The Best Amiga Computer Is An A3000?

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@dannyp1

He said that the A3000 was actually the best computer Amiga had made. Is there any truth in this?

I have owned/own various amiga models (A500/A600/A2000/A3000/A4000/A4000T)

A3000 is overrated. IMHO it's crap compared to an A4000:
-It doesn't have ROM3.1 (you have to buy it)
-It doesn't have Buster11 (you have to buy it)
-It has a crap and slow SCSI interface that heats up DMAC chip and usually has problems with multiple devices. A4000T has IDE and a much better SCSI controller.
-It doesn't have IDE interface. A4000 has IDE.
-You may have to replace DMAC+Ramsey because ZorroIII sucks on A3000. In addition to that A3640 has problems with it so forget about cheap accelerators.
-The case is rubbish. You have to modify it (cutting it) to fit a proper accelerator and it doesn't have space for CDROM. A4000 in contrast has space for 4 3.5" devices and one 5.15" device. A3000 loses with just 3 3.5" devices but cut that to two if you fit an accelerator. In addition to that A3000 doesn't provide good air flow to the cpu accelerator. It doesn't provide you space to put a proper scsi controller external connector so you have to cut the case (again).
-You can't put inside an internal Mediator4000Di or GREX4000. The only solution is using a Prometheus and waste a lot of slot space.
-Oh yes, it doesn't have AGA. That means it's useless for demoscene stuff and even a crap A1200 will be much more fun for that.
-It uses crap ZIP memory. For those who don't know what's that it means you have to deal with small chips that don't want to fit inside the damn socket, have 200 more chances of failing than SIMMs due to bad contacts and that are expensive and hard to find.

The only good point A3000 has is the internal flickerfixer. But it's useless and rubbish compared to PicassoIV flickerfixer.

In addition to that you can add a cheap scandoubler to your A4000 that will make your A4000 run rings around the old A3000. You may argue that "oh, an scandoubler doesn't come as standard" but it's much cheaper and better than upgrading an A3000.

A4000T is clearly the best if you want to expand it.

A1200 is the best features/price if you don't plan to expand it much.

A3000 is a hole where you can throw a lot of money and you won't get a system that can do all you can do with the two previous.


For those who think I hate A3000 I must say I own one with CSPPC, CV64, Toccata, Prometheus... but it's crap compared to my previous A4000 and I had to waste a lot of money upgrading it. And after wasting a lot of money it won't never be as good as an A4000 (Tower or desktop).

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So in terms of engineering and design the A3000 is by far the best Amiga ever produced.

Don't make me laugh. You have to upgrade a lot of chips due to engineering bugs (buster/dmac/ramsey/scsi). SCSI interface is not exactly brilliant, just like the case. socketed chips often pop out of the socket and cause problems. ZIP memory can have bad contact with the socket easily. You have to make INT2 modifications... and engineers learn from their mistakes.

Oh and for those saying the A3000 cant take a mediator? I think you better look again, mine has one in it and it's working great

So you are saying A3000 case is crap and you have to put it into an expensive tower to make it useful?

I didn't write anywhere you can't put your A3000 into an ugly and expensive tower, I said standard case is the worst amiga big box case ever built.

In addition to that you can't keep the original case just like you would do with an A4000 & a Mediator4000Di. Your computer motherboard is a just a "card" inside an alien  box. In contrast both Mediator4000Di/GRex4000 use the original box. A3000 case is crap and you have to waste a lot of money putting your motherboard inside a tower.

FYI, if you don't upgrade your Buster to rev 11, A4000 will have faster Zorro.


BTW, you can use AGA for Scala, Brilliance and other apps, not just games&demos.

Why? Well when te system was being developed the engineers were a lot better.

That's rubbish and nonsense. Look at any A4000 motherboard and you'll read BERLIN/HAYNIE FISHER/GUAY.

Open up your A3000 and you'll read TF/HD/DH/GB/SH/JB/MN

Are you saying David Haynie and Greg Berlin (the creators of the A3000) are worse than... David Haynie and Greg Berlin? Uh yeah that makes sense.

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@amiga92570

Most amiga 4000s did not come with buster 11 except for 4000T.

That's strange because I know literally dozens of A4000 users and just one had to upgrade his buster.

I think AGA is pretty useless as most of the good games run on RTG anyway.

Take a look at:
http://ada.untergrund.net/
Count the number of AGA productions and the number of OCS/ECS ones...

You have to buy 3.1 for all amigas except 4000T

Yeah, but OS3.0 is much more useful than OS2.x. A4000 is much more useful OOTB. In addition to that OS3.0 equipped A4000 doesn't have pagination problems with older ramsey versions like OS2.x A3000

The 3640 REV 3.1 and above has no problems with 3000 providing you have 3.1 roms.

That's false as if you use a DMAC v1 you would have to upgrade to DMAC v2 at least to avoid problems. At least a DMAC v2 is mandatory. You would also have to upgrade to Buster11 and you should also use a Rev3.1 A3640.

I think if you want to play around with the Amiga computer platform, just try to buy something that works and doesn't strain your budget,

With A3000 you will have to waste lots of money. In contrast an A4000 is better value for your money.

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@McVenco

Buster9 is still faster than Buster6/7 :-P Maybe Michael Boehmer makes it work with DMA with his Deneb card. We'll see. What is clear is that Buster6/7 don't have DMA support and are slower.


@amiga92570

David Haynie said some A3000 also came with dmac rev 2.

All my 3000's have buster 11, ramsey-07, and DMAC-04 anyway.

lucky {bleep} ;-)

I am looking to test which works best with OS 4.0.

I have tested A3000/A4000/A4000T/A1200 and all of them work very well. Use big box ones as CSPPC uwscsi controller is supported.