(The issue of HDMI/S/PDF is not important for me) So am I right in saying that the pecking order for low profiles cards that will fit the XL100 is as follows Passive route: 6600GT, 7600GT; 8500GT, 210? Fan route: 9500GT; 9600GT; 220?
Having followed this thread from the start, I had resigned myself to not upgrading my 6600 graphics card, what with modifying cards & cutting-up heat-sinks etc. Also Spdif IS important for me as I use HDMI to my TV & Spdif to my A/V Receiver (can't run HDMI through this due to "handshake" issues).
However now I have installed W7, I am having regular MC & IE crashes and trouble finding a stable 6600 driver. Can anyone tell me- has the release of the 220 changed all of this? Does it fit the XL100 no problem? Does this have Spdif? Do latest Nvidia drivers work well with XL100 & W7? Is the fan quiet? Vaio VGX-XL100 2Gb Memory 1.25Tb Storage Samsung TV LE32R74BDX UPC Digital Cable TV STB
not sure about the 220 but I also got a 9500 GT based on IT Trolls post, the card will just sit in the same slot as the 6600, you wont need to modify anything and it supports SP Dif and HDMI as I have mine setup the same way, HDMI to the TV and optical out to my amp. [ image disabled ]
For both simultaneous HDMI and SPDIF audio and light gaming I would recommend nVidia 9500 GT.
If you only need HDMI or SPDIF audio (i.e. not both at the same time) I would recommend nVidia G210 or G220. The G220 being better for light gaming. Another option in this scenario is the ATI Radeon 4550. However check the modes you require as the ATI doesn't support all resolutions at 50Hz (PAL).
All of the above cards will fit in the XL-series without the need for any modifications. 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
Thanks for the clarification IT Troll. I suppose my unknown is whether my HDMI handshake issue is down to the 6600 or my Onkyo A/V Receiver i.e. perhaps a new graphics card would work fine through the A/V receiver & then I could use HDMI for audio. Would outputting audio through the graphics card-HDMI be an improvement on Sigmatel-S/Pdif?
Also I have been googling reviews of the Nvidia GT220 & the ATI 4550. Confusingly, although all of them state that these are HTPC not gaming cards, they then test them with various games & conclude that they are cr*p! Some even state that the GT220 has a lower spec than the 9500GT. I presumed the GT220 would be an upgrade of the 9500GT? I know that they are budget cards, but I just want the best HTPC (not gaming) graphics card that will fit into my XL100 (any low-profile card?) without any W7 issues, regardless of price.
I'm also a bit confused re: resolutions & ATI issues. AFAIK, my Samsung LE32R74BDX has a native resloution of 1366x768 @ 60Hz, but I can never seem to select this with my 6600 & have to use a much lower resolution. Would both the ATI 4550 & the Nvidia GT220 be able to ouput 1366x768 @ 60Hz? Vaio VGX-XL100 2Gb Memory 1.25Tb Storage Samsung TV LE32R74BDX UPC Digital Cable TV STB
The 6600 was a bit ropey with HDMI. In fact Sony released a firmware downgrade to address some of the issues people were having. I found my system worked much better generally once I had got rid of the 6600.
The 9500GT and 220GT are pretty close on 3D performance. However the 220GT has PureVideo4 which makes it a better choice for HTPC.
Both the ATI and nVidia cards will do 1360x768 @ 60Hz, however I found that only the nVidia would do it @ 50Hz which is much better for PAL material. The nVidia drivers will let you add a custom resolution of 1366x786 if your TV correctly reports back that it supports that resolution. If not, 1360x768, should be close enough and offer better definition than you currently have.
[ Edited Wed Jan 13 2010,05:37PM ] 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
Hi- if you don't mind the advert I have just put a low profile/passive (fanless) MSI 8500 card for sale on Ebay for £30 + P & P- id # 140374140757 if anyone is interested. This will fit and work on all XLs. Note however that it comes without a low profile bracket. If you want more info you can PM me. Thanks.
The Asus 220 does look like a nice card. Have you received yours from Komplett yet monsieurgadget?
I actually cancelled the order before Xmas as the GDDR3 version was not available.
It is available now, but I have decided to wait for a while and see how they handle in the field, read reviews etc.. It appears that the fan noise can still be quite high on some of the early models and the performance is not that hectic.
I also like the look of the new GT240 but this is not available - yet - in Low Profile.
To be honest, part of me thinks I am flogging a dead horse trying to turn the XL100 into a true Home Theatre PC. I still get frame dropouts etc. when watching MKVs and am not at all convinced that upgrading the graphics card again will improve things much as my existing Radeon HD4550 is meant to be a very good card, i.e. still gets rave reviews.
I am starting to think that I might be better off buying a new PC with more memory and using the new Intel i3 chipset.
PS I should say that I am happy (up to point) with the HD4550 and with SP/DIF from the motherboard. It's just that I am quite the perfectionist.
I use the 720p mode in Windows 7 as this gives the best refresh rate on my Philips LCD at the loss of some screen acreage (i.e. it does a 1-1 pixel mapping, but only uses 720 of the available 768 rows).
I used 1080i mode for a while but Arcsoft's Total Media Theatre 3 doesn't like this too much for some reason.
I'm happy with my 9500 GT on my XL100. Windows 7, 2GB ram and the only codec I have installed is the CUDA enabled Core AVC Pro. I can play 720P and 1080P MKV's allday long without any drops. and I use windows media player for the playback.
I have also got an Asus Nettop with Nvidia Ion Graphics and that can also play anything I throw at it using XBMC running in ubuntu Linux and that only has an Atom CPU. [ image disabled ]
hi all, I have bought a Leadtek Winfast GT 220 1024MB DDR3 card and installed in XL-201. It fitted nicely, just needed to remove the VGA connection from the card so that it fits the backplate of the chasis. Only problem is i can not get any sound from the card. I did not connect any of the SPDIF connections onto the card, just installed it onto the PCI slot. I use hdmi out to my harman kardon receiver and then to my full hd plasma. I have tried to disable the onboard audio device from the bios but again no luck. Do i need to install any audio drivers for it to work or they are already included in the nvidia drivers package? Can somebody help me how to get the sound?
p.s. I am running vista Ultimate x86
Sony Vaio XL-201 Leadtek Winfast GT 220 1024 MB DDR3
