Sony VAIO VGC-RB38G
Low-cost media center PC will appeal to price-sensitive customers.
Artwork by Rick Rizner, John Goddard
The elegantly styled Sony VAIO VGC-RB38G is a multimedia PC designed for users who want to enjoy music, photos, movies, and favorite TV shows, but who don't have overly ambitious requirements.
Using an Intel 3.4-GHz Pentium 4 550, 1GB of DDR400 SDRAM, and a 250GB hard drive, this $1700 VAIO was an average performer for its CPU class, earning a score of 92 in our WorldBench 5 tests. It fared about the same on our graphics tests. Using its 128MB Asus EAX300LE graphics card, it finished squarely in the middle among all recently reviewed systems. It didn't show strong numbers in our games tests, so we feel this PC's graphics performance is better suited for casual rather than ardent gamers.
The black, elegantly styled minitower includes two optical drives--a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combination drive and a multiformat, double-layer DVD burner--both hidden behind unmarked front flaps that are easily opened by pressing the silver eject buttons on the side. Another front panel opens downward to reveal two of the PC's six USB 2.0 ports and four media-card slots. However, there are no front-side inputs for headphones or a microphone--these inputs are on the back.
The rear of the system has connectors for both VGA and DVI monitors that are clearly labeled and easy to access. There's also a single analog TV tuner for connecting a coaxial cable to the PC, but you can't record one channel while watching another because it's not a dual TV tuner (which some competing Media Center PCs provide). The interior was neatly laid out and provided a few expansion options, including three internal (but no externally accessible) drive bays, two open memory slots, and one open PCI slot.
A well-designed, 17-inch Sony SDM-HS75 LCD monitor came with our system; it has easy-to-reach controls on the bottom right for adjusting the image. We also liked the monitor's removable back cover for quickly accessing and hiding the cables behind the set. In our tests, the monitor displayed sharp, readable text and bright color graphics. However, I found that by changing the monitor's default color temperature setting (from 9300K to 6500K degrees), skin tones and other colors became much warmer and more to my liking when viewing DVD movies.
The Sony VGP-SP3 speaker system provides enough cable length to set the twin speakers about 46 inches apart, which was fine for decent sound when I sat near the system. Overall, the Sony's sound and video quality were reasonably strong during our music CD and DVD playback tests, but we'd want to substitute a bigger speaker system for settling back on the sofa away from the PC.
The machine comes with a standard keyboard and optical mouse that worked well, plus a handy remote for controlling the PC and connected components from the sofa. This VAIO comes with the Windows XP Media Center OS installed. The OS provides most of the tools you'll need for enjoying photos, music, and videos, but other included software such as Sony's Click to DVD (for easy DVD burning), PictureGear Studio (for photo editing), Windows Movie Maker (for video editing), and a pair of applications for creating music and data CDs are nice extras. The sparse documentation includes a quick setup poster but no overall user guide.
The VAIO VGC-RB38G is a good, modestly priced media center PC for the office or den, but it won't appeal to users with high-end ambitions.
Richard Jantz
Artwork by Rick Rizner, John Goddard
Artwork by Rick Rizner, John Goddard
Artwork by Rick Rizner, John Goddard