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Author Topic: Sam440ep Flex 733 Mhz board  (Read 6891 times)

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Offline Duce

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Offline Duce

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Re: Sam440ep Flex 733 Mhz board
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2012, 12:16:23 AM »
Why would you assume the newer board is lower quality?  Especially when you were asking very basic questions about it (footprint, PSU and gfx card options) it's odd you would know/believe one is inferior to the other.

Honestly, unless price is a major concern - there's no reason to look at anything other than a 460 board if you are interested in the ACube products.

Do make sure it fits your needs.  I've seen a lot of people buy the NG PPC boards to try and relive old times of days past on a legacy Amiga.  If you're buying one to run old legacy games and apps, you will be quite disappointed.  I have a 440ep and love it, but a replacement for a beefed up A4000 or A1200 it isn't if one is looking to run the old 68k software.  A fair bit of that still needs emulation, and the cost of a PPC OS4 machine is pretty high just to have to run UAE on what is underpowered HW by today's standards if you're a gamer.

All the answers to your questions are on ACube's website, as is the product manual.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2012, 12:20:05 AM by Duce »
 

Offline Duce

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Re: Sam440ep Flex 733 Mhz board
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2012, 12:54:44 AM »
Quote from: runequester;700147
Would UAE even run half decent on that processor?


Not really, no.  RunInUAE works well in OS4 in the latest update, which included ROM's and everything you need.  It's workable, but I couldn't with good conscience recommend someone buy a PPC machine to use legacy 68k programs and games.  It's a waste of money.
 

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Re: Sam440ep Flex 733 Mhz board
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2012, 01:00:07 AM »
If your needs are extremely simple, one of these machines may be OK for you.

Personally, as much as I like my SAM, the browsers simply are not good enough atm to even consider using it for anything other than a hobby.
But much of what I do is web and internet based, and the OS4 machine doesn't even come close to doing what I need a machine to do Internet wise.
I'm not talking rocket science - I'm talking GDocs and other similar services, cloud services, etc.
 

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Re: Sam440ep Flex 733 Mhz board
« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2012, 06:19:39 AM »
Normal DDR PC-400 (up to 512 MB sticks, 2 slots on the flex) and PCI 9250 cards, afaik.  May be drivers for other cards for all I know, but I used a 9250 in my ep with zero issues.

See the Acube store and browse through the offered add-ons, which gives you more detailed specs on additional things you can add to a bare mobo purchase.  Make sure you get the right voltage PCI gfx card if you aren't buying it along with the motherboard from a vendor in a package deal.
 

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Re: Sam440ep Flex 733 Mhz board
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2012, 04:28:00 PM »
LOL @ the idea ACube or Hyperion is getting a kickback out of ATI.

The number of cards they would be selling is peanuts.  Not even a blip on the radar.  

The ATI 9250 is a card from 2002.  While useful on the Amiga platform both for PPC/NG folks and expanded A4000/A1200 users alike, they are mostly being used as doorstops and paperweights by the rest of the world.  Surplus DirectX 8.1 cards that no one else has a use for.  $10 items off ebay.

The hardware will support whatever card you throw in there, it's just a PCI slot.  For whatever reason, the OS supports only ATI cards.  I'd have to think that the developers of the drivers chose this line of cards because they were cheap and plentiful, and writing drivers for them was possibly easier than it was for the nVidia line.

If you want better gfx options you'll have to look at the 460 or the X1000.
I had a 9250 in my ep and didn't notice it offering anything better/more than the onboard gfx chip did, so I removed it, but you don't have that option with the Flex boards.