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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: VEGNAcore on July 15, 2008, 11:48:45 AM
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Can Anyone Give Ideas on Most Popular A500 Mods?
Thanks
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I have in my A500+ a trumpcard 500 hdd and a derringer 030 w 32MB ram...
whats most populat... hmmm... any kind of harddrive. i guess... and maybe an accelerator.... RAM is most appreciated... and kickstart 1.3 or higher... But all depending on what you want to use your A500 for...
EDIT:
And of course, any MOD depends on availability....
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Well, it depends on what you mean by mod. Sure, there are some common expansions...
1) Of course, you practically HAVE to have the baseboard 512k expansion to bring the system up to 1MB.
2) Next, adding the Fat Agnus and a NTSC/PAL switch is a nice touch.
3) Maybe throw in a sidecar hard drive and some additional Z2 Fast RAM.
4) If you have Z2 Fast RAM, you might want to consider a jumper to switch your 512k baseboard expansion from Ranger mem to Chip mem. (Allowing you to have 1MB CHIP RAM instead of 512k Chip / 512k Ranger)
Really, I'd only consider 2 and 4 as mods, though. The other two are expansion devices. ;-)
Also, (and no offense to the people who love them) but I never understood why you'd want to put a processor card in an A500. It drops system compatibility down around the level of an A1200 or worse. And the A1200 with an '030 card ends up being both faster and cheaper. Part of the charm of an A500 is the blistering 7.14mhz. :lol:
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Thanks, i think i just want it to be better than it is, a harddrive would not afect what i do with my amiga, but it does sound apealing.I use it for gaming most of the time, but the amigas ability to adapt this far on from its hayday attracts me to it.!
What would be the best accelerator for the 500? Ive got the RAM.
?
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ok before alexh pops in I'ld repeat his line, the best accelerator for the A500 would be the mythical Viper 530 (http://amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=67). But really, this card is very uber rare so just forget about it. A GVP A530 (http://amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=68) would be nice, and they're not so rare. Derringer 030 (http://amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=63) and VXL-30 (http://amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=79) are other decent boards that you can have a chance finding. But all these boards would cost you a good lump of money, so if you don't really need it I wouldn't bother.
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If you ignore the obvious "The best upgrade for an A500 is an A1200!" then hardware wise, a hard drive is the best buy for an A500. It really brings an A500 to life.
The best hard drive for the A500 is the ICD Trifecta LX (http://bboah.amiga-resistance.info/cgi-bin/showhardware_en.cgi?HARDID=557) but they are insanely rare and the prices are nuts, but they have both SCSI and IDE. ICD Trifecta EC (IDE only) is just as rare.
A GVP HD8+ (http://bboah.amiga-resistance.info/cgi-bin/showhardware_en.cgi?HARDID=1194) is a good alternative, particularly when upgraded to use a SCSI->IDE->CF adapter for silent operation (also means you can ditch the external PSU too!) It adds 8Mbytes of RAM to the Amiga too and has external SCSI connector for external DVD-ROM. If you have / or are thinking of getting any hard drive adapter take care to make sure any CPU accelerator is compatible. If you can find one, the GURU ROM (http://bboah.amiga-resistance.info/cgi-bin/showhardware_en.cgi?HARDID=1670) upgrade can speed these up a bit and allow for bigger drives.
A Kickstart 3.1 v40.63 chip is worth a look. As is Workbench 3.1 once you've upgraded.
WHDload (http://www.whdload.de) is without a doubt the best software you can add to your A500. Registration is fairly cheap.
I wouldn't bother with kickstart switchers, unless you intend to use floppy disks. WHDload solves all incompatibility.
I wouldn't bother with Agnus upgrades. Unless you are sentimental I would just flog your old Amiga and get an A500+ (or an A1200!)
A 1Mbyte trap-door chip-ram expansion for A500+ (to bring the total to 2Mbytes) is always worth having.
Other mods that I like the look of are:
The IDE68k (http://www.students.tut.fi/~leinone3/ide/ide68k.html). A modern device which replicates the A600 internal IDE interface. Plugs into the CPU socket (CPU goes on the card) and adds a 3.5"(?) IDE, perfect for CF card adapters. Perhaps the cheapest way to add a hard drive to the A500 (especially good if you already have a FastRAM upgrade). Incompatible with accelerators. Needs KS2.05+
If you want to go a bit mad, a bit different, then A570/A690 CDTV adapters (http://www.cdtv.org.uk/1255.html) are VERY, VERY cheap. When coupled with a 2Mbyte FastRAM upgrade (http://freenet-homepage.de/x1541/hardware/a570ram.html) they come alive. You can play your WHDload games from CD :-) A note of warning, without the RAM upgrade it's a bit rubbish. You can also add a SCSI hard drive interface to the A570, but they are rare and expensive, and the 2.5" SCSI disks are expensive(but you can get SCSI->IDE adapters).
BTW: What FastRAM upgrade do you have?
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One of the most rare and insane upgrades is this:
http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=1801=7
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@Zipper
That is an awesome mod. It´s like a kick a** A2000, only its not.... It´s A500! Blows your mind! :)
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And the PicassoII+ was bought from Norway :-P
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Well, can´t be upset about that. It went to a very good home it seems like :)