My A500+ Project

[sim085]

The GVP I bought should also have 4Mb internal fastram So I guess I got it for a good price. Now I just have to wait for the stuff to arrive and see if they work (They should, at least that is what the seller told me)

[sim085]

At the moment I am also looking in an 040 accelerator card for the A500+.

I bought the ROM 3.1 (amigakit) and Workbench 3.1 (eBay). With the GVP HD8+ hard drive (with 4Mb fast ram) and the extra 1Mb slow ram I should be able to achieve my above goal right?; that is to browse the internet from my A500+.

If yes then would my A500+ be under so much stress (without the accelerator card) that it could burn?

Also I do intend to even try to install Workbench 3.9 on my A500+. However for that I would need to definitely buy a good accelerator card a CD drive and the actual workbench on CD. However I still have the same worry - could my A500+ get burn with all that stress processing?  

[sim085]

My hard drive will have a PSU all for itself so that means I will have two PSU's, one for A500+ and one for the hard drive. What I am most worried is if the CPU (on the A500+ or the accelerator card) could get burned because of the amount of processing requested by the operating system.

Regarding Fast RAM; how much Fast RAM is enough? That is how much Fast RAM will actually make a difference for the processor?

Today's processor have an address space and having more RAM then the address space can support is pretty much useless right? Didn't the A500+ processor work the same way?

[sim085]

alexh wrote:
Absolutely, make sure you've got a fire extinguisher. Or perhaps some liquid nitrogen! ;-)

You are joking or?  :-?

[sim085]

alexh wrote:

sim085 wrote:
You are joking or?  :-?

Of course

Thank god my heart missed a beat on that line

I will try to configure my A500+ as it is. I still have to remove the leaky battery, and make the keyboard work. Then I will install Workbench 3.1 on the hard drive and see if everything works fine. If so then I will try to connect the A500+ with my PC and see if I can manage to browse the internet Depending on the success of that I will decide what to do next.

How often do 'good' accelerator cards come over eBay? Or this is usually a very rare deal?

[sim085]

If I do get a Viper 530 and 128Mb of Fast RAM then would I also be able to install OS4.1 (I think this is the latest version) on my A500+ as well? Or I can only arrive till Workbench 3.9 max!

[sim085]

No I am just seeing the limits the A500+ has if 3.9 is the max I can install on it then I will try to get it till there and there only! thanks.

[sim085]

Lockon_15 wrote:
What do you expect to get with 0S 3.9 compared with OS 3.1 ?

I do not know the difference between the two. I only used Workbench 2.0 in the past and mostly just to access the games I had installed on the hard drive. If there is not a big difference between OS 3.1 and OS 3.9 then I do not mind sticking with the foremost.  

[sim085]

My hoped for a Viper 530 just vanished in a cloud of mist!! €500!? What was its price when it was released then!?

[sim085]

My project is not to build some type of Super Amiga but more to try and bring my A500+ to working form. My original idea was to stretch the A500+ possibilities as much as possible. If it is not possible then I don't mind

From the comments I got over here it seems obvious that I cannot have anything more then Workbench 3.1 on the A500+. This is not a problem for me and if Workbench 3.1 does not need an accelerator card then I'll not need an accelerator card either! However if Workbench 3.1 runs very slowly then I will consider buying one

[sim085]

So far I still don't thing I am going to bid on the Derringer currently on eBay. I have been weighing this a lot but I feel for the amount of time I will spend on the A500+ (very little) the Derringer Card is just to expensive. Maybe in the future I will consider buying one; if ever such card becomes available again and I am interested in upgrading my A500+.

At the moment (or when all things arrive) I have a 2Gb hard drive, 2Mb slow ram (1Mb on the A500+, 1Mb ram extension board), 4Mb fast ram and kickstart 3.1.

I do not plan to install loads of games; just the ones I used to play in the past and some small programs.

@Lockon_15
> would max-out your CHIPRAM (maximum 10, but 5-6 is
> already enough).

Is chipram slow ram? If so then what does maximum 10 mean? I thought that the A500+ could only have a maximum of 2Mb slow ram.

[sim085]

@countzero
So you mean that on my A500+ I can only have upto 2Mb slow ram and 8Mb fast ram? What happens to the extra fast ram I put in?

@darksun9210
Your post on page 3 of this thread was really explanatory but I still can't understand this ram part :$

@tone007
I can imagine the price will continue going high till the very end and with that budget I could actually build a small PC server.

[sim085]

Thanks for the explanation

[sim085]

I was just wondering something. An accelerator card is in fact another (more powerful) computer. I mean it has a Processor, it has RAM, it has a ROM chip, etc etc. Is it possible to literally connect a hard drive with the accelerator card and the accelerator card to a monitor and have a Derringer or Viper rather then an A500+? Or the A500+ motherboard has other things which these accelerator cards need?

[sim085]

Thanks I thought it was something like that but just wanted to be user thanks.

[sim085]

Hi sorry to bring this thread up, but a new question popped to my head and wanted to see if there are any answers for it :-)

So since A1200 accelerator cards seem to be (1) more frequently available and (2) more powerful; Is there some converter which would allow an A500+ owner to stick an A1200 accelerator card rather then an A500+ accelerator card?

If not (which is the most obvious answer I guess), why not?

Regards,
Sim085