@Invisix
A well constructed D-Box 1200 system shouldn't have any stability problems.
If you add a Voodoo graphics card, this will radically change your A1200's capabilities. AGA/ECS is one of the main performance constraints on an A1200 system (even with an 060). If the system has a PCI + Voodoo added, this will exceed performance of any Zorro graphics card in an A4000. The Voodoo chipset is far faster than the Virge DX in the Cybervision 64/3D and the Cirrus Logic GD5446 in the Picasso IV. Similary a 100MB PCI network card would outstrip the X-Surf and Ariadne.
Of course A4000s can be the better system when they have a Mediator added, but that would require re-investment in a different Amiga system for you. The performance differences may not justify the cost differences between systems.
The benefits of a high spec A4000 (Mediator+Cyberstorm PPC) over a high spec A1200 (Mediator+Blizzard PPC) are:
- A1200 Mediator has 8MB transfer window constraint - this only affects when large amounts of data need to be sent. A4000 Mediator doesnt suffer from the low limit.
- A4000 Cyberstorm PPC has superior PPC CPU to A1200 BlizzardPPC - may not be that important as very little software makes use of the performance benefit of the 604
- A4000 Cyberstorm PPC has superior SCSI to the A1200 BlizzardPPC - this is one main difference that requires consideration if you wish to use SCSI devices
- A4000 has slightly higher performance access to chipram - only used for legacy AGA/ECS applications- not used when using RTG and RTA.
- A4000 has Zorro III - you will have to decide if Zorro III is relevant to your intended use of the system.
- One small point: the Blizzard PPC can have maximum 256MB Fast Mem, whereas the Cyberstorm can have a max 128MB of Fast Mem. May be relevant if you use Pagestream or similar applications that consume a lot of memory.
