Howdy back.
Well, the best thing to do, is go to
www.amigakit.com and start to drool over all the nifty gadgets you can use with the 1200.
Upgrading the ROM to 3.1 is best. Laptop HD's are very cheap, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting a slightly used one with some decent gigabytes. The original hard drives that came with them are too small anyway.
As far as acceleration, if you can score a 68040 for cheap, then get OS3.5 or OS3.9 because those accelerators allow you to install some extra ram which you'll need. Otherwise, a 68030 will do you fine, although you might want to stick with OS 3.0, and upgrade off of what you can find on Aminet.
That's basic upgrades for that.
If you want to use a CD drive, there are a few choices. Locate a squirrelSCSI or, a SCSIkit that attaches to Blizzard type accelertors. Both will let you add SCSI peripherals like CD drives. IDE drives are a different game. Its possible to modify the case and put a laptop CD inside the 1200, but you'll have to cut a hole.
Welcome to A.org.
