Advice on Upgrading A4000

[alexh]

You have ethernet, but I would still recommend buying an IDE to CF adapter in the form of a blanking plate / back panel, a CF card and a USB CF card reader. It will connect to the internal IDE connector instead of a Hard drive and allows for very rapid transfer of files to and from the PC. Cost = $20

I recommend a registration of WHDload. Cost = $25

SFS file system, it will seriously improve your hard disk performance. Cost = $0

Install some OS patches to speed up a few things, perhaps try SystemPatch all in one? Cost = $0

What's the IV64 card like? No Picasso96 support and No CGX support. i.e. nothing works!! Is it worth upgrading to a Picasso IV with scandoubler? Cost = $300

Which 040 card do you have? A3640? Any of the 060 accelerators with FAST RAM would be a good step up. Cyberstorm MKIII is the best but the most expensive. Cost = $400+ :-(

OS3.9 with BB2 and patches. Cost = $50

A CD drive in the A4000 will use IDE, but take note that IDE CD drives must be 3/4 length drives to fit well and you will need some CD software, either AmigaOS 3.5+, IDEFix97, ASimware etc. I do not recommend getting an optical drive. Using the CF card is much easier.

[alexh]

wlemonds wrote:
Maxtor 500GB External USB/Firewire drive.

I was a member of the team that designed the chip in that drive ;-)

[alexh]

doctorq wrote:
Someone forgot to mention that you have to mess around with WinUAE on the PC in order to copy files to and from the CF card.

I didn't mention it cos it's not true. It is just one option.

doctorq wrote:
You can't just insert the CF card into the card reader, and use your typical Windows application to copy the files.

Yes you can. You just need to install a filesystem driver on one of the two systems.

ADFView to use FFS formatted disks under Windows

or

FAT95 to use FAT32 formatted disks on the Amiga.

[alexh]

Tumbleweed wrote:
The Deneb is a great addition as you can also use most modern USB addons - printers, flashdrives, card readers, mice, keyboards, and USB ethernet dongles

However be warned, USB mice and keyboards do not work in games or anything else which "bangs the hardware" direct to detect keyboard/mouse input.

Native Amiga USB is IMHO something to buy once you've bought absolutely everything else.

As hamtronix already has an ethernet card, USB is even less appealing.

[alexh]

Dr_Righteous wrote:
Be warned, if you do an IDE-CF adapter on that machine, it will use your entire IDE channel (ie no other drive will be usable).

Not true.

You can use an IDE CD-ROM, hard drive or a second IDE->CF adapter at the same time.

Dr_Righteous wrote:
it's safer all around as the IDE interface in the A4000 is not intended for ATAPI devices

Safer? "not intended"? ATAPI devices work just fine.

Dr_Righteous wrote:
This mod works great too http://members.iinet.net.au/~davem2/overclock/a3640.html

This is a good cheap mod, at first I overclocked my A3640 but I do not recommend it. At least not without first replacing the 040 chip that came with it. These boards use VERY VERY old 040 chips which run dangerously hot even at 25MHz. If you can get your hands on an MC68040RC40A with mask L88M you'd be laughing. They run almost cold even without heatsink at 40MHz

Do not dismiss getting a different type of 040 accelerator. The A3640 is nowhere near as fast as even the closest 040 board because it does not support burst mode.

[alexh]

Dr_Righteous wrote:
If you got one to work, I'd love to know where you got it and what makes it different. There've been plenty of complaints about it shutting down any additional drives on IDE channel. I know I haven't been able to get it to work.

I've tried two, one internal. One back panel "external", both work.

Of course you cannot remove the card while hot but that is normal.

Where are these threads?

Dr_Righteous wrote:
If you don't mind using software that can't be registered and times out, then it works great.

There are lots of alternatives which do not require registering or timeout, and the one you are referring to can still be registered or easily coerced not to time out with only 30 seconds worth of Googling ;-)

But requiring software still doesn't explain your words "safer" and "not intended"?

Dr_Righteous wrote:
The goal here is cheap upgrades, not going out and blowing a wad of cash on expensive accelerators.

I understand, but IMHO having performed this operation the difference in speed between a 25MHz A3640 and a 31MHz one is almost imperceptible. Operating System software speedups such as SystemPatch give a better sense of a more speedier system.

[alexh]

Dr_Righteous wrote:
Not intended:
Amiga 4000 with IDE (ATA-1) - 1992
ATA-2/EIDE - 1996
ATAPI - 1998

A4000 IDE is actually pre ATA (sometimes referred to as ATA-0)

All of those dates are bogus. I think they are just dates of later specifications. IDE CD-ROM's date back to *I think* about 1989-1990 and the word ATAPI comes up in newsgroup posts between 1992 and 1993

Look at this post from 1992 before A4000 has been launched.

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/comp.sys.amiga.advocacy/msg/f82cd645b980b3e9?hl=en&dmode=source

"There are IDE CD-ROMs available"

http://www.recycledgoods.com/zoom.aspx?productID=9717

2x IDE CD-ROM dated 1994

[alexh]

A1260 wrote:
the most cost effective and least expensive upgrade, would be to just buy the sam440

I know that is a joke, but the SAM440 is a P.O.S.