Sony Vaio VGC-RA304 review

What you need to know

Reviewed by: Matthew Elliott

Reviewed on: 19 November 2004

Tags: Sony, Sony Vaio VGC-RA304, hard drive, recording, Media Center

We like:

Near-silent operation; powerful P4 processor; double-layer DVD burner; large hard drive; big software bundle

We don't like:

Large case won't fit in every living room; cheap plastic drive and port covers on front panel

You might also need:

Double-layer DVD+R discs, Pioneer PDP-4340HD

CNET UK judgement:

Sony figured out a way to keep an Intel Pentium 4 processor cool without using an army of cooling fans, giving the nearly silent VAIO VGC-RA304 living-room appeal

Full review:

For some time now, we've been crying out for new PC case designs to shoehorn a Media Center PC into your home cinema. You'd have a tough time finding room for the £1,550 Sony VAIO VGC-RA304's vertically oriented case in your A/V rack; a small form-factor case such as Shuttle's XPC G2 7500M would work better, spacewise. Still, we'd argue that the VGC-RA304 is one of the more living-room friendly Media Center PCs we've seen. Why? One word: acoustics. Continue Reading...