A500 Newbie Suggestions & Help

[iced_nine]

I have an A500 with I believe a rev 5 board, Kickstart 1.2, 512k RAM expansion in the trap door and a Gotek - any suggestions to help me upgrade?  I see a lot of A500's out there with like 4MB of RAM (how?) and much more.. any help or suggestions would be appreciated...

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Start by researching and reading the forums!

There's tons of info out there already, and expansion possibilities, ranging from old hardware to brand new stuff still being developed.  Look at some of the links posted on this site recently, such as links to stores that still sell Amiga hardware, and hardware databases.  Too many options to list in a single post.    Have fun!

[iced_nine]

Thank you, sir - way ahead of you!

[Tenacious]

I have an A500 with I believe a rev 5 board, Kickstart 1.2, 512k RAM expansion in the trap door and a Gotek - any suggestions to help me upgrade?  I see a lot of A500's out there with like 4MB of RAM (how?) and much more.. any help or suggestions would be appreciated...

The problem is that the intended use of your A500 has everything to do with how you expand it.  Many folks, especially latecomers, want a retro games machine.  95% of games were designed around an A500 with Kickstart rom 1.3 or 1.2, an extra 512kB of trapdoor memory, and benefit from a 2nd floppy drive.  All you need beyond that are games on viable floppies.

For those guys from 30 years ago, whose only computer was an A500, we needed the computer to stand on its own.  We needed it to get online (modems and BBSes) for more software. We used the 500 to de-archive the acquired files. We needed true FAST ram for a larger RAMDISK and bigger general use applications.  We needed Hard drives for a much faster, and consolidated system (floppies are limited and slooow!).  We needed a CDrom drive to access relatively HUGE software libraries and play the latest cover disks.  We needed acceleration to handle the larger apps, rendering, astronomical screens, bigger music files, Mp3s, etc.  We needed progressively more advanced ROMs and OS to seamlessly tie the growing features and capabilities together.  As we acquired other platforms with other talents, we needed to connect them to our beloved Amigas to share files and resources.  After Al Gore invented the World Wide Web, we needed maximum horsepower (including retargetable graphics) to browse and stream content.  This is a rough progression of my Amiga.  Some old Amiga people, like myself, are nostalgic for the revolutionary OS and original hardware.  I still prefer an Amiga computing experience over any other.

So, where do you want to go?  What do you want it to do?

Welcome to Amiga.org!  

EDIT:  I should have researched what a Gotek is.  I've never had one.

[sm3]

Not sure what you are using for a monitor, but you could consider getting an Indivision ECS from Amigakit.

Then you can use your A500 with a VGA monitor.

Current price is about $95.61 US.

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=918

[AmigaOldskooler]

I have an A500 with I believe a rev 5 board, Kickstart 1.2, 512k RAM expansion in the trap door and a Gotek - any suggestions to help me upgrade?  I see a lot of A500's out there with like 4MB of RAM (how?) and much more.. any help or suggestions would be appreciated...

Hi there,

Depends on what you are planning to use your computer for. For regular gaming, I'd go with 0.5 MB of extra memory (get it cheap on eBay for £15-20) and a customized Gotek setup that replaces your internal drive. That way you won't have to use regular floppies and you can download hundreds upon hundreds of games from various site on the Internet.

These upgrades won't cost much and it'll get you up and going in no time, but it does of course depend on what you want to use the computer for.

[iced_nine]

Thanks for the help, guys.. yes, I have the Gotek attached and I love it.. primarily for games.. I had an A500 back in 1988-1991 so I am familiar with it, but I was looking to see if there was 'more' I could do with it...

[giZmo350]

If I was just getting started to expand an A500, I would surely go for an ACA500!

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1168

One thing I could never find answer to though; will an ACA500 provide 2MB Chip Mem for a completely unexpanded/unmodified A500?

[iced_nine]

Problem is, ACA500s do not work on NTSC rev 5 boards which is what I have...

[giZmo350]

Problem is, ACA500s do not work on NTSC rev 5 boards which is what I have...

Awe crap... that's right...
 Gee, for a nooooob, you seem to be quite knowledgeable...
 Hmmm, maybe find a rev6a MoBo?

[paul1981]

I have an A500 with I believe a rev 5 board, Kickstart 1.2, 512k RAM expansion in the trap door and a Gotek - any suggestions to help me upgrade?  I see a lot of A500's out there with like 4MB of RAM (how?) and much more.. any help or suggestions would be appreciated...

Brian (kipper2k on Amibay) makes and sells some nice expansions for your A500. There's a 4 or 8MB Fastram expansion, and a Fastram expansion with built in CF hard drive slot so that with KS2 or above ROM you can boot from the CF hard drive (Kickstart 37.300 or above). Both expansions plug into the CPU socket. You'll have to double check they are Rev.5 compatible, but IIRC they are.

http://www.kipper2k.com/amigaforsale/

[giZmo350]

Brian (kipper2k on Amibay) makes and sells some nice expansions for your A500. There's a 4 or 8MB Fastram expansion, and a Fastram expansion with built in CF hard drive slot so that with KS2 or above ROM you can boot from the CF hard drive (Kickstart 37.300 or above). Both expansions plug into the CPU socket. You'll have to double check they are Rev.5 compatible, but IIRC they are.

http://www.kipper2k.com/amigaforsale/

I need a fast ram expansion for my A500 but I thought Kipper2K didn't have any more ram expansion boards for the A500....?
 
 This board is sweet though! :laugh1:
 A500 4MB/8MB Memory expansion board for Amiga 500

[paul1981]

I need a fast ram expansion for my A500 but I thought Kipper2K didn't have any more ram expansion boards for the A500....?
 
 This board is sweet though! :laugh1:
 A500 4MB/8MB Memory expansion board for Amiga 500

Hmmm... you're right, I don't think he makes the standard 4/8MB expansion anymore. You could still obtain one by posting a Wanted thread on Amibay I should think. Or option 2, purchase the CF Hard Drive edition and just don't use that part of the card. There's no need to use the CF part if you don't want to, and of course it's still 1.3 compatible.

[som99]

Not sure what you are using for a monitor, but you could consider getting an Indivision ECS from Amigakit.us so you can use your A500 with a VGA monitor. Current price is about $95.61 US.

We using the EU store has to pay 17.5 USD more then US customers :O What's up with that?

[danbeaver]

Keep in mind that by the time you spend a lot of money on an A500, you could have bought something more expandable, more capable or both.  If you just want to play retro games, don't spend any more money, you have it right there.

... The issue is, once you start down the dark side of the Amiga Experience, you will be switching, changing, collecting, upgrading for the next 30 years (or is that just me?)