Digital Trends

Sony VAIO PCV-RS220 July 1st, 2003 | by Ian Bell

Setup and Use

The setup process on the PCV-RS220 is like any desktop featuring Microsoft's Windows XP Home Edition operating system. Upon powering the system up, simply answer the questions pertaining to your home network and user information. Once you are through with the Microsoft setup process you will be prompted by both McAfee and Sony to register their software. The McAfee software prompts get tiresome rather quickly so if you do not plan on using their software, then we recommend uninstalling it altogether to avoid the constant message pop-ups which will continue to occur should you not register the software.

As always, we like to see a company create unique software for their computer systems and Sony does not dissapoint. Although Microsoft's Windows XP Home Edition is a fine operating system, with Sony's own software you are not limited to what is built into your computers operating system. Sony's multimedia software for developing DVD's, or simply capturing video or pictures, works very intuitively and will do fine for the novice user. Sony's Sonic Stage, although a good program for playing networked music, still is unable to support streaming internet music requiring you to use Windows Media Player for internet play lists.

The overall outside design and look of the PCV-RS220 is very pleasing and conforms to the rest of the Sony VAIO desktop line. The front face of the PCV-RS220 features a brushed silver surface with rounded corners located at the top of the system. On the bottom of the front of the PCV-RS220 there is a cover which opens with a slight push. Located behind the cover are two USB 2.0 ports and a single IEEE FireWire port, perfect for those with camcorders or other digital devices. Both of the DVD/CD-ROM drives are located behind a door giving the system a stream-lined look.   Closing the CD/DVD drives are difficult because once the drive bay door is open, you are forced to nudge the drive trays to close it. The doors button is rendered useless while open. While the outside of the PCV-RS220 gives a great impressions, the inside is another story.

We thought we could get past the integrated graphics, but after looking at the inside of the PCV-RS220 system, we have to wonder how long a system like could stay current with the quickly evolving market. First of all, there are only 3 PCI expansion slots with a CNR (Communications Networking Riser) slot located below the 3^rd PCI slot. It is this communications network slot in which the V.90 compatible modem is located. Unfortunately because this CNR slot is located so close to the 3^rd PCI slot, you may have a hard time finding a PCI card to fit in it. One may wonder what you would need a PCI slot for since everything is integrated onto the systems motherboard?  A quick brainstorm brings to mind wireless networking cards, Bluetooth cards, SCSI cards, soundcards and a plethora of other devices. The PCV-RS220 uses (2) 256MB memory sticks which means if you would like to add more memory to this system, you will have to forego one of the memory sticks in favor of a larger one. Other than the 3 PCI expansion slots, the only room left for upgrading is an open 3.5” drive bay should you decide to add another hard drive to the system. Overall we were very disappointed with the upgradeability of the PCV-RS220 system.

The inside reveals little in the way of upgradeability

The peripherals that come with the Sony VAIO PCV-RS220 system could certainly use some work. The keyboard for starters features minimal hot keys limiting you to only volume and sleep buttons. All of the keys on the keyboard feel very mushy and cheap with little travel while typing. The mouse also gives off a feeling of lesser quality as Sony decided to include a mouse with a ball rather than using an optical sensor. Both the keyboard and mouse are connected to the system through the PS2 ports located on the back of the computer. The included multimedia speakers appear to be thrown in to complete the system and feature a measly .5 Watts per speaker and no subwoofer is included.