Amiga 2000

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Sounds like you have some kind of Rev. 4 board or older. I'd do the modification to convert that "slow" ram to chip. Also you can replace the PSU fan with any standard 80mm PC fan. Note when I did this on mine the two wires had to be flipped at the connector, but that might've just been the particular fan I used.

My A2000 gets a lot more use than my A500, more fun to tinker with. Also don't forget to replace the battery with one of those coin cell conversion kits AmigaKit sells.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Also: where is your Amiga club located?  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Is there anything I can do about the hard disk, I am sure it is contributing to the loudness as well and who knows how reliable it is after all these years. Is there some way to upgrade it to a standard IDE or SATA or CF?

I ditched the hard drives in my systems and went with CF. The easiest way is with one of the MechWare SCSI card readers, however they're no longer available from him and expensive when they pop up on ebay. You can also use something like the Acard SCSI-to-IDE bridge, that would allow you to use an IDE hard drive. Additional options exist if you're willing to stack a couple adapters, such as SCSI-to-IDE-to-SATA. Although I've never tried this personally you'll find there's users using all different manner of weird ways to connect hard drives to their Amiga's, and each one will tell you that their way is the best.

You can also add an IDE controller card.

Personally I'd avoid any of the old SCSI drives on ebay, I've bought a number of them and they tend to be flakey and near the end of their life. Your mileage may vary.

The XT bridgeboard might be fun if you enjoy messing around with that sort of thing, but of limited practical use.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Most Amiga SCSI controllers use the 50-pin connector (exception being some high end Phase 5 stuff). Any 50-pin drive should be compatible with your GVP controller. You may have to partition it to use only the first 4GB of space (or other limitations) depending on what version of the OS and file system you use. You may be able to get different types to work using adapters, but I have no experience with those.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313&_nkw=50+pin+scsi+hard+drive&_sacat=0&_from=R40

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Another option to use CF is a SCSI-to-IDE bridge, then an IDE-to-CF adapter.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

@Iggy and @thread -

Not to hijack this thread too much, but for anyone interested I've decided to put my two Picasso II video cards up for sale.  These work great in an A2000 and were purchased as part of my insane project to get one working with an Indivision ECS, when after months I finally gave up and used a GVP Spectrum video card instead.  
 
 Each card has a small copper heatsink stuck on the graphics chip (not because they overheat or anything, but just because Amiga hardware isn't being made anymore... why not stick heatsinks on everything?) as well as the resistor snipped so that they'll work with modern LCD monitors.  I've tested both of these cards extensively and aside from compatibility issues with the Indivision, they both work perfectly.  One is a Rev. 1.6, one is Rev. 1.4.  I can include a CD with the latest 2.1c version of Picasso96 software.
 
 I paid over $200 each for these cards, plus international shipping from Europe.  I'd been trying to trade one for some 16MB GVP simm's but no takers.  Figure I'll give you guys first crack at them before I put them back on the 'bay.  $200 flat, each, includes shipping with tracking # anywhere in the continental US.  Buyer pays PayPal fees.  No international shipping, please, I work three jobs and don't have time for that hassle.  

Below is a pic, let me know if you have any questions, you may now return to your regularly scheduled thread discussing the A2000.