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[BojTrek]

I just bought the Sony VAIO PC on page 2. of Best Buy's weekly add...

A little pricey... yes, I could have built one cheaper... but I didn't want the hassle of searching for the pieces like my last PC...

This thing has everything I want except...

I need a video card, it shares the memory... I don't play PC games at all... it is only consoles for playing games... but I will purchase a decent PCI 128 video card down the road... a week or so...

Anyways, the PC currently has 512MB of PC3200 400MHz but it is 2-256MB modules.

1 - 256 module in socket 1, slot 1
1 - 256 module in socket 2, slot 1

I want to add another 512 but they recommend... 1 - 256 in each slot...

Could I go with...

1 - 512 in socket 1, slot 1
1 - 256 in socket 2, slot 1
1 - 256 in socket 1, slot 2

??

Will I screw up performance not going with the recommended way?

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Did you even check to see if the motherboard had an AGP slot?

Either way, you get a 'thumbs down' on that purchase.

but I will purchase a decent PCI 128 video card down the road

No such thing. Bottleneck City.

Could I go with...

1 - 512 in socket 1, slot 1
1 - 256 in socket 2, slot 1
1 - 256 in socket 1, slot 2

??

Will I screw up performance not going with the recommended way?

By doing that, you defeat the purpose of dual channel memory. See if the mobo supports 512/512.

 

[BojTrek]

It has 1 - AGP slot and 1 - PCI slot...

Would you recommend an AGP video card or PCI... I don't know much about video cards and bottlenecks...

I know enough to be danerous... HELP!

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Never use PCI grfx cards unless that's your only option other than integrated. Get AGP. 9800Pro is my recommendation.

What are the full specs? CPU? Clockspeed? FSB?

 

[BojTrek]

I wanted a PC that had a DVD burner and option for composite red/white/yellow to hook a VCR up to a transfer all of my college VHS. I have to go PCI, it looks like no AGP... don't be mad at me...

To download a PDF of specs by model, click on the icon next to the desired model number:

PCV-RS720G


• Model
PCV-RS720G

• HARDWARE

• Processor1
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 530 with Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (3.0GHz, 1MB L2 Cache)

• Operating System
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition

• Front Side Bus Speed
800MHz

• Chipset
Intel® 915G

• Memory2
512MB PC-3200 400MHz DDR (256MB x 2) (Expandable to 2.0GB)

• Hard Drive3
200GB2 7200rpm Hard Drive

• Graphics
Intel® GMA900 Graphics
224MB Max. dynamically allocated shared video memory

• Graphics Interface
16x PCI Express

• Video Interface
VGA / TV/Video-In
Giga Pocket® MPEG2 Realtime Encoder/Decoder board with TV Tuner

• DVD+R Double Layer / DVD±RW / CD-RW Drive4

• Double Layer
+R
DVD+R Write (2.4x MAX)
DVD±RW5
-RW
DVD-R Write (8x MAX), DVD-RW Write (4x MAX)
+RW
DVD+R Write (16x MAX), DVD+RW Write (4x MAX)
CD-RW
CD-R Write (32x MAX), CD-RW Write (24x MAX)

• DVD-ROM
16x MAX DVD-ROM Read / 40x MAX
CD-ROM read


• Floppy Disk Drive
3.5” 1.44MB Floppy Disk Drive

• Ethernet
10Base-T/100Base-TX Fast Ethernet (RJ-45)

• Modem
V.90 compatible data/fax modem (RJ-11)

• Expansion Slots


• Multi-Media Card Reader (Memory Stick®6, Compact Flash™ Type I and Type II, IBM Micro Drive™, SD/MMC, xD Picture)
One x16 PCI Express (available)
Two PCI (one occupied)

• Expansion Bays
Two 5.25” Half-Height (occupied)
One External 3.5” (occupied)
Two Internal 3.5” (one occupied)

• Port Connections
Seven USB 2.05 (three front/four rear)
Two PS/2® (Mouse/Keyboard)
One VGA Out
Two Composite Audio/Video-In (front and rear)
One S/PDIF Out
One Parallel Port
One Line In
One 6pin i.LINK®6Port (rear)/ One 4pin (front)
One Headphone
One Microphone
S-Video: Two Inputs (front and rear)
Stereo Line Input/Output
Coaxial Input (VHF/UHF)

• Power Requirements
Min. 295.4W 100-240V 6A (50/60Hz)

• Power Management
ACPI 1.0 Compliant

• Weight (CPU)
26.5 lbs.

• Dimensions (CPU)
7.2”(W) x 15.6”(H) x 14.9”(D)

• Supplied Accessories
Remote Commander w/ battery
IR Receiver
VAIO® Keyboard
PS/2® Mouse
Power Cord

• SOFTWARE

• Sony Original Software


• Giga Pocket® - Personal Video Recorder
Click to DVD™ - DVD Creation
PictureGear Studio™ - Digital Photo
DVgate Plus™ - Digital Video
SonicStage™ 2.1 - Digital Music
VAIO Media™ - Network File Sharing

• Other Software Applications
Microsoft® Works® 8.0 - Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Calendar, Scheduling, Contact Management,

• and Database
Microsoft® Office® 2003 60-Day Student/Teacher Edition Trial
Intuit Quicken® 2005 New User Edition
Sonic RecordNow!® 7- CD/DVD Data Writing
InterVideo® WinDVD®

• Online Center
America Online® 90 Day Trial - New Users Only

• Anti-Virus & Recovery Software
Norton Internet Security™ 90 Day Subscription - Norton AntiVirus®, Norton Personal Firewall, Norton

• Privacy Contol, Norton AntiSpam®, and Norton Parental Control
VAIO Recovery Wizard
VAIO Update
VAIO Help and Support

 

[BojTrek]

Now remember... I do not game on the PC... except for MAME emulation and Turbo Grafx, Sega, and Nintendo... I only game on X-Box now and/or X-Box 2 or PS3 in the future!

So what PCI video card do you recommend? This PC is for video transfer, picture transfer and editing... thanks...

 

[BojTrek]

What is the difference??

One x16 PCI Express (available)
Two PCI (one occupied)

 

[BojTrek]

Hey DaCocoBrova or anyone out there...

I picked up 2 - 256MB modules and VisionTek XTASY 9200 SE 128MB PCI

Remember: I don't need it for gaming... will this be a decent video/graphics card?

 

[Lil' Dice]

I still have a GeForce4 440MX and i can still play games like Call of Duty with high settings.
I believe this card can be had for less than $50.
Can you still return your PC? I think you got the shaft, big time.

 

[gohepcat]

whoa. you have a pci express slot. you are all set..hahaha.

You know what.. you might be a little bit too ahead of the curve there. Do they make All-In-Wonder cards for PCI Express yet?

 

[Crazymoogle]

Hey DaCocoBrova or anyone out there...

I picked up 2 - 256MB modules and VisionTek XTASY 9200 SE 128MB PCI

Remember: I don't need it for gaming... will this be a decent video/graphics card?

If you're not using it for gaming (or say something similarily hard on the video card, like 3D Modelling), then I'm not convinced it actually matters. I'm not sure it even matters if you just use the onboard video (of course, a decent aiw card would give you plenty of output and post options). You would get far more use out of just upgrading your RAM. Using identical dimms will boost memory bandwidth but dunno if the small percent gain is anything you would be interested.

PCI Express: New slot technology, sucessor to AGP and PCI
PCI: normal old slow technology

 

[Crazymoogle]

You know what.. you might be a little bit too ahead of the curve there. Do they make All-In-Wonder cards for PCI Express yet?

Apparently. ATi lists the X600 AIW for PCI Express.

 

[BojTrek]

I am happy with it and I didn't have to wait for building one...

So as with all things... what makes one person happy, another person will think that person is crazy.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

I feel you. But from a monetary standpoint, you could've saved a ton. a $40 TV card will give you composite-in, s-video-in, TiVo like features etc.

Ahh well.

Glad you're happy.

I bet you have a Best Buy credit card, don't you...? That had to provide some major incentive.

 

[BojTrek]

I am getting like $60 in gift cards... I will use that for blank DVD's

 

[Shogmaster]

BojTrak, your new Sony only has 2 DIMM slots. If you want more memory, you'll have to toss out the two 256MB DIMMs that it comes with it. Sorry.

On the bright side, It's got PCIe 16x available, but then again, you don't game with it so that's moot.

I'd personally go into BIOS and take down the video RAM to 32MB since you don't do gaming.



edit: Oh chirst, why didn't anyone do a simple google search for this poor guy to find out how many DIMM slots this POS had before he went out and bought 2 more useless 256MB DIMMs!!!! Hopefully he got it where there's no restocking fees.

 

[BojTrek]

Shogmaster... it is OK, it does have 4 DIMM slots... I loaded the extra two 256MB modules and really didn't notice any performance increase at this time.

Now the PCI video/graphics card I loaded doesn't seem to display the video. I went into BIOS and there is no option for increasing or lowering the amount of shared RAM. It is no where in the BIOS.

I connected to CHAT with Sony's VAIO Support and they said it could not be disabled and they lost their DB connection and said that they were not sure how to modify the memory that shared.

Since I don't use it for games, I could go without the video card if I could only tell the PC to use maybe 128MB for video.

Anyone? Thanks in advance... I wish I would have built a PC again... I like using Windows XP and not having a proprietary Sony VAIO version of Windows XP with a whacky BIOS.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

The BIOS should have something asking what video it should initialize at bootup AGP (or in your case PCI-E), or onboard.

But I don't use VAIOs and I'm sure they have a proprietary BIOS.

 

[BojTrek]

If I wasn't so tired last night I would have worked on it more... but I am telling you the BIOS does not display VIDEO.

I might have to disable it under Device Manager.

Anyways, the is dynamically allocated video so it uses what it needs... if I played DOOM3 it would go up to 224MB of the CPU's RAM... I just wish I could tell it to always use 128MB.

 

[BojTrek]

What if I get this?

Radeon X700 Pro Video Card, PCI Express, 256MB GDDR3

It sounds like PCI Express works with the current video and increases speed and performance???

 

[Crazymoogle]

If I wasn't so tired last night I would have worked on it more... but I am telling you the BIOS does not display VIDEO.

There usually isn't anything called video. Just some sort of general option that you can answer AGP, PCI, or something else to (in your case, probably would say PCI express or PCIe)

If thats not there, and your motherboard is using an integrated video output, there could be trouble. Maybe it will switch to PCI-e automatically if something is plugged in.

I might have to disable it under Device Manager.

Might not work. It can be tricky to do, but what you would need to end up doing is installing the video card so that Windows recognizes the display, plugging the monitor into the new card, and then using display properties to set up your second screen as the primary one.

What if I get this?

Radeon X700 Pro Video Card, PCI Express, 256MB GDDR3

It sounds like PCI Express works with the current video and increases speed and performance???

If you get that, then you have a damn nice video card. It's a complete replacement though - the only thing your other video would be used for is a second monitor (if you had one). It would be interesting to see how to tell Windows which adapter is now primary, too.

 

[BojTrek]

UPDATE: Returned IT!

Damn what a piece of crap... with Dynamically Allocated Memory for video, I could not use a PCI card that I had... I would have to get PCI Express video to add to the system.

You cannot control Sony's video for this system. With the Dynamically Allocated Video it would use 7MB for basic use and bump up to 224 if needed for a game.

With a PCI Express video card it would work in conjunction with the Intel video chipset.

I don't like not having control to the BIOS and other crappy Sony Windows crap...

So I am building a PC with Athlon 64... thanks for all the info people...

 

[BojTrek]

Oh, no restocking fee 15% at Best Buy the manager listened to me and all my complaints and gave me only $350 on my credit card because I sent out the rebates...

No restocking fee and I made $50 because he only charged me $350 on my credit card due to rebates... But I have $400 coming in rebates! SWEET!

 

[mashoutposse]

Don't rebate fulfillment centers check to make sure the product hasn't been returned before releasing the checks? Doni't be surprised if you don't get your rebates.

 

[BojTrek]

We will find out, but the rebates are based on meeting the criteria of UPC, rebate receipt, and rebate form... that is about it...

 

[DaCocoBrova]

We will find out, but the rebates are based on meeting the criteria of UPC, rebate receipt, and rebate form... that is about it...

Even if you follow that to a 'T', they can still rob you. Samsung is notorious for that. Dateline NBC put them on blast a year or so ago tho... They got me for 50 bucks too.

Good thing you returned it btw.

 

[BojTrek]

Here is what I am building...

ASUS K8N-E Deluxe Motherboard

128 ATI All-In-Wonder 8X AGP or the PCI 128 ATI Xtasy I already purchased and get a RCA composite input connector

AMD ATHLON 64 3000+
512MB PC3200 DDR- One DIMM Stick and I will add the 2 -256MB I purchased
Beige MidTower Case with 350 Watt Power Supply
Sony DW-D22A DUAL LAYER 16X DVD±RW or Lite-On DVD burner
Maxtor 200 Gig ATA133 with 8 Meg Cache 7200RPM
2 Case Fans
Windows XP Home and CD

No floppy and I will add my current Sony CD burner

 

[DaCocoBrova]

What about a monitor?

 

[BojTrek]

I am just using my current 17" CRT, I didn't like the quality of the Sony 17" LCD. Pictures just didn't look good even at the highest resolution. Plus, I didn't know if the Sony PC video was causing that...

My wife didn't like the LCD, she said "it looks fuzzy compared to the old monitor."

 

[mashoutposse]

Here is what I am building...

ASUS K8N-E Deluxe Motherboard

128 ATI All-In-Wonder 8X AGP or the PCI 128 ATI Xtasy I already purchased and get a RCA composite input connector

AMD ATHLON 64 3000+
512MB PC3200 DDR- One DIMM Stick and I will add the 2 -256MB I purchased
Beige MidTower Case with 350 Watt Power Supply
Sony DW-D22A DUAL LAYER 16X DVD±RW or Lite-On DVD burner
Maxtor 200 Gig ATA133 with 8 Meg Cache 7200RPM
2 Case Fans
Windows XP Home and CD

No floppy and I will add my current Sony CD burner

Socket 754 or 939? You might as well go for a 754 since it doesn't look like you're trying to break the bank with this one.

Get the DFI Lanparty NF3 250Gb motherboard, switch to a LiteON or NEC burner, return the two 256MB sticks that you likely bought at retail prices and get a 2x512MB 1GB "Dual Channel" RAM kit of your choice from Corsair (of course, it won't run in dual channel mode on your 754), and grab it all from www.newegg.com or www.zipzoomfly.com.

I am just using my current 17" CRT, I didn't like the quality of the Sony 17" LCD. Pictures just didn't look good even at the highest resolution. Plus, I didn't know if the Sony PC video was causing that...

What resolution was that? If it wasn't 1280x1024, you were off native resolution (not good).

 

[StoOgE]

Asus makes some solid PCI x16 video cards, but you cant get top of the line yet.