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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: runequester on June 27, 2010, 07:58:13 AM
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so if I was to trick out my Amiga 2000 to use as a workstation sort of deal, including some basic web browsing etc, what sort of equipment should I be looking for?
I figure I'll need:
Accelerator/RAM card
RTG card
Network card
Something that'll let me hook up a hard drive and possibly CD ROM
Any suggestions for the above ? Both in terms of which are great and what is actually possible to find :)
Anything Im forgetting?
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so if I was to trick out my Amiga 2000 to use as a workstation sort of deal, including some basic web browsing etc, what sort of equipment should I be looking for?
I figure I'll need:
Accelerator/RAM card
RTG card
Network card
Something that'll let me hook up a hard drive and possibly CD ROM
Any suggestions for the above ? Both in terms of which are great and what is actually possible to find :)
Anything Im forgetting?
You could see if softhut still has the TekMagic A2000 060/50MHz and GVP Spectrum. For Networking and other options, maybe go with the Deneb usb controller with USB networking.
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A must is 060 (Blizzard or TekMagic and others) or 040, any gfx card supported by CGX3/4 or Picasso'96, Deneb USB (you get usb, lan etc.). For HD (and CD/DVD) buy conventer IDE2SCSI2 and get IDE drivers. Of course ROM 3.1 + WB 3.1 or better 3.9.
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GVP 2060 (http://www.softhut.com/cgi-bin/test/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=catalog/hardware/accelerators/gvp_tekmagic.html&cart_id=3326631_18766) GVP Spectrum (http://www.softhut.com/cgi-bin/test/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=catalog/hardware/accelerators/gvp_spectrum.html&cart_id=3326631_18766).
The Spectrum is supported under RTG according to bboah (http://www.bboah.com/index.php?sid=84219&lang=en&action=artikel&cat=57&id=2426&artlang=en).
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GVP 2060 (http://www.softhut.com/cgi-bin/test/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=catalog/hardware/accelerators/gvp_tekmagic.html&cart_id=3326631_18766) GVP Spectrum (http://www.softhut.com/cgi-bin/test/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=catalog/hardware/accelerators/gvp_spectrum.html&cart_id=3326631_18766).
The Spectrum is supported under RTG according to bboah (http://www.bboah.com/index.php?sid=84219&lang=en&action=artikel&cat=57&id=2426&artlang=en).
looks awesome but yikes, pretty pricey :)
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I've used the Spectrum, it's a decent board and does do RTG nicely. I'd almost say having an RTG board is more important than a crazy accelerator, I think you get more for your money.
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Is there any sort of ethernet card for the amiga, or do I need to figure out something through the USB route ?
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This is a bargain, I'd grab it but I have all I need.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Amiganet-Rev1-1-Ethernet-Card-Amiga-Computers-/150460534475?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2308258ecb
Simple AUI to RJ45 transceiver and you're all set.
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TekMagic A2000 060/50MHz
I'd stay clear of the TekMagic if possible and get the Blizzard 2060. The TekMagic needs the three finger salute on software resets in order to boot and the SCSI controller can only boot from FFS partitions.
It is something you can live with, but can get annoying in the end. It did for me so I decided to ditch the A2000. The SCSI controller on the TekMagic is super fast though, so it's not all bad.
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This is a bargain, I'd grab it but I have all I need.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Amiganet-Rev1-1-Ethernet-Card-Amiga-Computers-/150460534475?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2308258ecb
Simple AUI to RJ45 transceiver and you're all set.
Look at that monster! Compare that to my PC's wireless card which is about the size of credit card.
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I'd get the GVP 060 accelerator from Software Hut if still available. Instead of worrying with SCSI and hard drives, I'd get a Deneb and boot and operate the machine from USB memory stick. That's what I've done with my 2000 and 3000 because I got tired of old SCSI drives failing on me. Will do the same with my 4000 as soon as I get my motherboard problems sorted there.
The newly manufactured Spectrum RTG boards from Software Hut should also be considered. I just got one for my 3000. My 2000 has an old Toaster card and a Personal Animation Recorder board in it, so I may skip the RTG route on this old workhorse of a beast. Definitely look at the Indivision ECS board so you can use modern, flicker-free monitors. I got this because my old 1084 monitors were failing quicker than my old SCSI hard drives.
The Mini Megi Chip thingie from AmigaKit should also be worthwhile. I have an older solution that does the same thing (gives 2 megs of chip ram).
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have you had any problems running with a usb stick as a hard drive or is it pretty straight forward ?
Also, if the machine is going to primarily run applications, and use RTG, will I get a lot of mileage out of the expanded chip memory ?
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I'd stay clear of the TekMagic if possible and get the Blizzard 2060. The TekMagic needs the three finger salute on software resets in order to boot and the SCSI controller can only boot from FFS partitions.
It is something you can live with, but can get annoying in the end. It did for me so I decided to ditch the A2000. The SCSI controller on the TekMagic is super fast though, so it's not all bad.
Good advice if you can find a 2060. I had some Friends in RMAU that hat the Tekmagic and they never complained. Plus if SoftHut actually has them...
I had a rev 4.2 A2000 with fatter agnus, PP&S 040/28/32MB RAM, CV64/3D, Hydra Ethernet, GVP 4008 SCSI with GURUROM and 4MB fast ram. That was a very nice 2000 system! The only real drawback was that the SCSI was on the Z2 bus. Too bad the 1084 decided to die and take out the 2000 in the process. I ended selling or giving away all the parts. What a nice system though!
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Also, if the machine is going to primarily run applications, and use RTG, will I get a lot of mileage out of the expanded chip memory ?
Generally if you have enough fast ram, then you won't need to worry about chip ram so much when you're using RTG.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Amiga-Picasso-II-Video-Card-/250657513275
There's a great RTG card for the 2000 at a decent price. Better than the Spectrum, I'd say.
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Look at that monster! Compare that to my PC's wireless card which is about the size of credit card.
Look at this and weep:
(http://www.reichelt.de?ACTION=13;PIC=1;ARTID=99944;WIDTH=300;HEIGHT=300)
(Yes, it's 802.11n - and it's cheap.)
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Generally if you have enough fast ram, then you won't need to worry about chip ram so much when you're using RTG.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Amiga-Picasso-II-Video-Card-/250657513275
There's a great RTG card for the 2000 at a decent price. Better than the Spectrum, I'd say.
I would say to expand the chip ram to 1mb no matter what you do. I'd not worry about the super denise if I was going RTG.
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Look at this and weep:
(http://www.reichelt.de?ACTION=13;PIC=1;ARTID=99944;WIDTH=300;HEIGHT=300)
(Yes, it's 802.11n - and it's cheap.)
So what :)
I have wireless PCMCIA for my 1200 which is the size of a credit card :)
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here's another question:
Lets say I get a card like the GVP 2060. This can take up to 128 mb RAM.
Would it be possible to add more ram in the zorro 2 slots or no?
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Question is, why would you want to? I seriously doubt you would ever get near using all 128Mb of ram on a 68k Amiga.
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Question is, why would you want to? I seriously doubt you would ever get near using all 128Mb of ram on a 68k Amiga.
At this point, Im mostly just wondering what routes to take and what is possible.
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With 128Mb of fast ram you're going to be in a position where its more likely you'll run out of chipram before reaching the limits on the fast. Even with the Spectrum onboard you're gong to struggle to use it all. Also given the costs involved, even if it were possible to add more via the Z2 slots, that is a slot you have essentially wasted. Get a USB or a eithernet board before you start thinking about doing things "because I can".
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You can add 8 MB of ZorroII RAM, but the space is shared with the GFX gard, so Spectrum leaves 6 MB available. It may act as safety margin if you somehow fill the accelerator RAM totally - and you see the machine to crawl with the max 3.5 MB/s ZorroII speed. Done it with my A500T/060/128MB Blizzard RAM + 4 MB Oktagon ZorroII RAM just to see the slowness...
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Better solution is VMEM, on my Blizzard 2060 with FastSCSI2 and IDE HDD (by converter IDEtoSCSI) I have 8,5 MB/s, so it is much faster than Fast Ram on Zorro II.
And Deneb is a must, usb lan card will cost you only 5$. :) And you can connect modern wireless keyboard/mouse, pendrives, hdd etc. Plus you can make your own custom kickstart and put it on Deneb.
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If you want to do web browsing I could suggest getting a cheapy SFF Pentium 4 PC motherboard with a PWR Supply and nice display card. Running AROS, or for better mainstream browser compatibility an unbranded Amiga pimped full XP theme and WinUAE. A very cheap starter and it'll do what you're after X times faster than a 060 Amiga 2000.
But it won’t really be an Amiga. Will it..
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With 128Mb of fast ram you're going to be in a position where its more likely you'll run out of chipram before reaching the limits on the fast. Even with the Spectrum onboard you're gong to struggle to use it all. Also given the costs involved, even if it were possible to add more via the Z2 slots, that is a slot you have essentially wasted. Get a USB or a eithernet board before you start thinking about doing things "because I can".
yeah, you are probably right :)
If you want to do web browsing I could suggest getting a cheapy SFF Pentium 4 PC motherboard with a PWR Supply and nice display card. Running AROS, or for better mainstream browser compatibility an unbranded Amiga pimped full XP theme and WinUAE. A very cheap starter and it'll do what you're after X times faster than a 060 Amiga 2000.
But it won’t really be an Amiga. Will it..
The whole idea is to do it on an amiga :) I already have a linux pc that can do any "serious" internet stuff i need just fine. This is for fun
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have you had any problems running with a usb stick as a hard drive or is it pretty straight forward ?
Also, if the machine is going to primarily run applications, and use RTG, will I get a lot of mileage out of the expanded chip memory ?
No problems with operating from USB sticks, though it took me a little bit of headscratching to figure out how to set it up. Then I ran across a thread on this forum (I think) telling me how to flash the Deneb firmware with what is necessary to boot from USB stick.
And I figure there's two things in life you can't get enough of. I won't mention one, but the other is chip RAM in an Amiga. :-) But you're right -- RTG board will alleviate your dependency on it for a lot of stuff.