Sony's VAIO R Master splits the tower

Come young grasshopper, it's time to meet the Sony VAIO R Master. Now, instead of looming over your desktop as a giant tower of yore, Sony has wisely spilt the VAIO R's innards into two smaller slabs connected via some USB/PCI Express magic. This allows you to arrange the clutter to your liking with up to 1.8-meters (about 6-feet) of tethered separation. The smaller of the boxes contains the most frequently accessed components such as BD drive and various memory card, USB, and Firewire slots while the fatter base holds the rest of the computing guts configurable with up to 4x 500GB SATA disks, a 2.96GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800 CPU, 256MB nVidia GeForce 7600GT graphics, a suite of analog and digital TV tuners, up to 3GB DDR2 RAM and plenty of PCI/PCI Express expansion slots to get you through a couple of product release cycles. All that and a bundled 24-inch, 1920x1200 pixel LCD connected over one of the base unit's two DVI outputs, one of which is HDCP-enabled, and plenty of software from Adobe and Sony to make the most of this multimedia powerhouse. And if you're quick, you can snatch the new R from the hand of Sony Japan starting October 28th for ¥192,000 (roughly $1,632) or more than ¥555,000 (about $4,717) fully equipped.

[Via Impress]

[George @ Oct 3rd 2006 6:39AM]

This seems an interesting approach. However not something I would invest in. Convergence always being the keyword in my book, why would I have two seperate units with 2 seperate footprints. I believe this will only make for more clutter. In principal it might be a neat idea. In practise it will only take up more space in the pigeonhole I call home.

[Rohit Kapur @ Oct 3rd 2006 6:46AM]

Agree with George. It's a neat idea, but only if you're on-board with having something that large in the first place.

Oh and George, don't hate me and no offense to you, but allow me to correct the english.

'Seperate' = x
'Separate' = :-)

'Principal' = Leader
'Principle' = Rule, Code of conduct, etc...

'Practise' = x
'Practice' = :-D

[Deluxe @ Oct 3rd 2006 8:09AM]

If you're that concerned about spelling, then you may be on the wrong internet.

[fubar @ Oct 3rd 2006 7:07AM]

Stacked up like that, it kind of reminds me of the old Mindset machines....

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 3rd 2006 7:25AM]

Clutter is right.
I'm trying to REDUCE the number of components!

[Richard @ Oct 3rd 2006 7:34AM]

It seems more like a marketing idea than intelligent design. I have way too much clutter as it is; printers, external drives, scanners, etc. Why would I want something else on my desk. Not for me.

[EdZ @ Oct 3rd 2006 7:39AM]

It seems like a damn good idea to me. I want to get at disc drives and ports easily, but I don't need a hulking great tower on my desk all the time (though I've got an unusually large desk just for this reason). Sticking the tower underneath like I used to kept it out of the way, but also made accessing ports and drives inconvenient. This seems like the best of both worlds.

[myscrnnm @ Oct 3rd 2006 7:47AM]

I think what some of you don't understand is that this is a great idea. It just doesn't cater to your specific needs. There can never be a perfect design for anything because everyone has a different idea of what is ideal. But overall, the R Master is one of the best new computer designs I've seen in a long time. Basically, you can just put the CPU in an unobtrusive place while you keep the stuff you actually interact with in front of you, thus reducing clutter where you most need to - the desk.

[Grizz @ Oct 3rd 2006 7:53AM]

If your gonna go that far you might as well build the rom's into the monitor with card readers and usb ports and be even tighter.

[Rohit Kapur @ Oct 3rd 2006 8:20AM]

I'm not, actually. I just thought I'd correct because then at least the person would know they're making a mistake. I didn't do it to deride him or anything. That's why my initial reply was about his comment and how I agreed completely.

Guess the take on the corrections is a personal opinion. Apologies if I offended...

[jamie @ Oct 3rd 2006 8:20AM]

Did IBM do this years ago?

[jamie @ Oct 3rd 2006 8:21AM]

Didn't*

[disciple83 @ Oct 3rd 2006 8:34AM]

I split my laptop up into pieces that are unobtrusive for my lap. For instance, I implanted 2TB of solid state HDD in my leg, it's SATA II so the speed boost justifies the distance to the CPU I grafted to my head (its only a C2D 6300, I figured I could overclock it fairly easy with a good sugar rush) which also offsets the workload generated by things like thinking. I don't need RAM because I never was good at multitasking, so I figured no amount would help anyway. Lastly, video is run throughmy sunglasses, giving me a resolution of roughly 26MP, although anything generated by the CPU is limited to 1900x1200 with the appearance of a 108" widescreen at 10 feet. Since th CPU is in my head, all I would need to do is think about my input and its already done. I can dictate Word documents as fast as I can think them, although spellcheck is a real bitch.

[Jeff @ Oct 3rd 2006 8:49AM]

There was an IBM (cr)Aptiva that had an external CD-ROM and floppy in an enclosure that would pop up when you pushed on the front. Great industrial design, especially when paired with their monitor and display stand.

The cable went to a special purpose ISA card by way of a VERY thick cable and it worked fairly well aside from the fact that it just wasn't useful enough to catch on.

BTW: It was a nightmare to repair the drive enclosures since they weren't really repair-friendly.

[Wonderboy @ Oct 3rd 2006 9:02AM]

I love this idea for home theater set-ups. You need to have the disc drive and the ports available, but the rest is just an eye-sore in a home theater. This would allow a discreet hole-in-the-wall connection between the things I need at my fingertips and the things I don't want to see (or hear) on the other side of a wall.

Not a "perfect" design, but pretty dang cool all the same.

[Richard @ Oct 3rd 2006 9:09AM]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers that old IBM Aptiva (Pentium I, iirc).

Nice idea, but honestly? Buy a compact desktop if you need the space that badly...

There are plenty of all-in-one a la the iMac out there, too.

[Eric @ Oct 3rd 2006 9:15AM]

Computer is too big...hmm....
*ding*

Why dont we split it up!

Everyone wins!

[NeoteriX @ Oct 3rd 2006 9:45AM]

Wow, I guess I wasn't the first person to think of my old Aptiva also. Pretty sweet looking computer for back in the day... I would have loved it with all of my heart except for the fact that the combination modem/soundcard (mWave) was total shite. Ah, good times.

[Revels @ Oct 3rd 2006 10:00AM]

Eeek! Have I woken up in 1992?

[Andy @ Oct 3rd 2006 10:34AM]

anyone knows What the display model is, because their 1920x1200 LCD now seems to be getting discontinued. And this one has HDCP, and I'd take this over the Dell 2407 if the price was right.

Thanks.

[William McGough @ Dec 27th 2006 10:41PM]

Well, first off sony is geting out of the display market.
You can only get this display when you configure the Type R Master from SONY Japan (www.jp.sonystyle.com)
The model is SDM-P246W, and it is just the same as the Dell 2407, except it has 3 DVI ports and usb ports for switching between computers. (when you switch the display input, you switch the computer the Keyboard and Mouse connected to the monitor are controlling).
Oh yeah and it's $1,250 or 150,000円 (yen)

[Sherrie @ Oct 3rd 2006 10:35AM]

Mr 'disciple83' - you must be that guy I saw in the bar last night!

[Michael La Framboise @ Oct 3rd 2006 10:35AM]

I agree with everyone, while on paper the idea of easier access to all your drives and ports may be very interesting, but in reality, it turns out to be the size of two computers; double the size that it needs to be. I mean if you NEED to have your drives right there in your face 24/7 and are too lazy to bend over to put the disk in the pc thats under your desk, or hell, just put the pc ON the desk, just get some external cd/dvd drives, get a external hub and so on... but trashing your desk like this just seems like a pretty stupid idea...

Plus if atleast it looked like something that you'd actually want to show off rather then hide under your desk... Right now it looks like some 90's era low-end bank pc...


myscrnnm - no, theres no 'perfect' pc that would appeal to everyone, but each and every single one of Apple's machines; mac mini, imac, mac pro... they come pretty close

[Troyka @ Oct 3rd 2006 10:41AM]

Just wondering if anyone could tell me what software they are showing on the LCD? It sure looks a heck of a lot like Apple's Final Cut Pro. Isn't that only for OS X?

[silvanyar @ Oct 7th 2006 5:24PM]

@Troyka

I'm betting on Adobe Premier Pro. Been using that for the whole of the semester, so I am 80% positive on that.

[Marc B. @ Oct 3rd 2006 10:50AM]

So this is what the awesome Sony design team came up with? More cables and clutter! Nice specs, but what a mess.

[Tom Gabriele @ Oct 3rd 2006 11:44AM]

when i first read the post, i thought that it was such a good idea. right now i have a [completely self built] sff pc sitting on my desk so that everything is accessable, and even that takes up room. something like this would allow for a fully featured and expandable pc that can still be accessable. however, thinking about it, there is already something about the same size that needs to be easily within reach on your desk - why not build in a keyboard. my friend did something along those lines kind of: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=96051&highlight=uber+keyboard - pics are on page 2 and 3

[Matt @ Oct 3rd 2006 11:46AM]

Mmmmmmm... IBM Aptiva.... I remember those...

Blast from the past!

[Ebzy @ Oct 3rd 2006 12:15PM]

Anyone remember the Amstrad CPC464 of God-knows-how-many years ago. the way the keyboard had the tape deck on the side. Well a BD writer might look as cool today as the tape drive did in those days.
OK maybe not.

The thing i was caught by is the price of the specs mentioned and the juicy monitor. O well if only "upto" was "comes with" eh?

[Gunbuster @ Oct 3rd 2006 4:31PM]

The IBM nightmare returns under a new name

[William L. McGough @ Oct 3rd 2006 5:26PM]

The pics on sony's website do not do justice to this machine.
Sony Fan from Impress watch has, as usual, pics of how the machine looks in real light
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=ja_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.watch.impress.co.jp%2Fsonyfan%2Fspecial%2F061003%2F
(this may not work so see the un-translated version here: http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/sonyfan/special/061003/)

One fact that goes unmentioned by sony is that the main case or "Main Unit" has 6 2.5" hard drive carriers and the motherboard has 6 SATA connectors, but they don�t mention this because 2 are in the back of the case and they cannot guarantee that the drives will not overheat in the warranty. Shockingly for a sony computer, these two extra drive bays do not have SATA and Power Cables pre-wired up to them. Instead you will need to buy your own SATA cables and worm the power cables over there yourself.

Also talking about the hard drives, 1 or all of the 2 5.25" drives in the secondary or "Access Unit" box (where the blu-ray drive is) can be replaced with SATA Hard Drives in special carriers. There are 2 SATA cables wired out to these slots, giving you the ability to have a total of 8 SATA drives. So 750GB HDD x 8 = 6 TB!!!!

Unfortunately you are unable to daisy chain these units - only one will work with one system so you would be left without optical drives if you took this option.

It also has Bluetooth and strangely enough, a PC card type 2 slot (just like the one found on a laptop).

One last feature which I don�t understand owing to poor translation is a terrestrial BS 110 degree CS digital tuner.

Translated (by Altavista) it reads �When the B-CAS card slot * with the VAIO owner maid model, the terrestrial BS 110 degree CS digital tuner is selected, or standard specification (shop front sale) only model VGC-RM70DPL4 loading�

This looks like a cable card slot, but I am not sure. Anyone who knows, please reply to tell me what it is.

[William L. McGough @ Oct 3rd 2006 5:31PM]

For my part, if sony doesn't release these in the US (which I very much hope they do but I doubt they will), I will definitely try to find an importer to import it specially

[Chris @ Oct 4th 2006 12:13PM]

Ooooh, I have an idea...let's take this one step further! We can have one piece of the computer that contains all the heavy processing capacity and the hard disks and then have another piece connect to it from another room! We could come up with some sort of technology that would connect the two pieces and allow the piece with the display and the optical drives, let's call it a 'thin client', to connect to the ...ummm... 'server'! We could even extend this further and allow several of these 'thin clients' to connect to the 'server' from different parts of the house! WOW! Someone should really try and bring this technology to market!

Chris

[Alexandre Souza @ Oct 5th 2006 4:36PM]

This is something I though to be obvius, for a long time I'm looking for something like this.