I finally had enough of the 7600GTL and poor BD playback on Intervideo and PowerDVD. Took about 15 minutes to install and played back BD version of "Day After Tomorrow" perfectly with audio (DTS) via spdif. No overheating (after 2 hours+) and used the supplied passive cooler, not alot of room to spare but fits.
To install I removed the bracket which runs from the back to the front of case. Disconnected carefully existing spdif (tight fit) and component connections. Remove card carefully remembering to gently release retaining clip at rear of PCIe slot.
There is a small aluminium plate at the rear of the PCI riser card with a 1cm curve at the end. gently bend this curve in the opposite direction.
Disconnect the 8500 from the supplied full height bracket and only leave the DVI and HDMI connections attached to the low profile bracket included in the packaging.
8500 will now easily fit into the slot but connect the spdif carefully beforehand.
Before screwing the card in place, check that the hdmi port is accessible on the outside and reattached the bracket bracing the front and rear of the case.
Oh one more thing I forgot , put the lid back on and reconnect screen, av receiver etc.
Once rebooted install the latest driver (July08) and adjust color saturation on nvidia control panel. Found primary colours were too vivid, need to be turned down alittle.
Had no problems switching between bd playback and desktop and no issues on audio. Had noticed before doing the upgrade that some of the juddering experienced on powerdvd BD playback of "day after tomorrow" was due to disk fragmentation as it seems to use disk cache for playback. Eliminated alot of this be defraging the disks but playback is nothing like that seen with 8500 card.
Only thing unusual is on boot up, Vaio logo and intel logo background is green but when Vista starts up it switches to correct colours.
Current config is
XL-202 vista, 3GB ram,1TB Disk, BD, MSI NX8500GT,
Onkyo Av
Sharp 42" 1080p.
Bose Acoustimass 5.
