060 or PPC

[lurkist]

Cards are no longer manufactured so you will only find them second hand (and generally in the places already mentioned, but have a look at Amigakit.com as well).

If by optical drives you mean the LS-120 types, don`t bother.  I had one for a while, it was a bit dodgy and I swapped it for a CD-RW and never looked back.  A hard drive on the other hand is almost essential.

SCSI sounds like it`s faster and more stable than IDE, but it`s more expensive, more rare and more difficult to set up.

The port in the A1200 is indeed an IDE port.  You can attatch a 2.5" hard drive to it without any other modification and configure it from workbench.  I believe you can use 2 devices with a 2-way cable with no other modification req`d.

IDE-splitters, (or "Buffered Interfaces") allow you to attatch up to 4 IDE devices, and require additional software (e.g. IDE-Fix 97 or EIDE 99 which normally come with the interface)  They come in various shapes, forms and prices, and allow you to attatch hard drives, CD-Roms and Writers, Compact Flash readers, etc.

Cheers

[lurkist]

OS 3.9 requires a CD-Rom and 3.1 ROMs and is moderately difficult to install (it`s a whole chicken/egg thing, you need an OS with CD-Rom and driver already installed in order to read the CD in order to install it, you can`t just buy 3.9 and install it on an empty hard drive despite that very option in it`s installer!)
Frankly, OS3.1 can be made to do almost everything 3.9 does, and my 3.1 system is more stable than my 3.9 one.

Blizzard cards are generally regarded as the best, although I`ve also owned a couple of Magnum cards which were very good.  Beware of "overclocked" cards of any kind, life expectancy is generally reduced.

CD-Roms and hard drives are pretty much generic, I`ve never had one of either that didn`t work.  DVD drives require a certain filesystem (Allegro), and even then you will not be able to play movies whatever CPU you have.

I`ve played MP3s in high quality on an 040 40, but my 040 25 failed (don`t expect to do much multitasking though)  060s obviously handle them even better, with some minimal multitasking.  I`ve never had an 030, but they can come in 50MHz versions and someone else can tell you if that works.  There are hardware devices that allow you to play MP3s on even an A500!

Fast IDE? No idea.

As long as your old Maxtor is working, it will work in an Amiga (I use a Maxtor right now).  With OS3.1 and less hard drives should be kept to a size below 4GB (but bigger ones will work as long as you only format them with 4GB).

Good luck!

[lurkist]

Classic Amigas are basically antiques, hence the price tag.  If the Blizzard you see is an 060 or a low-end PPC that sounds about right.  In the words of the Metallibashers, Sad But True!