Amiga 600 to buy or not to buy

[Brian]

The A600 was my first Amiga also. Going from an A500 to an A600 is a small step, you get internal IDE controller, easy step to get 2MB chip and PCMCIA port for a cheap NIC option but apart from that it's not more than an A500+ and it have limitations that until recently was hard to get around.

I'm talking about CPU/Fastmem (and other upgrades)... this have been the Achilles heel for the A600 until the ACA630 hit the market, still available I can honestly say I recommend the A600 to anyone who's knows it's limitations and still concidering it but budget an ACA630 into the purchase or you'll feel duped pritty soon. With that said get an A604 (or A603) chipmem expansion while you're at it and you'll get clockport as well as a possibility to upgrade with a scandoubler when/if the need arise.

In short, you get a lesser machine than an A1200, no AGA and with an upgrade path that is very narrow and again more expensive than the A1200. But it is also a computer that takes up less space so if you got the money I say go for it ALSO... as in get an A600 AND an A1200 and I'm sure you'll be happy with both.

[Brian]

do not buy an A600 is a waste of money
however there are some fanatics that can say yes
but the A600 is the worst amiga model in my opinion and most of amiga users will agree
go for the A1200 much better faster and expandable machine

The A1200 is obviously the better machine by far and I'd get one first with 030 CPU but I can't see why to not get an A600 also. I don't agree with you that it's the worst Amiga model, yes it was a bad model when it was released as it brought little new to the table and the A1200 was just months away but we don't live in the 90's anymore and with todays available expansions for it I think it's a great ECS machine thanks to its small size.

[Brian]

@Brian. That's a cool website you have. So what do you do with all those little precious ones?

To not hijack the thread the short answer is: Make them to work, upgrade them, play with them.

[Brian]

Hahahaha! Nice one!

I always had a vision of putting an RTG card under the A500 making a custom PCB or wiring teh Zorro slot under it :O
Making an 1cm extension base (in same width-length of the A500) to host this custom PCB along with an RTG card and an 2060 would be a neat option.

I've seen a commersial product like that almost... a box underneath the A500 about 2-3cm tall housing 2 Zorro slots and DF1.

The other route if you can live with existing A500 accelerators is to get a defective GVP HD8+ controller, gutt it and install a Picasso2+ in it through a Zorro addapter... should fit and keep the A500 look intact... no frankenstein.

It's still nothing easily trown in a bag like the A600 though.

[Brian]

I have:

A604 Memory Expansion
Indivision ECS Internal Flicker Fixer
Subway USB Controller
IDE to Compact Fash Interface
8BG CF Card Used as Hard Drive
4Gb CF Card used with PCMCIA Compact Flash Adaptor
ACA 630/25 Stealth Accelerator with 32Mb of RAM.
MIDI 1 MIDI Controller

...and a few other odds and ends I use from time to time.

Next step, a sound card to use in conjunction with my beloved Paula.

Nice setup... I'm still waiting for funds to my next AmigaKit order before I can compete with that but I do have the "rare" ACA630/30 with 64MB of RAM and internal SCSI ain't yet common amongst the well expanded A600 systems poping up everywhere.