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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: maff20 on February 28, 2009, 12:38:33 AM
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does anyone know what a fair price would be for a ram expansion card for the 1200, im not convinced that the few that are on ebay are worth the money.
Why are they so hard to find? did no-one buy them when they were in production?? :-? :boohoo:
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Thats like saying "how long is a piece of string" when it comes to prices. It basically boils down to how much the seller wants and how much the potential buyer is prepared to pay.
They are hard to find because people who own them are not willing to part with them.
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you have to pay if you want to play :lol: ..I would suggest holding off for a Blizzard 030 card with fpu for maximum performance and WHDLoad compatibility
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A simple trap door 4Meg expansion just sold on eBay for about $26.
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I have to agree with the other poster that mentioned the 030 card - if you're going to populate that trapdoor slot don't waste your time on just a simple RAM expansion, get a Blizzard 030 (by saving) and then you will receive a decent performance upgrade too.
Compatibility with these cards is not an issue.
Rude!
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i had asked the question in another post "will an accelerator be worthwhile for whdload" and the general consensus was that it wasnt. so now you guys are saying it is worthwhile?
based on that then, what is the reccommended kind of accelerator for running OS3.9? if im going to go for one of these bad boys i might as well go the whole hog and install a decent OS(not that classic WB isnt decent).
my only concern is if i get an accelerator il end up getting various other stuff and spend a good chunk of my life trying to set it all up properly :-? :crazy: :-D
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I can't find your topic about the accelerator but here's some advice. You're talking about a Blizzard 1260 and MTEC card somewhere; these are very different cards. So let's just get back to basics first.
First of all, ask yourself this: What do I want to do with my Amiga? What hardware do I already own and can my wishes be fulfilled with that?
Only then ask yourself; how much (more) money do I want to spend on this?
Chances are that you just want to run classic games. If you want to do that comfortably on real hardware you need a harddisk with WHDLoad and preferably an 030 accelerator with at least 8Mb of RAM. Just a memory expansion with 4 to 8Mb will also do but an accelerator makes your Amiga that bit snappier and smoother. With an 030 card you don't need to alter your software side; it's highly compatible unlike 040 and 060 cards.
If you want it cheap; just run WinUAE.
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Most games, Paint programmes video eg scala the 8 neg ram is fine.
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@maff20
Flashlab summed it up pretty well. I personally would go for the Blizzard 030 with 32 or 64MB ram - it'll make some games run a bit quicker (eg Wing Commander, AB3D, Flight Sims) and won't compromise compatibility.
Plus the extra RAM, which you don't normally get with just a RAM card (I believe most RAM only cards are 4/8 MB) will assist in making your whole Amiga experience better, WB and Scala for instance.
I just think the Blizzard 030 card will give you that flexibility just in case the RAM card doesn't; but then again, it does depend on the budget.
Rude!
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sorry for the delay in replying,
cheers for the info guys.
now its off to sell all my belongings for a blizzard ;)
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For the small amount of games that are enhanced with an accelerator, it's really not worth shelling out so much money for an accelerator when you can just run those few games through UAE much faster anyway. An 8MB RAM expansion is all you need really unless you intend on actually taking advantage of the OS as well, not just playing games. And if you're thinking about getting an accelerator and getting into AmigaOS, you may as well get yourself an Indivision so you can take advantage of those higher resolution screenmodes and cheap VGA monitors.
I just think shelling out hundreds of bucks for an accelerator just so you can play an old 3D game once or twice is wasting it, when you'll be bidding against plenty of other guys who need that accelerator to run their serious Amiga apps (or more importantly, to develop new Amiga software).
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@rebel
regardless of there only being a small amount of games that use an accelerator i wouldnt mind getting into Amiga OS as well, it feels a wee bitty like your saying that unless i am going to use the card to run serious apps and develop new software, i shouldnt be allowed to own one as there are other people who need them. well, heres my view on that. I am only getting into amigas again after a long break away from them and although i havent "developed software" or run any "serious apps" yet, theres nothing to say that i wont get into that - and at the end of the day, if theres no one new getting into the scene, then who is there to develop software for anyway??
so rather than accuse me of "wasting" a card, how about a little encouragement about getting into the scene?
also, if i was only to get a blizzard running at 30mhz, im pretty sure thats not the optimal platform to be developing software on anyway
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I have a spare 8MB + 68882 FPU card, but you#d best PM me...I#ll miss this thread if I don#t come back soon.
PZ.
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Get the 030 accelerator. There are others than the Blizzard that are just as good. The DKB Cobra is also an excellent choice. Even the GVP are good - IF you get enough RAM when you buy it. The GVP uses a special SIMM that is outrageous expensive!
I've used a DKB 030 carded A1200 for years. It is extremely stable, and with 32 Mb of RAM runs anything I have thrown at it. Used to be a 32Mb SIMM was a bit pricey. Now they sell for about $15.00 (or less)
Good luck.
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Rebel-CD32 wrote:
For the small amount of games that are enhanced with an accelerator, it's really not worth shelling out so much money for an accelerator when you can just run those few games through UAE much faster anyway. An 8MB RAM expansion is all you need really unless you intend on actually taking advantage of the OS as well, not just playing games. And if you're thinking about getting an accelerator and getting into AmigaOS, you may as well get yourself an Indivision so you can take advantage of those higher resolution screenmodes and cheap VGA monitors.
I just think shelling out hundreds of bucks for an accelerator just so you can play an old 3D game once or twice is wasting it, when you'll be bidding against plenty of other guys who need that accelerator to run their serious Amiga apps (or more importantly, to develop new Amiga software).
Your comment would be true for 060 (and PPC) cards but hardly for 030 cards IMHO.
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Oh yeah, I'm a spreader of lies, my comments are untrue, people don't use 030 Amigas to develop, they only use PPC/060...
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You guys all make it sound like its just so easy to find a Blizzard 030 card. I've been searching for one for a wile now and can't seem to get one less than $300 or else on Amibay they go so fast you don't even get a shot at one.
Claw
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It's never easy ... it took me almost 6 months to get my blizzard 030. You have to be in the right place at the right time or if you are really lucky somebody will see this and send you a PM
Fingers crossed for ya bud!
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Claw22000 wrote:
You guys all make it sound like its just so easy to find a Blizzard 030 card. I've been searching for one for a wile now and can't seem to get one less than $300 or else on Amibay they go so fast you don't even get a shot at one.
Claw
Thats 300 reasons not to get one. Honestly, RAM is the best bang-for-buck add-on you can put into a stock A1200. I've had all of 'em: 8 meg ram card, 68030 cobra ram card (btw a POS that overheats, would never recommend one) and Apollo 68040 ( brilliant ran for 10 years then died, oh well).
a ram card will : double your speed: off a flash card i boot in about 8 seconds, let you run every serious software you can think of (unless you image process insanely big pictures or try 3-d rendering big scenes, in which case you should use Winuae), give you a snappy workbench that will feel super-quick if you come from the windows world, connect to the net, email, browse, ftp, playback mp3's, give you the best compatibilty with games, and NEVER fail due to overheating and its CHEAP. But its your money.
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@stefcep2
playback mp3's
Ahem, adding only a ramcard to an A1200 will NOT give it enough horsepower to play mp3's ;)
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maff20 wrote:
i had asked the question in another post "will an accelerator be worthwhile for whdload" and the general consensus was that it wasnt. so now you guys are saying it is worthwhile?
based on that then, what is the reccommended kind of accelerator for running OS3.9? if im going to go for one of these bad boys i might as well go the whole hog and install a decent OS(not that classic WB isnt decent).
my only concern is if i get an accelerator il end up getting various other stuff and spend a good chunk of my life trying to set it all up properly :-? :crazy: :-D
Hi,
You don't need an 030 to run most WHDLOAD stuff or even OS 3.9 which will run quite well with just a 4mb expansion if you set it up properly (for example ditching the docking bar). What is really killing the performance of a standard 1200 is lack or fast ram, not the CPU. The other thing to remember is that the 'bottle-kneck' of an Amiga is the custom chipset which is why you don't get a massive AGA boost (eg WB redraw speed) when changing the 14mhz 020 to a 50mhz 030.
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68030 cobra ram card (btw a POS that overheats, would never recommend one
I have a 28mhz 030 cobra overclocked to 40mhz, it's warm but rock stable :-D
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@rebel cd-32
no one accused you of being a lier, whats your beef? i asked a simple enough question to which your attitude seemed a little off. im sure people do use 030 cards to develop some software, but like my first answer - why should i not be allowed one and it presumed that i will never do such a thing?
anyway, handbags aside, thankyou to the rest of you that have tried to answer my question, ive seen a couple of 030's go on ebay for around £120 wich seems a bit steep if i can get away with running OS3.9 on 8mb fast ram then il probably try to get a ram expansion card for the time being.
thanks all
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I just bought a Ram Expansion for my A1200 I got the MBX 1200z (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=1035)
I paid $50 for it and a 4MB simm.
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you'll probably find its all you need. if you get an 8 meg SIMM, you probably won't be able to use anything in the PCMCIA slot, including any PCMCIA network cards, without losing 4 meg anyway