Upgrade video via Mini PCI-E

[sam24502]

I recently got a S10 4333-36U and will be upgrading. While looking for normal upgrades (RAM and SSD) I found the Mini PCI-E slot is empty due to lack of 3G Wirless. Being the way I am I wanted to use the space to make the system better any way I can. I am satisfied for storage, but the graphic ability is lacking (respectively). I found this device to enhance video (BROADCOM BCM970012 HD DECORDER MINI PCI-E CARD). Anyone use this device yet? I am not 100% on this before I buy one. If anyone is able to discuss this I would love to hear feedback.

I am sorry did not see there was a topic about this, moderator can delete this.

[keplenk]

I recently got a S10 4333-36U and will be upgrading. While looking for normal upgrades (RAM and SSD) I found the Mini PCI-E slot is empty due to lack of 3G Wirless. Being the way I am I wanted to use the space to make the system better any way I can. I am satisfied for storage, but the graphic ability is lacking (respectively). I found this device to enhance video (BROADCOM BCM970012 HD DECORDER MINI PCI-E CARD). Anyone use this device yet? I am not 100% on this before I buy one. If anyone is able to discuss this I would love to hear feedback.

I am sorry did not see there was a topic about this, moderator can delete this.

I've already posted this and I too have S10 4333-36U that was bought from Best Buy last December. There was a debate that the 2nd minipcie on the bottom might be using a USB-HOST interface instead of a real minipci host interface. The Broadcom BCM970012 uses a minipci host interface and should not work with USB host interface minipcie slots. Well, I took the risk an bought one (since I can return it anyway), and it worked. It works wonderful with Win7. It also works with Fedora 12 and OSX 10.6.2 but you have to use XBMC (nightly build) to make it work.

Playback is better in Windows 7 than both Fedora and OSX. There are cases that some videos are still choppy in OSX/Fedora but when you play those same exact videos in Win7 its fine.

I would also like to note that it will lower down CPU usage (this is Win7) but not like in the demo videos. In some demo videos, I can see that the cpu usage goes down to 20% when playing HD content. Never, in my case, that it dropped down to that level. Mine still goes down, but only to 30-50% but the outcome is still smooth.

I should also say that I purchased mine from Ebay (china) and it could be an issue.

So far, though, I'm enjoying HD playback in my S10. The players I'm using are:

GOM, Media Player Classic Home Cinema. I had to tweak some settings so that the Broadcom Crystal is being used by those players. Media Player 12 (11 maybe) that came with Win7 - seems to be working too. They suggested using Arctic from HP OEM but it didn't work for me.

PS: I tried installing Adobe Flash 10.1 Beta 3 and it does NOT work. It was supposed to work, but it did not. I made sure I had the updated drivers from Broadcom. Some people said that the BCM970012 will not work with Flash acceleration but BCM970015 does. Unfortunately, only OEM manufacturers can have those 970015 chip, still not for sale in retailers or ebay. Maybe beta 4 will support 970012, I hope it will.

Good luck on your purchase. Make sure you can return it if you are not satisfied.

[sam24502]

This sounds to be a promising upgrade, and thank you for your post. Are you running Win7 32-bit or 64-bit. Just wondering because I am creating a partition for 32-bit and installing it next week.

[keplenk]

I'm using 32-bit on all of my OSes.



Never tried and will never try 64 bit

This sounds to be a promising upgrade, and thank you for your post. Are you running Win7 32-bit or 64-bit. Just wondering because I am creating a partition for 32-bit and installing it next week.

[sam24502]

haha gotcha

[dlebar04]

Ordering my BCM70012 from eBay tonight.
I will post an update when I get it.
BTW, I will be placing this on a S-10 4333-36U.

Thanks for all the info, guys!

[dlebar04]

Ordering my BCM70012 from eBay tonight.
I will post an update when I get it.
BTW, I will be placing this on a S-10 4333-36U.

Thanks for all the info, guys!

Actually, nevermind...
Prices are ridiculous!
Cheapest one is around $50 and it goes up to $100!
I saw a posting of one for about $23.. What is going on?

EDIT: http://www.liliputing.com/tag/bcm70012
Law of supply and demand is harsh.

[sam24502]

I actually halted the upgrade for two reasons, I am going to try GMABooster (if website gets fixed so I can download it) and I am going to wait a little while to see if Nvidia Ion 2 will come to PCI-E card.

[dlebar04]

I actually halted the upgrade for two reasons, I am going to try GMABooster (if website gets fixed so I can download it) and I am going to wait a little while to see if Nvidia Ion 2 will come to PCI-E card.

I'll try the GMABooster as well. I saw an article that says it can give you 20% increased scores on 3DMark tests, but many other users said they noticed no difference at all. Doesn't hurt to try.

[sam24502]

Im trying GMABooster and it is working, 420p is now not glitching during play. Your thoughts on it?