Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: souledout on January 07, 2004, 10:38:38 PM
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Ive got got my hands on a spanking new(ish.. :-D )
a1200...and im completely new to the whole modern amiga scene..its completely bare bones and i was wondering if anyone had any advise on how i should tweak this little baby..??
Plus any advice on how to get online(in the UK) would be lots of help too..!!
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THat depends how much money you have to burn and how far you want to go... the fist thing you have to do is get a Hard drive in there.
I suggest a small (couple of gig) second hand laptop drive.
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First of you need to get hold of at least a few things to such a baby, 1st is a decent sized 2.5" HDD (4Gb to start with is superb as you won't have much trouble with filesystems not able to acces the hole drive), 2nd is a 030 turboboard with at least 16Mb of memory and if you want to get on the internet you will have to get hold of a PCMCIA ethernetcard that is compatible with the Amigas 16bit PCMCIA port and the drivers you can find on AmiNet. I sugest you get hold of a 2.5" -> 2.5" -> 3.5" IDE cable aswell so you can plug in a CDRom.
Got that and you are well on you're way... then when you are more confident in you're Amiga choise and abilities there's PPC cards, graphiccards and soundcards, newer OS etc to go for aswell. :-)
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ive got a budget of about 300£ at the moment, but Im getting pretty nostalgic about the whole project..so who knows where its going to go..!
I didnt know you could use laptops drives though..!!
what sort of HDD sizes will the a1200 support..??
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souledout wrote:
ive got a budget of about 300£ at the moment, but Im getting pretty nostalgic about the whole project..so who knows where its going to go..!
I didnt know you could use laptops drives though..!!
what sort of HDD sizes will the a1200 support..??
Technically you can use any size of drive, but you will need to install a patch (which you can download from Aminet) to use drives bigger than 4gig
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@souledout
Welcome to A.org :-D
I didnt know you could use laptops drives though..!!
In fact, they're what the A1200 is designed for. You can modify it to accept normal ones, but it's a bit messy.
what sort of HDD sizes will the a1200 support..??
By default, there's a limit of something like 4Gb (check with someone else - I'm unsure), but a later version of the OS or a patch can be used to get round that.
---edit---
Looks like Bloodline beat me to it :evil: :-P
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Ok great, how easy is it to install the drive once i get one......can anyone reccomend a good beginers guide to this sort of thing, so i dont have to bug youa ll with all these anoying questions.. :-D
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Hello there.
Firstly, your in the UK, so a couple of handy websites;
Amibench (http://www.amibench.com)
Pretty much the best place to find 2nd hand amiga bits for sale.
Also,
Eyetech (http://www.eyetech.co.uk/)
Are one of the best places to get new Amiga bits :-)
Okay then. As others have said, the easiest thing to do is buy a second hand laptop hardrive. These use a smaller, 2.5", IDE connector, whilst CD-ROM drives and ordinary PC hard drives use a larger 3.5" connector, which you can still use in your a1200, but you'll need an adpter, and probably to modify your case so that it'll fit :-) Finally ,you really want a hard drive thats 4gb or les, as the built in filesystem can't handle bigger drives, so you'd have to sort that out. You can always add a bigger harddrive later and copy over your install and ad a new FS.
EDIT: Damn, 2 people beat me to it! :-P
RIghty then. Next, as others have said, an accelerator. The built in CPU is to frank ,rubbish nowdays.
Amigas use Motorola processors numbered 680x0. the built in one is a 68020 with no maths processor. I'd recommend at least a board with a 68030 and an FPU (maths processor) and that it has or you get hold of at least 16mb RAM for the board. Although a 68040 with built in FPU would be better. Still at least 16mb RAM though.
For getting on the net, you need a PCMIA modem that works with the amiga.
The site mentioned above, Aminet (http://www.aminet.net)
is the biggest source for amiga shareware, freeware, drivers, etc so i'd look there to see what cards work.
Oh, this isn't meant to put you off, but go to Sabrina Online (http://www.sabrina-online.com)
click 'Archive' and look at the oldest comic going to see what your up against trying to get on the net ^_^ :-D
I'm sure it's easier than that lets on though, and there's people here to help as well :-)
Well, hopefully this will help a bit :-)
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souledout wrote:
Ok great, how easy is it to install the drive once i get one......can anyone reccomend a good beginers guide to this sort of thing, so i dont have to bug youa ll with all these anoying questions.. :-D
Quite easy. Just open up the case and pop the drive in the cradle that you will see.
You might need a cable though... but they are really cheap.
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This is all great stuff...!!! Thanks for your help,
i never realised the amiga had no only survived..but infact thrived
Ill go on the lookout for a HDD asap.....ive been offered an 80meg one for 10£ but im guessing that would be a bit of waste of time
Ill try and get my hands on a modem asap, as i can see this is going to be the EASIEST way to get my hands on the software im going to need,also it seems slot of the stuff is pretty easy to get going..!
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souledout wrote:
This is all great stuff...!!! Thanks for your help,
i never realised the amiga had no only survived..but infact thrived
Ill go on the lookout for a HDD asap.....ive been offered an 80meg one for 10£ but im guessing that would be a bit of waste of time
Ill try and get my hands on a modem asap, as i can see this is going to be the EASIEST way to get my hands on the software im going to need,also it seems slot of the stuff is pretty easy to get going..!
I forgot to say:-
Welcome to Amiga Org, you came to the right place :-D
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Aah, indeed, good point!
Welcome to the board :-)
Getting a modem may not be the easiest. If it's only little bits you need to transfer, Amiga can read 720K PC disks :-)
Hooking up a CD-ROM drive and using CD-R (or RW's if amiga can read them, I think it can) may be easier on the short term :-)
Somebody else here though could tell you which should be the route to go down though
And the amiga is definately still kicking!
It will survive! (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/george.sharp1/SurSmall.jpg) :-D
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Ok...getting a cd-rom might be the answer ! Ive seen some advertised on the site that was recommeded, Im really looking forward to getting my hands on some of the old calssics i used to play when i was a kid
Im also looking forwrd to seeing how it performs compared to my PC, i know amigas were always better at multitasking and now with all the exapnsion available it should be eve more interesting..!!
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souledout wrote:
Ok...getting a cd-rom might be the answer ! Ive seen some advertised on the site that was recommeded, Im really looking forward to getting my hands on some of the old calssics i used to play when i was a kid
Im also looking forwrd to seeing how it performs compared to my PC, i know amigas were always better at multitasking and now with all the exapnsion available it should be eve more interesting..!!
Classics eh?
http://www.back2roots.org (http://www.back2roots.org)
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Before you do buy a CD-ROM drive, you will still need to transfer over by some other method a CD filesystem, which can be got from Aminet. However, this is small enough to fit on a 720K floppy disk if I remember right, so it'll be the only time you have to do it.
And any PC CD-ROM drive wil work pretty much.
I'd wait for some other members to confirm what i'm saying as well, been a while since I messed with my amiga
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Thats right...the CLASSICS.. :-D
ive been drooling over these actaully..!!
http://snipurl.com/3pi0
the HOURS of my adolesence i wasted on these .. :-D
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Ok..looks like that AMINET site is going to be pretty handy, i can see this getting pretty complicated but hey what did i expect.. ;-)
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Heh, geting started is the complicated bit. Once the first couple of things are in place (hard drive and CD-ROM), it all becomes not so bad after that.
I think http://www.aminet.net/disk/cdrom/amicdfs240.lha
is the filesystem you want, but can someone tell me if I got this right or not? Cheers ^_^
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@ souledout
Welcome to Amiga.org and welcome back to the Amiga. Enjoy your stay here and good luck with 'retro gaming'. :-)
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@souledout
If I was in your shoes with a bog standard A1200 here is what I would do...
first off, get a set of 3.1 roms and OS3.9
get an external CD-Rom drive and a small (2GB would do) internal 2.5" IDE HDD and something like a blizzard 030/50 with 32mb of ram, imo 16 is just a bit too small..
as for getting onto the internet, any old serial modem will work...
If you do go the OS3.9 route get in touch with me again and i'll send you some things in the post that'll help you on your way.
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Looks like gettin my hands on a modem isnt going to be to much hassle !
http://snipurl.com/3pyx
look slike quite a good deal as well.!!
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It'd help you no end to be able to find information on-line to help . . . . try- The Big Book of Amiga Hardware (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/), in particular their info defining the differences, i.e.- A1200HD model (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/a1200hd.html) and the accelerators that there are to choose from- A1200 Accelerators (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/a1200accel.html).
Many have expanded their A1200s though the use of Tower cases (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/towerkit.html) that, although costing money, can simplify the adding of expansion slot-busses, drives, and heftier power supplies! The original Power Supply soon comes up short if even extra Hard Drives, or CD-Rom Drives, are added to an accelerator!
(http://www.amiga-hardware.com/eztowermk4.jpg)
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WOAH, is that a miggy? three cd's, a removable hard drive, two floopies, a midi or something?
oh yeah, don't trust ryu :-)
read this (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gline/Ryu/piglet/) :-D
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I like the Idea of a tower case, but from what ive seen it woyld blow my budget right out of the water.. :-D
Plus im not sure if i need THAT much expansion space.! dont want my project to start breaking the bank.. ;-)
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if u ask me...
get an accelerator card (030 with minimum 16 mb ram , but theese days thanks to HAYMIGGA (here on amiga.org) you get 128mb simms for VERY little money)
next get OS3.9 and 3.1 roms (hardware).
and if you want to use a cheap 3.5 Hdd then you can do that by getting an EIDE99 or simmilar , but the prob here is, the hdds are too big for the a1200 case so normally u would have to put the hdd ourside of the a1200 (and that looks abit messy)..
also.. an NOrmal PC PSU (atx or at) is something you should consider aswell (some minor cabling is needed)..
anyway.. quick ref:
1. Os3.9 (operative system...)
2. 3,1 Roms (hardware roms to update hw to work with os3.9)
3. Hdd (either 2.5 (laptop pc style) or 3.5 (normal)
4. Cdrom
5. PSU
6. Accelerator..
none of theese above is REALLY needed but i recomend them to you as it will make your experience so much cooler..
cheers
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can i use an external PSU to make up the difference..?? i can get my hands on an ols a500 external supply will this work...??
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anyone who thinks an A600 isnt expandable should gohere (http://www.a600.de)
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HopperJF wrote:
anyone who thinks an A600 isnt expandable should gohere (http://www.a600.de)
But ony if you speak German.
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HopperJF wrote:
anyone who thinks an A600 isnt expandable should gohere (http://www.a600.de)
Sure you don't mean Amiga600.de (http://www.amiga600.de/) ;-)
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In reference to internal 3.5" hard drives in a 1200, this can be done with relative ease. I gave up on fitting a 2.5" drive in my rebuilt 1200 desktop model because I couldn't find a 44pin cable anywhere, and didn't want to pay to ship one from the UK.
You'll need a 44pin to 40pin IDE cable (a 2.5" to 3.5" kit should work, too), and the hard drive must be a slim-type (About the same thickness as a 3.5" floppy drive, less if possible). Get rid of the 2.5" drive cradle, and the drive will rest nicely underneath the keyboard ribbon. Don't forget to add some insulation between the drive and the RF shielding!
Also, for external CD-ROMs, you may need an updated device driver and a buffered IDE interface. I use the IDEFix-97 package, but this isn't available anymore. Someone else can probably fill you in on what options are currently available.
One last option is a CD drive in the PCMCIA port. You can avoid all that IDE fussiness, but these are hard to come by, and you won't be able to use a network card in there. Since it seems like you're going the modem route, that might not be an issue.
Have fun, and welcome. :-)
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just a quick note, well 2 really...
1) you can use ANY modem, so long as it uses the serial interface, you can pick up a £5 secondhand 33k3 modem plug it in and off you go.. i might have a 56k modem laying around here if you want...
2) you can fit a 3.5" HDD into a desktop case easily, even the huge old style 3.5" HDD will fit, I have a very old very large 512mb IBM drive mounted in one of the A1200's I own, and it fits...
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Hey there!
A 2.5' Hard Drive over 2Gig will actually work quite happily in an A1200 but only if it is seperated into partitions of no greater than 2Gig each.
I would advise a tower conversion as this gives you a boosted power supply and negates the need for external CD rom drives and stuff which can be a little expensive. Eyetech do a decent tower kit for a little under 200 pounds.
If this is a too expensive then i would advise using an old A500 PSU with your A1200 as the standard A1200 PSU is a bit crappy and may not supply enough power to your Amiga to power your HD and CD rom. There are two types of A500 PSU's one is quite light and one is about the weight of a house brick, it is this one you want.
An 030 is a fairly good Accellerator to use these can be found relatively cheaply, but an 040 or an 060 are better but can be difficult to find and expensive. Be warned though, these boards may not work with newer RAM SIMMS (such as DDR, Eyetech supply Amiga Accellerator board compatible RAM for a price) and some only allow you to fit around 16 or 32mb of RAM.
If you buy an external CDROM drive, try to choose an IDE one rather than an SCSI one. An SCSI one requires a piece of equipment called a Squirrell which plugs into the side of your A1200. The Squirrell has problems with certain types of Accellerator boards when fitted with over 4mb of RAM and won't work. An IDE one would be a better option (and cheaper) again Eyetech is really the place to go.
One last thing 3.1 ROM chips are definately a good idea, these can be found for around 30 pounds.
Hope i could be of some help :-D