Amiga.org
The "Not Quite Amiga but still computer related category" => Amiga Emulation => Topic started by: amigadave on August 11, 2005, 06:14:15 PM
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I did something yesterday that I had hoped I would never have to do, purchase at retail cost an OEM Windows XP Professional package. It was my Son's birthday and since he had been complaining that the old P2/400mHz Windows98 PC that belongs to my wife is too slow to play games and also had been fighting with his younger sister for computer time as they both become more interested in computers and the Internet. So, in a moment of weakness, I bought all the pieces needed to build my Son a killer PC game machine (on a budget) using the guide at Ars Technica. Beautiful black windowed case w/blue cathodes inside, blue led fans and blue bubble lights each side of the front bezel from Xoxide.com, MSI K8N Neo4-F nForce4 mobo w/Athlon 64 3000+, 512mb RAM, Sony DVD/CDRW, 80gb SATA HD, 256mb ATI Radeon X800XL PCI Express graphic card and Audigy2 sound card.
How much you ask??? 5 years worth of allowance money ($1,008 USD)
It should all be here to put together in a few days. My only consolation is that the first thing I am going to load after it is put together is Amiga Forever 6.
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amigadave wrote:
It should all be here to put together in a few days. My only consolation is that the first thing I am going to load after it is put together is Amiga Forever 6.
Don't forget that Amiga Forever 2005 is soon here! :-)
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I'll check it out and upgrade when it's available. I am looking forward to seeing how well my Son's PC will run AF/UAE. It should scream with all that power, now where did I store that Catweazle card and drivers?
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@quenthal
Hum,
Amiga forever 6 to 2005?
That seems like a very big version jump...
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the devil sent you in the right direction.. x86 machines are the way to go..just ditch Windows for Linux and you'll be all right.
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TheMagicM wrote:
..just ditch Windows for Linux and you'll be all right.
Yes that would be a good idea, then he'll have access to all those games his son wants to play ... oh wait ...
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Hi,
throw away the whole dung, buy a football for your son :-)
Noster
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I am sure that we will load Linux and Open Office to do his school work in a format that is compatible with MS Office products which are most likely used at school, but most games he wants to play are only available for Windows. Since he is only 12 and just starting to show an interest in computers, I think it will take a year or two for him to master Linux on his own.
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@Noster, I know what you are saying and I do make sure he only spends a part of his day in front of a flickering screen (be it TV, Playstation, Amiga or PC). He has every kind of sports equipment and ball and is actually very good at sports. Now it is time to learn something new and I am looking forward to helping HIM put this PC together and explaining what all the parts are and what they do.
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Nice present to your boy! OpenOffice is for windoze too, so you dont have to setup linux for him ... if he wants it in some years, he will surely do it himself :)
Sports ? What is that ? hehe, show hime some creative computer programs: grafix, sound and maybe flash and other cool/fun tools for him to enjoy ...
And let him enjoy the good time games bring you, its fun no mather what age you are IMO :)
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On my P4 3.2GHz, Radeon 9800 Pro setup, WinUAE flies, I get full emulation with sound and at like 5-10 X 68060 speeds. (I think it was like 500 Mips or something and sysspeed reports like a 68040 @ 700MHz) :)
:banana:
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@krize, Good point, I set up an eMachine for my Dad several years ago and it had windows and Open Office pre-installed. I don't plan on donating any more money to BG for badly written, bloated software, unless I absolutely have to. Linux can wait until my Son is ready to install it for himself. I have tons and tons of software to install on his Amiga Forever hardfile. I hope AMOS and SAS C will work on WinUAE and my Son can learn a little about programming on the Amiga before he moves on to other platforms.
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@amigadave
welldone! a nice gift for your children and in the mainwhile, a very useful system for theyrs future job/fun and life :-)
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@TjLaZer, "like a 68040 @ 700mHz" Hmmmm, that could make for some very nice (short) render times for Lightwave. I wonder if anyone has ever tried to network their Toaster/Flyer (real Amiga) to WinUAE and use NewTek's ScreamerNet to speed up rendering their Lightwave anims?
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@Framiga, Thanks, I think overall it was a good decision too. Here is a link to the case we are using. Just what every 12 year old boy needs. Now I just need to figure out where to put the "Boing Ball" logo. I am thinking a chrome and black boing ball would look better than the traditional red and white.
Xoxide Black PC case (http://www.xoxide.com/x-static-case-black.html)
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whot! only $27.99?
How they can produce a case with PSU and neon and so on! . . . i prefer don't know how! :-)
Incredible!
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$27.99 is for the case and one blue 80mm LED fan only. The PSU, Cathode Tube lights and other fans are extra cost, but the total with a 350w PSU, UV blue SATA adapter and 3 blue LED 80mm fans was only $62.00 or so. The shipping was over $30.00 which brought the case total to almost $100. I could have gotten a cheaper case with more power and maybe cheaper shipping, but this case will excite my son to take more interest and better care of it (I hope).
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ah, OK . . .. a cheaper one? it seems a good price for me anyway.
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the 'ditch windows for linux' was a joke.. I knew it was for your son.. my son, who is 8 also has a Windows machine but wants me to install Linux so he can play around with it (dual boot).
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@ TheMagicM,
8 years old and ready for Linux??? See Noster's post below and buy that boy a football!
(just kidding, I hope Linux puts the screws to Bill Gates & Co. and ends up with 35% to 55% market share within the next 5 years. It would be great if Gates would just take his billions and go screw up something else. He has done enough damage to the creative possibilities personal computing could have had, if not for his devious business practices.)
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I´m sure there are Linux livecds aimed at kids, there seems to be livecds for everything these days. :-P
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"I´m sure there are Linux livecds aimed at kids, there seems to be livecds for everything these days."
I am sure there are easier installs than others. @TheMagicM, which Linux distro are you considering for your 8 year old? I like the idea of installing a dual boot system and letting my son search for free Linux software to download and use instead of spending so much money for bloated Windows compatible programs.
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well, he sees me using it all the time.. when we went to Florida, we took my laptop which has linux on it (SuSE 9.2).. he played the games that I had installed and loved it. Of course he has windows games also so thats his primary OS. I think its just for the games it has installed is why he wants it. I tried to made a AdvanceCD which is basically a linux operating system installed on cd that boots up into MAME..but I cant get it working properly..
-alex
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Amiga Forever 2005 ordered! Maybe I'll be one of the first 50 to get two decals.
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Has anyone else here decided that AF 2005 is worth the money and pre-ordered? I am currently not working due to an injury and not making any income due to a disagreement with work insurance adjuster, but I still thought it a worth while purchase.
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amigadave wrote:
Has anyone else here decided that AF 2005 is worth the money and pre-ordered? I am currently not working due to an injury and not making any income due to a disagreement with work insurance adjuster, but I still thought it a worth while purchase.
Ah that sucks man. I think insurance companies always want to have their cake and eat it. They want you to pay for cover, but never want to pay out when someone makes a claim...
even without PSU etc, $27 seems like a steal to me....
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Okay, parts all here, build complete, just one apparent mistake made. I installed Windows XP Pro (64bit edition) and notice that some setup files won't run because they are not XP certified. Can't get onboard sound working or the Audigy2 card drivers installed or recognized yet, so I need to connect the new PC to my cable modem and search for updated drivers, BIOS updates, or other work-arounds. God I hate Windows and appreciate Amiga (and even my Mac Powerbook) so much more! I'll be installing Amiga Forever 2005 as soon as it arrives (was supposed to start shipping last Tuesday).
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Hum,
the onboard soundrivers on the cdrom that came with the mobo not work?
Also, you may have to disable the onboard sound to get the Audigy2 soundcard to work. (in Bios)
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@ blobrana, I tried both setups in the BIOS for the on board sound. My mistake is that I purchased the 64 bit XP Pro instead of the regular 32 bit version. The drivers for the 64 bit version are incomplete and it rejects some setup.exe files from the device install CD-ROMs I might try to return XP64 in exchange for the regular version of XP Pro.
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I don't think you can return your M$ product as long as you have opened it (i was reseller in time...).
So my choice for half the price, you could have got a PPC card for a A1200/A4000 ( 250/400 $) or a 2nd hand Pegasos 1 G3 + ram (-$200), and for the games buy a PSP with a 1Gb MStick ($250) to download games, movies, music, amiga emulator (already avaible),... for free
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Okay first of all I am having a hard time believing that you are having a problem with XP 64-bit..
1) You have an NFORCE motherboard, all you have to do is download the unified Nforce 3 or 4 (depending on your board) driver set at Nvidia.com for xp x64 edition. All the drivers except for the video driver and maybe wireless that you ever will need for that board including sound is rolled up in that driver package (have you tried the on-motherboard sound that comes with all nforce boards? it's probably better than that audigy 2 card. If you really have to have an Audigy 2 card, there is a working 64 bit driver on for the audigy 2 card on creative labs web site.
I also saw an exciting thing at best buy yesterday an "Audigy 4 card" in a box coming complete with a 64-bit driver..
2) if you have a cable modem and XP 64-bit simply plug it into the ETHERNET cable in your motherboard's network connector that comes built-in. You won't need drivers then for it and it will function perfectly like a network card and you will get faster speeds than thru the USB.
3) if you need ANY 64-bit drivers or help please ask me.. I am running Amiga Forever on both a 64 bit XP and a Windows Vista Beta 1 install and it works great on both..
There is no reason to hate Windows here. You have a high performance computer here with great software all you need to do is ask the right people the right questions about it and you will be working like a pro very quickly.. The trick with 64 bit windows is just to go out and download the 64-bit drivers. When it first came out they weren't readily available. That is not the case any longer.. Even RAID drivers and obscure tv card drivers are showing up..
Plus your son with love the 64-bit performance with both direct x 9c and Open GL.. He might be a little bit young for it but Far Cry is an awesome game just for 64-bit windows..
I asked the custodian/author of WinUAE if they are doing a 64-bit version of the emulator. Last I heard they were looking into it..
So please don't dump 64-bit windows, without trying it a little more, if you make an effort just to aquire the right drivers you will get about a 30% increase in performance on your box..
I won't even talk about how kick ass vista is on it :-)
Please feel free to email me about any questions regarding sound or anything.. I am an expert on this platform..
P.S. and to return fire at the PPC guy who thinks he could have bought something at half the price, well you get what you pay for, half the price and half the performance.. Also, I use WinUAE/Amiga forever all of the time and I am very happy with the performance of the machine as an amiga, in fact I'd race that PPC machine anyday as I have a faster machine even thru emulation and more stuff would run from the classic platform.
I also own a PSP the games aren't that great and there is not that many available. I rarely touch it, plus how great would UAE be with it without a keyboard?? Please folks! I am thinking about putting the PSP on ebay..
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@DonnyEMU,
I know the 64bit XP Pro is faster, but since this machine is primarily for my 12 year old son, I think the older, more mature regular XP Pro would have been a better choice. I have not physically moved the computer from it's original build location to my son's desk where an Internet connection is available yet. I will do so as soon as I can lift it or have someone else move it (back trouble). I know that most of the drivers I need will probably be available, but think that the XP64 is going to be more work for a while and the problems are going to be over my son's head and maybe over mine. I use a Mac primarily and only use Windows at work where there is a large I.T. department to fix any problems.
Thanks for the offer to help, I will take you up on that offer in PM if I am still having trouble after I download the drivers.
As for PPC, that may be an option that I would consider for myself, but not a machine for my son, his games and his school work.
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It's also an illegal download portal. Check it often or end up in jail! ;-)
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:lol:
UAE for PSP (http://www.kaillera.com/pspuae/)
I agree that for 3D gaming PC are better.
For the rest it is up to you !
For the wordprocessing, you have Papirus (68k/PPC).
For the photo, there is Photogenics (68k/PPC).
You want an equivalent and compatible app of PowerPoint ? there is Holywood (68k/PPC).
You want Quake3 ? you need a PPC with MOrphOS, but a AOS4 is nearly finished :-P .
You want to surf on the net without hack, spyware, virus, adware.... you have Voyager, IBrowse, Aweb ... (68k/PPC).
You want to do C/C++ and much more ? there is StormC, GCC,...
You need video tools ? Ok, turn on Linux (68k/PPC).
You want to use MAC tools/programms/games ? there is Mac-On-Linux (PPC only ??)
You need to print -> Turboprint (68k/PPC), or under Linux
You need to scan -> FXScan (68k/PPC), or under Linux
You need an emulator for old games ? take a look at amidog.se site :lol:
And so on ....
There is always an Amiga solution just take the time to look :-) :lol:
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This post is coming from my Son's new XP x64 computer! All drivers found and installed, just waiting for AF 2005 to arrive so I can load a bunch of Amiga software and test it out. The next hardware addition will be a Catweazle PCI card and a FDD for Amiga only use (I decided not to include a FDD in the original build for Win XP). I guess I'll install the free games that came bundled with the MB and GPU, Thief, Far Cry and Joint Operations - Typhoon Rising, to test the CPU & GPU performance while we are waiting for AF 2005 to arrive.