Amiga setup "woes," possible change-up ahead...

[mechy]

I have had some kind of Amiga most of the years over the past 28 years. Usually more than one.

I currently have:

-- An Amiga 1000 system:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157621596272210/
-- An Amiga 2000 '060 system w/ Picasso II:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157604299491786/
-- An Amiga 1200 '060 tower:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157604300573758/
-- A SAM 440epFlex:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157621877406693/

But things are not ideal. I am thinking of selling and re-purchasing.

I love the Amiga 1000 and will never let that go. It's a nice little setup with 2MB FAST and a SCSI HD and is great with 1.3 on down.

The A1200 '060 was my main machine, but it started having issues with the Indivision AGA and so I had to drop back to the more limited FF I had before (Cammy inherited it!). And I have PSU issues, and being towered it's started to feel sort of not deeply Amiga. And, it has OS 3.9 on it which I dislike. I am trying to get the PSU issue fixed and then I may sell, maybe in parts. More on why later.

Then there is the A2000 '060. Lately I have spent all this time building up my A2000 with '060, Picasso II, etc. but it seems misguided. I wanted to use the Amiga 2000 for all kinds of things like IRC and terminal and web etc. but it's not nearly as practical as the SAM. And I'm having some compat issues with '060 on some apps. It's got lots of good stuff in it, ADSG dual serial, etc. but it feels like I've built it out beyond reason. It feels less good than it did when it was an '020 or a '000.

I love the SAM. Will keep and explore AmigaOS 4 onward.

I think what I want, in the end, replacing the A2000 and A1200, is a proper A1200 in its own case with an accelerator like the new 42MHz 030 on that white circuit board, with the fast memory. Something clean that I can attach a CF card to and and Indivision mk II to and have a great WHDLoad experience.

I am thinking I might be better off with a PAL unit, even tho I am in the states, looking at the games and demos out there. A friend just got a NIB A1200 on eBay. How often do they come along?

What do you think of my plan?




bp

You have missed the one logical,reliable machine. the A4000 or 4000T. other than caps, this is the full 32bit machine with proper z3 expansion bus,and unlike the 2000 with slow zorro2,you get better speed on gfx cards etc. I love the 2000 but its not the most logical machine to do with 060 since zorro2 is so slow(2-3MB/s). Unlike the 1200 it wont be dongled to death(generally) and need a immediate psu upgrade etc. A fully expanded 1200 will still be slower than the full expanded 4000 generally.

I love all amiga's but it still puzzles me why people build on the 1200 as a base.Its not cheaper in the long run and many times not as reliable,and certainly not as fast as the expanded 4k. I have probably opened pandoras box saying this

[mechy]

just curious...an sorry to interrupt ..your coment about a4000  would be faster than a a1200 ...question..if ur just using the aga chipset  an the cpu is the same  an memory is the same ..would that be the case?
with a graphics card id agree  ..with aga  why would it be different..

all things being equal with aga,ram,cpu yes they would roughly be the same speed on aga but to compare that it means a expanded 1200 vs a stock 4000.but when i refer to speed i also include the IDE. the 1200 ide is slow and unbuffered,the 4000 ide is buffered and marginally faster out of the box.
The 4000 has the fastest accelerators,cyberstorm MK3 and the PPC cards. The scsi on these cards does around 35MB/s while the fastest 1200 card with scsi can manage 10MB/s not to mention the 604e on the cyberstorm vs the 603 on the blizzard-there is a good bit of difference there. It just makes good sense to build on a good base.

[mechy]

Would like to agree about the 4000 being a better option over the 1200. But cost wise a 4000 is a lot more expensive.

I've yet to find a 4000 machine that was a good price, locally they're very rare.

1200 is usually around $80-$150 NZD
4000 is usually around $500 + NZD

I've always wanted a 4000 but 1200's are easy to get a hold of, and addon cards are usually cheaper and easier to find too.

1200 is not cheaper, another misconception.. you didn't do a fair comparison. With the stock 4000 you get a 040/25,good power supply,expansion bus,room for 16mb ram,place for a cdrom,place for a second floppy or card reader.

add those upgrades to a 1200 and you have probabaly equalled the price or surpassed it.Remember the 1200 is 020EC,2mb ram,bad psu,no easy external expansions,no expansion bus for slots unless you tower it and its still not zorro3.The pcmcia is the only big +.

sorry to hijacking your thread Blakespot!