Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: Gulliver on December 01, 2009, 02:29:48 AM
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What should i buy as my christmas present?
The thing is that i have 300 USD burning a hole in my pocket, and are in the fate of becoming my Christmas gift.
So basically i am having some problems on deciding where should that money be spent. I have narrowed down the choices to:
1-Buy a mediator for my 040 Amiga 1200
2-Buy a mac mini (Maybe install Morphos)
3-Buy a Power Mac G4 (Double mirrored drive) (and maybe install Morphos for it when available)
4-Spend only 40 USD in expansions to make my old PC AROS capable
5-Sell my Amiga+accelerator+miggy stuff to buy a SAM (This option is the most underrated by me)
6-Something else
What would you do?
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What should i buy as my christmas present?
The thing is that i have 300 USD burning a hole in my pocket, and are in the fate of becoming my Christmas gift.
So basically i am having some problems on deciding where should that money be spent. I have narrowed down the choices to:
1-Buy a mediator for my 040 Amiga 1200
Why waste your money? Amiga is dead.
2-Buy a mac mini (Maybe install Morphos)
Oh God, you are going from the frying pan into the fire, total waste of money
3-Buy a Power Mac G4 (Double mirrored drive) (and maybe install Morphos for it when available)
Your getting worse
4-Spend only 40 USD in expansions to make my old PC AROS capable
Well your getting warm, but an old PC.
5-Sell my Amiga+accelerator+miggy stuff to buy a SAM (This option is the most underrated by me)
Come on now what are you going to do with a SAM, put an Amiga OS on it and look at it.
6-Something else
Now we are there, go out to either pricewatch.com, or TigerDirect.com or NewEgg.com and look at the sales on a new modern day PC with Windows 7, then go out and get Amiga Forever 2009 and C64 Forever and install it on your PC. Then if you want get a good OS by installing a Linux OS on it, I use Ubuntu, this is totally free and so are all the programs for it, you have a huge party of third string developers doing software (you know, like back in the old days for the Amiga) but unlike the Amiga there is support. Why waste money on obsolete dead computers, or computers that act like an Amiga, there is no support, there are no software developers, and no update parts being manufactured, not only that but if something does come out you are paying almost the cost of a PC to buy that upgrade.
Now lets talk about the over rated, over priced Apple crap. Do you earn over 300,000 a year? Are you RICH, can you afford $400 a pop for software? Do you like games? and also can you talk with a nasal accent?
If not then a MAC is not for you unless it is a big MAC from McDonalds.
smerf
What would you do?
Read above
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I'd either get a Mac Mini or the Mediator board and a bunch of PCI cards for it :-)
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All the above sound like fun projects.
Personally, I'd like to play with the SAM.
As an alternative, you could just keep the money until you've decided what you really want.
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Amiga is dead -> I participate in an Amiga forum -> I am a necrophile and the prince of the obvious.
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What should i buy as my christmas present?
The thing is that i have 300 USD burning a hole in my pocket, and are in the fate of becoming my Christmas gift.
So basically i am having some problems on deciding where should that money be spent. I have narrowed down the choices to:
1-Buy a mediator for my 040 Amiga 1200
2-Buy a mac mini (Maybe install Morphos)
3-Buy a Power Mac G4 (Double mirrored drive) (and maybe install Morphos for it when available)
4-Spend only 40 USD in expansions to make my old PC AROS capable
5-Sell my Amiga+accelerator+miggy stuff to buy a SAM (This option is the most underrated by me)
6-Something else
What would you do?
It really depends on what you are interested in doing with a computer?
1st thing to do is "ignore smerf", he constantly spouts the only good Amiga is an emulated one with Linux, or Windows running underneath it on new PC hardware that will be out of date before you can get it home and will probably break down within the first year or two. Unless you choose his suggestion to run Linux, you will be asked to upgrade the Windows OS every couple of years or so, with the promise that this version has fixed all the past problems and that it will make your life wonderful because you can now do what most competent computer users could already do a few years ago already, if they only took the time to learn how to do it. (now before you come on here and laugh at my "out of date before you can get it home" remark compared to how out of date any Amiga is, they are obviously two completely different things. One is supposed to be modern and up to date and the other is either a retro-classic antique computer system, or the "Next Gen" versions are a tiny, almost non-existent niche hobby system that can in no way shape or form compare to any modern PC, or Mac system. So, now on to your list.
1) Mediator for A1200 - if you currently enjoy your A1200 and want to expand it so you can use cheap Ethernet cards, a better graphics card, a sound card and maybe a TV tuner card, then the Mediator might be a good choice, though not a cheap choice (nothing in the World of Amiga purchasing is a bargain, nor has it been for a very long time, although I personally think getting a used G4 MacMini at a good price and purchasing MorphOS2.4 license is very close to being a bargain compared to the rest of the Amiga market).
2) MorphOS2.4 on a G4 MacMini - I have a 1.5GHz G4 MacMini with a licensed copy of MorphOS2.4 running on it and have to tell you that it is the closest thing to feeling the same excitement I felt when I bought my first used A1000 in 1987. It still needs more apps and games (needs more developers and users), but it is really very usable for many things now and the OWB browser is rather good and pretty fast on my G4 MacMini. It runs most Classic Amiga software very well if it does not bang the hardware, and it can run EUAE for those programs and games that do bang the hardware. I can easily recommend this option without any reservations.
3) Buy a used G4 PowerMac and wait for MorphOS2.x to support it - I can't fault this choice for most of the same reasons for #2 above, but I don't see too much advantage for the wait, unless you can get such a PowerMac for a lot less than you can find the G4 MacMini. It has been confirmed that MorphOS2.4 runs very well even on the slower models of the G4 MacMini and even with multiple screens open, the lower 32mb graphics card models do not seem to have any problems running out of VRAM, but this may not be the case if you want to run every screen in 24bit and you have a very large LCD and are using 1920x1080 resolution. I do not know, as I have the 64mb VRAM model, but I can say that running at that 1920x1080 on my 23 inch Acer LCD, or 1600x1050 on my 20 inch Dell LCD, I have had no issues with low VRAM at any time with many screens open at the same time. That being said, having the option to use a 128mb VRAM 9000, or 9250 graphics card in a G4 PowerMac is an attractive option to have for the future, so I have already started keeping an eye peeled for a REALLY LOW price for a G4 PowerMac and will probably get one some day, unless the MorphOS Development Team announces that they have decided to support the G5 PowerMac models before I find a free, or very low priced G4 PowerMac model to buy (they have already said that this will probably never happen, so don't take me wishing for it as any indication that it ever will happen).
4) $40 upgrade to PC for AROS - I can't really say anything one way or the other about this choice, as I am not up to speed on anything to do with AROS, or it's Sister ICAROS. I have never run either of them, though I have downloaded the ICAROS iso and plan to take a look at it in the near future. This is your lowest cost option and many would say the smartest choice from a monetary point of view. I can't disagree with that logic. The OS is free and the hardware is lower than any of the other options.
5) Sell your existing Classic Amiga collection to purchase a SAM440 system - Like you, this is the least attractive option to me, but there are many others that love their SAM440 systems and would disagree with both of us very vigorously. I am hopeful that AmigaOS4.x will prosper and continue to improve over time, as although I would rather have all AmigaOS4.x, MorphOS2.x and AROS users and developers back together working on and for one common OS, instead of having our small community split into even smaller sub-communities, it just isn't going to happen (not in my life time anyway). So, with this being a fact of life, I actually see the competition between the three different OSes as a good thing, as it drives each group to try to out do each of the others, because programmers (at least most of the ones in our small community) are prideful ego driven ba$tards who want to show that they are better than their counterparts in the opposing OS development teams. I can't wait until I have learned more about programming so I can become just like them, :roflmao:but I am getting off topic. Unless you are hung up on having the "Official" Amiga trademark attached to your OS, I think that AmigaOS4.x and MorphOS2.x are very similar in what they can do at this point in time. The MorphOS2.x benchmarks have been shown to be faster than AmigaOS4.x on the same hardware and to give MorphOS2.4 an even bigger edge in terms of speed, the architecture of the G4 MacMini has been shown to be almost twice as fast as a similarly clocked G4 Pegasos2 machine. This coupled with the low price that you can find G4 MacMini's for makes the choice between an AmigaOS4.1 SAM440 system and a G4 MacMini MorphOS2.4 system a very easy decision to make, but your mileage may vary and I know that many AmigaOS4.1 SAM440 users are very happy with their decision and I don't fault them for their happiness in that choice.
6)Other - PC's are very cheap now and if you can't afford the space for two systems, or you can't afford to waste money on having two different kinds of systems, doing as smerf said and getting a new PC, or even an almost new PC and putting AmigaForever/AmiKit/AmigaSys/WinUAE/Linux & EUAE on it is a valid option.
As I started this long post with, it really depends on what you want to do with it. There are still some things that a Classic Amiga is best for, if you still enjoy that retro world and running all those thousands of apps and games on something you can only get that old feeling you once had from again. I guess Amiga mod music is one thing that having a Classic Amiga is still good, if not best for. Hope you got some help from my long reply, or at least some entertainment value.
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I would do this:
1. Sell your amiga mediator and keep just the essentials to play games
2. Buy a macmini, or even cheaper, a Powermac for Morphos
3. Hope OS4.1 comes for Powermac too.
This way you will have best of both worlds, considering the mad prices on a Sam.
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Amiga.org
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Amiga.org
At least we'd know who owned the place lol
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Read above
That quoted post was totally useless, here's a guy who is asking what be could do with his 300 bucks and you come on here to an Amiga fan based webste and basically say everything Amiga related is s**t. Opinion respected (just) but wrong.
I would get a Mediator, that way you can get noticeable PCI performance upgrades at affordable prices. On top of that you still have a 'Real' Amiga, not a SAM or anything of that sort. :) $300 Won't get you far towards a SAM even if you sell off all your gear.
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What this about a nasal accent? Even the Garbos, Posties and Jannies talk with a nasal accent round these parts. I can't actually find anyone who doesn't have one. What's wrong with them, mate? You live in a tiny plastic globe where there are speakers pouring out non-nasal accents for your listening pleasure?
I got two fingers for you mate, one for each of your IQ points...
Read above
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What exactly is a "nasal accent"? Nasality is a feature of resonance, not pronunciation.
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moto
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I should probably start a bounty to get the owner of Amiga.org introduce himself as such! ;)
Speaking seriously, it seems to me @amigadave is on the right tracks on this one, I won´t sell my classic stuff to buy an underpowered SAM, and an immature OS just because it is called AmigaOS 4!
A mediator is simply an expensive whim for those who have too much money to spend, and have nowhere else to spend it (Should i even dare compare the thought of buying at $280 a pci busboard or an entire, second hand Mac, at exactly the same price?).
So i have it narrowed again to choices 2,3,4 and 6.
Thanks for the advice until now...
Now it comes down to making the right choice :0
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5) Sell your existing Classic Amiga collection to purchase a SAM440 system - Like you, this is the least attractive option to me, but there are many others that love their SAM440 systems and would disagree with both of us very vigorously.
I disagree with you vigorously. No, just kidding. :)
I for one would like to try/own a SAM. I always seem to put my money on something else though. This year, we spent our dough on a vacation trip. My wife has had this dream to go to Greece since she was a little girl, so we went.
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Well, Mediator isn't cheap (not surprising for a piece of classic Amiga hardware :D ), but if you consider that you can get, let's say, Voodoo3, PCI ethernet card, Terratec 128i practically for free and then think how much you would pay for Cybervision/Picasso IV, XSurf, Tocatta, all of which are arguably worse than their PCI counterparts, all of a sudden it doesn't seem that expensive. And you can also buy Prometheus for ~€110...
Anyway, I hope you enjoy your Christmas present whatever it will be :)
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6. Something else
Get your 1240 upgraded to an 80MHz 1260. If it is an Apollo get a second SIMM socket too. Will cost far less than $300 and it will make it fly. Plus it opens a world of 68060 only games & demos.
Get the SCSI module for your 1240 and an SCSI->IDE adapter ($30) this will unload the CPU for disk activity and make it a whole heap faster.
If you don't already use SFS switch to it or buy PFS3 either one will make hard disk access MUCH faster than standard FFS.
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First question is are you wanting to use only Amiga?What do you want from computer?
$300 will buy new PC with Win 7 as smerf says;his options make sense economically even if his posts comes across as anti-Amiga.And the PC will let you run a very nice Amiga Forever emulation.
If you want lots of free programs that will let you do nearly everything then Linux on PC is very good;Linux is still available for older Mac PPC so a Mac G4 would allow you to run Linux,Mac OS and soon? MorphOS .
If you want modern Amiga hardware then SAM IS the official Amiga solution despite the rather high price.
If you want classic Amiga WITH improvements then Mediator etc is your path.
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I forgot to note than one can also run Virtual PC on a Mac G4 and thus run other OS from DOS to Windows XP pro.So one machine could be MacOS/Windows/Linux/MorphOS.
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6. Something else
Get your 1240 upgraded to an 80MHz 1260. If it is an Apollo get a second SIMM socket too. Will cost far less than $300 and it will make it fly. Plus it opens a world of 68060 only games & demos.
Get the SCSI module for your 1240 and an SCSI->IDE adapter ($30) this will unload the CPU for disk activity and make it a whole heap faster.
If you don't already use SFS switch to it or buy PFS3 either one will make hard disk access MUCH faster than standard FFS.
I second that, or better sell your 040 and put it towards a top flyte 68060 card.
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My 040 cannot be easily upgraded, or at least that is what i think:
It is a Macrosystem Falcon 1240 wich originally had a 25mhz 040, that i upgraded to a 40mhz one and changed the oscillator accordingly.
It is supposedly an upgradeable board to a 68060 50mhz, but i never saw anyone upgrading one, nor even have instructions on how to do it :(
By the way i have it running at 41.5mhz with 64MB of FastRam!
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If you have any money left after the pressie buying, can you buy some happy pills for smerf :roflmao:
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My 040 cannot be easily upgraded It is a Macrosystem Falcon 1240
You never found out how to upgrade it?
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=515291&postcount=9
By the way i have it running at 41.5mhz
Pales into insignificance next to even a 50MHz 060!
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I suggest get a next-gen Amiga to find out if it is something you like. Cheapest option is an AROS machine, believe me, I have tried them all, AROS is maturing very fast and already looks just like 4.1.
AROS lacks community feeling IMHO (its going to grow, so in a way, be here early and become famous then) so I can be sure I know you would like MOS or 4.1 instead, I suggest go for MOS, it is much cheaper option with better hardware than 4.1 IMHO, but 4.1 is blessed with a somewhat constant stream of apps which is more clear and easier to approach if you are not into these kind of stuff.
If you really, really feel like you can not live without MOS after at least a year of constant usage I would suggest you to try out 4.1 too (do not listen to the silly camps, or me for that matter lol), then make up your mind which one is best.
Dont make the misstake of blowing 1000 dollars on a next-gen Amiga becoming your high-end paperweight before you know if the passion is there, and even if the passion is there lack of leadership from the leadership of the new Amiga can be a frustrating experience.
Do not sell your 68k Amiga. Next-gen Amiga is only a compliment to them, not a replacement.
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#2 and never look back.
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It really depends on what you are interested in doing with a computer?
1st thing to do is "ignore smerf", he constantly spouts the only good Amiga is an emulated one with Linux, or Windows running underneath it on new PC hardware that will be out of date before you can get it home and will probably break down within the first year or two. Unless you choose his suggestion to run Linux, you will be asked to upgrade the Windows OS every couple of years or so, with the promise that this version has fixed all the past problems and that it will make your life wonderful because you can now do what most competent computer users could already do a few years ago already, if they only took the time to learn how to do it. (now before you come on here and laugh at my "out of date before you can get it home" remark compared to how out of date any Amiga is, they are obviously two completely different things. One is supposed to be modern and up to date and the other is either a retro-classic antique computer system, or the "Next Gen" versions are a tiny, almost non-existent niche hobby system that can in no way shape or form compare to any modern PC, or Mac system. So, now on to your list.
1) Mediator for A1200 - if you currently enjoy your A1200 and want to expand it so you can use cheap Ethernet cards, a better graphics card, a sound card and maybe a TV tuner card, then the Mediator might be a good choice, though not a cheap choice (nothing in the World of Amiga purchasing is a bargain, nor has it been for a very long time, although I personally think getting a used G4 MacMini at a good price and purchasing MorphOS2.4 license is very close to being a bargain compared to the rest of the Amiga market).
2) MorphOS2.4 on a G4 MacMini - I have a 1.5GHz G4 MacMini with a licensed copy of MorphOS2.4 running on it and have to tell you that it is the closest thing to feeling the same excitement I felt when I bought my first used A1000 in 1987. It still needs more apps and games (needs more developers and users), but it is really very usable for many things now and the OWB browser is rather good and pretty fast on my G4 MacMini. It runs most Classic Amiga software very well if it does not bang the hardware, and it can run EUAE for those programs and games that do bang the hardware. I can easily recommend this option without any reservations.
3) Buy a used G4 PowerMac and wait for MorphOS2.x to support it - I can't fault this choice for most of the same reasons for #2 above, but I don't see too much advantage for the wait, unless you can get such a PowerMac for a lot less than you can find the G4 MacMini. It has been confirmed that MorphOS2.4 runs very well even on the slower models of the G4 MacMini and even with multiple screens open, the lower 32mb graphics card models do not seem to have any problems running out of VRAM, but this may not be the case if you want to run every screen in 24bit and you have a very large LCD and are using 1920x1080 resolution. I do not know, as I have the 64mb VRAM model, but I can say that running at that 1920x1080 on my 23 inch Acer LCD, or 1600x1050 on my 20 inch Dell LCD, I have had no issues with low VRAM at any time with many screens open at the same time. That being said, having the option to use a 128mb VRAM 9000, or 9250 graphics card in a G4 PowerMac is an attractive option to have for the future, so I have already started keeping an eye peeled for a REALLY LOW price for a G4 PowerMac and will probably get one some day, unless the MorphOS Development Team announces that they have decided to support the G5 PowerMac models before I find a free, or very low priced G4 PowerMac model to buy (they have already said that this will probably never happen, so don't take me wishing for it as any indication that it ever will happen).
4) $40 upgrade to PC for AROS - I can't really say anything one way or the other about this choice, as I am not up to speed on anything to do with AROS, or it's Sister ICAROS. I have never run either of them, though I have downloaded the ICAROS iso and plan to take a look at it in the near future. This is your lowest cost option and many would say the smartest choice from a monetary point of view. I can't disagree with that logic. The OS is free and the hardware is lower than any of the other options.
5) Sell your existing Classic Amiga collection to purchase a SAM440 system - Like you, this is the least attractive option to me, but there are many others that love their SAM440 systems and would disagree with both of us very vigorously. I am hopeful that AmigaOS4.x will prosper and continue to improve over time, as although I would rather have all AmigaOS4.x, MorphOS2.x and AROS users and developers back together working on and for one common OS, instead of having our small community split into even smaller sub-communities, it just isn't going to happen (not in my life time anyway). So, with this being a fact of life, I actually see the competition between the three different OSes as a good thing, as it drives each group to try to out do each of the others, because programmers (at least most of the ones in our small community) are prideful ego driven ba$tards who want to show that they are better than their counterparts in the opposing OS development teams. I can't wait until I have learned more about programming so I can become just like them, :roflmao:but I am getting off topic. Unless you are hung up on having the "Official" Amiga trademark attached to your OS, I think that AmigaOS4.x and MorphOS2.x are very similar in what they can do at this point in time. The MorphOS2.x benchmarks have been shown to be faster than AmigaOS4.x on the same hardware and to give MorphOS2.4 an even bigger edge in terms of speed, the architecture of the G4 MacMini has been shown to be almost twice as fast as a similarly clocked G4 Pegasos2 machine. This coupled with the low price that you can find G4 MacMini's for makes the choice between an AmigaOS4.1 SAM440 system and a G4 MacMini MorphOS2.4 system a very easy decision to make, but your mileage may vary and I know that many AmigaOS4.1 SAM440 users are very happy with their decision and I don't fault them for their happiness in that choice.
6)Other - PC's are very cheap now and if you can't afford the space for two systems, or you can't afford to waste money on having two different kinds of systems, doing as smerf said and getting a new PC, or even an almost new PC and putting AmigaForever/AmiKit/AmigaSys/WinUAE/Linux & EUAE on it is a valid option.
As I started this long post with, it really depends on what you want to do with it. There are still some things that a Classic Amiga is best for, if you still enjoy that retro world and running all those thousands of apps and games on something you can only get that old feeling you once had from again. I guess Amiga mod music is one thing that having a Classic Amiga is still good, if not best for. Hope you got some help from my long reply, or at least some entertainment value.
HI,
@amigadave,
yak, yak, yak , yak, yak
smerf
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What should i buy as my christmas present?
The thing is that i have 300 USD burning a hole in my pocket, and are in the fate of becoming my Christmas gift.
So basically i am having some problems on deciding where should that money be spent. I have narrowed down the choices to:
1-Buy a mediator for my 040 Amiga 1200
2-Buy a mac mini (Maybe install Morphos)
3-Buy a Power Mac G4 (Double mirrored drive) (and maybe install Morphos for it when available)
4-Spend only 40 USD in expansions to make my old PC AROS capable
5-Sell my Amiga+accelerator+miggy stuff to buy a SAM (This option is the most underrated by me)
6-Something else
What would you do?
Hi,
WOW!
Did I get some strong answers, whew, put me on the hit list.
Anyhow,
@Gulliver,
I am currently building an Amiga 1200 Tower,
I started buy buying an Amiga 1200 and a Blizzard ppc board off of a person at a yard sale. He said he had never heard of an Amiga computer and could not get anything to run on it since it didn't have a cdrom. He originally got it off his dad when his dad passed away and really didn't have time to check it out. I took a look at it and told him it was missing the bottom trap door and asked him if he had it, he said no, I then told him that without the trap door, the value of the A1200 really dropped since most collectors wanted a whole Amiga and that the value really dropped because of a missing trap door. He then sold it to me for $5.00 just to get rid of it. So I took it home and began planning my tower. Now did I cheat this guy, not really since there where about 500 people before me who really didn't know what the Amiga was and wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.
Now my plan is:
1. Buy a Lyra keyboard adapter to use PC keyboards on my tower. Thank you red for the purchase.
2. Look for a new idefix product so I can run a CF drive and a cdrom. R U listening RED, Amigakit has one, but I am waiting for a better price from you.
3. In a couple of months buy a Bvision board. (Have to save don't you know).
4. Buy a wifi for the Amiga.
5. Buy a USB card.
Now I also looked at the mediator, but I don't know if Plan A above, or the mediator would be better.
OK there is my plan. I am sort of going with the Bvision because I hear it is a good match with the Blizzard card, which is a 250mhz, with an 040/40 processor.
And no I don't talk with a nasal accent. I just do a lot of good redneck barginning which I learned down the South don't ya know, in good old Florida, now I am stuck in yankee land, where they are all crooks, the only thing worse than a yankee is a Canadian, they further up North don't ya know.
smerf
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Hi,
@tokyoracer,
" Amiga fan based webste and basically say everything Amiga related is s**t"
Never said that,
What I said was that the Amiga was dead and software is no longer being developed for it, and in a round about way said that you would be better off buying a new PC and putting WinUAE from Amiga Forever on it, then if you want upgrade AF with Amikit. By looking at his post and him saying that he had only $300 to spend I believe that this would be the best way to go for now. I own an Amiga 4000, A500, CD32, A3000, and a A1000. I own over 3000 Amiga games and 2000 misc programs (Art packages, word processors, desktop pub, spreadsheets etc.) for my Amiga's, and still look at ebay and purchase programs that I see that I don't have.
Do I think Amiga is sh**t, no, it is just dead, thanks to our fearless leader Bill M. the Amiga has no leadership, no developement in either hardware or software. The software hurts the most because without it no computer or gaming device can exist for long. Bill M. says he is a software developer, where?
smerf
PS forgot my newest member an A1200 with a Blizzard PPC board. Read my one post and weep.
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@smerf,
Good reply to my post, :lol: you have PMail.
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Hi,
@ cv643d,
Hey I tried AROS several times,
I can't get it to install on any of my computers, I downloaded the instructions, read them followed them step by step and still failed. It seems I am missing something in hard disk tool box. I case you are wondering I own several Amiga's and several PC's . AROS has to make installation easier or else people give up on it and go in other directions, I chose Linux and have been using it for the past 10 years, or since the original Red Hat came out, I purchased it way back when.
So, How the heck did you get AROS to install on your hard drive?
smerf
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Hi,
@Amigadave,
Never said how long ago or how I got my PPC card or A1200. This is just one of those projects that is still in work
smerf
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Hi,
@persia,
Are you trying to say that you own a MAC!!!
God you are beginning to sound like Wayne, who talks with a southren nasal accent
smerf
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Well thinking it a bit more, i got to the last two posible choices:
2-Buy a mac mini (Maybe install Morphos) - and get a nasal accent included free of charge ;)
4-Spend only 40 USD in expansions to make my old PC AROS capable, Amithlon capable, KXLight capable, etc
@Smerf
i am also in the long, never finishing process of towering my Amiga 1200, but i never tend to do it for one reason or another. I already bought a Lyra2, an IDEfix interface, have the accelerator, the elcheapo scandoubler, a nice new black Amiga mouse, a PC to Amiga floppy adapter with a black PC faceplate floppy, an ATX PSU with an Amiga converter cable, a PCMCIA ethernet card, and a few of oldies goldies that i enjoyed when young (digiview, midi interface, gvp dss+,ect).
@Alexh
I looked through freescale 68040 datasheets to do the 060 upgrade, with the two empty sockets and 3.3volts from my atx psu, but then the doc showed it had too many GND and VCC pins in that specific datasheet. So soldering two pins at first, wasnt a big issue for me, but then i saw the document, and i relized i had to solder like 30, which is a no goer for my skills, and i was a bit afraid of screwing my accelerator in the process.
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Everybody around here used to speak with a nasal accent, but that's changing now, people who live in the city are slowly becoming less nasal. There are various explanations for it. Some say the nasal accent was really just a way of talking that kept the flies out of the mouth and now that we are mainly urbanites there's no longer need for that. if you look at the third and fourth generation farmers, you'll notice the nasal accent also corresponds to the complete lack of lip movement, so I think there's likely a relationship.
At any rate I'm not sure why Gulliver thought that the Mac would appear to country folk more, as most of the Mac stores seems to be in bigger cities or whether he was just a snob trying to make fun of rural people (We Amigans are by definition elitists), but the comment really made no sense.
I have friends who run a farm to the west of Dubbo, hot dry country bordering on the outback. It's hard, backbreaking work, if Gulliver spent a few days working with them maybe he's be less disdaining of people who live in rural areas. My guess is he wouldn't last half a day trying to keep up with these "nasal speakers" he thinks are funny.
(http://www.cm.izntdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/aussie-summer-xmas-thumb.gif)
What exactly is a "nasal accent"? Nasality is a feature of resonance, not pronunciation.
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moto
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I think it was actually smerf who made that remark.
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2 - Buy a mac mini (Maybe install Morphos) -THIS IS YOUR WINNER
Do not do 5 !
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I'd go for the mac mini option myself. That's what I've settled on, and that's after buying a Sam and doing the whole tower up an A1200 thing!
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What should i buy as my christmas present?
The thing is that i have 300 USD burning a hole in my pocket, and are in the fate of becoming my Christmas gift.
So basically i am having some problems on deciding where should that money be spent. I have narrowed down the choices to:
1-Buy a mediator for my 040 Amiga 1200
2-Buy a mac mini (Maybe install Morphos)
3-Buy a Power Mac G4 (Double mirrored drive) (and maybe install Morphos for it when available)
4-Spend only 40 USD in expansions to make my old PC AROS capable
5-Sell my Amiga+accelerator+miggy stuff to buy a SAM (This option is the most underrated by me)
6-Something else
What would you do?
If you'd really want to stick with your Amiga, a Deneb USB card probably offers the most flexibility to add cheap hardware that you can use with any computer later.
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5-Sell my Amiga+accelerator+miggy stuff to buy a SAM (This option is the most underrated by me)
I would do that in a heartbeat. Again.
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@platon42
"If you'd really want to stick with your Amiga, a Deneb USB card probably offers the most flexibility to add cheap hardware that you can use with any computer later."
A very good bit of advice.
Thank you .
We all should keep in mind that just about anything except CPU upgrades can use USB with the proper driver.
I've been thinking of usb for my classics but then the money went for a Mac mini G4-and now we hear MorphOS will soon be out for the Powermac G4 I already had.
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A graphics card over USB would be nice. There would be no need for PCI anymore :)
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A graphics card over USB would be nice. There would be no need for PCI anymore :)
USB graphics cards do exist. I've seen them for laptops. I can't imagine they are very good, somehow.
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USB graphics cards do exist. I've seen them for laptops. I can't imagine they are very good, somehow.
They're USB2.0 only I believe so the speed isn't horrible, and they work well for 2D stuff like presentations and web browsing. I wouldn't try playing any games on them though.
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Yes, sure they exist, but unfortunately not for classic Amigas :)
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True, even if someone wrote a driver, I doubt a classic Amiga would have the horsepower to run the thing.
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@persia
It was a simple and innocent joke aimed at @smerf, not related to mocking farmers, only meant for what he said previously. I am sorry you missunderstood it, and got hurt in the process.
@platon42
I dont like the subwayUSB interface, but i would have bought a deneb without hesitating. The problem is that it only works on zorro amigas. And a zorro A1200 busboard, as cheap as it may seem, due to the excesive shipping charges i witnessed generally from european postal services, means like 140 USD and then i would have to buy/hack an ATX psu(more $) and then buy the deneb (even more $)!.
I totally agree a deneb is a cool buy, but then it comes to much more $$$ than its price, as i have explained (I wish i had an A4000!).
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@platon42
I dont like the subwayUSB interface, but i would have bought a deneb without hesitating. The problem is that it only works on zorro amigas. And a zorro A1200 busboard, as cheap as it may seem, due to the excesive shipping charges i witnessed generally from european postal services, means like 140 USD and then i would have to buy/hack an ATX psu(more $) and then buy the deneb (even more $)!.
I totally agree a deneb is a cool buy, but then it comes to much more $$$ than its price, as i have explained (I wish i had an A4000!).
I agree completely -- this doesn't sound too reasonable in this case. Anyway, I hope you'll find something joyful to spend your money on. I'd probably go for the MacMini with MorphOS, if didn't already have one and would still be interested in that field.
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Yes, sure they exist, but unfortunately not for classic Amigas :)
A friend of mine and I did some reverse engineering last xmas (and were able to get some picture even on the Amiga Classic running a Deneb):
http://floe.butterbrot.org/displaylink/doku.php
However, writing a full graphics driver is much more work that I'm not able to spend on.
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I'd go for a Mac with MorphOS. The mini is a really cute and powerful maschine. But if you want to keep the expense at a minimum the Power Macs seems a smart choice. There's also the option for very cheap eMacs G4 (their disadvanate of course is the inbuild CRT).
The 1.25 GHz Power Macs are good to get for around $/EUR100. The minis are a bit more expensive, but I like the small form factor very much. MorphOS on the mini works pretty well and having OS X seems to be not a disadvantage to me, too (but haven't booted into OS X for weeks now).
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Everybody around here used to speak with a nasal accent, but that's changing now, people who live in the city are slowly becoming less nasal. There are various explanations for it. Some say the nasal accent was really just a way of talking that kept the flies out of the mouth and now that we are mainly urbanites there's no longer need for that. if you look at the third and fourth generation farmers, you'll notice the nasal accent also corresponds to the complete lack of lip movement, so I think there's likely a relationship.
At any rate I'm not sure why Gulliver thought that the Mac would appear to country folk more, as most of the Mac stores seems to be in bigger cities or whether he was just a snob trying to make fun of rural people (We Amigans are by definition elitists), but the comment really made no sense.
I have friends who run a farm to the west of Dubbo, hot dry country bordering on the outback. It's hard, backbreaking work, if Gulliver spent a few days working with them maybe he's be less disdaining of people who live in rural areas. My guess is he wouldn't last half a day trying to keep up with these "nasal speakers" he thinks are funny.
(http://www.cm.izntdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/aussie-summer-xmas-thumb.gif)
Hi,
@persia,
I didn't expect you to take the nasal thing so hard. It is just that in America most MAC users talk nasally, especially about other types of computers. There was no insult meant to you or your friends out in the outback and besides ya all have a cute accent. Have you ever watched croc. dundee. (Why do I feel I am digging a bigger hole here).
Actually no offense meant even to apple users (although ya all talk funny).
Well gotta go before the flames come back on.
smerf
By the way Gulliver didn't make any bad remarks, he just said that he would have to pick up a nasal tone if he bought a Mac.
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2 - Buy a mac mini (Maybe install Morphos) -THIS IS YOUR WINNER
Do not do 5 !
Hi,
@TheGoose,
If you got your winner, your Goose would be cooked
smerf
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I pretty much agree with amigadave, though the mediator might be pricy if you don't already have a tower for your 1200. I've upped my 060 1200 to a mediator+tower, and haven't been happier with her! Though she does lose a bit of the console/wedge "charm" in the process. (A guy nearby my house craigslisted an A1200 that he wanted to save from the dumpster during spring cleaning, so I really lucked out on that)
Unfortunately, aside from a passing tinkering with AROS, I can only speak for the mediator, which has allowed me to use old PCI cards that I've gutted out of computers I found on the curb. (I'm not kidding here, when Vista first came out you would find old AMD Athlon/P IV grade computers all over the place on trash pick-up) I'm using a 24-bit card that I gutted out of the one on 2nd st., a sound card I found one Monroe St, and I'm not sure where I got the 100mbps card from.. Still have one slot to fill, not sure what to put in there yet....
Anyway, the performance boost was about the same (emotionally) as when I first installed my 1260 card and ran Frontier Elite II on it. MP3's take alot less CPU time, though I'm still considering getting a delfina for that. (Unless there's a PCI sound card w/ mpeg decoding that mpega.library/Amplifier supports) And the switch from a 10mbps PCMCIA to 100mbps PCI card is incredible! (Though deceptive in part due to Ibrowse/AWEB/etc... not needing to fight FBLIT for CPU time anymore, however straight downloads go faster too.) If you do get a Mediator and use GFX with it, I'd recommend a monitor with 2 inputs on it. (If you use AGA for games and stuff, keeping in mind the NTSC/PAL VGA difference, might still need a scandoubler if the monitor won't take 15khz hsync. A flatscreen TV with a VGA port would be about ideal if a scandoubler is too much, also keeping in mind the Mediator mailing list just announced HDMI/DVI drivers for GFX cards) A VGA switch+scandoubler would work (which is what i have now), but results in desktop clutter.
Sound cards are OK, though I can't really tell the difference between the AHI output when switching between the SB128 drivers and 14bPaula drivers. (Though I'm half deaf according to my wife, there may be more truth there than her being annoyed at me nodding and agreeing with her whenever I'm busy with something. :-D)
With the 100mbps cards, they're nice, but the drivers are REALLY picky. I have 7 or 8 of 'em lying about, and tried all of them. None worked. I ripped the one out of my fileserver (Basically one of the forementioned "curbside specials" loaded with hard drives, a VGA card, an NIC, and an NAS Lite boot floppy) and it worked. (I then had to swap NIC cards in/out of the NAS Lite server until I found one that worked with that....)
I've looked at the Morphos screenshots, they look nice, but I really don't know enough about Morphos to make any recommendations. Looks like it could be fun to play with, though.
What expansions would you need for AROS capability? (I've managed to install it on an old Thinkpad 390E laptop, works pretty well there. Though not the latest version for want of a DVD rom in the thing) Aros is alot of fun, has most of the more recent browsers ported to it (I believe, OWB, netsurf, etc..), and seems to combine the lightweight nature of AmigaOS with the horsepower X86 stuff can crank out, while eliminating the emulation "middle-man". (Though has UAE available I believe) I've not played with it beyone tinkering with the included demos and OS itself, though.
Personally, I wouldn't mind having a SAM, but I wouldn't be willing to hock my classics for one. :-D
Another thing to consider though, especially if your Amiga is still in a console case, would be a SubWay card, at least allowing access to USB devices. My wife especially appreciated me doing this, because she can still play Mahjong while I download pics from my camera. (And yes, she knows of the Amiga Mahjong clones.. I had to download every one I could get my hands on when her computer decided to fry her memory. Luckily it ONLY fried her memory....) Though this would only be useful if you use alot of USB stuff. (Like myself) I've gotten this to work with my wireless mouse (though I still prefer to use a mr. mysza ps/2 to Amiga + ps/2 to usb mouse adapter for this), a keyboard, SanDisk Cruzer 8GB thumbdrive, Sony Clie PDA, Kodak LCD picture frame, Netxtar (generic) portable MP3 player, and a SAMSUNG Digimax A503 digital camera to work. (though the clockport that SubWay plugs into is a bit slow, some patience is required).
Anyway, it is your money, and it really depends on where your interests lie. You have a rather fun lineup of ideas there, at any rate. :-D (And my wife isn't talking to me now, because after reading your post I asked if there were any Mac Mini's in craigslist.. hehehe...)
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@smerf
Yeah, you gotta use one of these suckers ::flame:
;)
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I pretty much agree with amigadave, though the mediator might be pricy if you don't already have a tower for your 1200. I've upped my 060 1200 to a mediator+tower, and haven't been happier with her! Though she does lose a bit of the console/wedge "charm" in the process. (A guy nearby my house craigslisted an A1200 that he wanted to save from the dumpster during spring cleaning, so I really lucked out on that)
Unfortunately, aside from a passing tinkering with AROS, I can only speak for the mediator, which has allowed me to use old PCI cards that I've gutted out of computers I found on the curb. (I'm not kidding here, when Vista first came out you would find old AMD Athlon/P IV grade computers all over the place on trash pick-up) I'm using a 24-bit card that I gutted out of the one on 2nd st., a sound card I found one Monroe St, and I'm not sure where I got the 100mbps card from.. Still have one slot to fill, not sure what to put in there yet....
Anyway, the performance boost was about the same (emotionally) as when I first installed my 1260 card and ran Frontier Elite II on it. MP3's take alot less CPU time, though I'm still considering getting a delfina for that. (Unless there's a PCI sound card w/ mpeg decoding that mpega.library/Amplifier supports) And the switch from a 10mbps PCMCIA to 100mbps PCI card is incredible! (Though deceptive in part due to Ibrowse/AWEB/etc... not needing to fight FBLIT for CPU time anymore, however straight downloads go faster too.) If you do get a Mediator and use GFX with it, I'd recommend a monitor with 2 inputs on it. (If you use AGA for games and stuff, keeping in mind the NTSC/PAL VGA difference, might still need a scandoubler if the monitor won't take 15khz hsync. A flatscreen TV with a VGA port would be about ideal if a scandoubler is too much, also keeping in mind the Mediator mailing list just announced HDMI/DVI drivers for GFX cards) A VGA switch+scandoubler would work (which is what i have now), but results in desktop clutter.
Sound cards are OK, though I can't really tell the difference between the AHI output when switching between the SB128 drivers and 14bPaula drivers. (Though I'm half deaf according to my wife, there may be more truth there than her being annoyed at me nodding and agreeing with her whenever I'm busy with something. :-D)
With the 100mbps cards, they're nice, but the drivers are REALLY picky. I have 7 or 8 of 'em lying about, and tried all of them. None worked. I ripped the one out of my fileserver (Basically one of the forementioned "curbside specials" loaded with hard drives, a VGA card, an NIC, and an NAS Lite boot floppy) and it worked. (I then had to swap NIC cards in/out of the NAS Lite server until I found one that worked with that....)
I've looked at the Morphos screenshots, they look nice, but I really don't know enough about Morphos to make any recommendations. Looks like it could be fun to play with, though.
What expansions would you need for AROS capability? (I've managed to install it on an old Thinkpad 390E laptop, works pretty well there. Though not the latest version for want of a DVD rom in the thing) Aros is alot of fun, has most of the more recent browsers ported to it (I believe, OWB, netsurf, etc..), and seems to combine the lightweight nature of AmigaOS with the horsepower X86 stuff can crank out, while eliminating the emulation "middle-man". (Though has UAE available I believe) I've not played with it beyone tinkering with the included demos and OS itself, though.
Personally, I wouldn't mind having a SAM, but I wouldn't be willing to hock my classics for one. :-D
Another thing to consider though, especially if your Amiga is still in a console case, would be a SubWay card, at least allowing access to USB devices. My wife especially appreciated me doing this, because she can still play Mahjong while I download pics from my camera. (And yes, she knows of the Amiga Mahjong clones.. I had to download every one I could get my hands on when her computer decided to fry her memory. Luckily it ONLY fried her memory....) Though this would only be useful if you use alot of USB stuff. (Like myself) I've gotten this to work with my wireless mouse (though I still prefer to use a mr. mysza ps/2 to Amiga + ps/2 to usb mouse adapter for this), a keyboard, SanDisk Cruzer 8GB thumbdrive, Sony Clie PDA, Kodak LCD picture frame, Netxtar (generic) portable MP3 player, and a SAMSUNG Digimax A503 digital camera to work. (though the clockport that SubWay plugs into is a bit slow, some patience is required).
Anyway, it is your money, and it really depends on where your interests lie. You have a rather fun lineup of ideas there, at any rate. :-D (And my wife isn't talking to me now, because after reading your post I asked if there were any Mac Mini's in craigslist.. hehehe...)
Or you can get a tv card and run the native output from amiga into that and play games on the wokbench.
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buy a 27" iMac ..lol..
Rich
ny