"New" Amiga 3000....

[blanghorst]

So, after all these years, I'm finally the owner of an Amiga 3000 that I bought from someone on Amibay! It should be here in the next few days. I'm pretty pumped -- I was a college kid when the 3000 was released and couldn't afford one, so I had to make due with my Amiga 2000 (which you guys helped me refurb and upgrade last year).
 
It already has 3.1 ROMs, 18 MB of RAM, and a 500 MB SCSI hard drive. Any hints/tips/recommendations on what to look for when I receive it? I'd like to put a 68040 or above accelerator in it at some point, but I've read some confusing things about which chip revisions to look for, which revisions of accelerators to look for (esp. with the A3640), and stuff like that. Any tips you guys can give me will be appreciated.
 
Oh, and I have an old Scanjet 5P that I plan to hook to it. I assume Aminet would have drivers?

[blanghorst]

Yeah, forgot to say -- the battery has been removed as well.

[blanghorst]

Right now, I have a SCSI Zip drive on my A2000 and a USB one on my PC to transfer files.  Unfortunately I haven't spent much time on my A2000 and there are definitely a few things I need to do, such as work on my startup configuration (not quite working the way it was intended) and copying the drive to a Zip disk.  I just don't remember all the nuances of AmigaDOS so I probably should do a refresher since I've been in the PC world almost exclusively since 1994.

[blanghorst]

I should probably post my A2000's startup sequence in another thread and see why it isn't working as it should.   I've got both 1.3 and 2.04 ROMs installed and the startup sequence is supposed to detect which ROM is active and then boot into the proper OS, but it doesn't seem to work.
 
Fortunately, I won't have that issue with this 3000 because I think it is just running 3.1.  Speaking of which, does anyone have suggestions on where to buy 3.1 source disks?

[blanghorst]

Don't worry guys, I have no intention of cutting the front of the case.  I love the A3000's look and don't plan on doing anything to deface it.  

[blanghorst]

I agree, don't cut your case! You can mount the SCSI card reader internally in the HD spot, although you wont be able to install a floppy drive in the location just forward of the HD mount.
 
I have been working on my A3K, although this is not its permanent spot, you can see the SCSI card reader in this photo. They work very well and it is very fast on a stock 3000.

Where is a good source for the card reader?

[blanghorst]

http://a4000t.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65_79&products_id=180

Thanks!
 
So, if I bought one of these and decided to mount it internally with a CF card, would the Amiga treat it like a hard drive or would I need to do a bunch of extra configuration to get it working as such?   Also, I can research this, but maybe you guys know -- what is the max hard drive size that the A3000's SCSI controller supports?

[blanghorst]

You just plug it in and go. You can set up the computer to used each one of those slots as LUNs. It's a great piece of hardware!!

That sounds like it might be a good option.  I believe I have a spare 1 GB CF card in one of my camera cases and maybe I should consider copying the hard drive contents over to it and making that the new "hard drive."   I'm just a little weary of using nearly 20 year-old hard drives on a regular basis.  My A2000 has a 52 MB Quantum from 1992 that still works like a charm, but I'm a little nervous and need to invest the time to see what it would take to copy it over to a bootable ZIP disk or something like that.

[blanghorst]

If the God Lord didn't mean us to butcher computer cases then he wouldn't have invested the Dremel. :p

Well if it makes you feel better, someone did take a dremel to the top slot in the back of the chassis on the A3000 I bought.

[blanghorst]

Congratulations on your A3000 purchase. I have had one for a long time now and can make a few comments....
 
Mine is 16mhz version of the 68030. And has the upside down kickstart mounting. It has been upgraded with A3640 V3.1 (manufactured by post Commodore company; Amiga Technologies. So this is 68040 25mhz w/ integral FPU. Card runs perfectly and a great performance added for reasonable price. The only real complaint I have for it is its physical mounting. As in it being just underneath the drive tray. I have a custom heat sink w/ fan to keep things cool. My machine still only 2mb chip / 16mb motherboard fast. Wish I had more. ZoRAM 128MB or 256MB are available. I do not have this though. As I understand it, speed will be limited due to Zorro Bus and not fast like what some accelerators have. I updated the main chipset to latest revision chips. It was a matter of principal I guess. I am not Amiga savy enough to explain any benefits to doing this. I run a GVP Spectrum 24/28 video card. RTG video makes a great experience in my opinion. I also have an XSurf network card. But have yet to hook it up to internet. So for now I just use it for its clockport; Subway USB. USB on an Amiga is awesome. Works like a charm for thumb drives. So for me it is my primary tool for transferring files from the outside world into this Amiga. The best USB solution is the Deneb card though, much faster. I upgraded to a 1.76MB floppy drive as a matter of principal. I hate floppies and only used for software install of my various hardware upgrades. I did run an Elbox FastATA IDE controller for a while. It ran with no issues. I have an external drive box that houses a cd/rw drive. Lately I have just been running a hard drive only from original SCSI, which works just fine of course. For the OS, I use a nearly stock 3.9, I have been meaning to get in there and massively update/patch it but have not had the time.
 
The 3000 is a great machine in my opinion. Sure it is not AGA but for my own uses, RTG gets me by just fine. As far as I know, the Indivision ECS could be added to this machine. I guess video upgrades are a matter of individual choice. I keep this thing running but do admit to exploring other Amiga alternatives. I think if I ever bought another real Amiga (probably will never do) it might be an A1200 which has AGA and very good upgrade hardware support.
 
Enjoy your 3000!

Hey, thanks for your feedback.  I appreciate it.
 
I just love the old hardware.  As I keep telling people on other forums I post on, computers from the 80s just had personality that the machines today don't seem to possess.  I've loved the A3000 ever since it was released in 1990 but I was in college then and couldn't afford one, so I'd go to the local Amiga store and play with it as much as I could.
 
Which brings me to a funny story.  I'd often go to this store and play on the A3000.  One time, I went in and something was wrong with it (don't recall what it was now).  At any rate, the guy at the store couldn't fix it so I looked at it and fixed it (I was much more Amiga savy back then).  He actually said to me "You know, I should charge you for coming in here and playing with the Amiga 3000 so much."  I looked at him and said "Yeah, and I should charge you for the tech support I just provided."  He never said another word.  :laughing:

[blanghorst]

So guys, this WD SCSI chip update -- which version should I be looking for and what issues does it fix?  For all I know, this box might have the updated chip, so I'll need to know what version to look for when I open it up.
 
Also, same question applies to the Buster 11 -- what does it fix and what is the version I should be looking for on the chip to tell if I already have it or not?

[blanghorst]

Enjoy! I am now fully restoring an A2000 and on the prowl for a Tekmagic/GVP 68060 for the A2000.. Giggidy.
 
-Allen

I pulled my A2000 out of the garage last year and powered it up for the first time in probably 10 years and only the second time or so in the last 17 years. Unfortunately, it did not work due to battery corrosion.
 
Since it was a revision 4.x board, I decided to buy a revision 6.2 off of eBay and I also bought a 68030 accelerator and Microway flickerfixer while I was at it. Those were two other things I always wanted and couldn't afford as a college kid. It was lots of fun and I removed the battery and wired a new battery pack that is located on the front of the chassis and behind the faceplate to avoid this issue happening again. I had a lot of fun doing this refurb and once I got everything built, everyhing powered right up and the only issue I had was with my Kickstart ROM and the 68030 accelerator, which I resolved by buying another ROM.
 
I've still got some work to do on it, and at some point, I'll post another thread here for some suggestions. I'm really rusty on AmigaDOS and need some help troubleshooting my startup-sequence file. I added a SCSI ZIP drive since that was the cheapest way for me to easily transfer files between the Amiga and my PC (I had an old USB Zip 250 in my closet that I got for free).
 
I still have the revision 4.1 board and bought a new CPU socket for it, so as I get time, I may try to refurb the board and if successful, I might try building another A2000 piece-by-piece.

[blanghorst]

Congrats!!! This is by far my favorite Amiga and I know you will have lots of fun with it.
 
I would only purchase either a Warp Engine 3040 or a Cyberstorm MKIII. Do it right or don't do it at all, this will take more time and cost more money but, you will get the absolute best usability, and overall best performance. Having the Ram, SCSI, and processor one the same bus really makes a huge difference. Unless your ray tracing or need very heavy math, the 68040 (at 40MHz) is perfect and you won't notice much of a difference between an 060. The 3640 is cheap, but in the end if you really want to spend lots of time and enjoy the 3k, I would go with my recommendations.
 
Same for the video, the 3 I would only choose: Picasso IV, Retina BLT Z3, or a Cybervision 64. The other ones either have driver issues, too little of memory, or just plain slow.
 
If you can find a Buster 11, would put one in. They are easier to come by that the ramsey/dmac pair. With the cards I recommended, I don't remember any issues with older chips and accelerators.
 
I still use my 3000 with my Warp Engine and Retina Z3, and for most everything it is perfectly usable and still very fast.
 
 
Enjoy!!!

Thanks for the accelerator recommendations.  I'm in this for the long haul I think, so I can take some time and wait for the right one to come along.  That, and my wife won't be happy if a bunch of Amiga stuff starts showing up suddenly!  :roflmao:  When I told her about the A3000, her eyes almost rolled out of their sockets.
 
I'm a little torn on upgrading the video to be honest.  I'm mainly a classic Amiga follower (I have little or no interest in anything post-Commodore) and prefer to stick with the regular chipsets whenever possible.

[blanghorst]

The USB route brings up an interesting possibility.  Does anyone know if there are compatible wireless N USB adapters for the Amigas?
 
Also, do you guys think it is worth hooking up a Scanjet 5p?  To give some background, this Scanjet was my main scanner until I upgraded my second PC last year and the SCSI card I have has no Vista or above drivers, so I can't use it.  It was cheaper buying a new USB scanner for the PC than buying a compatible SCSI card, so that's what I did but I still have this Scanjet just sitting here.

[blanghorst]

So what does the Indivision ECS buy us over the onboard (Amber?) flickerfixer besides double monitor support?