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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: Amigaz on March 30, 2005, 11:46:38 AM
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Planning to sell one of my ECs machines so I can invest in my other machines.
Which one of these two machines shall I keep:
A500+ with GVP A530 '030@40mhz + 40mhz FPU, 4.3gig SCSI HDD
Or
A600 with MTEC A630 '030@42mhz + 50mhz FPU 5gig HDD
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IMHO, keep A600 cause it's more sofisticated being in a such a small case etc.
As for A530 I'm interested in buying it. How much do you ask for it?
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I think I'd keep the A500. I think the A600 will fetch more money with that rare 030 in it and A600s are just boring IMO :-).
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Which one have most memory?
I say the A500+ but I´m biased against A600s(is there any swede who doesn´t dislike A600 out there?:-))
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If they both work reliable, I would keep the 600. Nice & compact machine, especially when it has an 68030 under the hood.
The 500 is nice too, especially with the A530 expansion, but is rather bulky...
And if you can't decide: flip a coin!
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I would for sure keep the A500 with the A530 and sell of the A600 even though you have a 030 in it.
I'm searching for a A530 or a VXL-30 accelerator for my own A500 at this point; if I were you I wouldn't give up the A530.
Furthermore it should be easier to get spareparts to the A500 setup...The 030 is socketed on the A530 right? IIRC it isn't on any of the A600 accelerators.
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To thow the balance a bit to the A600 I vote for the A600.
The PCMCIA slot can be used for compact flash and network interface (not at the same time). The 500+ lacks this.
An A600 boring? It is just as exciting as an A500. Unless you get a kick out of huge footprints, socketed chips, military spec ;) Again A600 is the one I should keep.
Unless you want to sell the A600 to me then I'll advise to keep the 500+.
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Greetings,
This one's a tough one. (http://www.amiga.org/images/subject/icon23.gif) I think SCSI I Harddisk on the A500 is harder to find these days, I think you've keep the A600.
In terms of repairability, the A500 is above the surface mounted A600, you'd keep the A500.
Tell us which satisfy your cravings more? The more retro style(A500) or compactness(A600)? I think it depends on your taste here, AMIGAZ. What are you after?
Regards,
GiZz72
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keep it because of the pcmcia slot..much easier to get on a network (cable modem/DSL etc)
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I've had an A600 for months. I've been looking for an accelerator since I purchased it. They are impossible to find.
If you sell it, you might never be able to replace it.
So, yes, keep the A600 - while an A500 is far eaiser to replace, even with a SCSI hard drive.
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@GreggBz
Do you know the A530? I think they are as rare as the acceleratorboards for A600...
Btw. I saw a 030 accelerator for A600 on ebay a few weeks ago. I think it went for around 60 UKP.
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I guess it's the A600 that will have to go for the following reasons:
Can't use the PCMCIA port because my '030 card has 8mb fast ram which disables my PCMCIA port so adding a cd-rom is a bit tricky (never bothered connecting one)
The IDE port is slow as hell
Fragile case, after a few opening you've ruined the plastic attachments which hold the top and bottom half together.
What I will miss about the A600 is that it's small and compact and quite powerful and still it's so small.
Reasons for keeping the A500+
Socketed CPU, have a spare full 68030 50mhz with MMU so I can just switch CPU and clock crystal.
SCSI HD, better built case (military spec. lolol)
Easy to add an external SCSI cd-rom
What I don't like about my A500 is that the whole setup takes up more room than a big box amiga
Is there anyone who know if the A600 has for example faster bus speed and that sort of things than the A500? I figure it must be better at something since the A500 is much older.
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@doctorq
Your right, A530 - That is hard to find, that being said,
I think that is conclusive then, you need to then sell the A600 and the 030' accelerator to me! .... please... ?
You could sell the A500 minus the A530?
This is a real pickle.
Now mom always said she had no favorites. But she always went easy on my brother and his A500.
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Make me an offer, I know what it's worth... :-D
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Is there anyone who know if the A600 has for example faster bus speed and that sort of things than the A500? I figure it must be better at something since the A500 is much older.
If you plug in a Kickstart 2.0 chip in the A500, I believe that the only difference between the two is the integrated hdd controller and the PCMCIA slot. Technically I think they are more or less the same.
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Is the SCSI controller in the A500 expansion DMA based?
One thing the A600 lacks (even with an accelerator) is decent HD access.
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Things I don't like about the GVP A530:
You need to get rid of the GVP SCSI Rom and get a GuruRom v6+ in order to get any decent SCSI performance and compatibility with newer (larger) drives and AmigaOS 3.9.
The GuruRom for A530 is not the same as the one for A2000 GVP cards. If you use the A2000 GuruRom (more common) version, you can't close the A530 case as the A2000 version is too tall. The A530 version is very rare. The actual rom dump is freeware nowadays (thanks Ralph!) :-), however the PCB that hosts the eprom is a custom made piece, thus we still have a problem. :-(
The on-board memory of A530 is 8MB ram maximum and yes, it's the good ole' GVP custom made ram. :-(
The SCSI termination on the GVP A530 is passive and the termination resistors are soldered to the board (for your convenience) :-( and you need to desolder them or break them off in order to be able to get any decent active termination for your chain.
To summarize, good effort by the GVP guys, but too bad that Viper 530 is so damn rare and expensive. :-)
@Karlos:
Yes it is, however you need to update the firmware to GuruRom if you want any decent SCSI performance with more modern/larger drives.
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Karlos wrote:
Is the SCSI controller in the A500 expansion DMA based?
One thing the A600 lacks (even with an accelerator) is decent HD access.
yep, "hi-tech" :-D
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/search.pl?dir=a500proc#gvp530
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@Dan
I'm a swede and I like A600's =)
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fx wrote:
@Dan
I'm a swede and I like A600's =)
Mee too but I need dough and I have to sell one of my babys :-(
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If it comes down to a "MUST sell one of them" situation I would sell the A500. There's so many reasons why but I won't bother you with that.
If it was me I would probably keep both and shaft the A3000 though... it's not nearly as rare as 030 cards for A500/600 and with a 040/40 in it I'm thinking heat issues and an uppgrade to 060 hanging in the air. Also you have an A4000 and an A1200 both with 060/50 so another "powerhouse" probably isn't realy needed.
What might be a good idea is to write down as many reasons as you can think of for keeping every machine, then read it and try justify keeping every machine. I currently only hve 1 machine that I can't truely justify keeping and that's my A500, rest I have reasons for keeping if ever so slightly. ;)
But most of all... follow your heart and ask yourself what hurt the least to get ridd off.
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Brian wrote:
If it comes down to a "MUST sell one of them" situation I would sell the A500. There's so many reasons why but I won't bother you with that.
If it was me I would probably keep both and shaft the A3000 though... it's not nearly as rare as 030 cards for A500/600 and with a 040/40 in it I'm thinking heat issues and an uppgrade to 060 hanging in the air. Also you have an A4000 and an A1200 both with 060/50 so another "powerhouse" probably isn't realy needed.
What might be a good idea is to write down as many reasons as you can think of for keeping every machine, then read it and try justify keeping every machine. I currently only hve 1 machine that I can't truely justify keeping and that's my A500, rest I have reasons for keeping if ever so slightly. ;)
But most of all... follow your heart and ask yourself what hurt the least to get ridd off.
Actuall my A4000 feels warmer than my A3000 :-o
I can use my A4000 as a radiator but my A3000 is pretty cool, on the other hand..I only have one zorro card in the A3000..a Cybervision 64
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I've always loved the A530. Back in 1992 I was actually going to buy one ($1099.99 with 8M RAM IIRC). Of course when I got to the local Amiga shop, Creative Computers, I fell in love with, and bought, an A3000 which only cost $200 more.
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Hi,
@Brian
> If it was me I would probably keep both and shaft the A3000 though...
> Also you have an A4000 and an A1200 both with 060/50 so another "powerhouse" probably isn't realy needed.
In this case I would sell either the A1200 or the A4000, the A3000 is so much "cooler". It was the best Amiga made ever. Maybe he should sell the A4000, placing the 060 accelerator into the A3000? With the graphics card there is no need for AGA and so he would have both: a high performance AGA machine and a high performance ECS Amiga. I personally own an A3000T and never missed the AGA chipset.
Noster
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Noster wrote:
Hi,
@Brian
> If it was me I would probably keep both and shaft the A3000 though...
> Also you have an A4000 and an A1200 both with 060/50 so another "powerhouse" probably isn't realy needed.
In this case I would sell either the A1200 or the A4000, the A3000 is so much "cooler". It was the best Amiga made ever. Maybe he should sell the A4000, placing the 060 accelerator into the A3000? With the graphics card there is no need for AGA and so he would have both: a high performance AGA machine and a high performance ECS Amiga. I personally own an A3000T and never missed the AGA chipset.
Noster
The CS MKII I have in my A4000 doesn't work in my A3000 due to that it's one of the boards which had the DMA bug but I have a CS MKIII at amiga centre for repair which I'll probably put in my A3000 but I have to do the INT2 mod on my A3000 so I can use the SCSI controller on the CS MKIII but I'm a complete rookie when it comes to soldering :P
My A3000 is my favourite computer at the moment, I just love it...rook solid and nice looking and I can play whdload games since I have a Cybervision 64 which passes thru the native gfx modes.
Would like a CV64 for my A4000 to so I can put in my scandoubler card and use it for AGA games.
Anyway, my A600 wil be on Ebay son...keep tuned :-)
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Brian wrote:
If it comes down to a "MUST sell one of them" situation I would sell the A500. There's so many reasons why but I won't bother you with that.
If it was me I would probably keep both and shaft the A3000 though... it's not nearly as rare as 030 cards for A500/600 and with a 040/40 in it I'm thinking heat issues and an uppgrade to 060 hanging in the air. Also you have an A4000 and an A1200 both with 060/50 so another "powerhouse" probably isn't realy needed.
What might be a good idea is to write down as many reasons as you can think of for keeping every machine, then read it and try justify keeping every machine. I currently only hve 1 machine that I can't truely justify keeping and that's my A500, rest I have reasons for keeping if ever so slightly. ;)
But most of all... follow your heart and ask yourself what hurt the least to get ridd off.
If it helps, I gave away my A500+ for free to a bloke at work.