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Author Topic: Happy birthday to my A1200 + question on accelerators  (Read 944 times)

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Happy birthday to my A1200 + question on accelerators
« on: March 29, 2003, 12:53:09 PM »
That's right, my A1200 is 9 years old next month. On his 5th birthday I pulled out the original 2.5" Western Digital 200Mb for a shiny new 2Gb Travelstar. Now, for his 9th birthday, I want to splash out on an accelerator. Apart from the HDD he is a stock A1200 but powered by a larger A500 power supply.

That brings me to my question. I've tried to get hold of an '030 accelerator locally (Australia) but without luck. Looks like a can get an Apollo 40MHz '040 though. I did read somewhere they don't run too well with rev 2B motherboards (which I am pretty sure mine is). Has anyone else heard or experienced this? And yes, I am aware of the heating problems.
 

Offline ikir

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Re: Happy birthday to my A1200 + question on accelerators
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2003, 01:48:37 PM »
Hi!  I don't know this, but if you buy a Blizzard you should not have compatibility problem.

I don't recommend you to expand now your 1200, AmigaONE is coming  :-)

I have a super 1200:
Blizzard 1260 060 50Mhz MMU FPU 64Mb Ram
Mediator+Voodoo3+SoundBlaster128+Ethernet for fast internet and network, Tv Card (WOWWWW)
2 hd 8+20Gb with Elbox 2-ide
Elbox (Power tower) 1200
Punchieniello (mroocheck) with a logithech mouse 3 buttons and scrool.
A cool LCD monitor :-D
A good audio with subwoofer

YEAH 8-)
 

Offline Karlos

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Re: Happy birthday to my A1200 + question on accelerators
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2003, 01:52:07 PM »
Just about any accelerator card from 030/40MHz up will make your basic A1200 look ponderously slow.

If you have the funds and can find one, maybe you'd be better off betting a Blizzard 040, or even a BlizzardPPC..
OTOH, if youre not interested in PPC, you could try to get an 060. I read somewhere hereabouts that a supplier was selling the chips 'cheap' and you could (maybe still can) get the Blizzard 060 cards with a 060 socket.

I had an apollo 1240 some time ago and it was a troublesome beast. Having said that, it was an early revision...

int p; // A
 

Offline Damion

Re: Happy birthday to my A1200 + question on accelerators
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2003, 06:11:38 AM »
I'd stay away from the Apollo - period. The Blizzard is good...
the GVP '030 is a great card too. Vesalia has some new '030's
that will be in stock soon for a good price (but it doesn't look
like they'll have a SCSI option).
 

Offline amiga1260

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Re: Happy birthday to my A1200 + question on accelerators
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2003, 07:56:05 AM »
Blizzard accelerator cards are very good. I still using a Blizzard 1230 mark IV and a Blizzard 1260 and both with SCSI-kit. If you are going to buy a Blizzard accelerator card with a SCSI-kit secondhand, you have to check if the SCSI-kit has a SCSI-rom version with 8.1 at least. If the version is below you can get lockups with CD-ROM drives and other removable drives. But there is a solution, at aminet you can download softSCSI. The program can patch the newer version in the memory.  
 

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Re: Happy birthday to my A1200 + question on accelerators
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2003, 11:16:14 AM »
Hi there..

I bought an Apollo 1240/25 accellerator card in 1997 with 32Mb ram. This card also has scsi port as an option, but this port wasn't soldered on. I removed the original 50Mhz crystal and replaced it with a 80Mhz. This clocks the 68040 prosessor to 40Mhz. Now, the 040 runs at 62% higher clock speed. It runs hot like any other 040, but with a not too big cooling ribbon and a fan, it stays cool :-)

I have never had any trouble with my Apollo accellerator and i have used it both on rev  1d4 and 2b motherboards...

I don't mind using money upgrading my Amiga EVEN thoug the AmigaONE is coming. I'm not going to buy an AmigaONEbefore i know theyre cool anyway :-)
 

Offline Dan

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Re: Happy birthday to my A1200 + question on accelerators
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2003, 02:23:26 PM »
Quote
I'd stay away from the Apollo - period.

Why ??
I never had any problems with my Apollo 060-50Mhz 32MB.
But if you want SCSI  I agree that the Blizzard is superior.
Apple did it right the first time, bring back the Newton!
 

Offline Karlos

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Re: Happy birthday to my A1200 + question on accelerators
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2003, 03:28:31 PM »
Quote

Shamron wrote:
Hi there..

I bought an Apollo 1240/25 accellerator card in 1997 with 32Mb ram. This card also has scsi port as an option, but this port wasn't soldered on. I removed the original 50Mhz crystal and replaced it with a 80Mhz. This clocks the 68040 prosessor to 40Mhz. Now, the 040 runs at 62% higher clock speed. It runs hot like any other 040, but with a not too big cooling ribbon and a fan, it stays cool :-)

I have never had any trouble with my Apollo accellerator and i have used it both on rev  1d4 and 2b motherboards...

I don't mind using money upgrading my Amiga EVEN thoug the AmigaONE is coming. I'm not going to buy an AmigaONEbefore i know theyre cool anyway :-)


Hmm, my olt 1240/25 wouldnt work reliably at 33MHz, let alone 40. The FPU used to get really wobbly and give bogus calculation results.

Don't be surprised if one day you switch your machine on and it doesn't start. You got away with it for this long, but overclocking always catches you up in the end...

Another point; the Apollo SCSI isn't DMA based so if good SCSI is important to a buyer, avoid the Apollo series.
int p; // A