Possibly dumb question. 030 vs 040

[KThunder]

Any accelerator you get should have fast ram, the a3640 is an '040 with no fast ram and I had an '030 50mhz that could beat it.  From what I've seen an '040 25mhz with most software is roughly the same as '030 50mhz.

With a 3000 or similar small case '040s can be very hot. '030s are cooler, my '030 50 never had a heat sink or stability problems. On board scsi is a good thing too.

There are some differences in compatibility with the '040 too but I don't think it's much of an issue nowadays.

Personally I would consider case/heat, features, and compatibility over raw speed. Unless you are trying to get amiga quake to run, then you want the fastest '040 or '060 and lots of fast ram.

[KThunder]

WAY off here.

Any '040 is lots faster than any '030.

Of course it is way faster, the '040 kicks close to 1 instruction per clock cycle average, but you don't see it with the vast majority of amiga software. An '030 needs no libs for compatibility, produces much less heat, and uses less power especially if you don't need the fpu. Which again most amiga software doesn't.

This guy is asking for basic advice which I gave. We could get into Mips and stuff or we could give him some simple suggestions on picking an accelerator. With most amiga software imho an '030 is actually better for many people especially beginners.

btw I have had amigas with 68000, 68020, 68030 25mhz and 50mhz, and 68040

[KThunder]

You'll see the speed everywhere, even in Workbench popping windows and icons up.  Obviously most games are supposed to run at a certain speed, so of course further acceleration isn't going to do much for them.

Not too bad, I've had 68000, 68010, 68020, 68030@25mhz, 33mhz, 40mhz and 50mhz, 68040@25mhz, 33mhz and 40mhz, and 68060@50mhz.

There are many things which will improve workbench speed much more than an accelerator. 640x400 4 color is way faster than the same res in 16color. Running any video card is also much faster. Using a good harddrive and interface is also much faster. My point is in most amiga systems the bottleneck isn't cpu speed.

I used to try to get the best and fastest, then I experimented with settings and subjective sense of speed with each and found that you really can't tell if an amiga is running at 25mhz or 50.  
I would tell anyone looking for an accelerator that doesn't have a real lot of experience to look more for features: hard drive interface, fast ram amount and type, ease of installation, compatibility, 68000 fallback mode...