Upgrading an A1200...

[Jiffy]

You're now at the point I was a while ago: having a vanilla A1200 and wanting some more.

I now have an A1200 with DCE internal flickerfixer (I use highres interlace, with overlay as my standard WB setting), OS 3.9, a PCMCIA nic and a Blizzard 1260 with SCSI card and 128 MB ram.

The Blizzard 1230 & 1260 are very nice turbocards: fast, reliable, can be switched off by pressing the '2' key while booting (great for compatibility) and the optional SCSI card gives you great expandability while keeping your original A1200 housing intact.

I have connected four drives in an external SCSI-tower to my A1200 and having great fun with it.

Like you, I don't like the A1200 tower solutions. Yes, they are great for expansion, but somewhere along the way, I loose my Amiga-feeling...

Oh, a reasonably sized (2-4 GB) internal 2.5" harddisk is nice to have. The internal IDE-controller isn't the worlds greatest performer, but it does what I expect it to do, and in combination with a reasonable turbocard (68030 and up), it does so at a very acceptable speed. Well, that is, acceptable for me... :-)

[Jiffy]

> a Blizzard 1260 with SCSI card and 128 MB ram
Is the SCSI controller on the 1260 board, or do you mean separate?

The SCSI controller is optional and can be fitted afterward. Both the Blizzard 1230 & 1260 have a connector which can be used for the controller. A nice extra is the fact that the SCSI controller gives you the chance to add an extra simm. In my case this gives me 2x 64 MB fastram. Which is a lot.

Do i really need a SCSI controller/CD-ROM?

Well, you need a cd-rom for OS3.9 to install (this comes on CD-ROM, that's why). After that a CD-ROM is not absolutely necessary. Apart from that, it is possible to use IDE drives with your A1200. The SCSI solution is much more professional, though. No flatcables peeking out of your A1200, a maximum of 7 external devices which you can add, such as cd-rom, cd-rw, scanner, tapestreamer and zipdisk. Reliable and fast, that's what it is. All in all, I think both the Blizzard 1230 and the 1260, especially when hooked up to the Blizzard SCSI option pack (which is the same for both the 1230 and the 1260) are by far the most desirable turboboards for the A1200.

> dont run a BvisionPPC/BlizzPPC combo in an A1200 desktop case

So, it's still going to be flakey even if i get a decent PSU?

Yup. The PPC produces quite a lot of heat, which is almost impossible to get rid of in a standard A1200 desktopcase.

External flickerfixer/scandoubler

Are you sure about the external one? The internal FF is a nicer fit and normally gives a better picture.