Woe is me

[nbarnes]

Hi Guys,

I'm torn. My finger is hovering over multiple "bid buttons" on ebay. Many years ago I had a A500, sadly no more. Every year or so I feel drawn to ebay to buy one and do "something".

BOOT
I'd like to pimp an a500 to the max purely to see "what could have been". But then I think, yeah but...why not an A600?....or an A1200? (get the benefit of all those new goodies still coming out and not be limited to the stuff I can run) and then I start thinking "is it a good investment?" why not wait for Natami (surely not long now...?). Then I go back to the A500 cos a "new" machine wouldn't have that warm, fuzzy feeling and that blue and orange workbench...Then I think, "I've got no room for it anyway and the missus will kill me" so I start thinking about UAE (tried it, very good, not the same), need a real machine...which one? A500? A600?  aaaaarrrrgggghhh!!!! Guru.

BOOT
It's getting so bad I'm actually figuring in my decision as to wether I buy a bigger house or not...but then...if I did...I maybe wouldn't be able to afford all the goodies I want...and I haven't got the time anyway...and she'll still kill me...aaaaarrrrggghhh!!!! Guru.

BOOT
So...boys and girls...what do I do? Someone...hold my hand and tell me it's all going to be alright. Will the evil guru ever go away? On a more serious note, if only someone had made cheaper hard drives back in the early 90's I think I'd still have my A500...I wonder what I'd have on it now? There's loads of stuff on ebay, hard drives, memory upgrades, accelerators...you could build a nice little system...but the 1200 is more expandable....STOP IT!!!!

[curtis]

A500 and max it out!

Lot more fun to play with.

Plus, you can put together a really nice 500 system for not a whole lot of money.

Just my $0.02.

Curtis

[Darrin]

Go for an A1200.  Easy to install an IDE hard drive, 68020 straight off the bat, AGA...

[TheBilgeRat]

Bonus: Indivision ECS still available for an A500
CON: no AGA
Bonus: A500 holds nostalgic value
CON: none?

You can make a "pimper" A1200 for sure, but it wouldn't be the same machine of your youth.  Its a fun hobby - I say start with the 500 and see where you go from there.

[Jose]

A1200 no contest. It will run everything the A500 did and be cheaper to expand. Regarding nostalgia, if you had a general interest in Amigas it will be the same nostalgia of the A500 but on steroids, because you'll remember the fascination about new models coming out and exploring their capabilities. I think every Amiga user at those times was fascinated by new Amiga models.

[persia]

Just buy what you want, don't think of it as an investment, the only investment in Computers is Apple stock.

[amiman99]

Out of all Amigas that I have in my collection, there is only ONE that is on my desk full time: Amiga 1200 by Amiga Technologies.
Comes with Blizzard IV 50 MHz, 64MB RAM and internal CDROM.
In my opinion it's the best. It's compact, has AGA, PCMCIA slot, internal IDE, color composite out.
Most, if not all, games work on it using WHDLoad with proper configuration.

I would focus all my energy in finding one for a good price, and for best results get an accelerator with plenty of RAM.

The most used feature in A1200 is the PCMCIA slot. With the PCMCIA to CF card transferring files from PC to Amiga can not be easier.

Lan and Wifi is available too with PCMCIA cards, what more you can ask for?

If I had to downsize, save or rescue from fire, the A1200 is the one I'm keeping.

My $0.02 seriously.

[motrucker]

I have owned most Amiga models. These days I would say buy an A1200. It's a great machine, with loads of stuff still available new for it. The '020 and hard drive alone make it the obvious choice.

[klx300r]

A1200 with IndivisionAGA! You won't regret it:)

[Lando]

I would say forget the wedge machines and get an A4000, which has actual slots and was meant to be expanded unlike the average expanded A1200 with a mountain of expansions it was never designed for precariously stuck to the motherboard with tape and refusing to boot if you look at it the wrong way.  I had an A1200 with PPC, Mediator, Voodoo 3, sound card, NIC and a bunch of other stuff and I was so glad to sell it and get an A4000 which was rock solid even with every slot full.

[_ThEcRoW]

I wouldn't go the a500 way, because it is very expensive to get it to the max. Not too long ago, a person from this forum bought an accelerator for the 500 that cost him 400 eur. I think it was the 040 one. Is too much money and for that amount you could get an a1200 with accel and better performance.
On the other hand, an a500 with the never sold ppc board would be uber cool. I saw a photo of it and it was impressive!.

[runequester]

The 500 is the ultimate in nostalgia for a lot of people, but it's a lot harder to "do stuff" with it, compared to a 1200.
 
A 1200 is much easier to get software unto, get a hard drive set up on etc.
 
You also get the 2 megs RAM by default, and AGA.
 
 
THat being said, if the purpose is "what I had as a kid", then go with that

[Gazbonk]

It  all depends what you want to spend & what it's used for

A500 - Nostalgic games, cheap memory, expensive accelerator = Expansion viable at a cost (hardware rareer).

A600 - Nostalgic but does not run all A500 games, additional IDE HD or CF card, can be used on the internet with PCIMCA network card, 030 accelerator card (Amiga kit) & V3.1 Rom

A1200 - All the same as above but with AGA (Advanced graphics) & more availiability of expansions from a wider source of areas.

A1000. A2000, A2500, A3000 - all availiable for expansion but may cost more money as hardware is not so as easily obtainable as the previous Amigas.

A4000T (Very Rare), A4000D (Rare-ish) these machines are fully expandable at cost but are a very good option if you are patient and have a disposable income with no limits.

I have all  these Amiga's except the A4000T and the one I use most is the A600 with V3.1 ROM's as it's  smaller and does not take up much space.

Good luck in your choice of machine, they are classics and are all very good at what they do with the various restrictions and hardware.    

[AmigaClassicRule]

I would so say go for an A1200 it is a nostalgia computer like the A500 in all regards. You get the benefit of easy expansions, easy to put software into it, AGA, easy HD installation BLAH BLAH BLAH

[Iggy]

I'd look for an A600. Then I'd buy one of Jens' '030 accelerators and an Indivision ECS flicker fixer.