Question about obtaining software

[PMC]

irishmike wrote:

Can you also get OS 4 through them (just curious).  I am always glad for someone pointing me in the right direction.

You'll need OS 3.1 ROMs suitable for your A500 if you want to run OS 3.9.  Depending on how ambitious you are, you could fit an accelerator card to your A500, complete with a 50Mhz 68030, plus RAM and a CD ROM drive.  

Otherwise, I'd suggest getting an A1200.  This beastie will run most of the same programs as your A500, but can be fitted in a tower case and have numerous add ons fitted; including IDE HDDs and CD/DVD ROMs, accelerator cards up to 240Mhz PPC, PCI bridgeboards allowing use of Voodoo 3 cards, PCI networking / sound / USB etc cards, accelerated IDE ports, high speed serial / parallel ports etc.  

The A1200 is the realistic starting point, but if your looking at OS4 then it might be slightly better value to go for an Amiga One instead of a new and highly specced A1200.

[PMC]

@Irishmike,

It's well worth upgrading from your A500.

Although the A2500 is a good machine in it's own right (military spec, high quality Amiga in the words of one of our esteemed members here), but you'll be limited to expensive Zorro II only expansions and no PPC option.

An A3000 is a better bet as you can fit a PCI bridgeboard, PPC accelerators etc and an A4000 will give you access to AGA.  Many users here prefer the A3000 as it offers SCSI, standard VGA output etc.

If you want to upgrade on the cheap(ish) then an A1200 is the way to go.