Depending on what you expect to use your computer for, the Sony VAIO VGC-JS4EF/S may be the all in one PC for you. It is by no means top of the range but as we will discover, it has more than ample specifications for what most users would consider vital functions.

To look at, the VGC-JS4EF/S delivers the clean lines and contemporary feel that we have come to expect from the Sony VAIO team and with a screen size of 20.1 inches, the whole system should have no problem fitting into even the most compressed of office spaces.

Processor

This particular VAIO machine is powered by Intel’s ® Core ™2 Duo Processor E7400 which has a 2.8GHz clock speed, 1066 MHz front side bus speed and 3MB L2 cache capacity.

This doesn’t mean very much on its own and what’s much more useful is a comparison of performance against other available processors. Luckily the guys over at PassMark perform thousands of tests on a continual basis and if you visit this page you will see the E7400 highlighted some three quarters of the way down the chart.

So it does not fare too well against the most modern CPUs. You need to put this in perspective though; compared against your current machine (assuming this machine is more than a few years old) this processor will likely be noticeably better. Like we mentioned initially, for average users, the difference between this and a more expensive processor will not be much. Just don’t expect it to cope massively well with the more intensive games of the day.

RAM

This machine comes with 4GB of 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM (that’s 2x2GB modules) which implies it should cope sufficiently well with multiple programs open at once.

This means you don’t have to worry about things slowing down if you’ve got lots of internet pages open, while streaming your favourite music and using your favourite word processor or slideshow creator. You also shouldn’t notice much slowing down when your antivirus software is performing an update (which happens a lot these days).

Display

The X-black LCD is 20.1 inches in size and has a resolution of 1680 x 1050 which makes this screen HD compatible though it is not what would be considered “Full HD”. Overall, pictures should remain sharp, blacks should appear deep and colours should be vibrant and life-like. This means you can enjoy a great viewing experience with DVDs and online video alike.

Graphics Card

The VAIO VGC-JS4EF/S has as it’s GPU, the NVIDIA® GeForce® 9300M GS which has total available memory of 2015MB and a dedicated GDDR3 video memory of 256MB. So if you have games that require more than this you might want to look at a more high end machine.

This graphics card doesn’t perform too well on the independent benchmarks set out by Futuremark as can be seen by it’s lowly results even when compared to other NVIDIA cards. A score of 335 in these tests is really quite low.

But before you dismiss this computer all together, consider that many people live quite happily without any dedicated graphics card whatsoever and a good one is only necessary for gamers mostly. This card will happily allow you to watch all your favourite movies or other video clips, view photos and perform processing of clips from your video camera.

And The Rest

The VGC-JS4EF/S comes complete with a massive 500GB hard drive. This is generally sufficient for most people allowing you to store tens of thousands of photos and hundreds of hours of film. Thus you are unlikely to ever need to add further storage capacity.

The optical device is a DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM drive which allows you to burn pretty much any non-blu ray disc you like at speed. Five USB 2.0 ports, built in 1.3 megapixel webcam, integrated wirless and built in Dolby surround speakers complete the most important of the specifications.

There are undoubtedly better performing all in one PCs on the market but not many in this price bracket. Sony VAIOs do generally have a good build quality and should last for years to come which makes this mid-range machine a serious contender for many households.