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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: XDelusion on March 17, 2010, 04:45:06 AM
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I've seen these on Ebay as of late, and was wondering if they are worth the near $100 they are posted for.
I own an Amiga 600 and would certainly like to have more RAM.
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Nope.
The PCMCIA interface is sloooow, hence this memory will be slooow.
Don't settle on 2MB, go for 8MB (http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=42262) instead ;)
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How much do 8Mb cards run for? And are you saying this is too slow to be of any use with OctaMED sound studio?
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The A608 will be a great upgrade when they're finally available, but it could be quite some time before a second batch of them are made, and the first batch (which are already preordered/taken) is only just going into production now.
A 2MB SRAM card will in fact speed up your A600 very slightly, although it will slow an A1200 down. Here are some SysInfo results from a test I did:
A600 (2MB Chip, No FastRAM)
526 Dhrystones
0.54 MIPS
A600 (2MB Chip, 2MB PCMCIA SRAM)
699 Dhrystones
0.72 MIPS
Upgrading my A600 to a total of 4MB RAM has allowed me to play hundreds of WHDLoad games which wouldn't work before, as well as giving me more memory to work with when I have multiple applications running. I think they are definitely worth getting if you have an A600 and you don't want to wait possibly another year for a chance to grab an A608. But $100 is a lot! How about $39.98? That softens the blow a little doesn't it? You can buy them from Memory Ten, it's where I got mine from.
http://www.memoryx.net/bgz.html
I just hope nobody goes and buys them all up to resell, this is the cheapest place I've found in the world to get them and I think all A600 owners should have the chance to get one at a good price.
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That is exactly the sort of information I needed. Thankx Cammy!
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AFAIK A608 design is based on Vadim's A600 8MB expansion design. I have the 2008 year model and it's great, I can use up to 5.5MB of fast ram with PCMCIA or 8MB without PCMCIA. http://lvd.nedopc.com/Projects/a600_8mb_2/index.html
If you have the chance to buy it do it! don't waste your time with pcmcia memory upgrades
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It's a shame the A608 can't automatically switch between 8 and 5.5MB when the PCMCIA slot is in use, or by use of a software patch like the DKB 1202. Changing the jumper all the time would get annoying for some people (probably not me though since my A600 is always unscrewed for me to open up and tinker with).
Still, the availablility of the A608 is the big problem. Get one if you can, but if you can't wait for it a 2MB SRAM card will do the job!
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PCMCIA w/ CF card is faster than IDE:
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=51385
I do not follow the myths of PCMCIA, used as hard drive, fast. As memory, I dunno.
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Use PCMCIA "fast" RAM as a last resort. It is better than nothing - but not by much.
I tried one on an A1200 years ago, and was less than pleased with the results. The A600 is a different story though.
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It's a shame the A608 can't automatically switch between 8 and 5.5MB when the PCMCIA slot is in use, or by use of a software patch like the DKB 1202. Changing the jumper all the time would get annoying for some people (probably not me though since my A600 is always unscrewed for me to open up and tinker with).
Still, the availablility of the A608 is the big problem. Get one if you can, but if you can't wait for it a 2MB SRAM card will do the job!
I couldn't see how to have the case open and closed several times on an A600 without the clips at the back breaking - bloody stupid design on the A600/A1200. I think screws would be much better!
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Yes, and thanx again Cammy for the heads up on the $40 card.
Yes, I put one into my 1200. Yes, it slows it down a bit.
However, it allows me to run many whdload programs that didn't work before at all.
At about $45 with shipping, I think it was worth it for now.
Would an RAM card be better? Of course, but those are hard to find and seem to cost (so far at least) a lot more than double what I paid for for the SRAM card.
A processor accelerator with RAM would be great, but again, usually much much more.
So for now, I have the 2M PCMCIA SRAM card. It's working for me now for what I need. I do plan on getting some FAST RAM for my 1200 eventually.
But I can now afford to wait and see if I can get a really good deal.
And who knows, with the money I have saved, I might just keep my 1200 with the 2M PCMCIA and instead of a CPU/RAM card, get an FPGA Arcade or something???
desiv
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It's a shame the A608 can't automatically switch between 8 and 5.5MB when the PCMCIA slot is in use, or by use of a software patch like the DKB 1202. Changing the jumper all the time would get annoying for some people (probably not me though since my A600 is always unscrewed for me to open up and tinker with).
Still, the availablility of the A608 is the big problem. Get one if you can, but if you can't wait for it a 2MB SRAM card will do the job!
interesting you mentioned this.. the A608 I recently bought from EBay is missing the jumpers, but has solder and some frayed wire on all 4 posts. I am wondering if the previous owner hooked up a switch to go between 8 and 5.5 megs during use of the PCMCIA slot.
I also have an 2Meg SRAM card from when the 600 was released. I'll have to do a speed comparision between the PCMCIA card and 608.
it's a shame most of the internal mods requires getting rid of the metal shield.
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@cammy
yeah, it would be nice to be able to configure the memory of the card using software... but it's great anyway. I talked with Vadim some time ago and he told me he was thinking about doing a similar card for A500 and also add an emulated Gayle IDE although I guess he's pretty busy with real life :_(
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While PCMCIA RAM is (nearly) fast enough for a 7 MHz A600 (16 bit bus), it puts a heavy brake on the A1200's 14 MHZ 32 bit CPU (<25% speed of trapdoor fast RAM).
In other words: it's OK for the 600 but it'll occupy the single slot that might also be useful for e.g. a NIC.
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it's OK for the 600 but it'll occupy the single slot that might also be useful for e.g. a NIC.
A NIC on a 2Mbyte A600? Hardly useful.
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A NIC on a 2Mbyte A600? Hardly useful.
True - forgot about the limitations of such a small machine. Once you do add one of the rare accelerator boards you need to get rid of the SRAM card anyway.
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A NIC on a 2Mbyte A600? Hardly useful.
For you possibly... :griping: :)
I seem to remember we thought localtalk was great, and it was only 230.4 kbit/s.
Or are you thinking the only thing you can do with a network is browse the web? :roflmao:
Personally, I prefer network file transfers to PCMCIA based, even if they are slower... But that's just me..
desiv
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Okay, and now a question about possible problems one can counter when using a 2nd hand pcmcia ram card. I have here two 4 Mb cards, one with no brand which Prepcard does not recognize, the other is recognized as a Sundisk with several other parameters but when I click on 'use it as Ram' or 'use it as disk' then I get the error which sounds a bit like 'error while writing to disk' ... I did do a quick search for a possible write protect switch but couldn't find any, so I did a close search but couldn't find any either ... any bright ideas ???
The first one also tend to get hot so in a way I think it may be toast ...
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Okay, and now a question about possible problems one can counter when using a 2nd hand pcmcia ram card. I have here two 4 Mb cards, one with no brand which Prepcard does not recognize, the other is recognized as a Sundisk with several other parameters but when I click on 'use it as Ram' or 'use it as disk' then I get the error which sounds a bit like 'error while writing to disk' ... I did do a quick search for a possible write protect switch but couldn't find any, so I did a close search but couldn't find any either ... any bright ideas ???
The first one also tend to get hot so in a way I think it may be toast ...
Are they real SRAM cards? If so, you don't need the PrepCard program.
PCMCIA SRAM cards configure themselves.
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I got one of these 2MB SRAM cards for my 600 project for $25 once, I thought it was worth that much. Now if I could just remember where I left it...
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Adding this : when I try to use the first 4 Mb card as a Disk or Ram then the computer freezes and only a reset will bring the workbench back ... so I guess that one may be useless ...
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A NIC on a 2Mbyte A600? Hardly useful.
Come on, that's unfair, unless your 2MB A600 has no hard drive. Otherwise, a NIC is immeasurably more useful than a floppy disk drive when you want to transfer files between machines.
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The A608 will be a great upgrade when they're finally available, but it could be quite some time before a second batch of them are made, and the first batch (which are already preordered/taken) is only just going into production now.
A 2MB SRAM card will in fact speed up your A600 very slightly, although it will slow an A1200 down. Here are some SysInfo results from a test I did:
A600 (2MB Chip, No FastRAM)
526 Dhrystones
0.54 MIPS
A600 (2MB Chip, 2MB PCMCIA SRAM)
699 Dhrystones
0.72 MIPS
Upgrading my A600 to a total of 4MB RAM has allowed me to play hundreds of WHDLoad games which wouldn't work before, as well as giving me more memory to work with when I have multiple applications running. I think they are definitely worth getting if you have an A600 and you don't want to wait possibly another year for a chance to grab an A608. But $100 is a lot! How about $39.98? That softens the blow a little doesn't it? You can buy them from Memory Ten, it's where I got mine from.
http://www.memoryx.net/bgz.html
I just hope nobody goes and buys them all up to resell, this is the cheapest place I've found in the world to get them and I think all A600 owners should have the chance to get one at a good price.
Hi Cammy, guys
I've had a look around http://www.memoryx.net/bgz.html but I'm having trouble finding the 4Mb SRAM PCMCIA memory you mentioned - are they sold out?
I've just arrived back from the UK (still jetlagged), with an A600 I snagged there (and assorted UK 8bit machines) that I've added a CF drive to. I have 2Mb chip RAM, but that's about it, so I'm having issues getting games to run outside the CLI. I've had an A1000 for almost 20 years, but it's gone back into the cupboard as I can't get a hold of any flash hard drives for it. I'm really disappointed at this - I can readily get flash HDs for my 8bit BBC machine. Developers seem to be a bit thin on the ground in the Amiga scene, whereas retrofit kits seem to be in abundance on eBay for the Acorn BBC (RetroClinic in particular are amazing - adding IDE and USB interfaces to a 1982-era machine).
Any idea where can find suitable SRAM modules for my A600?
Thanks
Steve
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I bought a while ago an A608 Version 2007 from E-bay. I had some trouble to get it working on my A600 rev 1.5 board. I told the seller that it doesn't work and bought another one. The seller is Spock-79 and you can order it from A1k.org. It is a German site. You can still order it. This version can't be set with a jumper. You need to program the CLPD chip to use 8 or 4 MB.
http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?t=22064
The second one pressed to hard on it and broke the connector. I let it repaired by a friend and now it works on my old board.
Meanwhile I bought two A600 boards. One died after few hours and the second one a bought it from a German Amiga store Vesalia. The last one still works.
Now I have two A600's with A608's with 4MB fastmem, A603's and 4GB CF HD.
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Shortly after I posted the link to the 2MB PCMCIA SRAM cards they were all sold out. I have a feeling someone bought up the remaining stock intending to sell them back to the Amiga community for a profit. Ever since, no one I have seen on any forums has posted anywhere else to buy them at a decent price. :(
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I have a feeling someone bought up the remaining stock intending to sell them back to the Amiga community for a profit.
Yep par for the course and that's why I keep my links quiet. I also don't buy out stock to resell on ebay.
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A NIC on a 2Mbyte A600? Hardly useful.
Nic in A600 with 4 mb fast is very useful.
My a600 and aweb browser - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5r7om_VSNc
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Aw that's pretty poor behaviour, buying up all stock. BY the way, would a 6Mb CF card work? I wouldn't care if the remaining 2Mb was locked off after the 4Mb limit, as long as the thing worked.
Thanks guys.
:elvis:
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Aw that's pretty poor behaviour, buying up all stock. BY the way, would a 6Mb CF card work? I wouldn't care if the remaining 2Mb was locked off after the 4Mb limit, as long as the thing worked.
Thanks guys.
:elvis:
It doesn't work like that. (http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=54288&highlight=compact+flash)
Don't know about sizes of SRAM larger than 4MB either, and I'd also watch out for Melcards like this Melcard 8MB card (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mitsubishi-MELCARD-8MB-Linear-memory-card-8KB-Attribute-/320585158343?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aa45d4ec7) which probably WOULDN'T work (note it doesn't say SRAM... just linear in the ad and EEPROM on the card - true SRAM cards usually have SRAM written on them and don't mention "Flash" :) )
FWIW I've just bought a 4MB PSRAM card in the UK that I needed a second mortgage for. It's improved the performance on my A600 from 0.55 MIPS to 0.72 MIPS.
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Thanks for the advice, guys. I've just bought a 2Mb SRAM card. Wasn't cheap, but will be worth it when I get it. After all, two weeks ago I carried my A600 (plus p/s) in a backpack all the way from the UK. Had to take it out for security heaps of times on the way home. Got some curious looks.
Especially as I also had a Spectrum+ and an Acorn Electron. Do love my 8bit Acorns -I've got a BBC B, a BBC+64K, a BBC Master and a Master Compact (plus spare chips, parts etc), and 2 Acorn Electrons. All working. ;)
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Best way to experience retro CF games goodness... I snagged an A1200 from eBay. Why did I bother dragging an A600 through Customs?
Almost all of the games on CF work without a hitch, unlike on my A600 - only 3 in 10 worked. Walker is just as good as I remembered. Now Wings finally works, which relates to my current PC Rise Of Flight obsession. Now I just need to upgrade my SRAM card to a 4Mb+ trapdoor expansion, and I can dip into the AGA stuff.....