Hi, New to the Amiga with 2000

[Darklight]

Yes, you need to make sure that whichever one you get actually has an IDE controller, and not a Mitsumi controller - they look the same, but they're quite different, and only devices that support Mitsumi controller will work on them.  Quite often they're labelled as "CD-Rom Controllers" whilst real IDE ones are labelled as IDE.  There are many different ones though.  Basically, check out The Big Book of Amiga Hardware before you buy any Amiga stuff, to make sure it's exactly what you want.  I think you'll find it much easier to pick up an old SCSI card though.  IDE is obviously easier to find devices for, but you may have problems finding the controllers.  Have a look around though  :-)

[melott]

Yup... thats an 2090 card.........
It does have an MFM controller on it also, although
I'm sure that won't do you any good.
It will work fine if you don't mind booting from floppy
or it can be used as a second SCSI controller.

The 2091 cards are pretty common on EBay for cheap.
Just watch what the roms are in the card. Older roms
don't support large HD's. I'm not sure just what roms
under 6.1 support but the 6.1 roms support up to a 1 gig
drive. Although I don't have a set, I'm told the 7.0 roms
support up to 4 gig. (I just ordered a set from Softhut
so I'll find out.)

[SprPsycho]

If I'm going to have SCSI anything I'd probably rather just get it to workt with both the CD ROM and Hard drive.

I found one SCSI card on ebay sofar... an "A2091 REV 4.1 SCSI controller".  

[melott]

SprPsycho wrote:
If I'm going to have SCSI anything I'd probably rather just get it to workt with both the CD ROM and Hard drive.

I found one SCSI card on ebay sofar... an "A2091 REV 4.1 SCSI controller".  

I think I would pass on that one, (IMHO I think its a
bit expensive and probably only supports a 52 meg drive)
You probably want a card with roms 6.1 or better.
They seem to show up all the time (except when you're
looking for one) :-)

[Darklight]

Well, I've gotten my A2091 working with an HD, 12x CD-Rom and external SCSI Zip drive, so if you're not planning to upgrade the processor too much, I think the 2091 is a good choice, but try and find one with 6.0 or 6.6 roms, 7.0 is the best.

[SprPsycho]

Is $75 too much for one with rev 7 roms?  I found one that's not on ebay.

[Darklight]

$75 US?  I don't know.  That's probably alright, considering the 7.0 roms are fairly hard to find.  If it's $75 AUD, well then yeah, that's not too bad, but you could probably find a GVP or something a little cheaper.

[melott]

SprPsycho wrote:
Is $75 too much for one with rev 7 roms?  I found one that's not on ebay.

Well ... I've seen the A2091 card go for as little as
$5.00 to $10.00 US with the older roms. SoftHut has the
7.0 roms for $29.00 US (I just ordered a set).
So you'll have to decide what you are willing to pay.

If the $75 card is fully populated with 2 megs ram then
that may not be to bad a price, without the ram .. Well :-D

[patrik]

@SprPsycho:

Here is one of those GVP cards, which also accepts quite a lot more memory and already is equipped with memory and a decent-sized harddrive.

As you say you have troubles understanding SCSI, read this guide to learn how to propely connect SCSI-devices.


@melott:

I am pretty sure the revision of the A2091 card itself isnt synonymous with the revision of the software in its rom.


/Patrik

[melott]

patrik wrote:

@melott:

I am pretty sure the revision of the A2091 card itself isnt synonymous with the revision of the software in its rom.


/Patrik

Ummm :-D ... sorry if I wasn't clear on that point.
I have used a couple revisions of the 2091 card.
The difference seems to be in the version of roms on
the card, not the revision of the card.

[Robert17]

@SprPsycho I have an Octagon 2008 scsi card that you can have, not sure if it's better or worse than the 2091 but it should be fine to get you started, drop me a PM if you're interested.

Robert

Edit: Although for 35Euro that GVP above seems good, since it takes memory sticks rather than chips on the octagon, the octagon doesn't have DMA either, but, up to you

[Cyberus]

SCSI is great, that is why it is the standard with Amigas. However, I don't know about anyone else, but I have a neverending supply of older IDE devices though, e.g. I've just been given a 6GB hard disk because it's not big enough for the friend who's upgrading his PC...

What I'm trying to get anyway, is that there's always the Buddha IDE controller which is available, among other sources, from Vesalia in Deutschland. Its 50 Euro there, about 30 squid or 50 U$...
Its autobooting BTW.


That's the buddha flash version, the other may be cheaper if you can find a US supplier.



edit: I live in Kent!
But it's the other one

[BenShep]

scsi drives also tend to be quite loud, which is another good reason to get an ide controller.

also, beware the GVP scsi/accellerator/memory combo cards - as they use proprietary 64 pin memory simms, which are expensive and difficult to source.

start here;

http://www.amigawiki.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/Amiga_For_Newbies

[SprPsycho]

Thanks for all the advice so far... and offers too...I've got a SCSI card on the way now.  SCSI cards on the Amiga are a lot cheaper than they are on the Apple II.

[Robert17]

Actually I have a Buddha Flash, it's cheap and it works really well, no choice now since my a4k IDE header has packed up  :-(

Robert