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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: iconoclaST on July 16, 2009, 07:04:13 PM
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And I mean more than the puny total of 1MB that the 512kb trapdoor addon offers.
4MB would be perfect. Then it would be up to par with my Ataris... More would be better, I suppose, I do love to make animations in DPaint III...
But, how do I go about it? And how can I do this without having to spend a ridiculous amount of money?
And without any big, or hideous sidecars. I'm low on desk space as it is.
Okay, I know it sounds picky, I just want to know what is a good, readily available solution to add a good amount of RAM to this machine. I'd mostly prefer Fast RAM over chip RAM or slow RAM. (I'll be bumping the chip RAM to 1MB anyways, but I know 1MB by itself isn't going to cut it.) I wasn't happy until I had at least 3 MB RAM on my A2000.
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Google: AdRAM540
Then check eBay or other Amiga sources.
(Note: I have one these and its companion 560 in my A500, and it works great.
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You'll have to wait for the next version of the IDE68k which is an internal IDE interface and 8Mbyte RAM card which plugs into the CPU socket.
http://www.students.tut.fi/~leinone3/ide/ide68k.html
Other than that, check ebay for a GVP HD8+ they usually sell for about £50
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I'd say the AdRAM would be your best option. The GVP HD8+ is a sidecar expansion BTW, but not nearly as big and ugly as the SupraSCSI I had on my 500. :)
I wish the CSA accels. for the 500 were easier to find... I had 32MB on my Derringer '030 .... sigh....
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You'll have to wait for the next version of the IDE68k which is an internal IDE interface and 8Mbyte RAM card which plugs into the CPU socket.
http://www.students.tut.fi/~leinone3/ide/ide68k.html (http://www.students.tut.fi/%7Eleinone3/ide/ide68k.html)
Other than that, check ebay for a GVP HD8+ they usually sell for about £50
It's an A500! The AdRAM 540 is great - but he'll never find one.
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I used to have one of these , sold it a few years ago :(
http://cgi.ebay.de/GoldenImage-RC-1000-4-MB-RAM-fuer-Amiga-500_W0QQitemZ390069054525QQcmdZViewItemQQptZKlassische_Computer?hash=item5ad1ed6c3d&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1229|293%3A1|294%3A50 (http://cgi.ebay.de/GoldenImage-RC-1000-4-MB-RAM-fuer-Amiga-500_W0QQitemZ390069054525QQcmdZViewItemQQptZKlassische_Computer?hash=item5ad1ed6c3d&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A1229%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50)
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There's also the supraram 500rx. http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/supraram500rx
There's one on ebay right now with 4 mb ram.
It's a bit expensive though.
Edit: My mistake. The one on ebay was already sold.
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So nobody has managed to put in SIMM sockets or any of that....
Bummer :(
Looks like I'll have to save for a while.
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IIRC, there was 2Mb limit on trapdoor expansion, but I'm not sure.
and with 2Mb Agnus, it would give you that amount of RAM..
if money is such a problem, then go for A600 with that russian 8Mb..
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For belly mounted RAM expansions inside A500, top ceiling is at 1,7Mb, if used with Gary/68K adaptor(Revs3/5/6). That's a 1,7Mb of slow, bogo (ranger) RAM. A500+ could use a 1Mb trapdoor RAM to max-out ChipRAM to 2Mb (Rev8), but then that's it for trapdoor.
IMHO, Alex's proposal might be a best move to play...
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Not quite 4MB, but still a nice little upgrade for someone with a quick Buy it now finger: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400062580069
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You'll have to wait for the next version of the IDE68k which is an internal IDE interface and 8Mbyte RAM card which plugs into the CPU socket.
http://www.students.tut.fi/~leinone3/ide/ide68k.html
Other than that, check ebay for a GVP HD8+ they usually sell for about £50
It's an A500!
And??
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IIRC, there was 2Mb limit on trapdoor expansion
Untrue. 512Kbyte for regular A500 and 1Mbyte for A500+
go for A600 with that russian 8Mb..
The preliminary two batches of the A608 have sold out and the third BIG batch is delayed and the developers are nolonger giving status updates (Glad I got mine already)
While they may become available again in the future, you cannot pin your hopes on it.
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The AdRAM 540 will take you way beyond 1Mb. The 540 and 560 together may get to 4Mb. The Baseboard is another bigger than 1Mb expansion for the A500. Just because they don't use SIMMs doesn't mean they are limited to 1Mb!!
An ideal setup would be a mega midget racer with a 4Mb SIMM on it. There are a couple of accelerators besides this one that allow more RAM.
Here are the specs on the AdRAM cards: http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=1015
Looks like 3.8Mb is the most you can get from this trapdoor expansion.
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And??
That makes it rather hard to use an GVP HD8+ unless he gets a slingshot. That was my point. It's not impossible, but most A500 users aren't going to want to fool with it.
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@alexh
I've got this one: http://hardware.amiga.hu/exp/zydec515 in A500.
it's certainly more than 512K (but requires that already mentioned adapter)
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You may not care, but, I'd go for TRUE fast ram.
Ram that goes into a 32-bit accelerator and ram in a sidecar (like Supra 500RX) is usually true fast ram (the CPU does not have to wait for access to it).
Ram that mounts in the trapdoor (AdRam, etc) is all slow ram (addressing is derived the same as chip ram, the CPU must wait it's turn).
The Supra 500RX is smaller, very compatible, and not too hard to find. It can host 2, 4, and 8 Megs of true fast ram (8 megs may not be compatible with other side expansions).
I wish Supra had combined their 500RX, Turbo 25 MHz, and SCSI interface in one device, grin.
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IIRC, there was 2Mb limit on trapdoor expansion, but I'm not sure.
and with 2Mb Agnus, it would give you that amount of RAM..
if money is such a problem, then go for A600 with that russian 8Mb..
Then you remember INCORRECTLY.
I have an A500 Trapdoor expansion, takes 4 1MB simms.
Can be configured for 2MB of Chip (with a 2MB Agnus), and 2.5MB of Fast (Amongst other configs.)
Was made here in Australia, called "AxRam 4". I did submit it to one of the Amiga Hardware sites, but cannot find it at the moment.
[edit] http://www.bboah.com/index.php?sid=3287&lang=en&action=artikel&cat=69&id=3175&artlang=en
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Here is 4Mb expansion board being sold by none other than our very own redrumloa. Very fair price IMHO. Here's the eBay link;
http://cgi.ebay.com/BaseBoard-4MB-RAM-Expansion-for-Commodore-Amiga-500_W0QQitemZ400064053127QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5d25acff87&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
I hope this helps some one.
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The AdRAM 540 will take you way beyond 1Mb. The 540 and 560 together may get to 4Mb. The Baseboard is another bigger than 1Mb expansion for the A500. Just because they don't use SIMMs doesn't mean they are limited to 1Mb!!
An ideal setup would be a mega midget racer with a 4Mb SIMM on it. There are a couple of accelerators besides this one that allow more RAM.
Here are the specs on the AdRAM cards: http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=1015
Looks like 3.8Mb is the most you can get from this trapdoor expansion.
Actually, AdRAM 540/560 combination will take you to as much as 6MB of RAM in a properly configured A500. I've got that and a little more in my A500 since I also have a "sidecar". See here - http://mikerye.homeip.net/about_my_computers.html
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Actually, AdRAM 540/560 combination will take you to as much as 6MB of RAM in a properly configured A500. I've got that and a little more in my A500 since I also have a "sidecar". See here - http://mikerye.homeip.net/about_my_computers.html
I was sure it would get to at least 4Mb. The BaseBoard will get to at least 4Mb too.
I used to have an A500 years ago with the AdRAM 540, with 2.04 ROMs (they were new at the time!) and a GVP A500+ Series II hard drive & RAM. It was a pretty good system - very stable.