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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Gojirax on June 28, 2006, 06:07:16 PM
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I had an Ariadne II for my old A4000 and it seemed to work pretty good. I was looking on Software Hut or Amigakit for one now and it appears that nobody sells them.
I did however see the X-Surf on sale at Amigakit. It appears to be a standard ISA card with an ingenius adapter for a Zorro slot. Does it work pretty good or should I keep looking for an Ariadne?
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Go for XSurf without any esitation! It have current support from one of the most active Amiga components producer.
Individual Computers (http://ami.ga)
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If you have ZorroIII get a Prometheus/Mediator4000
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@Gojirax
The Ariadne can only be bought second hand, while the X-Surf can be bought new as you have already seen. Both are 10 MBit cards, so speed between the two will be the same.
Only reason speaking for getting a X-Surf would be the clock ports, otherwise the cards do the job equally well.
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doctorq wrote:
@Gojirax
The Ariadne can only be bought second hand, while the X-Surf can be bought new as you have already seen. Both are 10 MBit cards, so speed between the two will be the same.
Only reason speaking for getting a X-Surf would be the clock ports, otherwise the cards do the job equally well.
I was wondering if either card had better bus function or transfer rate or supported better multitasking mostly. :)
I'll look at the X-Surf again as I like to support existing companies.
Just looked at the Mediator 4000Di from Amigakit.com
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=517&osCsid=0473c8da5abc42a4f74888920d336b0b
WOW, that fits inside an A4000 desktop and allows the use of all those PCI cards? (Video, Sound, Network, USB?!?!)
Does that work with the Toaster 4000 too?
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Yes, the Mediator will allow you the use of a range of PCI cards.
I think it works with the Toaster, but you'll lose your TBC since there are no ISA slots. Unless you can hack together a power adaptor.
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yeah, good luck finding what is the pin#1 on the x-surf clockport... lol :-D
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I don't have or plan to use a TBC anyway. If I actually DO wind up doing any work with the Toaster/Flyer it'll all be with digitized footage anyway.
http://www.softhut.com/cgi-bin/test/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=catalog/hardware/pciexp/mediatorz3.html&cart_id=4553106_23114
Software Hut appears to have the Mirage case/Mediator system, I can't believe how much it costs, but the savings in expansion cards makes it worth it!
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I was wondering if either card had better bus function or transfer rate or supported better multitasking mostly. :)
Ironically it is one of the oldest ethernetcard available for the Amiga, the Commodore A2065, that is reported to be the fastest and less CPU intensive card.
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Of the choice between the X-Surf and Ariadne, I'd go with the Ariadne. You might be interested to look around and find some benchmarks of various Amiga ethernet solutions. I know we posted an X-Surf vs. old C= ethernet board comparison on here before...
The Mediator or Prometheus are probably the fastest and most modern solutions now, though. (Of course, depending on how you want to set this stuff up, you may need a new case...)
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Just to clarify: You can not use the Video Toaster on the Mediator 4000Di (because there is no video slot!).
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adolescent wrote:
Just to clarify: You can not use the Video Toaster on the Mediator 4000Di (because there is no video slot!).
Oh crud! :(
Ok, time to look at Mediator 1200 solutions for my PCI card enjoyment then...
Browse...browse....browse...
Looks like a D-Box 1200 and Mediator PCI 1200 LT4 is what I want... at least for PCI.
Still looking to upgrade the 4000 with (Zorro) Video and Ethernet.
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What about the x-surf2, I thought they were supposed to be 20mbit? Is there any advantage to the auto-negotiation of the x-surf2 to the ariadne2 card? I have the ariadne2 card and was looking at getting an xsurf2 if it was better.
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@Gojirax
The other A4000 Mediators have video slots. It's just the desktop A4000Di that doesn't.
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Just to clarify: You can not use the Video Toaster on the Mediator 4000Di (because there is no video slot!).
Whoops. I thought there was. Must have been another Mediator model/configuration I was thinking of.
Thanks for catching that.
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There's a PIN 1 ?????????
No wonder my card isn"t working :crazy: :lol: :roll:
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@Corrie
No the X-Surf2 is 10Mb/s just like the Ariadne. Technically, you could say that 10Mb/s at full duplex is 20Mb/s but nobody (honest) does that.
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If you have a Cyberstorm MKIII or PPC and you are lucky enough to find a GRex 4000D. They are the only PCI interfaces for 4000D's with a video slot.
I've never seen one :(
Personally I feel that the speeds that Amiga Ethernet cards can do are pretty crappy whatever version you get.
An 8-wire parallel cable and PC2Amiga is the cheapest solution.
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not if he wants TCPIP, so the cheapest would be magplip with parallel, it works beautifully. A1200 with PCMCIA can be used with it as a router nicely.. (supposedly a Linux machine, too)
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I owned an AriadneII at one time on my last A4000, the performance seemed fine (And better by far than a direct PC link), I'm just wondering what's faster these days.
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I haven't done any benchmark testing to confirm this, but I remember hearing that the original Ariadne is the best/fastest Zorro network card ever made for Amiga. Ariadne 2 is supposed to be a crippled/cut down/slower version compared to the original.
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I thought that the Ariadne 2 was slightly faster.
However I own the original Ariadne and it's a good card.
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Flashlab wrote:
I thought that the Ariadne 2 was slightly faster.
Not according to this (http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/search.pl?product=Ariadne). :-)
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Cool! Then I have the right card... :-P
Speed isn't really that important to me. I think all 10Mbit network cards are fast enough for my Amiga. The Ariadne is hassle free and that's waht really counts in my book!