Crumb wrote:
It depends on what you want to do and also on how upgraded the A3000 is. I owned one but I end up giving back the computer in less than a week because it sucked. You have to waste a lot of money to avoid problems:
-you have to buy the rom3.1
-you have to upgrade Ramsey and DMAC
-You can't put simms on the motherboard unless you use a hack
-You must upgrade to buster11 to get full zorro3 speed
-The scsi interface is slow and doesn't recognize all devices
-the case is small and won't allow you to use all accelerators (for example CSMK1) and if you can fit some accelerators you won't be able to completely populate them with ram.
-You can't put a CDRW inside the case because it doesn't have a 5 1/4 bay
-You have to make the INT2 modification to use Accelerators with proper scsi
-You have a low density disk drive
-You can't use cheap IDE drives
All crap! The scsi interface isnt that bad for what the Amiga can use. All accelerators that are worth a damn work just fine! The MK 1 was a POS monster, plenty of external drive cases are out, a pain I agree but they work well, INT2 mod takes 5 mins and I never bothered for years and used a CSPPC in mine with all RAM on it, 128MB worth, A4000 came with a 880kb drive as well, A300 and A4000 BOTH had the HD drive as an option, the RAMSEY and DMAC are fine, I NEVER botherd to change mine and NEVER had an issue at all. I know most poeple didnt have any. For the hell of it I put in the last Ramsey with my old DMAC to see what it would do. It works fine and they dont have to be upgraded in a pair like they say. Joel that was at Software Hut can also tell you this, the buster 11 needs to be done on MANY A4000 and MANY have it soldered to the board!!!!! I used IDE in mine with a Budha controller. In the A4000 you need a SCSI card so its just the reverse problem isnt it? SIMMS? Who cares if you plan to use an accelerator? I took all my ZIPS out and had 128MB on my CSPPC. Its faster ram anyway.
The point is the A3000 is just as upgradable as the A4000 is and only lacks AGA. Most want an RTG card anyway. Put in a Mediator and a tower like I did and your have one kick ass system for no more then what an A4000 would be, and a lot of the times less. You can get an A3000 on ebay US for WAY less then a A4000.