Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: pyrre on July 05, 2007, 07:04:15 PM
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Hello people...
I got an A2000 today :-D
And it is in perfect condition... (except for yellowing)
It is the A2000 mention in another tread here...
Don't seem to find it..
It was listed as VERY expensive... (5000NOK, or 858USD)
But after some talking, he agreed to sell it for 257USD. A nice price for that computer. Especially when it comes complete with monitor, joystick, mouse, cables, disks++++
Facts:
- A2000 1986, Germany built REV 4 (kick 1.2)......(!)
- 1MB memory (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=967) expansion card (only half a meg fitted)
- And a PC emulator 2000 (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=328)
W/ 5 1/4" flopy drive, HDD drive (dead).
- Old style Western Digital HDD controller ISA...
- Commodore 1084 monitor. (the one with SCART connector)
- Amiga mouse, A2000 keyboard, a joystick and all cables+++
- A s**t load of disks...
- The original books
Questions:
- Where can i get more chips for the memcard (if possible)?
- Does any of you guys have any kickstarts for A2000 (2.04)
and wanting to sell it?
- What other cool features of the A2000 do you know of?
Edited: found the link in BBoAH
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that is a nice computer, but, still I believe you could have find lower price if its 68000.
I'd say forget about that RAM card and buy a 030+ accelerator with 8Mb+ 32bit memory and SCSI
you can get kickstart 3.1 at www.vesalia.de
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Who did you buy it from? Just curious to know who was selling an A2000 for $858!
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A2000 is a really nice Amiga. I have three of them, working. :-)
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glad you got what you wanted but you paid way too much for it.
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That's an old 'A' model - max of 512 KB chip ram since it uses the A1000 chipset...
AFAIR the Ranger mem board uses 41256 chips - I've got... 22 pcs lying around, if you need them, they're yours for the postage. [...] Took a look at BBoAH: you might need page mode (41257) ones, the ones I have are standard 41256.
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The A2000 is a nice machine, I got 2 running here and they work brilliantly :)
I think amigakit.com still has a kickstart 2 ROM on the site for sale that you could put in.. (Or upgrade straight to 3.1 of course.. both of my 2000s are KS3.1)
I also have the PC Emulator card (obtained recently actually) It's mostly useless unless you have some really really old PC (DOS 4) software that you might wanna run on it...
Well, I hope you have fun with it :) Like I've already said, they're great machines.
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Given that it's an early rev 4, I think you paid too much. That revision is difficult to expand due to different logic in the CPU and video slots. Some accelerators won't work at all, others will require you to pop the 68000 off the motherboard. It also lacks a Buster chip. which might give you some Zorro problems. If you upgrade the Kickstart past 1.3, you'll also probably have to do the old 1->31 pin swap trick (details are all over the place, Aminet probably has them too).
Still, it looks like you got a lot of bonus goodies with it too. Ultimately, if you're satisfied with it, it was a good buy.
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...and if you are using it to play games, then it's fine the way it is...
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Nice purchase. I've been busy expanding my A2000 over the last few months. The A2000 was my first Amiga, but I sold it when I moved to America. Then last year I managed to pick up another one from a chap in Houston. I've got the revision 4.2 mobo with a 1MB Agnus. I did add an 8MB Zorro RAM card, but I removed it when I added a 68030 and a graphics card.
If you want to use it for games then grab a cheap Zorro SCSI or IDE expansion card (Some SCSI cards cam come with RAM on them) for HD installation (watch eBay for a cheap scan doubler if you want a PC monitor).
If you want a bit more fun then add a 68030 or 68040 (which will have their own RAM expansions) along with that SCSI/IDE card, upgrade the AGNUS chip and find a good Zorro graphics card. Finally get Kickstart 3.1 ROMS, a CD ROM and OS3.9.
Anyway, I hope you have fun with it.
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over paid by $150 - $200, hard to even give them away.
I am sure you will enjoy it anyway. the seller is insane!
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Man, way to pee on this guy. let the man have his fun and answer his questions no matter how much/little that was paid... criminy, you fun boys.
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What do 1084 monitors go for? All the docs, cables, and software? Doesn't sound so bad to me and a fraction of the new price.
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Congratulations on the new machine. Like others have said the 2000 is quite reliable and expandable. While 2000's may still be plentiful and inexpensive in some areas of the world, international shipping charges are crazy expensive these days. It looks like the OP is in Norway where perhaps Amigas are hard to come by.
I say if it works, you are happy, and it sounds like it has some extras, then you did well! Look at the pictures of the beautiful PPC 2000 with RAID that someone has in the gallery to see just how nicely they can be fixed up.
:cheers:
-Jeff
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The A2000 is a great workhorse. The only issue I have with it is the amount of space it takes up--especially with a 1084 monitor. I own 2 of them right now. I tried a 3.1 rom in my A2500 but had to put the original 2.04 rom back in this morning because of some compatiblity issues--I've had this machine since 1993 and have a lot of software on it from that era. I might get a rom switcher some day but the my A4000 does system 3.1 so much better, I'm not in too big of a hurry. The 3.1 rom also slowed my hard disk speed to a crawl--I believe this is because my A2091 SCSI board has 6.6 roms and the 7.0 roms were probably developed to deal with this amoung other issues.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is that have some fun with your machine and play around with it as it is before you invest a lot of time and money in upgrades. If you want a machine that can do OS3.9 well, get an A4000 which sometimes can be had for what you paid for your A2000. And I don't think you got such a bad deal. You managed to bring the seller to reality at least. I sold 2 1084 monitors for $60 and $70 and paid $30 for an A2000 keyboard recently so the accessories you got do count for something. And it is nice to buy a complete system and not have to spend ages getting the parts you need to make things work.
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I think the A2000 is a great machine. I got mine for free and it turned out to be a PAL machine!. It kinda sucks for me because I wanted to put a video toaster in it.
I have a GVP 030 board and run it with dbl PAL on a 15" LCD monitor.
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spihunter wrote:
I think the A2000 is a great machine. I got mine for free and it turned out to be a PAL machine!. It kinda sucks for me because I wanted to put a video toaster in it.
There is a jumper on the motherboard that controls whether it is in NTSC or PAL mode. Open the cover and move it to the NTSC position and you will have a NTSC 2000. You will have to remove the power supply carriage to do this. The jumper is in the back of the motherboard behind the Agnus chip.
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By the price the seller must have been doomy selling off one of hist military spec A2000's :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Sorry couldnt resist, suprised I am thee first :-D
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There is a jumper on the motherboard that controls whether it is in NTSC or PAL mode. Open the cover and move it to the NTSC position and you will have a NTSC 2000. You will have to remove the power supply carriage to do this. The jumper is in the back of the motherboard behind the Agnus chip.
I just did the reverse and converted my NTSC 2000 to PAL by cutting 2 tracks.
If you're using a monitor then I'd stick to PAL as a few games don't like NTSC (Ooops! Reread your post and you want to use a toaster!). Better yet, locate the jumper (I'm at work, so I can't check the number) and run the pins to a switch on the back of the case and then you can toggle between PAL and NTSC between boot-ups.
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Well....
It is not purchased for expanding it into the heaven...
It is only for the retro feeling of the A2000 I had before...
Maybe I will expand it a little bit...
HD controller, memory or even a turbocard....
Don't know yet...
I got the A1200 with PPC and os 3.9
And an A500 with kick 1.3, for compatibility to games....
so the 2000 is somewhere in between...
if possible I will get network and a picasso....
If i got the manual correct the bridgeboard is capable to transfer network traffic between the amiga and the pc enviroment. enabling network to me... got a lot of the old 3COM etherlink 3 cards laying around....
have to get a HD controller to install the OS to first...
and a kickstart with automount... (2.04 is preferd)
+++
Story is ongoing.... And to be updated.... :-)
on the side i still try to get the BVision to function correct.... After some initial testing it is a hardware related error... but if it is the BVision itself or the PPC card is unknown at the moment....
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I believe there is a driver to allow you to use an ISA network card on the bridgeboard and transfer the data to the Miggy.
The two problems with this are, ISA network cards, who has one these days. And it is insanely slow
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ISA network cards, who has one these days
I got.... :-D
Four of the steady old 3com etherlink II and III
I'm not the kind who tosses away everything old...
Got lots o boxes full of old computer stuff... 8-)
Even ISA gfx and soundcards...
If anyone knows how to get ISA cards working in amiga...
Please let me know....
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As far as I know, there is no active connection to the Isa slots without a bridgeboard. I used to comtemplate buying a bridgeboard but my A2000s are now dedicated graphics machines and for what a 386 or Golden Gate card costs these days, I'd rather get a flicker fixer or something more practical for my money. A bigger memory card--like a supra 8 mb card--would help your system a lot. One of the pains of the A2000 is that you only have 8mb of Zorro II ram possible and bridge boards and some RTG cards will use some of this memory space and severely limit the memory unless you buy an accelerator with 32 bit memory expansion--preferebly in the form of 30 or 72 pin simms. Zip ram is also a rare and pricey commodity these days as are GVP simms.
And I didn't notice you were in Norway which puts a different perspective on the price you paid. Here in the US, there are a lot of A2000s around for good prices but I'm not so sure about Norway.
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Yes, I am from norway....
A2000 is one of the most selling amigas in norway too.
Only to be set aside of the A500. (other amigas have had a great success in norway too.. like the A600...)
(probably A1200 as well)
But they do not grow on trees, and are quite hard to get. and that goes for most amiga equipment in norway...
If you compare prizes including shipping to norway, from.. like US... you don't end up that bad paying 1500NOK for an A2000
I have a bridgeboard in my 2000, and want to use it as much as possible... If i can use it with a network card and some sort of gfx, that would be great.
As far as prices go...
If you compare prizes including shipping to norway, from.. like US... you don't end up that bad paying 1500NOK for an A2000
In nowegian terms 1500 NOK is not much for the whole package...
A2000, monitor, keyboard, mose, a lot of disks +++
It is for us norwegians (at least to me it is) a relatively ok price...
it's not dracula prices...
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Ami_GFX wrote:
I used to comtemplate buying a bridgeboard but my A2000s are now dedicated graphics machines and for what a 386 or Golden Gate card costs these days, I'd rather get a flicker fixer or something more practical for my money.
Really? How much are Golden Gate cards going for these days? (I don't think I've ever used mine.. or my Emplant for that matter... I got them with a "broken" A4000 that I fixed up.. They autoconfig OK, but that's all I've really done with them)
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Ami_GFX wrote:
As far as I know, there is no active connection to the Isa slots without a bridgeboard. I used to comtemplate buying a bridgeboard but my A2000s are now dedicated graphics machines and for what a 386 or Golden Gate card costs these days, I'd rather get a flicker fixer or something more practical for my money.
That's right, the ISA slots are passive, there is mo connection to the Amiga, except for power. There was another option, oddly enough also called the "Golden Gate" board. There was a non-Commodore bridgeboard called the Golden Gate, which was better then Commodore's boards. But there was also the Golden Gate II board, which was a direct link between the Amiga's Zorro bus and the ISA bus. There never were any drivers for graphics cards though, just serial, network, printers and sound, if i recall.
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Really? How much are Golden Gate cards going for these days?
The 386 bridge boards go for more than $100 and the Golden Gate ones are a lot rarer and better so I'd say you should get at least $150 for it. I think I've only seen one on Ebay this last year and I don't remember what it sold for so I can't give you any exact figures.
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There is a jumper on the motherboard that controls whether it is in NTSC or PAL mode. Open the cover and move it to the NTSC position and you will have a NTSC 2000. You will have to remove the power supply carriage to do this. The jumper is in the back of the motherboard behind the Agnus chip.
@Ami_GFX,
Thanks for letting me know that!. I had know idea that the A2000 would swing both ways :lol: No wonder it was such a handy video editing machine. I'll have to look for a Toaster card now.