New A1200 to purchase - Recommendations

[dougal]

I agree here.

A very nice A1200 setup is:

- 68030 Accelerator card (Blizzard 1230IV is your best choice) - U dont even need an FPU
- 16Mb - 32Mb Ram
- Internal IDE hard drive or Compact Flash hard drive connect to the standard IDE
- PCMCIA compact flash reader. Easiest option Amiga-PC/PC-Amiga transfers.
- A decent Scandoubler/Flickerfixer (Indivision AGA1200 or DCE Scan/Flicker Magic
- WHDload and make sure you register it to get the full benefits.

With that setup you can even run OS3.9 comfortably, easily transfer your stuff to and from the PC/Mac and run practically all the games you want from WHDload.

Personally i wouldnt bother with the Subway USB. I have never had one and from what we seem to hear it has compatibility problems with WHDload, its slow, its expensive and i don't think many devices are supported by it.

[dougal]

I get the picture now.  Fast ATA interfaces steal CPU cycles, so its best to stick with SCSI addon for accelerator and add on SCSI <-> IDE adapter

Or you could use the A1200's own built in IDE controller if you are not fussed. Its not that bad.

Subway USB, limited use.  Probably really useful for USB mice and external USB storage which isnt really required.

And to make things worse, USB mice will only work in Workbench. Forget using them in games etc..

Whats classified as High End in Amiga terms?  I would think a A1200 with 030 would be starting to wander into that direction.  Or is that area only reversed for 040/060 equipped machines more namely A1200 or A4000 with video etc add on cards.

An A1200 with an 030 accelerator is a good start and will be very comfortable for general use and OS3.9. High end would be at least a 68040 or better an 060 and an RTG graphics card.

Im mainly getting this machine for the Workbench experience on updated hardware compared to my A500's   Also whdload is a nice touch.

Exactly, the A1200 with the accelerator and OS3.5 or OS3.9 is enough to keep you happy for quite a while