Most powerful PPC that can be put in an A1200?

[mradam83]

Hi all,

Please excuse any ignorance, I've never really modded an Amiga or PC before so I'm really a newbie but I'm trying to get a feel of everything and get my start of Miggy modding. :-)

I'm in the process of trying to win an A1200 and I'm collecting as much info on what can actually be done as improvements.

One area that really interests me is the installation of processors/accelerators. I read that a PPC Blizzard can be fitted that allows about 330mhz and 256mb of RAM - however it was an older site that I read the info from so I don't know if there's been any improvements since then.

What is the basis for being limited for the one sort of card? Or is it possible for higher mhz processors (PPC) such as a Broadway PPC based IBM card that's used in the Nintendo Wii ? (I'm not specifically saying this piece of tech but it's one I've just read about).

Is it do do with Workbench or the AmigaOS compatibility? Cheers all.

[mradam83]

If you want a PPC Amiga and want to spend a lot of money you could get an X1000 ppc Amiga.

If you want a PPC Amiga and want to spend little money then you can get 2 or 3 MorphOS machines for the price of a PPC accelerator.

If you want the A1200 experience as many of us do then you should get the ultimate classic Amiga accelerator: 68060

There are 2 varieties of 68060 accelerator: Blizzard and Apollo.

They both came out as 50Mhz and 32MB to start with.

Apollos are limited to an absolute maximum of 64MB of RAM.  But they can be easily modded to be 80Mhz or even 90 or 100Mhz

Blizzards can easily take 128MB of RAM and if u add on the SCSI expander you can get another 128MB.  But I never met anyone with an 80Mhz Blizzard that I can remember.  They are all 50Mhz.

50Mhz on an 060 is awesome and not to be taken lightly.  But since you seem to be into hardcore modding and spending money, I am just letting u know the options.

An 060 card runs the way an Amiga expects a card to run so it integrates beautifully.

Well I'm not specifically saying I'm going to go hardcore - I am interested in it for sure but I'm purely gathering info on the whole thing at this stage as I'm conscious of my inexperience.

[mradam83]

I agree, ppc accelerator was a nice idea, but since software for them never caught on... its nearly useless on a 1200. You'd be much better off with a 68060 accelerator, which almost all amiga software will benefit from.

Cheers for that - so is it general incompatibility with the 1200 or a lack of drivers that makes the PPC accelerator not work on par with the 68060?

[mradam83]

I had a blizzard ppc years ago, ppc is useless most of the time and very expensive, you can install os4.1 with a ppc but is like kill the amiga.

Thanks for the reply.

Is there major differences between say the 3.0 and 4.1? I've never found a comparison guide and as such, I would probably ignorantly assume that the 4.1 is better because it's newer. Does the 1200 benefit from a modern OS in any way or does the 3.0/3.1 suit better but with more software installed?

[mradam83]

What I recommend for improvements are:
A mouse adapter to use a brand new PS/2 laser mouse.

A keyboard adapter to use a brand new PS/2 keyboard if you get an A1200T or if you are going to put your A1200 into a tower.

Deck that baby out with a 2TB hard drive.  Or get a smaller SSD or something.  2TB is the absolute limit you can use in a single drive with AmigaOS.  Your limit may be less depending on which hard drive controller is in your A1200.  If you don't like whatever limit you have then you can buy a new HD controller, if you wanted.

A FlickerFixer.  This is awesome for me.  I donno if you would care or not.

Mediator PCI board:  All the kewl Amigans have this :razz:  This adds PCI slots to your A1200.  The board costs something like 300$ but once you have it then you get to plug in cheap PCI cards.  In mine I have a FREE Ethernet card + voodoo 1280x1024 gfx card + I am about to buy a PCI 256MB gfx card.  I use the Ethernet to network my A1200 over to its slave core i5 box.

CD Drive: Not much point but u can add one.

Four Player Adapter: This adds 2 additional joystick ports.  Cheap and works great.  Only useful if you are having Amiga parties.


I personally use my Mediator PCI slots, keyboard adapter, Lasermouse adapter, FlickerFixer and 68060 constantly and could not live without them.
My A1200 is in an Elbox Power Tower.

I also have a PS/2 KVM switch so I can share 1 19" CRT monitor + 1 mouse + 1 keyboard between my windoze box and my Amiga A1200T.  It just saves space and clutter.

Ah excellent, these were questions I was likely going to ask at some point - a 2tb hard drive in an Amiga 1200?! Wow that must be some sight to see...

[mradam83]

Of course this whole thread is now null and void because some t*** outbid me at the last minute.