.
3. Hidden files and folders decrease available space.
4. Compression increases the apparent size, but not the physical size.
5. Drives larger than the OS or Drivers natively supports.

First, the definition of a megabytes (or gigabytes) is a unit of data storage capacity measured in 1,048,576 bytes (or 1024KB). The larger the numbers, the more apparent the size difference will be when listing the size as megabytes (or gigabytes) versus bytes. Actually, both numbers are correct. The noticeable difference is due to the 1024KB definition of a megabyte. This is why a 95.3GB hard drive can also be listed as having 102 billion bytes of total space.  Just think of it as "round off"  In the screen shot at right: The first number is the total number of bytes, the second number is based on the number of megabytes or gigabytes.

Second, some computers have a non-DOS hard drive partition that is used for features such as Save to Disk, Hibernation, or Recovery. This partition is not normally reported by the operating system, although it can be viewed using a disk partition utility.  This is very common on desktops and laptops.  NOTE: Partition information will be created or formatted automatically during initial system setup and a system recovery.

Third, by default, all system files are hidden and cannot be seen. This may adversely affect the reporting of available hard drive space. You can set your Folder Options so you view system and hidden files and folders, but do be careful as changes to system files can adversely affect your system.

Fourth, if you turn on Compression for a drive, it will increase reported free space and used space, but since compression is based upon the actual contents, this number is not fixed, but will change as files are added or changed.

Fifth, older operating systems did not support some of today's larger drives, so the total space reported may be much smaller than the drive specifications.

It is also worth noting that bad sectors are corrected by your operating system and can change the total drive space, free space, or used space as well.

So as long as a drive is reporting a value approximately close to the specification value, you can be comfortable that you received the right drive and that you are getting to correct data storage.  Of course, tuning of your drive's partitions and options can yield optimal values, but this is not something for the average user to explore.

In electronics, a battery or voltaic cell is a combination of many electrochemical Galvanic cells of identical type to store chemical energy and to deliver it in the form of electricity.  The battery cells combine to produce more energy (voltage or amps) than a cell by itself.  When joined in this way, it is a battery of cells.  Almost all portable electronics use one or more cells - rechargeable or disposable.  The more cells, the more energy available - meaning more hours of use usually.

In Notebook computers, the battery case usually holds three or more cells.  3 Cell batteries tend to provide about 1-3 hours of use, depending on the energy needs of the Laptop.  6 cell (or more) batteries provide much more energy, and many more hours of use.  This can be good or bad!  More cells mean longer use, but more weight too!

So remember to always check for the number of cells if specified, and choose the right configuration for your use.

Battery Trivia:  The invention of the first battery (known as a Voltaic pile) was in 1800 by Alessandro Volta!  The first known usage of the battery (as we know it today) was in 1863 by the physician named Flora Bills.

The best time to add more memory is when you buy your system! Get the memory that's right for your computer, whether laptop, desktop, or All-In-One. Click Here for our Memory Upgrade Options. »

The result is that some systems will have shared memory, some will not. If you have 2GB (for example) of system memory installed, you may notice that your system reports significantly less memory. This is because your system is using shared memory for your video.

What can you do about this?
You can actually configure this shared memory through your computer’s BIOS settings. However, this is a setting best left alone, since it is typically optimized for display performance, and making changes may impact display resolutions, and other video capabilities.

The simplest solution is usually to either: increase your system memory; or to upgrade the video hardware. By upgrading to a new video card with built-in video memory, then turning off shared memory, you will free your system to use it's maximum potential memory, and provide your system with much more robust video features.

Click Here for our Memory Options » Click Here for the latest Video Cards »

But always remember, that the amount of memory that your system reports, is not always the amount of actual installed memory. For example, if you have 4GB installed, 32 bit versions of Windows will typically report 3.2GB due to a limitation of Windows itself.  Also note that different Windows programs report available and maximum memory differently, which can be confusing. If you find that you need more memory, we suggest expanding your system memory, since this is the most effective performance increase, and the one that is easiest to perform .

Click Here for our Memory Upgrade Options »