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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: KatManDEW on February 14, 2009, 05:54:37 PM

Title: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: KatManDEW on February 14, 2009, 05:54:37 PM
I snagged a Appolo 1240 accelerator with 32 meg RAM. These are supposedly upgradable to an 060. Anyone know anything about that?

The Appolo 1240 that I got is 25mhz. Would I have been better off with a faster 030?
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: ajlwalker on February 14, 2009, 06:20:29 PM
Look up a guy called PG on here.

Drop him an email (I don't think he checks his PMs so often).

He can do the upgrades to 060 on Apollo boards and has several satisfied customers.

I've yet to use his services on my dead 1240, but hope to some time soon.
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: spihunter on February 14, 2009, 07:28:48 PM
I had a Apollo board the was upgraded to an 060 by PG. It was very solid. The upgrade looked very pro.
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: KatManDEW on February 14, 2009, 08:34:10 PM
Great info. I sent him an email.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: alexh on February 14, 2009, 08:39:11 PM
Not sure if he quit the scene or is just very busy these days. Certainly doesnt post as often as he used to.

Others can help you do the upgrade. It wont be cheap though.. perhaps €120-€150 including MC68060RC50 chip and a second SIMM socket.
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: Damion on February 14, 2009, 08:47:48 PM
It's definitely a worthwhile upgrade. The Apollo is a fast, stable card in my experience. Not many games make use of the extra horsepower, but there are a ton of AGA demos which require an '060. (The A1200 really flies at 80MHz!)

Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: KatManDEW on February 14, 2009, 09:53:03 PM
The Apollo I got is 25mhz. Would just the extra speed of the 060 upgrade be worth it?
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: Iggy_Drougge on February 15, 2009, 01:48:02 AM
It's worth it if you're not satisfied with your current speed.
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: KatManDEW on February 15, 2009, 02:26:08 AM
My current A1200 speed is zero, or whatever a stock A1200 is :-D What I really need is more memory, which the Apollo will give me.

The 060 would allow me to play Quake, right? That would be real cool.
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: Damion on February 15, 2009, 05:29:22 AM
Quote

KatManDEW wrote:
My current A1200 speed is zero, or whatever a stock A1200 is :-D What I really need is more memory, which the Apollo will give me.

The 060 would allow me to play Quake, right? That would be real cool.


Quake is somewhat playable, about 10-12fps average on an overclocked '060/AGA. :/ An '040 will be plenty fast for most things... all WHDLoad games, even a fair amount of AGA demos will run great.



Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: alexh on February 15, 2009, 12:29:32 PM
Quote

KatManDEW wrote:
The 060 would allow me to play Quake, right? That would be real cool.

Lame if you ask me.

If you wanna play Quake play an OpenGL version on your modern computer. You will enjoy it much more.
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: DoogUK on February 15, 2009, 05:19:56 PM
PG is still doing the upgrades, i'm in contact with him about upgrading my apollo, but he only has xc variants of the 060 at the moment.

I'm having a dilemna, i have a blizz 1240 and an apollo 1240 and only one 71E41J 68060.....i can't decide which card to get upgraded.
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: KatManDEW on February 15, 2009, 07:33:21 PM
Quote

DoogUK wrote:
PG is still doing the upgrades, i'm in contact with him about upgrading my apollo, but he only has xc variants of the 060 at the moment.

I'm having a dilemna, i have a blizz 1240 and an apollo 1240 and only one 71E41J 68060.....i can't decide which card to get upgraded.


That's good news! Could you please check with him to see if he got my email?

What's the xc variant of the 060?

I'm new to this, so hopefully one of the Guru's on here can give you guidance on which one of yours to upgrade.
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: DoogUK on February 15, 2009, 07:57:38 PM
xc68060's run a lot hotter than mc68060's and aren't as good to overclock.

The last revision of the mc68060's can happily run at 80mhz in some cards.
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: KatManDEW on February 15, 2009, 08:13:07 PM
Can last revision of the mc68060's still be obtained?

I still don't see how the accelerator and Indivision are both going to fit inside that little A1200 keyboard  :-o
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: KatManDEW on February 24, 2009, 02:35:17 AM
I think I missed an important point about using the Apollo 1240 (and maybe any accelerator?) - ain't no way, no how, I can reassemble the case with the keyboard installed...

That's probably a duh for the seasoned Amigaholic, but it was somewhat of a eye opener for me. I was however wondering how the heck all kinds of hardware add-on's were going fit inside the A1200 case.

It's kind of a moot point at the moment, because my A1200 won't boot with the 1240 installed anyway. It will boot from floppy with the 1240 installed, and it will boot from hard drive with the 1240 installed, if I remove the memory (which was half the reason I wanted/needed and acclerator).

I have several different problems trying to boot with the memory installed, the most common of which is "Can't run C:version".

Two possible problems I can think of are that my stock power supply might not be sufficient, and I only have the 3.0 ROM installed at the moment.

I have a ATX power supply adapter that I can rig up, and I have 3.1 ROM's on the way, but I think I'm hosed without a keyboard :-D

A tower case sure seems like the ticket... I've never been fond of trying to squeeze more than 10 pounds of crap into a 10 pound bag anyway :-D    
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: DoogUK on February 24, 2009, 08:58:15 PM
I would first look at the power supply not being man enough.

Some apollo's are very tetchy about what ram they use...try swapping it for different 32meg simms which are cheap on ebay.

3.0/3.1 roms will not be the issue here.

Also clean the contacts on the expansion slot with some rubbing alcohol.
Title: Re: Appolo 1240 accelerator
Post by: hardlink on February 24, 2009, 09:08:28 PM
Quote

spihunter wrote:
I had a Apollo board the was upgraded to an 060 by PG. It was very solid. The upgrade looked very pro.


So if DCE would return my Apollo 040 that he has had for about eight years, I could bump it up to 060? Cool! Actually, I'd be happy to get my 040 back from the bum.