First Contact : AmigaOne X1000 Limited Edition

[B00tDisk]

What an appropriate name: First Contact.  'cause you sure are gonna get probed on this one.

Let's see...

1gb RAM = $13.99

ATI Radeon 4650 = $39.99 or $14.99 with rebate

500GB HD = $49.99

CD/DVD Burner = $16.99

Network card = $6.99

Sound card = $24.99

Case = $99.99

Power Supply = $14.99

A little googling shows that engineering samples (purchases of 1-2) PA6T CPUs (you know, the "secret" processor we were assured wasn't at the core of this machine) ran around $700 in 2008 or so.

...and we come up with...

$968, plus let's say $25 for shipping for a grand total of...

$993

So the retail cost of the motherboard is $1689.56.

Well played, Aeon.

[TCMSLP]

I guess custom hardware at this low quantity is expensive.  Dropping memory and HD size (which wouldn't be used anyway) seems a reasonable compromise.   Plus, I'm reasonably certain that for every "£xxx is too pricey" comment there'll be a number of Amigans that are happy to splash the cash.  It may seem pricey compared to intel kit, but perhaps not so expensive when compared to the amount some of us may have spent on our classic amigas or other hobbies.

[TCMSLP]

So the retail cost of the motherboard is $1689.56.

I'm not sure of the quantities involved here but I imagine they're not huge.

How much time has spent developing and testing this board?  How many 'one off' test samples needed to be made before the final revision?  How many man hours were spent on this?  This wasn't a hobby project like Natami - this is real companies that need to pay salaries.

This isn't a criticism aimed at B00tDisk (I just quoted his post) but seriously, if you want custom hardware that isn't aimed at the mass market - you pay the price.

All credit to Trevor for investing and believing in this; the prices are what they are.  *shrug*


Steve

[OlafS3]

i am not in the position or have interest to defend A-Eon... But in this case it is not that simple. The Board was designed by a company that wanted their money, different revisions of the board were necessary and then Hyperion also wanted their money for adapting AmigaOS and the Licenses. And we all do not know how many sales they calculated to cover the costs. If the number is low the price is high. I think I read somewhere that they bought 250 pieces of the processor and because it is not produced anymore that means they do not expect to sell more. It is a niche-niche-product for fans, not more not less.

[Khephren]

I guess custom hardware at this low quantity is expensive.  Dropping memory and HD size (which wouldn't be used anyway) seems a reasonable compromise.   Plus, I'm reasonably certain that for every "£xxx is too pricey" comment there'll be a number of Amigans that are happy to splash the cash.  It may seem pricey compared to intel kit, but perhaps not so expensive when compared to the amount some of us may have spent on our classic amigas or other hobbies.

Maybe, but pandora managed it, with a custom motherboard and case to go with it. I'm sure some Amigans will buy it, but A-Eon must know it rules most of us out.

[EDanaII]

At least you will be able to run BF3 on the A500x for the same amount of money.

Yea, but you again can't run Amigos, so who wants it?

[koaftder]

Dropping memory  

They didn't save squat skimping on the ram. Ram costs practically nothing and they know folks will try and run blender on the thing just because. OWB or that 10 versions behind port of fireyiff with a dozen tabs open, doxbox and blender, yea, 1gb of ram is paltry. Perhaps there's an issue that hasn't been ironed out with the memory situation they're not talking about.

[OlafS3]

I do not think either that saving RAM would change much at the price. The most expensive part is the development (company that did it and revisions). And the price depends on the calculated sales (we do not know)

[koaftder]

Not sure Id have used "HyperionOS" as it makes it sound like an attack (whether it is or not I dont really care, far be it for me to tell you what to say or think), but that aside that's actually a pretty reasonable question. Seems crazy to have a novelty and not be able to use it properly from that machine.

XMOS still doesn't have their XC compiler listed in their oss section in the developer tools area. Last I heard from the CEO was that it was their plan to release it but only after they had finalized the language a bit more.

[commodorejohn]

Yea, but you again can't run Amigos, so who wants it?

But...but...they licensed The Name, man! What more do you want?

fireyiff

Suddenly I've got an idea for a re-theming...

[amigadave]

I am a prospective buyer of the X1000, and JJ raises some interesting points here.

It is a lot of money, but truth be told, it is a couple of hundred under what my absolute max was.  However, I would like an official reply to the points JJ raises before I consider pulling the trigger.

As someone else has probably already suggested, the drivers for the on-board sound and Ethernet are just not finished yet.

I suppose it could be a botched motherboard design and they don't work, but I think that is unlikely.  Drivers take time and effort to write and manpower is limited, so I would not panic yet.

[jorkany]

Why the criticism regarding the RAM?  Would a next gen Amiga use anywhere near 1GB?

Who cares about the RAM, every computer has that.

The whole deal maker with the X1000 was "The Power of X!", and "X" is one thing it doesn't have. Without support for multiple cores, support for the add-on XMOS chip, and support for the "Xorro" slot, what's the point of this hardware?

It is a niche-niche-product for fans, not more not less.

Yet it's been touted as the "rebirth of the Amiga".
Face it, somebody got their expectations up, reality is about to set in.

[djrikki]

$2682.56..... plus shipping.... a fool and their money are easily parted. That's just a crazy price.

Even if I was a millionaire I wouldn't buy it. Prices like that are just going hinder the uptake of next gen Amiga's.

The millionaire sentence does not make any sense.  Firstly, if a millionaire or even a multi-millionaire really likes AmigaOS and wants to succeed of course they would buy it.  Secondly, you could easy afford to buy 200 AmigaOne X1000s (apx. £400,000) or alternatively become a silent partner and make an investment - and the price would drop to everyone instantly.

Now if I could just win the lottery...

[commodorejohn]

Who cares about the RAM, every computer has that.

The whole deal maker with the X1000 was "The Power of X!", and "X" is one thing it doesn't have. Without support for multiple cores, support for the add-on XMOS chip, and support for the "Xorro" slot, what's the point of this hardware?

Don't worry, in another two years they'll come out with the X1000x, now with 50% more X!

[billt]

As someone else has probably already suggested, the drivers for the on-board sound and Ethernet are just not finished yet.

I suppose it could be a botched motherboard design and they don't work, but I think that is unlikely.  Drivers take time and effort to write and manpower is limited, so I would not panic yet.

I need to go back and read some previous pages of this thread, I don't know where this came from. But let's assume it's true, and that your list (ethernet, sound) of not yet working drivers is complete. (I'll assume that you'd list more if there were more to be listed)

If the board is botched, then thre would certainly be more things on your list. Sound is inside the sb600 southbridge, same as SATA, USB, and other things.

Though the SB600 does not include ethernet, so that's obviously a separate chip, and has some chance of a board defect independent of other board features.

I'll assume that they are NOT using the 10Gb XAUI inside the 1682M for the X1000 ethernet. I don't believe this is compatible to 10Mbit/100Mbit/1Gbit, and I do believe that they will have used all available SERDES pins for PCI-Express instead.

Drivers take time, that's why the board is not available for public sale. Beta testers will check this all works when available to them. They're probably using PCI/PCIe sound and ethernet cards that already have drivers until these new drivers are done, so they're not super-suffering. If they do find a board defect, that's what the beta program is for, they'll fix it and we the public won't suffer when final production boards are selling at our local Amiga internet store. Non-beta-testers like me don't need to care.

[Duce]

The onboard NIC and sound not having drivers, or otherwise having to be circumvented due to them not working with add on cards whatever the cause is irrelevant.  What happens when something else doesn't "work" under certain conditions?  Sit around with your thumb up your ass waiting for a fix?

Smoke and mirrors - ship stuff when it is a full featured product, don't half ass it just to make deadlines.

This is a market where we all saw the A1, another thing that was promised as the Holy Grail for us.

Would you purchase a car that came from the factory with a sticker saying "additional heater taped down in trunk, despite the fact your car already has a heater you paid for but it seemingly is not being used or may not work".

No, lol.  If the drivers aren't ready, don't ship the thing, don't even consider taking preorders.