help me expand my amiga 2000

[Zetr0]

Dear Friends:

I recently bought a nice amiga 2000 in working condition.
I am very satisfied witht the motherboard and hard disk.
They are very small (68000 cpu  50 mb hd) but is good enough
for what I have in mind (moviesetter anims that fit in one disk and
new amos games that also fit in a disk).
I would like to know what is available to expand my amiga EXTERNALLY.
For example, I would like to add an external cd drive for my amos PD cd.
What are other options for expanding externally ?
I am happy with the cpu (68000)because it can play my fave amiga
game defender of the crown, and I already started using moviesetter and amospro
and they both work perfect.
Any other tips about expanding ?
Any thoughts about expanding internally ?
Thank you !!!
Even though I do not want to expand internally, I am open to hear your
suggestions about it.

While it sounds as though you already have a Hard-Disk adaptor installed in you A2000 I would humbly recommend the following -

GVP Impact Series II SCSI HC8+ card

these cards really are awesome with very little effort you can have 8MB of FAST RAM alongside a nice 2-4GB Hard Disk.  

Its possible one is installed in your machine already and only needs a little attention to bring it up to speed. So that we can help you more take some pictures (of the inside if possible)

One of these cards really does make a wonderful A2000 experience

[Zetr0]

@rednova

One thing I should mention is about external Genlocks -

If you do decide that you would like to have some fun with one (or more) of these devices, I would humbly suggest that you get a self-powered one.  I have come across a few A2000 motherboards and A500 motherboards too where the +5v rail on the Amiga motherboard has be burnt up like fuse wire due to the current pull on the system.

So if you do plan to get an external genlock - for safety and piece of mind - ensure that it has its own power supply and doesn't drawn from the video / parallel port(s)

Internal genlock's do not have this problem.


@JimS

I used to use a CDROM drive from an old Mac (some very old 66Mhz PPC based creature) - interestingly it read data but wouldn't read CDDA data - so no music CD's nor would it "see" the CDDA tracks on mixed mode CD's.  Then I found a bunch of 50pin SCSI CDROM and CDRW devices on a car-boot (kinda like a garage sale but lots of people at an open venue).  My A2000 was never happier - at one point I had an internal CDRW +4GB HDD alongside an external CDROM and a further 4GB HDD - good times =D

[Zetr0]

I think if was starting an A2000 build today it would go like this


1. Buy either of the following

Masoboshi Master Card
1x Internal 50pin Fast SCSI II DMA controller
1x internal 40 pin IDE header (translates SCSI commands to IDE)
1x External 25pin SCSI connector
Also supports up to 8MB of FAST RAM (in 1Mx4 ZIP's - can be expensive)

2x devices on the IDE header (these are seen as devices 8 and 9)
7x devices on the SCSI bus (1 is taken up by the card as HOST)

External devices require active powered termination
Internal devices can be passively terminated

Speeds (4MB FAST 2MB CHIP / Stock 68000 CPU @7ish MHz)

IDE 1.46MB per second (81% CPU idle 19% in use) [ 40GB Hitachi Travelstar 2.5" 5400 RPM  9.1ms Seek ]
SCSI 1.5MB per second (88% CPU idle 12% in use) [ 9.1 GB Compaq 3.5" 10k RPM 3.4ms Seek ]

*please note the more idle the CPU the more responsive it is to taking on new tasks and or completing existing tasks


GVP Impact Series II HC8+
1x 50pin internal FAST SCSI II
1x 25pin external FAST SCSI II
Also supports up to 8MB of FAST RAM (easy to obtain 1MB SIMM's)
7x Devices on the SCSI bus (1 is taken up by the card as HOST)

External devices require active powered termination
Internal devices can be passively terminated

Speeds (8MB FAST 2MB CHIP / Stock 68000 CPU @7ish MHz)

SCSI 1.6MB per second (91.9% CPU idle 8.9% in use)[ 9.1 GB Compaq 3.5GB 10k RPM 3.4ms Seek ]

*please note the more idle the CPU the more responsive it is to taking on new tasks and or completing existing tasks

actually I have a picture of this test -



Thats pretty amazing - over 1.6 Megabytes a second transfer on a stock 7Mhz 68k moto - and its only using just under 9% of the CPU time.... thats really impressive!

Now let me show you this in contrast -

Here is an A1200 equipped with an Apollo 030@40Mhz with 64MB of FAST RAM - running a 20GB Samsung Spin point (PATA 133) from the native A1200 IDE



As you can see it achieves a reasonable 1.6MB per second of data transfer - however if you notice only 0.2% of processor is available for other tasks - sadly IDE (when implemented as the native IDE on an A1200) can literally cripple a system.  

What is even more of a surprise is to know that the Apollo 030@40Mhz with 64MB of FAST RAM achieves about 8.5MIP's of which nearly all (bar 0.2%  - 0.017MIPS) is used up getting the data from the device / IDE bus!

When you stack that against 0.67MIPs of a stock 7MHz 68k with FAST RAM that achieves 1.67MB and only uses 8.9% of that (0.67MIPS i.e. 0.0603 MIPS) to achieve a faster speed - one can clearly see the awesome of managed (DMA Based) FAST SCSI II - in fact the  the stock 68k CPU has nearly 35.84 times more processing power available compared to the 030@40 MHz equipped A1200 on native IDE ( thats 0.6097 remaining MIPS / 0.017 remaining MIPS)


So yes.... in a nut shell, you want managed (DMA based) FAST SCSI II and you will be loving your life!


Phew.... now back to the topic... (sorry about that)

after you have Hard Disk and Fast Ram I would then suggest saving your pennies for a 1MB CHIP upgrade (giving you 2MB CHIP total).

then you will have a quite a few avenues available to you - pending your target machine implementation.

Next on the agenda would be a CPU upgrade, there are a few options here - you could use the 68k socket (replacing the stock 68k moto) or use the CPU upgrade socket.

Your budget will really decide where you go, but even an A2620 would be a delight - offering 4MB (in 32bit) - this will take a 0.6MIP (stock 68k with FAST RAM) and give you about 3 MIPS with the 020 and 32bit FAST RAM

I should point out that with the A2620 (and A2630) they use the 24bit address space - so the memory on the accelerator card is removed from the memory pool - such that with 4MB on the card - it will only allow up to a further 4MB with your other adaptors for a total of 8MB of FAST RAM.  It is important to know that you will have both narrow (16bit wide) and wide (32bit wide) memory pools - this will be transparent to you (and your applications) for the most part - but those applications (like say Octamed Sound Studio) that would use large samples or Imagine Raytracer with large models may experience a minor slow-dow as the CPU has to shift from 32bit to 16bit data paths and vice versa


In case you have not guessed I do own 4 A2000's in various upgrades states =)


Anyway once you have your CPU upgrade, as other have mentioned you should look at getting a scan doubler / flicker fixer.  In one of my A2000's I use a Microway flicker fixer / scan doubler and this serves very well - however you would be very well served with an external GBS8220 (rev 5 or higher *aprx £20) or my favourite the Indivision ECS *aprx £80

I should point out that the Indivision ECS is more than just a scan doubler / flicker fixer - it also offers Hi-GFX support as well as lots of other screen modes. It even has a beta Picasso Graphics mode (800x600)
____________

So at this point you should have

Hard Disk
FAST RAM
Upgraded CPU
Upgraded Native Video

My next choice would be between upgrading the Sound or adding an RTG graphics card.  If I had the Indivsion installed I would for the most part not consider RTG graphics as a priority and go straight to sound - however without that I would go for sound next and while there are a few cards none are as supported as the Toccata sound card - this gives you 16bit sound processing with multiple channels - which is pretty damn awesome if you are into writing music - if not - skip this and get a graphics card.

If you decide to get a graphics card there really is only one to get (unless you want to mortgage your house) and that is the Picasso II (or Picasso II+) these are Z2 RTG graphics cards that will really bring out the power of your Amiga and seriously enhance your Amiga experience - theres something very wholesome about playing DOOM on my A2000 alongside a 1024x768 in 16bit workbench

So, now you have

Hard Disk (Mass Storage)
FAST RAM
Upgraded CPU
Upgraded Native Graphics / Video
Upgraded Sound
Upgraded Graphics (RTG)

where next?

well then I would recommend some networking card - my favourite is the XSurf2... then perhaps you might like to dabble in other areas - the A2000 is a real joy - One of my A2000's is a hybrid build which includes a 1GHz P3 SBC hooked up along side the 040@33Mhz

but that is because I am crazy!

[Zetr0]

@Tenacious
Ahhh the Supra-Turbo 28.... the one that got away.....  you have my envy sir! =)


@Thread
I would urge caution on some Apple CDROM's as some of these do not read CDDA audio - for a few pennies more I would suggest going for a non apple branded CDROM/RW device

I had a look on US eBay for you and would suggest the following - please note I am NOT affiliated with any of these sales.

Toshiba XM 5701B SCSI CD-ROM $7.50
Toshiba XM-5301B SCSI CD-ROM $8.99
Plextor PX-12TSi    SCSI CD-ROM $14.88
Plextor PX-32TSi    SCSI CD-ROM $14.88

I should also point out that all of the above are 50pin connectivity

Now for a bit of fun -

Vintage SCSI External CD-RW Drive with Cable $14.99

that would keep you busy in optical media devices, although another alternative would be too look for a SCSI-IDE bridge - this would allow you to add an IDE DVDRW (or IDE HardDisk) to your SCSI Chain.

Sadly I couldn't really find a cost effective solution on eBay.com so I would suggest if you are interested in these devices, have a look about for the following

R-IDSC-E/R SCSI IDE Adaptor
ACARD AEC-7720U
IBM aCard IDE to LVD-SCSi Bridge Adapter AEC-7722IR

I have 3 of these devices, Yamaha, R-IDSC and the ACARD 772U ... in fact I think I have another that is Wide SCSI version of that hmm.... anyway I would feel agrieved if I paid more than $75 for one of these - sadly there are a lot of chancer's and incredibly greedy people on eBay.

[Zetr0]

These show up on eBay fairly regularly.  

Sadly only to never coincide with my pocket money / allowance day..... I blame the wife