Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: MontrealCL on July 07, 2004, 02:21:27 AM
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Like a few of you might have in a previous thread of mine, I picked up an AMIGA 2000 from a friend of mine this week-end. The thing wasn't working, and instead of throwing it out, I ended up taking it. When I opened it up, there was some pretty serious battery corrosion, and the CPU socket's pins were green. When I removed the CPU from it's socket, I saw that some of the sockets were broken from the inside. So I took an educated guess, and assumed that the 68000's socket was the culprit...
After 2 1/2 hours of desoldering (it was the first time I ever did such a job!) I am proud to say that I have resurrected an Amiga 2000 from the dead...
Now that it's done, a newbie question. What are my upgrade paths for such a machine?
On the front cover it says "Hard Drive", but alas, there is no hard drive in the machine, how do I go about plugging in one?
Thanks,
MontrealCL
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Arr, there arel ots of bits you can find for it, anything Zorro 2. You'd need a harddrive controller to put in a harddrive. www.amiga-hardware.com has lists.
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To plug in a hard drive you'll need a SCSI or IDE controller for a Zorro slot. If you're planning on using it extensively look for an accelerator board with an onboard drive controller. (I know cards like these existed for A3000/4000 but I'm not so sure about the 2000.) :-?
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Didn't the big-box Amigas have an IDE header on their motherboards
like the A1200 and A600?
If the A2000 used Zorro 2 why is the A1200's 150-pin trapdoor
connector referred to as Zorro 2?
:-o
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Nope, the only big box Amigas with built-in IDE are the 4000 and 4000T.
As for the 1200 trapdoor, it's not really Zorro 2, but many of the signals are similar.
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MontrealCL wrote:
After 2 1/2 hours of desoldering (it was the first time I ever did such a job!) I am proud to say that I have resurrected an Amiga 2000 from the dead...
Now that it's done, a newbie question. What are my upgrade paths for such a machine?
On the front cover it says "Hard Drive", but alas, there is no hard drive in the machine, how do I go about plugging in one?
Thanks,
MontrealCL
Well done.
As far as the hard drive goes, the system you've got had or may still have a C= SCSI controller. If it does, track down an older SCSI-II drive and go to town.
If it doesn't, I'd grab a Zorro-II IDE controller and just use an inexpensive IDE HD. This will also open up the option of adding an inexpensive CD-ROM (or RW, or combo DVD drive).
Next, get the 3.1 ROMs, and follow the upgrade path to 3.9 (3.5 and 3.9 were "software" upgrades only; no new ROM chips were created).
A MUST (in my opinion) is a USB card. There is SOOOOOOOO much you can add via USB (and in a pinch you can use it as a network connection) including but not limited to external hard drives, scanners, printers, mice, keyboards and on and on. The E3B Algor or Highway cards are your best bet.
Another MUST is a processor upgrade. Unfortunately, you're going to top out with a 60-80mhz 060 (and that much muscle is going to cost beaucoup $$$). Most USB solutions will require an 030/28 or better, so if you're going to go the USB route be prepared to upgrade both OS and CPU.
Without a doubt, a graphics card is another "must have". If you can get your hands on one, the Picasso IV is supposed to be a great card - and it "auto senses" what type of Zorro slot it's in, so you're good to go with a ZII or ZIII slot.
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I might point Out OS3.9 requires a few meg FAT, and a 68020+
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Hi MontrealCL,
The very first thing that you should do, if you have not done it already, is to REMOVE THE BATTERY FROM THE MOTHERBOARD!!!!
For a nice starter Amiga 2000 setup you will need the following:
Commodore A2091 board with 2 megs of ram
Commodore A2630 (68030 board) Rev 9 with 4 megs
Commodore A2320 (Amber board)
ViewSonic or other nice VGA Monitor
2 - Disk Drives
1 - SCSI Hard Disk (between 500 megs to 2 gigs)
1 - SCSI CD-ROM Drive (12 speed or LESS)
Kickstart 2.04 or 3.1 ROMs
After you LEARN how to use your Amiga 2000 then you can upgrade it beyond this level. :-)
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SamuraiCrow wrote:
To plug in a hard drive you'll need a SCSI or IDE controller for a Zorro slot. If you're planning on using it extensively look for an accelerator board with an onboard drive controller. (I know cards like these existed for A3000/4000 but I'm not so sure about the 2000.) :-?
Blizzard 2060 has a controller, if I remember correctly. And a nice 060, of course. The A2000 can do anything an A4000 can do, except mounting a ppc card.
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jeffimix wrote:
I might point Out OS3.9 requires a few meg FAT, and a 68020+
4 megs Fast RAM
68020 or faster processor
CD-ROM drive
Approx. 45Mb hard disk space.
:-)
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@BoingBoss
I've got an A2000, 060 Blizz with 128 meg ram, CGX64-3D, flicker fixer, os3.9. I really love it. Don't know what that Amber board is that you mentioned. Could you explain? Best regards...Art
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The Amber board is basically the A3000's flickerfixer on a card. It plugs into any ECS video slot. It can be forced into an AGA video slot, but most screenmodes have trouble with it.
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@artman,
Amber is an internal ff/sd.
@MontrealCL
There is nothing like an 060 on an A2000 or any classic Amiga for that matter. The GVP spectrum is not bad, is has a pass thru for a FF/SD external/internal, no matter.
Chris