Amiga 600 to buy or not to buy

[mfilos]

As other people said, A600 is awesome and can get some upgrades a lot easier than A500.

These are:
- Hard Drive or El'Cheapo CF Adapter+CF Card as HD
- PCMCIA Ethernet NIC or PCMCIA to CF Adapter for easy file transfer. Also 2-4MB Fast RAM Card found on eBay.
- 68030 Accelerator that is still being sold from trusted Amiga Shops (incl. warranty)

Apart from the fact that it's cute and small I can't say anything more

If you wanna play AGA games then it's a definite NO though and you should focus into getting an A1200.

If you leave an A600 only with the 2MB Chip RAM (without Fast RAM at least) you won't go very far with WHDLoad games (and that's a serious reason). Unless you have and love Floppy disks (sorry but I don't) so then you seriously don't need an A600 cause your A500 can fulfill just fine your needs

[mfilos]

A600 is most of the times cheap comparing it with A500+ and personally I never had an issues with cap damage in an A600 (and I had 4 of them).
Only had an cap issue once in an A1200 mobo of mine.

A600 is a nice upgrade from an A500 for the following reasons:
- Mainly DUE to it's easy 2MB Chip (unless you find frequently A500+ without leak damage, or you plan to get expensive MiniMegi boards for your Rev.6A ones).
- Fitting an IDE internally is too easy and cheap. Try doing that with an A500!!! (For example CF2IDE adapters for 80 euro each). Unless you prefer the expensive path of big external enclosures of A590 and SCSI drives!
- Having PCMCIA for easy file transfer via CF adapter is easy and awesome. Unless you find transferring files with your PC via null modem cable or CrossDOS via floppy disks... such full of win!
- Networking is piss easy with PCMCIA Ethernet NICS. I can't recall any easy solution for networking in A500 UNLESS you wanna get a Subway and USB Ethernet NIC. Oh wait... you'd need an 030 then to be able to use networking.
- Acceleration is easy, with neat features and warranty.
- Putting an 1MB 27C800 Eprom with custom Kickstart is easy and doesn't require modding!

Small footprint might be not important to many so I'm not putting that as an upgrade.
Sure there are many fans of A500s and I respect it, but there are also fans of an A600 (like me) as well. In the end... it's just a matter of personal preference. Telling NOT to buy or to BUY is not something that helps really the future buyer. Just point out the pros and cons of both systems and let the buyer be the judge of that.

Personally I'd choose an A600 over an A500 any day. Apart from that... "Opinions are like a**holes. Everybody has one "

[mfilos]

I'm speaking of myself (4xA600s) so I don't need to do a Google search to prove anything to me. Even if I had a problem with the caps... I would have replaced them myself. Not such a big deal.

Same problem with the caps exists in almost every retr0 hardward that uses caps like also in A1200s, A4000s (with audio problems frequently as well). Do you suggest not buying any of those and go get A500s instead? LOL
And even if that is a CON for an A600 (Oh wait there is another one - No Numeric keypad - Doh!), you surely can't overstep the PROS that I mentioned above.

Don't get me wrong I don't have anything against A500's but they are indeed hard to upgrade machines imho when it comes to rarity and money (well not close to CDTV or CD32 but you get the point). Eventually ACA520 will change the whole scene due to silly prices that you see in eBay etc for A500 accelerators. Also stacking different components like accelerators/clockport adapter/CF2IDE... makes a huge height problem most of times not to mention fitting issues with Indivision ECS!
I really tried to love my A500 (Rev.6A) but sadly CF2IDE (depending on version) didn't fit with IndivisionECS and despite working fine with an awesome Phase5 8MB module that a friend lend me... it didn't fit (keyboard wasn't put in place due to height issues). Also CF2IDE adapters aren't compatible with all A500 accelerators.
Having to manually wire 68k away for everything to fit (even by wires or custom PCB) is such a huge time and effort scenario I'm not about to cross

[mfilos]

There wasn't ever an issue on this thread whether an A1200 is better than an A600! It's silly to just compare these 2.

A600 doesn't only have it's charms. It has many assets that are difficult to get to an A500 without putting your hand DEEPLY in your pocket. Even if you pay much, you'll find that there are compatibility issues if you want things compact. OFC you can get a dozen expansions having to get an extra table to fit the Amiga but hey... it's a matter of preference as I told some posts back.

Also revisions and cost killing mobos of A500 sux tonz imho. Rev'6 can't get over 1MB Chip without an MiniMegi that sometimes has it's issues. Also you can be a lucky winner like me (/sigh) and have an Rev.8 mobo with 8372 Agnus (yey) but without extra RAM, without the clock components plus battery (yey x2) and with old Denise and without ANY jumpers to set.
Well you can always mod everything to MAYBE get an A500+ mobo but then again how that comes easier than replacing SMD caps?

I'm not trying to convince anyone cause simply I don't want to, but I can't get convinced that an A500 is superior to an A600 (especially after the ACA release). Back then I might have agreed but now... it nothing to think about
(Unless you have an Harms 040 or making custom Mods to awesome A500T projects)

[mfilos]

@Amidude
Respect mate!

@tone007
It's true. RTG on A600 isn't possible but on A500 with a side Zorro expansion is possible for sure. If you find Mr. Frankenstein sexy or usable... it's up to you I guess
Tbh I don't need RTG on A600 when it runs awesomely well on 640x512 @ 16 colors and the awesome palette of Rebel!






I seen very sexy A500 setups converted to desktop or Tower projects that could make an old man burst into tears due to elegance and quality of the mod.

I also agree that if your expectation is having a game machine for loading floppy games... THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for you to buy an A600 or any other Amiga. A500 is the best choice you got.

For any other option I insist on getting an A600 for awesome look and features and if you want extra pwnage get an A1200 or A4000 if you can spare da bucks and be done with (A3000 is for the collectorz and tis is an awesome machine to have).

[mfilos]

Hahahaha! Nice one!

I always had a vision of putting an RTG card under the A500 making a custom PCB or wiring teh Zorro slot under it :O
Making an 1cm extension base (in same width-length of the A500) to host this custom PCB along with an RTG card and an 2060 would be a neat option.

[mfilos]

For ACA630 users you can make a custom 1MB Kickstart image holding both 1.3 and 3.1 kickstart and a simple switch that:
- Simultaneously disables ACA and use Kickstart 1.3 (For old Games/Trainers and Demos)
- Simultaneously enables ACA and use Kickstart 3.1 (For WHDLoad funz and Workbench l33tness)

I made an easy schematic here: http://mfilos.blogspot.com/p/dual-kickstart-switch.html

Also HxC SD Floppy Emulator is really awesome device! Made some neat custom mounting last year but since the release of Jen's awesome A604, I thought of putting the floppy back on and having the HxC externally.