sony Sony VAIO Upgrade Prep Questions

[WrennBird]

Budget (including currency): $1500

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Photography editing and multimedia production (Adobe Illustrator, Lightroom, Photoshop, etc.)

Other details I’m looking to gut and upgrade this Sony Vaio which belongs to my mother. She’s had this computer since 2005 and was a workhorse during our most difficult times. The computer stopped working at the behest of a young and incredibly naive and dumb child (me) around 2011, and I would like to upgrade it with more modern specs.

 

Here are the issues I’m facing:

 

1) The liquid cooling unit’s placement is installed in such a way that it’s difficult to remove it from the CPU, as it snakes through a thinner part up to the radiator located at the topmost part of the chassis (shown below).

 

2) I would like to keep the installed dual optical drives, floppy drive, SD and memory stick ports located on the front panel of the computer. I understand modern motherboards don’t have IDE connectors anymore in place of SATA.

 

3) I would like to try and keep the current liquid cooling unit, however I’m concerned with how it’ll keep up with modern CPUs as this computer was installed with an Intel Pentium D.

 

4) The power supply is in a really weird spot given the design of the case, and I wonder if a modern power supply would be able to fit in its current spot.

 

This will be my first ever project, so any ideas you may have for how I can navigate this case would be incredibly helpful.

 

Cheers!

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, WrennBird said:

1) The liquid cooling unit’s placement is installed in such a way that it’s difficult to remove it from the CPU, as it snakes through a thinner part up to the radiator located at the topmost part of the chassis (shown below).

 

Just saying, thats not a liquid cooler, thats a line of heatpipes.

 

6 minutes ago, WrennBird said:

 

3) I would like to try and keep the current liquid cooling unit, however I’m concerned with how it’ll keep up with modern CPUs as this computer was installed with an Intel Pentium D.

THat coolers mounting and position means its probalby not allowing a motherboard swap or new socket. You could probalby get a core 2 duo or quad in there with that cooler and board, but thats still pretty slow, so you probably need to replace it. I'd probalby go custom loop if you want to have the same cooling design.

 

7 minutes ago, WrennBird said:

 

4) The power supply is in a really weird spot given the design of the case, and I wonder if a modern power supply would be able to fit in its current spot.

 

That psu looks close to atx size, but I can't see how it mounts. You can get a sfx in there and it will be smaller so thats an option.

 

 

[SorryBella]

45 minutes ago, WrennBird said:

 I’m looking to gut and upgrade this Sony Vaio which belongs to my mother. She’s had this computer since 2005 and was a workhorse during our most difficult times. The computer stopped working at the behest of a young and incredibly naive and dumb child (me) around 2011, and I would like to upgrade it with more modern specs.

Any why besides sleeper is cool?

 

That drive bay is just begging to be pulled off the rivet so we can slap an actual intake in it if we are building sleeper here. And yeah you might have to tap new hole thats ATX compliant as @Electronics Wizardy says.

[Queen Chrysalis]

I'm gonna be real with you, you have a case.

 

Nothing else here is gonna be very effective for what you'd wanna use it for in 2023.  You could take everything else out and put all new parts in the case, but really that's it.

[NF-A12x25]

This is really not gonna be something you could upgrade in a cost-effective way. Better to just start from scratch, or restore it as it was.

[WrennBird]

17 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:That psu looks close to atx size, but I can't see how it mounts. You can get a sfx in there and it will be smaller so thats an option.

 

 

There is a release latch in the center which holds the power supply from two little support nodes on the top of the frame, along with three screws and a plate located along the upper back edge of the case.

 

I’ve illustrated this with the picture below. Hope that helps!

[WrennBird]

16 hours ago, NF-A12x25 said:

This is really not gonna be something you could upgrade in a cost-effective way. Better to just start from scratch, or restore it as it was.

What about the case itself makes you believe it isn’t worth upgrading, out of genuine curiosity? I would definitely like to hear all sides before I make a decision.

[WrennBird]

17 hours ago, SorryBella said:

Any why besides sleeper is cool?

 

That drive bay is just begging to be pulled off the rivet so we can slap an actual intake in it if we are building sleeper here. And yeah you might have to tap new hole thats ATX compliant as @Electronics Wizardy says.

And that’s the funny part about this whole computer. Aside from the copper heat pipes @Electronics Wizardy mentioned, aside from a fan blowing on the HDD, there’s really only one fan and radiator used to control the temp of the entire unit, and the intake and exhaust is ALL on the uppermost portion of the case behind the two optical drives! It’s almost as if this case is sized like a medium sized case, yet all the functional parts take up the size of a smaller tower. It’s just such an interesting specimen, and I have no idea what they were thinking design-wise!

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 hours ago, WrennBird said:

There is a release latch in the center which holds the power supply from two little support nodes on the top of the frame, along with three screws and a plate located along the upper back edge of the case.

 

I’ve illustrated this with the picture below. Hope that helps!

Yea thats not atx then. Thats gonna be a lot hardware to get a different psu in then.

 

2 hours ago, WrennBird said:

What about the case itself makes you believe it isn’t worth upgrading, out of genuine curiosity? I would definitely like to hear all sides before I make a decision.

Its pretty non standard. Your gonna have to do a reasonble amount of work to get normal pc parts in it. you can do it for sure, and much harder builds have been done, but if you haven't dont this type of stuff before I would get a normal case.

[brob]

19 hours ago, WrennBird said:

and I would like to upgrade it with more modern specs.

 

Don't. It will be easier and likely less expensive to simply build an entirely new system.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13500 2.5 GHz 14-Core Processor  ($247.98 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK400 66.47 CFM CPU Cooler  ($34.84 @ B&H) 
Motherboard: MSI MAG B760M MORTAR WIFI Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($180.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory  ($120.11 @ MemoryC) 
Storage: Western Digital Black SN770 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI RTX 3060 Ventus 3X 12G OC GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  ($298.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Asus Prime AP201 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($74.98 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: ADATA XPG CORE Reactor 650 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1107.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-15 19:44 EDT-0400

[thewelshbrummie]

27 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Its pretty non standard. Your gonna have to do a reasonble amount of work to get normal pc parts in it. you can do it for sure, and much harder builds have been done, but if you haven't dont this type of stuff before I would get a normal case.

This. Sony were the king of non-standard PCs so there's little chance that you can modify this PC without some serious modding.

 

Some examples:

• RC204 - a fairly normal media PC from 2006 but it uses the BTX standard. While BTX is very similar to ATX but flipped upside down, it's still not a straight swap and BTX is effectively discontinued.
• RM1N - a high end editing PC that came in 2 separate pieces. Absolutely non-standard.
• MX - early 2000's media PC... with (indirect) FM radio and minidisc support.

Basically Sony have a huge history of non- standard designs, in part because they targeted the high-end of the market to make bigger margins per sale.

2 hours ago, WrennBird said:

It’s almost as if this case is sized like a medium sized case, yet all the functional parts take up the size of a smaller tower. It’s just such an interesting specimen, and I have no idea what they were thinking design-wise!

That's my point - it's overengineered because that's how Sony does things, and they wanted to justify a high price.

 

As has been pointed out it's a heatpipe cooler... which will likely not be rated with a high enough TDP for what any mid-range or high-end CPU of today needs. And I think the PSU is rated for a paltry 150W with a size that looks non-standard as well.

 

Unless you think you can mod this well, you're best off starting over with a new case.

[WrennBird]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea thats not atx then. Thats gonna be a lot hardware to get a different psu in then.

 

Its pretty non standard. Your gonna have to do a reasonble amount of work to get normal pc parts in it. you can do it for sure, and much harder builds have been done, but if you haven't dont this type of stuff before I would get a normal case.

I'm still relatively new to building computers, so I feel inclined to ask what you believe would need to be modified for modern components to fit comfortably in it. From the sounds of it, it seems the heatpipes would need to be the first thing to go. If I can't go with modern heatpipes to fit this build, could I theoretically fit a liquid cooler in this system while accommodating the PSU? Granted I have about 3/4 inches in clearance between the CPU and the power supply.

 

Thank you again! 

[WrennBird]

1 hour ago, brob said:

 

Don't. It will be easier and likely less expensive to simply build an entirely new system.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13500 2.5 GHz 14-Core Processor  ($247.98 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK400 66.47 CFM CPU Cooler  ($34.84 @ B&H) 
Motherboard: MSI MAG B760M MORTAR WIFI Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($180.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory  ($120.11 @ MemoryC) 
Storage: Western Digital Black SN770 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI RTX 3060 Ventus 3X 12G OC GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  ($298.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Asus Prime AP201 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($74.98 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: ADATA XPG CORE Reactor 650 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1107.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-15 19:44 EDT-0400

Thank you for listing these! I'll take a look at them if there's absolutely no way to modify this case!

[WrennBird]

1 hour ago, thewelshbrummie said:

This. Sony were the king of non-standard PCs so there's little chance that you can modify this PC without some serious modding.

 

Some examples:

• RC204 - a fairly normal media PC from 2006 but it uses the BTX standard. While BTX is very similar to ATX but flipped upside down, it's still not a straight swap and BTX is effectively discontinued.
• RM1N - a high end editing PC that came in 2 separate pieces. Absolutely non-standard.
• MX - early 2000's media PC... with (indirect) FM radio and minidisc support.

Basically Sony have a huge history of non- standard designs, in part because they targeted the high-end of the market to make bigger margins per sale.

That's my point - it's overengineered because that's how Sony does things, and they wanted to justify a high price.

 

As has been pointed out it's a heatpipe cooler... which will likely not be rated with a high enough TDP for what any mid-range or high-end CPU of today needs. And I think the PSU is rated for a paltry 150W with a size that looks non-standard as well.

 

Unless you think you can mod this well, you're best off starting over with a new case.

Very interesting history lesson overall. Rather disappointing they would go with non-standard, but I'm sure from a business aspect, it was a good way to get more people to just upgrade to an entirely new system rather than extend the life of the user's machine by swapping components.

 

I read more info on this model in particular and apparently it was designed in such a way the CPU was unable to be serviced, with the only options for expansion was through applicable GPUs and up to 4 GBs of DDR2 RAM. Given this was a Pentium D CPU, that doesn't seem to give very many options. Given that, it seems to me the whole heat pipe system would need to somehow be completely removed before I could put in a new CPU, let alone a completely new motherboard.

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 minutes ago, WrennBird said:

I'm still relatively new to building computers, so I feel inclined to ask what you believe would need to be modified for modern components to fit comfortably in it. From the sounds of it, it seems the heatpipes would need to be the first thing to go. If I can't go with modern heatpipes to fit this build, could I theoretically fit a liquid cooler in this system while accommodating the PSU? Granted I have about 3/4 inches in clearance between the CPU and the power supply.

 

Thank you again! 

 So your gonna need a way to get a new psu in there. Its hard to say whats best from the pics, but your either modding the psu with those screws(be real careful about that), or ripping the old psu apart, and cutting a whole for a sfx psu.

 

For cpu cooler you only real option is a water cooler, so that gonna be a pain to do a custom loop. Might be hard to get a radiator on there as there doesn't seem to be much clearence.

 

Cooling the gpu will be a challenge as it looks like there isn't much cooling vents. Going to probably have to take out the hdd cage too to fit a big gpu.

 

Front panel headers can be a pain. You might be stuck soldering a connector on there to replace the custom one.

 

 

 

 

[thewelshbrummie]

On 7/15/2023 at 8:17 PM, WrennBird said:

I'm still relatively new to building computers,

I'll stop you there. That alone tells me that you should just get a new case and start over.

 

Modding is something I've not done but it's obvious that you would need to remove the CPU cooler, change the PSU mount... and that's before you factor in modern GPUs, which this case simply wasn't designed for.

On 7/15/2023 at 8:19 PM, WrennBird said:

Thank you for listing these! I'll take a look at them if there's absolutely no way to modify this case!

Please don't! Those were simply old computers that Sony made to highlight that non-standard was very common for Sony through the noughts. Again, you're best off starting over.