Classic VS NG

[Lurch]

Well after modding the hell out of my A1200, I'm thinking it might be time to sell up and purchase an NG.

Getting all the hardware/software mods to work together was and still is enjoyable, yet frustrating task.

With the slow updates on mediator drivers for both the Voodoo 5 and Radeon 9200 it's really holding AmigaOS 3.9 back. Rattes updated Radeon driver was looking like the answer but Elbox trampled that.

Also getting any information/response from Elbox is impossible. Which adds to my frustration when spending quite a bit on their products.

Reliability is another factor, with all those different hacks/patches running it feels unstable now and then. The most annoying part is getting RTG/AGA switching working with WHDLoad, which wouldn't really be a problem with an NG. I've given up on this and run in AGA most of the time, although I don't get the pretty 1920x1080 with AFA OS/Zune desktop.

I have Quake/Quake 2 running great using Warp3D/MiniGL at 640x480. However Quake2 can be flaky and I get the odd software fault and it wont load. Another frustration.

Duke Nukem is fairly smooth except for a slight pause when some sounds load, but this would be resolved with using a FastATA, however it doesn't fit with the Indivision AGA MK2 and Mediator. :-/

Browsing is very useable, Ibrowse is fantastic. Although due to it's out dated browser engine a few websites don't display correctly. NetSurf is fantastic though, can feel slower than Ibrowse though but I think this is because it loads the entire page in one hit instead of loading parts of the page.

Flash, even with the Ibrowse plugin is a no go. Java stuff seems to timeout most of the time so I turned this off.  

iGame/WHDLoad works really well (once you are running an AGA workbench) and the speed at what games load at is amazing. Forget floppy disks! :-)

99% of the demo's work great, no issues.

PPC stuff, I maybe tempted to purchase a PPC card for the A1200 but price wise I'd be better off buying an NG. The amount of money would buy me a nice setup, unless I can find someone throwing a card out (yeah right).

As a day to day machine, almost possible. The A1200 does an okay job :-)

Anyway I think I've accomplished (95% anyway) what I set out to do, I'll probably regret selling it. You always get that doubt with Amiga hardware, especially putting so much time into it. You become attached.

I'll go back to pondering it :-)

[Lurch]

Went further than I was wanting to go but it just snow balls, first the 060, then the mediator... on and on :-)

I do enjoy using it and it's looking good in it's new home.

@danwood - Well said, I have an old G4 tower that had MorphOS on it. Tried it many years ago. Not sure if I liked it or not. Looking at an Apple machine might have been it.

Was going to put it in another case, but now the G5 is supported I may look at that.  A mac mini is a nice size, always wanted a cube though. A shame MorphOS doesn't support it.

@Novacoda - You know you're in trouble when you try to update your signature with all the mods and it takes up a couple of paragraphs :-) I don't think I'd ever buy a PPC card, for the price it's not really worth it. If it was a similar price to the 060 maybe. Can get a okay AmigaNG setup for less :-)

@itix - Possible to copy over an existing setup from my current A1200 and run it I guess? That would mean I wouldn't have to make too many changes.

@klx300r - Yeah this would be my second time purchasing/selling classic hardware. It has been more expensive this time round but I didn't take the modding as far as I have this time round.

@Oldsmobile_Mike - Hoping there isn't a flame war, some good healthy discussion would make a nice change.

After reading through I'll probably keep my A1200. I may look at a mac mini again, or a cheap G5. Although the G5 is massive in size :-/

Speed wise I guess the mac mini would be okay?

[Lurch]

So I had a look for a mac mini locally but can only find a 32MB version. I'm guessing the 64MB is rare?

[Lurch]

Okay so I've decided to hold on to my 1200, after all the effort, time and money spent I cant let it go.

I had a look at what options there are, and taking on the feedback I've read I'm now in the market for a Mac Mini. Looking locally I can only find 32mb versions so may have to go with that, going by what I have read most FPS games should be okay and it will give me a taste.

Will check Amibay, and the market place here,first, but then I have to ask if the PSU is switchable? Needs to be 220/240v to work here.

Tempted to register too, so 64mb ram would be better

[Lurch]

Go with a G5 if you're gonna do MorphOS. Seriously, it's much much better hardware and the prices aren't much different. I got mine on CL for about $90.

Down here the G5 is about $100NZD more than a mac mini, plus finding one locally with an ATI card is near impossible. They all have Nvidia cards which of course MorphOS doesn't like.

So I looked at buying an ATI card and the prices were expensive :-(

I also notice that anything including and above the ATI Radeon 9550 doesn't support W3D.

[Lurch]

Im in the same seat, ive had my Mac mini 1.52GHz with 32MB vram and morphOS for a long time but I recently wanted to give the Power mac a go but where I live G5 power macs go for 600$+ and it feels a bit to much :/ The G4 ones go for next to nothing tho so might pickup and try one of those instead

PowerMacs, don't really want a Mac laptop I've had a bad run of those with logic boards.

The PowerMac G4 is a good option, although not something I want on my desk. (or under it).

So will hang out looking for a Macmini or a G5.

[Lurch]

After looking some more I can pickup Xserve G5's for around $100NZD. Which also have an ATI card.

Worth the risk installing MorphOS?

[Lurch]

After reading up on it I might give it a miss, there's a few other things missing compared to a tower :-/

[Lurch]

@amoskodare - How do you find your setup with the Sam440ep-flex? I was originally looking at that exact same spec setup. The price is about right and it appears to be the best OS4 bundle for the price.

@Rob - 3rd time round buying and selling, always get a pang of nostalgia and buy again. Loosing a lot of money doing that. Will hold on to the 1200 :-)

[Lurch]

So I tried MorphOS on a Quicksilver box, apart from the on board sound everything was supported.
It's very quick, was frustrated a little trying to navigate around, there are some things that are similar to workbench but other things that are not.
I installed Pack Chrysalis which uses about 55MB of VRAM LOL so had to remove some items. Tried a couple of games and browsed around with OWB it all works as advertised, quick too!

It's a very polished OS and has come a long way since I installed 2.7. It's an amazing OS and stands on it's own two feet well. But I just couldn't get into it, missing my AFA_OS/WB.

The link to aminet with the how to install WB looks interesting, although a little worried that it's from 2005. But doesn't matter I can always reinstall :-)

I lost interest in the mini as locally there were only 32MB versions, however I found a 32MB 1.42GHz one that I've put down a really low bid on  that was too tempting so will see how that goes. Will just have to tweak it as it looks possible after doing some reading to have an okay setup with lower res/VRAM.

I looked at G5 macs too, but again no ATI cards in any of them and looking online people know this and charge the earth.

As for Sam boards these are rare and are out of stock.

I wonder what the X3500 will go for price wise? :-)

Still waiting for Amibay to finish there upgrading too :-/

[Lurch]

Has been a most helpful thread, glad to see it hasn't turned into the usual flame war. I'm thinking that I might be leaning towards OS4.

The problem is there isn't an easy/convenient way of obtaining OS4 hardware, so much easier to find an old Mac although it's proving hard to find a 64MB mac mini.

I'll possibly give MorphOS a longer try, going to attempt using workbench so will see how that works out :-)

Might see if there is an OS4 theme LOL.

[Lurch]

So I have the G4 quicksilver hooked up to the KVM. To be honest I'm still going back to the A1200.
When I get some free time will copy over some of the programs/games I use at the moment I don't have much installed on the G4.
Will look at setting up WHDLoad etc and see how that goes.

After the easter break I'll take another serious look at OS4 hardware, and look at resurrecting my WindowsXP/WinUAE box :-)

I enjoy playing around with different OS's/hardware, I think I'm still looking for that same buzz I had opening up the A500 all those years ago.

[Lurch]

I remember that buzz.  I got it when I brought the A500 home, every time I bought a coverdisk, when I upgraded to OS2.1, A570, HDD, etc.  I even caught it when finding some of the other classic platforms that I couldn't afford when they were new.

Use to get it with the C64, even going to the local computer store and going through the games on sale.

Use to bike over to Milford, about 30-45 minute or so ride to the nearest Amiga store and look at all the new Amiga's on the shelf.

Miss purchasing Amiga mags and trying out cover disks. I remember a friend of mine giving my 100's of cover disks that was I good weekend. :-)

Amazing buzz swapping games on the weekend, and walking into a friends downstairs room full of 1000's **cough** pirated game disks and Amiga's humming away. He got caught when the copyright laws changed here though.

Anyway off topic, hopefully have some time tomorrow to give MorphOS another thrashing tomorrow. Will post how I get on.

[Lurch]

I think the "buzz" you're talking about goes by another name "nostalgia".

Nostalgia is something completely different, this is the buzz you get opening something new that you're excited about.

It's been a long time since I've had that feeling about anything, that's why I try different things looking for it.

[Lurch]

@matt3k - You summed it up better than I could, I'll continue to enjoy my A1200. But I don't think we'll see another period in time like the birth of the home computer again. The market is too sewn up for a small company to come out of the blue and take hold, although I'd love to be proven wrong.

The desktop era is probably dwindling too, I must admit I use my smartphone more than my laptop/desktop these days.