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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Jamesplease on October 24, 2019, 11:16:58 AM

Title: Help for a noob
Post by: Jamesplease on October 24, 2019, 11:16:58 AM
Hey guys,

I have an Amiga 1200. I want to add an  8mb accelerator and a 16 GB SD card but I have no idea what I'm doing.

Do I need a compact flash to ide adapter? And if so which one?

 Or do I need a ide cable for CF adapter?

Could anyone give me a step by step break down of what I need to do?

Any help for a noob would be appreciated


 
Title: Re: Help for a noob
Post by: darksun9210 on October 24, 2019, 01:13:24 PM
hey there,
i found this for your SD card solution. looks like an all in one thing that plugs on to the IDE port, so no need for cables! i might investigate something like this myself soon as compact flash cards are becoming a bit thin on the ground these days...
http://amigaonthelake.com/amsider-sd-adapter/ (http://amigaonthelake.com/amsider-sd-adapter/)

and i found this for your 8meg ram expansion - that'll go in the trapdoor bay of your 1200

https://amigastore.eu/en/698-amiga-1200-8mb-fast-ram-expansion.html (https://amigastore.eu/en/698-amiga-1200-8mb-fast-ram-expansion.html)

a CF card adapter won't fit an SD card, as the two are different both physically and logically. where a CF card adaptor wins is it can be totally passive, and not need any chippery at all to interface with the IDE port, as the card itself is an IDE device. So the adapter can be super cheap.
The SD card has a different interface, so i'd imagine it at least needs a buffer chip to turn the 16bit IDE transfers into a 1 or 2 bit serial-like feed into and out of the SD card itself.  But SD cards are easy to come by these days so that's where SD cards win.

whats the aim of the game? set yourself up a WHDLoad machine?

[edit] i just saw the word "accelerator" in your original post. the only option right this second are these i guess, unless anyone else has any ideas?

https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/shop/product/ACA12xx.html (https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/shop/product/ACA12xx.html)
Title: Re: Help for a noob
Post by: Jamesplease on October 24, 2019, 03:13:52 PM
Thanks for your reply. I will get that 8mb expansion. Thats helpful.

but you've definitely underestimated my noob-iness. My knowledge of Amiga's is still stuck in 1993. If I have any chance of getting out of the 90's I'll need to be spoon fed. (sad but true)

At this stage I just want to set up a WHDLoad machine but I dont really know which path to take to get there.

so basically:
1) 8mb expansion from Amigastore
2)Amsider+SD adapter
3)buy a SD card


Title: Re: Help for a noob
Post by: darksun9210 on October 28, 2019, 02:46:34 PM
yeah looks good so far. how are you looking at building the software on the A1200?

might be worth getting a card reader on a PC so you can take snapshots of known good drive/card images...
Title: Re: Help for a noob
Post by: Jamesplease on November 01, 2019, 02:07:29 PM
When I wrote the first post I thought a CF card and an SD card were the same thing and that SD just stood for SanDisk.

I just bought a monitor of this dude. Luckily he has offered to copy his image, which has 1000's of games,  to my SD card. That should help a lot.   
Title: Re: Help for a noob
Post by: Jamesplease on November 18, 2019, 07:37:20 AM
Would I have to upgrade the roms at all?
Title: Re: Help for a noob
Post by: amigakit on November 18, 2019, 09:02:16 AM
Welcome to our forum.

We offer a good value SD card adapter with cable with low cost shipping to Australia:

(https://amigakit.amiga.store/images/sd_ide_adapter_sm.jpg) (https://amigakit.amiga.store/product_info.php?products_id=12672&currency=AUD)

https://amigakit.amiga.store/product_info.php?products_id=12672&currency=AUD

We also offer SD cards:

(https://amigakit.amiga.store/images/sd_card_double_tick_logo_sm.jpg) (https://amigakit.amiga.store/product_info.php?products_id=863&currency=AUD)
Title: Re: Help for a noob
Post by: paul1981 on November 19, 2019, 10:49:53 AM
Would I have to upgrade the roms at all?

It's up to you. 3.1.4 makes using large hard disks (>4GB) easier for the noob. Otherwise, 3.0 will suffice. There's lots of information and tutorials out there on using large hard disks on 2.x/3.0/3.1.
Title: Re: Help for a noob
Post by: mousehouse on November 21, 2019, 10:43:45 AM
Instead of getting a RAM expansion, wouldn't you want to have an accelerator to speed up your Amiga that includes the additional memory?

Like : http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=93235

Something like this seems to have it all : https://www.vesalia.de/e_vampire1200.htm

Title: Re: Help for a noob
Post by: OldAmigan on November 21, 2019, 08:54:57 PM
If you are content to use OS 3.0, you don't need to change the ROMs.
If you wish to go for OS 3.1, 3.1.4, 3.5 or 3.9 you will.
Title: Re: Help for a noob
Post by: F0LLETT on November 22, 2019, 10:02:43 AM
Instead of getting a RAM expansion, wouldn't you want to have an accelerator to speed up your Amiga that includes the additional memory?

Just adding fast ram speeds up Amiga.