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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Hardware News => Topic started by: Elwood on December 24, 2020, 12:14:18 PM

Title: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: Elwood on December 24, 2020, 12:14:18 PM
ACube Systems is happy to see a new update for AmigaOS and MorphOS. We would like to make a small party with Amiga users in these difficult times.
We then decided to make a small gift to the Amiga and MorphOS Community.

To celebrate the recent release of AmigaOS 4.1 FE Update 2 and MorphOS 3.14, we built a small batch of Sam460cr boards that will be available with a Christmas bundle of the following games:
Gorky17
Descent Freespace
The Secret of Middle City
BOH

The whole bundle will be at 489 Euros.
OS 4.1 FE is included in this product.

We will be ready for shipping in january 2021.

We are also preparing a new shop that will be up to the standards.

Available soon so stay tuned!
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: giZmo350 on December 24, 2020, 01:12:09 PM
That's a pretty good deal! Thanks for the heads up Elwood!   8)
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: Everblue on December 24, 2020, 02:42:39 PM
This is pretty cool. How well does MorphOS run on this? Is it possible to dual boot? What about graphics drivers?
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: Matt_H on December 24, 2020, 04:19:51 PM
Wow, that’s a great price for an OS4 system. I hope they find their way to good homes. :)
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: nbache on December 25, 2020, 01:02:25 AM
@Matt_H:

Quote
Wow, that’s a great price for an OS4 system.

Yeah, nice offer indeed.

Do note, though, that it's not a "system" (as including case, drives, peripheral cards, keyboard, and mouse), but the board itself plus OS4.

Best regards,

Niels
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: Everblue on December 25, 2020, 12:15:37 PM
I also doubt videocards are available from stock in places like Amazon that would work with the Sam460. I hope Acube have a hoard of them available.

Update: I have checked ACube's site, and when still available, a few years ago, a Sam460cr 1 Ghz cost €469. Of course, no games, but Amiga OS4.1 was included. So I guess the prices haven't really changed.
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: Spectre660 on December 25, 2020, 01:47:09 PM
Not quite correct .

Radeon Plolaris RX550 & Rx560 video cards will work but there is no driver on the AmigaOS4.1 FE CD.
In order to install without another working AmigaOS 4.1 system the user would have to boot and install with another video card that has a supported driver on the AmigaOS4.1 FE CD. A Radeon HD5450 for example .
Then install the purchased Radeon RX driver. And then install the Radeon RX video card .

What might be hardener to find are working supported PCIex1 audio cards unless a driver update is done for the CMI8738 card which certain version cause a lockup . PCIex1 Envyht24 based cards are scarce .

The SIL3114 and SIL3112 PCI SATA cards are readily available. Not so the Sil3512 which is the most compatible .

Quote
I also doubt videocards are available from stock in places like Amazon that would work with the Sam460.
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: Everblue on December 25, 2020, 01:59:51 PM
Is it possible to add the driver to the disc? I don't have old graphic cards lying around.

I hope they make a complete bundle available as it is not an ideal situation to go hunting for old hardware hoping it works.
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: duga on December 25, 2020, 04:15:01 PM
Is it possible to add the driver to the disc? I don't have old graphic cards lying around.

I hope they make a complete bundle available as it is not an ideal situation to go hunting for old hardware hoping it works.

If the dealer sells the system with a harddrive it might already be installed when delivered to the customer.
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: Spectre660 on December 25, 2020, 04:45:10 PM
A bootable USB thumbdrive similar to the X5000 one could be suppled with the video Drivers included also as an opton.

Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: TribbleSmasher on December 25, 2020, 04:48:30 PM
Is there no way a basic radeon driver could provide (S)VGA graphics with any ATI chipset?
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: NinjaCyborg on December 25, 2020, 07:58:57 PM
I thought the CR does have onboard graphics? Isn't it only the SATA and sound chip that's removed?

Edit: I was wrong sorry.
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: duga on December 25, 2020, 08:18:03 PM
I thought the CR does have onboard graphics? Isn't it only the SATA and sound chip that's removed?

http://www.acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=hardware&pid=756
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: spudmiga on December 26, 2020, 11:02:45 PM
Hi, that is good news for people who like me who want a lower cost entry into an NG Amiga with the Tabor nowhere to be seen...
Are there plans to offer pre built systems on your site. I can see their listed but out of stock.

Thanks Spud  8)
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: First Ninja on December 26, 2020, 11:42:02 PM
I thought the CR does have onboard graphics? Isn't it only the SATA and sound chip that's removed?

So with the SATA controller presumably removed, what are you supposed to connect the harddisk to?
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: giZmo350 on December 27, 2020, 12:00:06 AM
I thought the CR does have onboard graphics? Isn't it only the SATA and sound chip that's removed?

So with the SATA controller presumably removed, what are you supposed to connect the harddisk to?

Buy one from eBay.....  $10.00 + Free Shipping   ;D

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-e-PCI-Express-Controller-Card-IDE-SATA-eSATA-Internal-External-Raid-Adapter/351796811897?epid=1079771554&hash=item51e8b95879:g:w8MAAOSwEW9aWRpE

Sam460cr Specs......

http://www.acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=hardware&pid=756

What is the difference between the Sam460cr and the Sam460ex?

The Sam460cr is cheaper than the 460ex because the following components are removed: (more like they couldn't get the components anymore - which is a shame) SM502 audio/video chip and onboard SATA. The number of expansion slots (PCI, PCIe) remains the same as for the regular Sam460.

Yeah, as Spectre pointes out, I'm not so sure this is such a good deal. Might have to go with a USB sound card too. Bu, bu, but...... DRIVERS!

Hmmmmmmmmm...... 
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: Pgovotsos on December 27, 2020, 07:29:21 AM


Buy one from eBay.....  $10.00 + Free Shipping   ;D

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-e-PCI-Express-Controller-Card-IDE-SATA-eSATA-Internal-External-Raid-Adapter/351796811897?epid=1079771554&hash=item51e8b95879:g:w8MAAOSwEW9aWRpE

Do you know what chip is on this one? I can't quite make it out from the pictures.
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: duga on December 27, 2020, 10:10:53 AM
I thought the CR does have onboard graphics? Isn't it only the SATA and sound chip that's removed?

So with the SATA controller presumably removed, what are you supposed to connect the harddisk to?

An IDE or SATA board in the PCI slot.
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: giZmo350 on December 27, 2020, 12:46:14 PM
Here's a couple of PCI SATA cards from Alinea......

PCI SATA Raid Controller 2-Port
It doesn't mention what chip.
https://www.amiga-shop.net/en/Amiga-Hardware/Other-hardware/PCI-SATA-Raid-Controller-2-Port::406.html

PCI SATA Raid Controller 4-Port
Uses the Sil 3114 chip.
https://www.amiga-shop.net/en/Amiga-Hardware/Other-hardware/PCI-SATA-Raid-Controller-4-Port::474.html

Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: NinjaCyborg on December 27, 2020, 12:47:51 PM
Or a USB port! No reason not to use USB instead of SATA.
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: Everblue on December 27, 2020, 01:15:38 PM
What runs fastest? OS from USB? SSD on SATA? or SD Card using onboard reader?
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: giZmo350 on December 27, 2020, 01:22:19 PM
Oh yea.....  I forgot about that integrated SD card reader. I don't recall.... can you boot from that?
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: First Ninja on December 27, 2020, 01:26:51 PM
Which begs the question (provided that the memory card allows auto-boot) - how does it stack up against a PCI-connected SATA interface, speed-wise?
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: giZmo350 on December 27, 2020, 01:47:49 PM
Which begs the question (provided that the memory card allows auto-boot) - how does it stack up against a PCI-connected SATA interface, speed-wise?

Not sure about speed without spec'ing all the possibilities... From the user manual it states....

How can the operating system be loaded? It is possible to load the operating system from a PATA/SATA harddisk, a CDROM connected on PATA/SATA, an USB key, a SD card or from the network.

Seems to me that the data x'fer rate might be sufficient from SD card but then I suppose it depends on what you're going to do (you tube, data streaming, etc). What would provide a data cache - if at all?

User Manual.......
http://www.acube-systems.biz/download/Sam460cr_EndUserManual_v1.0.pdf

Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: nbache on December 27, 2020, 10:58:23 PM
I played around with booting from the SD card some years ago on my Sam 460ex - it's probably not different from the cr in this respect.

In fact, I had both a boot volume and a Work: volume on the SD card and no hard disk at all.

It worked well enough, but the speed was definitely slower than with a (conventional) hard disk.

I didn't try using an SSD on the 460, but I have always used SSDs on my 440ep, and that boots quite fast.

Best regards,

Niels
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: NinjaCyborg on December 28, 2020, 05:40:05 PM
Yes it can boot from SD card. or sata or usb. or cdrom. No idea which is fastest. Are you really going to notice the speed difference using Amiga software? No.
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: nbache on December 28, 2020, 06:18:18 PM
Well, I certainly did notice the difference in boot time.

But most things after that were absolutely useable.

Best regards,

Niels
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: Spectre660 on December 28, 2020, 07:05:46 PM
@Everblue

If you have another AmigaOS 4.1. System it is possible to do it yourself .

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/p40tuetrbui3noy/Custom_Sam460ex__Installer_Polaris.jpg?dl=0


Is it possible to add the driver to the disc? I don't have old graphic cards lying around.

I hope they make a complete bundle available as it is not an ideal situation to go hunting for old hardware hoping it works.

If the dealer sells the system with a harddrive it might already be installed when delivered to the customer.
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: Everblue on December 28, 2020, 09:38:18 PM
Unfortunately I don't. Anyway let's go through this one step at a time. Let's see what Acube will have on offer first, then take it from there :)

But I do appreciate your help thanks.
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: NinjaCyborg on December 29, 2020, 11:04:27 PM
I boot from the internal SD card. It takes seconds. Maybe 10 to 15 from power on at the most? Most of that is the system waiting for me to tell it if i want to interrupt the boot sequence or not.
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: nbache on December 30, 2020, 09:37:34 AM
Hmm. Well, it's been several years since my experiments, and I don't remember any more which card I used for the experiment.

It could well have been a slow one, I'd imagine the card's transfer speed will have quite an impact on the experience.

Best regards,

Niels
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: Spectre660 on December 30, 2020, 11:54:57 AM
USB thumbdrive boots to Workbench for me in about 43 second from power on.
Radeon Rx 550 video card and clean AmigaOS4.1 FE update 2 .
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: duga on February 01, 2021, 07:08:45 PM
It's February now.
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: spudmiga on February 02, 2021, 07:54:15 PM
It's February now.


Two more weeks™
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: AmigaOldskooler on March 22, 2021, 07:37:40 PM
The website of ACube Systems has been updated recently with information on how to purchase a Sam460 board.

http://www.acube-systems.biz/ (http://www.acube-systems.biz/)

Quote
Looking for buying Sam460?

We will process orders manually for this small batch.

If you want to place an order, please send us a mail (...)
Title: Re: New Sam460cr boards will hit the road soon!
Post by: TribbleSmasher on March 24, 2021, 07:38:23 PM
All gone, but they collecting a waiting list for a new batch!