Advice on an Amiga System For Newbie

[game_fan]

Hello All.
I have just signed up to Amiga.org and havn`t kept upto date with the Amiga scene for about 12-18 months.

I have recently been reading up through the web and my older Amiga publications (Amiga Active\Format).
I want to buy an Amiga system again as I sold mine off a while ago when moving. And i want some advice on what to buy.

I currently have a fairly tidy spec PC but nothing special and what I am after is a system that can offer the following :-

* Web Browsing (Sharing the NTL Broadband connection I have on my PC).
* General Usage - I run my own business so general stock management and invoices would be handy, I need to edit word\excel files so I would buy any file compatible amiga application.
* File Sharing\Networking with my PC (I have a Network card in my PC).
* Playing some older games (WHD LOAD?)
* Share my PC monitor (not multisync) - Can I play games on this?
* Graphics work - i use Photoshop at present.

The system needs to be fast and fairly up to date.

I just want a basic run down of what I will require hardware wise and software wise and where to get it.

Many Thanks

[Paul_Gadd]

Hi game_fan

You did not mention the sort of budget you have for buying amiga hardware,

" currently have a fairly tidy spec PC"

the current amiga hardware will be a downgrade and very very expensive,

if you want to run amiga software on your current machine get amithlon or UAE, both do a wonderfull job and will save you from buying slow restricted hardware.

[AndyC]

There are a couple of pretty "tidy" Amiga systems on sale on www.Amibench.org, second hand of course.

There is a fully PPC Equiped A1200 power tower with all sorts of extras for about £600.

@Paul_Gadd

You are right though, Amiga hardware is awfully expensive, but I would say worth it if you are like me and want the original hardware, not just some emulation.

Cheers,
AndyC

[Rob]

If you are not interested in AGA or ECS compatability then buy
Amithlon, it costs about £99 from most places.  It comes with full
versions of Art Effect 3 and Amiga Writer 2.0 which can import  MSWord
2000 documents.

If you really want a real Amiga check out www.amibench.org if you want
a second-hand system if you want to but new hardware www.powerc.com
www.analogic.co.uk and www.eyetech.co.uk are a good place to start.

I consider an 060 and graphics card essential items for modern day
Amiga use.  If you want to display AGA/ECS modes on a VGA monitor
you'll need a scandoubler Eyetech supply some good internal and
external version they also sell monitor switchers which are handy if
you don't want to keep swapping leads all the time.  If you chose to
go the Amithlon route Eyetech should be able to provide a monitor
switcher for two PC's aswell.

[J]

* Web Browsing (Sharing the NTL Broadband connection I have on my PC).
* General Usage - I run my own business so general stock management and invoices would be handy, I need to edit word\excel files so I would buy any file compatible amiga application.
* File Sharing\Networking with my PC (I have a Network card in my PC).
* Playing some older games (WHD LOAD?)
* Share my PC monitor (not multisync) - Can I play games on this?
* Graphics work - i use Photoshop at present.

In addition to what the others have said (expensive etc)

Web: YAM is a fantastic e-mail client so no problem with e-mail. However, our browsers are not so good. My Personal opinion is that iBrowse is the best. They can all share DSL with Network card and Miami/genesis software

Office: AmigaWriter is said to handle Word files etc. Never used v2.0 but the original demo I had was poor and buggy. V2 may be much improved.

File Sharing: No problem with Samba!

Older Games: Shouldn't be a problem for *most* games through you always get the odd few.

Monitor: On a Classic Amiga you'll need at least a scandouble, preferably a graphics card. I use an old Cybervision and a manual monitor switcher to share my monitor.

Graphics: Not too hot on this topic but I believe there are many *excellent* graphics packages around that can even match Photoshop...so I'm told.

As for what system? if you want a Classic system:

Amiga 1200 with 060 processor
Workbench 3.5 or 3.9
as much RAM as possible
Mediator PCI Bus board
Graphics card (Voodoo 3?)
Network Card

try http://www.amibench.org

Personally, I'd wait (I know 'they' say don't wait!) for the AmigaONE and OS4 which will give you...

G3 PPC processor @ 600MHZ
Ethernet
Modem   } All built-in
Sound
PCI slots ( I can't remember how many! Doh!)
OS4  :-D

Sorry for the long post!

J