Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Effy on August 12, 2003, 02:51:59 PM
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Mediator 1200 SX at Vesalia (http://www.vesalia.de/?V02b0f15535f4317725e5f5f5208514e01101f0954414752050140090a1e31115579633a223c6373744e03263f2a2a7661053967606728687c2e3475551a702c6245145a57080e6b1e704646485e1a4b465c667850185251571e681c0b010e4)
is a Mediator for A1200 and costs 278 euro.
G-Rex 1200 at KDH Datentechnik (http://www.kdh-amiga-shop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=833)
costs only 99 euro. What's the difference ?? Anybody can tell me the pro's and the con's ?? :-?
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Well the G-Rex is no longer supported. It sort of is using openPCI, but you can get a lot more stuff for the Mediator. I would never give mine up. Elbox is still writing updated software for it.
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i would go for the mediator the g rex is not very popular . :-)
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The G-Rex 1200 sometimes gives more problems than the 4000 version with certain boards (and is less compatible too), and some people has toasted their ppcs... although the number of drivers is similar, you should remember that OS4 probably won't support G-Rex... If you plan to use MorphOS then it's no problem. The price difference is important... if it was supported by OS4 I would buy it, but with the current situation it seems unlikely that we see G-Rex supported...
An added problem is with the G-Rex is that if your ppc dies you'll have to buy another expensive ppc... in contrast if you use a mediator you can plug in any turbo card.
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Personally, I would go Mediator. But it's not my choice (or rather, I already made that choice and bought one ages ago (allthough not an SX... :-( ))
The list of supported cards for the G-Rex isn't very long, is it?
Whichever way you go, there's not much that beats Workbench in 1600x1200, 24bit on a 21" screen. Too bad my V3 is a LITTLE bit slow for that, so get a slight flicker due to low refresh rate. But the screen doesn't handle a lot more either, so I guess an upgrade would be EXPENSIVE :-)
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Grex Pros: It's slightly faster technically, will support openpci (useful for newer things coming out these days, like the catweasel).
Cons: Lack of driver support.
Mediator Pros: More drivers for PCI cards.
Cons: No openpci and no outside support (many coders have argued with elbox in the past), so only elbox will ever code drivers.
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You can also look at the technical comparison between different PCI boards (http://www.elbox.com/tests/comparison_en.html) at the Elbox website.
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Don't buy the G-Rex! I have one and allthough it works, the support is crap. But what is new from DCE and the other people who made the product.
OpenPCI? Bull. Only with the newest flash and if your BlizzardPPC revision is not 2( which most aren't) you have to send the BlizzardPPC to DCE to update the basic ROM to rev 2. Otherwise, stick a Voodoo3 in and lo and behold, it won't boot.
So, you have to flash back and you also can't use the newest Cybergraphx 4.3 and have to stick to the 4.2 beta 11 version. Or send it to DCE and possibly never see it back.
Your only chance is asking the French company that also repairs BlizzardPPC and CyberstormPPC if they can flash to rev 2.
So, does this suck? YES, it sucks. :-x (But what else is new. The tradition of crap support has been handed down from Phase 5 to DCE).
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How come ?? If you add a Voodoo and a SB128 and a supported network card, then what is the problem for a G-Rex ??
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Sorry, my message was made a few hours ago but I forgot to save it and now I just saw your reactions. I must thank you guys for such a detailed info. It really does seem to be very difference from the Mediator. Guess I have to think it over and rob an old lady to get me cash for a Mediator or so ... or maybe it's safer to work a few days in the week-end too ?! :-D
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How come ?? If you add a Voodoo and a SB128 and a supported network card, then what is the problem for a G-Rex ??
If you use the newest flash which supports OpenPCI, there is a timing problem with rev 0 BlizzardPPC which causes the system not to boot anymore. You can't use the newest drivers then.
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go for an Mediator , no matter what ...
grexx is dead, that openpci thingy...sure it might become a hit but its VERY unlikely to happen, also os4 for grexx ...forget it , wont happen unless DCE start to work as a team.
anyway as a last note, don't do the mistake i did...buy an MEDIATOR SX , thats the best choice, i know they cost more but u wont regret it.
when i bought the mediator, well that was before SX came , so basically i did'nt know :)
also..i had a grexx that died same day as i installed it , got too hot and melted some #### on it, still waiting for a replacement card...
this was 18 months ago ...so hurrah!..
NOT!!!!!!!!!!! ;(
cheers, and good luck effy
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I have the older version of the Mediator in my A1200, and have been happy with it. I don't have enough experience with the GRexx to have an opinion one way or another about it.
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I bought a G-Rex for my A1200PPC because it was cheap. after an hour of trying to get it working (and failing), it got so hot I could smell burning, and the hot glue on the board melted. When I removed the board, my A1200 would no longer boot - it was dead and I had to order a new motherboard from Eyetech.
I sent the G-Rex back and got a mediator instead which worked flawlessly.
Bottom line is that G-Rex is faster but its a pain in the arse to get it working, there's no support, less drivers, and risks damaging your Amiga.
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10 months ago I had also this dilema, Mediator
or G-Rex!
Go for Mediator! Maybe you should try to get
second hand one, if new is to expensive!
New is SX version i think. I have old 4 slot
version and I use 3 slots, so it's enough for me!
Mediator is very qualitative manufactured!
(Uf, I think I wrote this sentence wrong. Did I? :-D)
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A nice pro with the mediator is that if it all goes as what they say, you'll latter be able to upgrade your classic Amiga with a G3/G4 processor and run AOS4 on it!
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grexx is dead, that openpci thingy...sure it might become a hit but its VERY unlikely to happen
Openpci is very important! It may allow A1 users to use drivers for PCI cards written for amithlon or MOS. For a start, no-one is going to invest the time in doing certain drivers for A1 (like catweasel), just like nobody did for Pegasos. With openpci, a single driver can cover Amithlon, grex, A1, Pegasos, and Promethius. (But not Mediator, which has been excluded from openpci development for dirty tricks on the part of its designers).
Seriously, if openpci doesn't make it to A1 then OS4 is seriously screwed for any card that hyperion don't support directly. The userbase simply doesn't have the numbers or the talent to churn out drivers, and that goes for any current Amiga solution.
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That would be if Open PCI had any driverl... there is almost no driver at all. One the contrary the Mediator has much more drivers, including Terratec soundcards, TV cards, and already sometime ago they announced drivers for MPEG2 hardware decoder.
Then again if OpenPCI makes success, the Mediator probably won't be supported and you'll be restricted to the drivers supplied by Elbox. Then again IF it goes as planned you'll be able to run AOS4 on it and use it's drivers, so no loss, I don't think OpenPCI has any chance of having more drivers than AOS4.
To sum up the Mediator has currently more drivers, apparently will have many more in the future, and there is actuall support for the card. Add to that the possibility of adding a G3/4 processor and it's defenitly the more flexible option.
Then again, the price of the Mediator is very high, and the performance with the current Amiga accelerators is lower than with the GRex, due to bus constraints when talking to the Amiga motherboard. But it's expected to reach very hight speeds when you add the G3/G4 later cause then it won't depend on transfers to the amiga motherboard. Working like that it will defenitly be the faster one no chance, but only if you use the PPC processor, using the 68k the GRex will most likely be faster.
You got to decide yourself depending on what you want, and the pros and cons.
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It seems that I am a little bit convinced about not buying a G-Rex and save money to buy a Mediator. I looked on Ebay last evening, but there was no one for sale 2nd hand ... oh well, I can wait a bit longer I guess ...
But most important of all, a really big thank you to you guys for all this great help !! :-)
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effy: www.Amibench.com , here u should be able to find a mediator used..., if not..check again in some days , i know of 2 people wanting to sell their mediator with usb card , u should be able to get it for a fairly good price..
u may even get more cards thrown in at the same time, but then u would have to email me again :)
cheers
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@KennyR
OpenPCI isn't available to most GRex owners either with that screwup they call rev 0 and rev 2 BlizzardPPC. They should have fixed this with another flashROM and not with the pathetic way they are doing it now.
Sure you could send your BlizzardPPC to DCE to get it updated but chances are you will never get it back.
If anyone from Hyperion is reading this; if you wish to use OpenPCI for OS 4 to support the GRex, then think again! The user base is too small because of this rev 0 / rev 2 crap.
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@Jose:
With the G-Rex4000 you should be able to use:
-Terratec soundcards
-BT878/848
-Voodoo3/Voodoo4/voodoo5/Permedia2/SiS
-RTL8029
-With the addition of OpenPCI you should be able to use now:
-RTL8139
-SB Live! (check the last AHI beta)
-Catweasel
-Future OpenPCI drivers include:
-USB
-Terratec (This will be interesting for systems different to the GRex)
-SB128
Don't forget that AROS will use OpenPCI too...
And there's no any reason why OpenPCI can't be used with OS4 too (when it's done)...
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@KennyR:
The CatWeasel will most certainly be supported for the AmigaOne. It's already supported by UBoot (at least the keyboard is).
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One last thing to remember about the mediator. If you want to use a USB bard do not get the Spider. The stack used with it is no longer being offered by its developer Chris Hodges. Elbox and him do not get along and he will no longer sell keys to Elbox Spider users. Its a shame too, because the Spider it much better then any other available USB card for the Amiga. I just stopped using mine and put in a new ZII card and it works well, but no USB 2.0 speeds.
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Lemkee : thanks for the advice to search on Amibench. Never done that before, always sticked to Ebay. As far as testing my computers by replacing the turboboards, still haven't had time. Restarted to work this week after 3 weeks holidays and I'm doing the night shift ....
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You don't get it. OpenPCI itself isn't really a driver - its a wrapper, and redirects to whatever PCI control API runs on the host machine. One driver can be written for any card and immediately used for every kind of the machines I mentioned, even without recompling.
And it is unlikely multidisk.device or lowlevel.library (which use openpci to work on amithlon and pegasos) will be rewritten for A1 alone.