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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: nala on June 08, 2003, 09:55:39 PM

Title: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: nala on June 08, 2003, 09:55:39 PM
?!? Please Help ?!?

I owned an amiga 500, back in the early days, but when I switched to the x86, (now on Pentium 4) I thought Amiga had died out. Then I found this website, and now I realise what a terrible mistake I have made, discarding my A500. So I am looking to buy an Amiga system and upgrade it (if this is possible). But now I hear of an AmigaONE??? Could someone please point me in the right direction.
Should I wait for the AmigaONE or should I buy a Amiga system now and upgrade?

Any help would be apreciated. Thanks Guys 'n' Gals  :-D
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: alx on June 08, 2003, 10:01:13 PM
Welcome to A.org :-D

The new AmigaOS is OS4.  This will run on expanded Amigas and the new AmigaONE.  If you don't have any Amiga hardware, then the A1 route would probably be best - more reliable, faster and quite possibly cheaper.  Currently, the A1 only runs Linux - that'll change in a few months :-)

A "Classic" Amiga needs a PowerPC accelerator to run OS4.  Currently, the fastest PPC accelerator supported would be the Cyberstorm for the A4000, which tops out somewhere between 200 and 300 Mhz.  There is a new PCI accelerator coming out soon though, the SharkPPC, and the Blizzard accelerator for the A1200 may be supported.
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: nala on June 08, 2003, 10:10:11 PM
Quote
Currently, the A1 only runs Linux - that'll change in a few months


I didn't think that the amigaONE was out yet? If it is out, then where would I be able to order one from, and how much are they? I am truly lost.  :-)
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: The_Editor on June 08, 2003, 10:18:06 PM
Then I shall point you in one direction.....

But be aware .. tho thoust walk in the valley of Pegasos (http://64.246.37.205/)  


AmigaOnes Are US (http://www.eyetech.co.uk/search.php?SearchStr=&SearchCat=AMA1)
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: KennyR on June 08, 2003, 10:38:33 PM
An Amiga-compatible PPC system already exists, called the Pegasos, and it runs MorphOS - an improved PPC AmigaOS without the Amiga name. It's still years ahead of the AmigaONE and OS4. It's also a lot cheaper.

www.pegasosppc.com (http://www.pegasosppc.com)
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: bloodline on June 08, 2003, 11:06:11 PM
Quote

nala wrote:
?!? Please Help ?!?

I owned an amiga 500, back in the early days, but when I switched to the x86, (now on Pentium 4) I thought Amiga had died out. Then I found this website, and now I realise what a terrible mistake I have made, discarding my A500. So I am looking to buy an Amiga system and upgrade it (if this is possible). But now I hear of an AmigaONE??? Could someone please point me in the right direction.
Should I wait for the AmigaONE or should I buy a Amiga system now and upgrade?

Any help would be apreciated. Thanks Guys 'n' Gals  :-D


If spending money is not possible right now, I suggest you look here:

www.aros.org (http://www.aros.org)

and my site here:

Matt's AROS Page (http://www.ahsodit.com/aros/index.html)
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: odin on June 08, 2003, 11:58:55 PM
Quote

KennyR wrote:
An Amiga-compatible PPC system already exists, called the Pegasos, and it runs MorphOS - an improved PPC AmigaOS without the Amiga name. It's still years ahead of the AmigaONE and OS4. It's also a lot cheaper.


Hmm, in what way is the Peg years ahead of the A1? You mean the Firewire port?

OS4 progs won't run on the Peg (and vice versa), Workbench 3.x programs however should work on both platforms.

The actual hardware for the 'official' next-generation Amiga has already been released (being the A1) and the new OS4 is still under development and will be released 'real soon'. It might take weeks but it'll prolly take months, perhaps next year.

Oh and welcome to Amiga.org :-).
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: MarkTime on June 09, 2003, 12:11:09 AM
hi Nala,

OS 4 is 'about to be released'...this has been its status for years...but they really really mean it this time.

...probably by year end, but its definately not this month.  If you want to get into Amiga's, then
buy Amiga Forever from Cloanto.  You will then be able to run an Amiga emulator on your PC, and it will be very usable....it compares well to a real amiga, except for a real collector might insist on nothing but real hardware...

stillt, you may see workbench, get all nostalgic for about a day, and then decide the past should stay in the past.... :-)

I personally like to program on it some, but I can't use it day to day.

Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: iamaboringperson on June 09, 2003, 12:17:12 AM
remember there is always the seccond hand route...


you probably want a highly expandable amiga

such as A4000 A 4000 T A2000 A3000 A3000T etc...

Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: KennyR on June 09, 2003, 12:21:30 AM
Quote
Hmm, in what way is the Peg years ahead of the A1? You mean the Firewire port?


No. If you look at the specs for the Pegasos-2, it compares very well against the A1XE, both in terms of specs and price. The firewire port doesn't mean much to anyone - unless you want a Pegasos as a very cheap alternative to a Mac.
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: odin on June 09, 2003, 12:29:46 AM
@KennyR:

Uhm, then what did you mean :-?.
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: KennyR on June 09, 2003, 12:31:53 AM
I meant A1 and OS4 is where Pegasos and MOS were 2 years ago. Literally.
Title: battlefield update
Post by: porneL on June 09, 2003, 01:14:39 AM
If you want a classic-feel you can look for (pretty old now..) amiga 1200 or 4000 and equip it with (bit more modern) powerpc card (up to 233mhz) and pci bridge (prometheus, mediator, grex) to use some pci cards from pc.

moving on in time: there is amigaone, someday with os4 and pegasos with morphos (already released). while decision which one is better - aos4 vs morphos is controversal, in hardware terms pegasos clearly seems to be a winner. release of next pegasos is planned for september and if plans come true it will signifficantly better hardware for half that price (starting from 299euro!).

If you dont want to invest in hardware you may try amithlon (watch it! its commercial). Very fast, but not-so-compatible amiga emulator for pc (does NOT run under windows, boots pc off cd) or AROS - amiga-like, but NOT amiga compatible (AROS for pegasos will make more sense :).

So there is a lot of amigas and amiga-alike systems. (...but no good web browser :/)
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: Dan on June 09, 2003, 07:54:43 PM
Stop trying to fool AmigaOnes and Pegasos on him. What he should do is:
1. Download Winuae or buy AmigaForever, set up and use that to get back in the game.
2. Try AROS, it´s free and works on his pchardware

3 Either get a A1200 or A500 for games
or
get an A4000 with a CyberstormPPC as it will be abel to both MorphOS and AmigaOS 4( in fact it´s the only thing AOS4 runs on. Assuming that he has the cash :-)

4 or if he want a faster amigaclone wait for AOS4  AmigaOne or get a Pegasos2 if he wants MorphOS

What he shouldn´t do is run out an get a LinuxOne or Pegasosprototype right now.
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: amigamad on June 09, 2003, 08:09:15 PM
Quote
n Amiga-compatible PPC system already exists, called the Pegasos, and it runs MorphOS - an improved PPC AmigaOS without the Amiga name. It's still years ahead of the AmigaONE and OS4. It's also a lot cheaper.


Is it improved and years ahead, how can it be it uses  similar hardware  but difrent software till os4 comes out there is no way to compare the 2  machines  even morphos in not complete and no one knows when the final full release is . :-?  :-?  :-)
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: NicoPPC on June 09, 2003, 08:09:44 PM
Editied by Argo: Trolling

It's running on PPC Amiga (A1200, 3000 and 4000 with PPC board) and on Pegasos.

More info: www.morphos.net
www.pegasosppc.com

regards
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: nala on June 09, 2003, 08:22:45 PM
Thanks guys 'n' gals for all of your replies, I can see that the old Amiga spirit is still at large, which makes me regret the last 9 years of my life :-) . All I would like to do is get back up and running, but I want to do this with hardware (not emulators, but thanks for the suggestion).

I like the idea of buying an A4000 and upgrading, but I don't know if this is the best way to do this (will support for the A4000 be dropped when A1 is upon us).  :-) Im So Confused  :-)
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: alx on June 09, 2003, 08:27:31 PM
Quote
Edited by Argo: Feeding the Troll


Sorry, but the new AmigaOS is AmigaOS4.  The new MorphOS is MorphOS.

I'll try to be impartial here:

AmigaOS4 is based on the original AmigaOS, but much improved and PPC native.  It's been a long time coming, but will be here soon and should be worth the wait.  It runs older apps.  It will eventually merge with the DE.

MorphOS is a completely new OS which attempts to keep the "Amiga spirit", but it isn't AmigaOS.  It runs older apps and currently exists.  MorphOS puts older apps into a "sandbox" - expansion will be via the "Q-box".  Both AOS and MOS will slowly diverge.

AROS is an open source Amiga-type OS.  I've no idea if it runs older programs.  It's currently less developed than the other two, but has great potential.

Amithlon is a highly customised emulator running on a bare Linux kernel.  By giving the virtual OS direct access to the hardware, AmigaOS3.9 can be run on x86 PCs at very fast speeds, seemingly "natively".  There are legal problems with it.

Do people agree?
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: Psy on June 09, 2003, 09:07:08 PM
Quote
All I would like to do is get back up and running, but I want to do this with hardware (not emulators, but thanks for the suggestion).

I like the idea of buying an A4000 and upgrading, but I don't know if this is the best way to do this (will support for the A4000 be dropped when A1 is upon us). Im So Confused

Well I have to say the hardware route is not a good idea right now.

AROS and the emulators is a good way to hold you over till the future of hardware (Pegasos vs Amiga One) and OS (MorphOS vs OS 4)  becomes more clear.

Personally I am sitting on the fence waiting to see how things turn out later in the year.
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: nala on June 09, 2003, 09:33:11 PM
Thanks Psy, I think that that is a good idea (seeing as there seems to be warz going on in this thread :-)). I would like AmigaOne to come out better off, but because im strapped for cash, I can't afford to waste money on a system that may become obsolite. We will have to see.

Thanks For All Your Help Guys 'n' Gals
Title: Re: Noobie Hardware Advice
Post by: Dan on June 09, 2003, 10:44:06 PM
Well, get used to waiting like the rest of us.  ;-)