Hey there, well I am finally taking the plunge & upgrading my XL-100 even further. I have already carried out the following upgrades:
Added 1 Gb RAM - now have 2Gb (afaik this is the official limit & others have had issues going beyond this, am I right?)
Added additional 1Tb hard drive for Recorded TV (works great, though it's amazing how quickly it fills up!)
Upgraded from XP to Windows 7 (love the new OS & MC, but have had stability & graphics card issues which leads me on to...)
I have just purchased & will install next week:
New Graphics card- Sapphire RADEON HD 4550 to replace stock Nvidia 6600GT.
Additional TV Tuner Card- Compro VideoMate T750F. Cheap enough but is about the only card out there that can do what I want: Dual DVB-T/Analog. Alternative was the much more expensive Blackgold BGT3500. However, this will only be used on recording conflicts/watching TV whilst recording, so hopefully lack of hardware encoding won't be a huge issue.
My main query is- when I install the above 2 items, can I install both at the same time or is it better practice to install one, check it's working & then install the other?
Also, am I crazy upgrading a 4 year-old machine? I justify it as: it cost me a packet "only" 4 years ago, Sony don't seem to be producing Media Centres anymore & most of my upgrades could be reused if I need to rebuild a new Media Centre. Any thoughts? Vaio VGX-XL100 2Gb Memory 1.25Tb Storage Samsung TV LE32R74BDX UPC Digital Cable TV STB
Go for it. I have upgraded my XL100 similarly. Ordered all the hardware and chucked it in at once. I think I didn't seat the graphics card properly on first boot but easily rectified.
I see no reason why our old boxes can't carry on for a bit longer. I have dual tuner recording, two Xbox 360 extenders and 1080p HD playback off my XL100.
My CPU is rarely above 25% due to everything being offloaded to the other hardware.
I would do them one at a time and take a backup before installing the tuner. Adding a tuner means you will need to run through the TV Tuner / Guide setup in Media Center. This should work OK with no problems but I am not familiar with your tuner.
Lack of hardware encoding is not an issue if you are recording digital channels as the broadcast stream is just written straight to disk.
I've upgraded so many components in my XL201 that if Sony made it they would call it an XL402. The fact that they are so upgradeable means they can have an extended life.
The next challenge though will be Freeview HD... Sony VAIO VGX-XL201 - Windows 7 Enterprise 32-bit - TMT3 Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 - 3GB DDR5300 nVidia GeForce 9500 GT (Inno3D N95GT-1DDV-C2CX) Sony BC-5600S Blu-ray Drive 40GB SSD - 250GB + 500GB HDD AVerMedia Hybrid A16C Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T-500
Have you upgraded the CPU in your XL201 IT Troll? Im getting to the stage where i think a bit extra processing power would be better. And I agree with you it will be interesting to see how they XL series copes with freeview HD. I have my fingers crossed.
Thanks for the reassurance guys. I did indeed go ahead with the upgrades with no problems whatsoever! Absolutely delighted that now I have no MC crashes & no recording conflicts ever again! IT Troll- thanks I did each upgrade seperately (probably safest thing to do).
So only issues I currently have (are there ever no issues?):
Resume from sleep issues- sometimes crashes when resuming from sleep (currently have it never sleeping, though this seems very inefficient)
On some reboots I lose the Compro Videomate driver/signal. Reboot again & it's back. I see there have been simliar issues with other tuners, so perhaps this is a W7 MC issue?
So now I have no fear What are the other possible upgrades? Omnislash- I wasn't even aware it was possible to do a CPU upgrade! Vaio VGX-XL100 2Gb Memory 1.25Tb Storage Samsung TV LE32R74BDX UPC Digital Cable TV STB
I have upgraded the CPU in my XL201 to a 2.67GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 which is the fastest the BIOS supports without issue. It is a fairly simple job to do and now my CPU temperature is actually lower! The factory fitted CPU is completely caked in gunk which doesn't help with the cooling.
It didn't really need to upgrade but I thought I would get the fastest possible whilst they are still available at a good price.
There should be some scope to upgrade the XL100 CPU but as it comes with a Pentium (rather than Core2) I am not sure which CPUs the BIOS will support.
[ Edited Wed Mar 03 2010,05:44PM ] Sony VAIO VGX-XL201 - Windows 7 Enterprise 32-bit - TMT3 Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 - 3GB DDR5300 nVidia GeForce 9500 GT (Inno3D N95GT-1DDV-C2CX) Sony BC-5600S Blu-ray Drive 40GB SSD - 250GB + 500GB HDD AVerMedia Hybrid A16C Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T-500
Sorry, may have missed this, any advice on upgrade of either motherboard or processor on original XL100. Processor was Pentium D920. Would any processor fitting LGA 775 socket do or would too big a jump cause big problems?
I have not seen any reports of upgrades to the XL100 CPU, however this doesn't mean that it isn't possible, just that nobody has tried.
To my knowledge I was the first to try the E6700 and BC-5600S upgrades in my XL201. Someone has always got to go first with these things and take the risk.
Having said that, trying a Core2 Duo in the XL100 is fairly low risk. At worst I would expect it not to boot and that you get a unsupported CPU beep code. I wouldn't expect any permanent damage to occur to either the CPU or motherboard.
The most likely to work will be the 65nm Conroe with 1066 FSB. Stay way from the Quad cores, 1333 FSB and 45nm though, they definitely won't work.
[ Edited Sat Mar 13 2010,09:28AM ] Sony VAIO VGX-XL201 - Windows 7 Enterprise 32-bit - TMT3 Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 - 3GB DDR5300 nVidia GeForce 9500 GT (Inno3D N95GT-1DDV-C2CX) Sony BC-5600S Blu-ray Drive 40GB SSD - 250GB + 500GB HDD AVerMedia Hybrid A16C Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T-500
What are the other possible upgrades? Omnislash- I wasn't even aware it was possible to do a CPU upgrade! 
