Help me decide what to buy next

[runequester]

So got a bit of amiga money to spend.
 
Choices are:
 
Hunt down SCSI kit and CD ROM drive (or IDE buffer and CD ROM, though I am leaning towards teh SCSI option). This might be less immediately usefull, but it will open up some options (backing up stuff, and the wealth of amiga magazine cover CD's out there for download)
 
Hunt down a decent printer (this will, well, let me print, and actually put Final Writer to some use)
 
Wireless card (mainly for basic downloads from aminet, and I imagine I'll end up using it a lot for things like sabreMSN, amirc and a few other things)
 
 
All 3 are items that are on the "amiga only" list of stuff to get, in my ongoing experiment to transition as much computing as I can to my amiga, but right at this moment, I can only afford one of them.
 
So with that in mind... what would you choose in my place?

[runequester]

Please don't go down the SCSI route unless you absolutely have to.
 
It may have made sense in the 80s, but today you will pay over the odds for hardware that offers no real improvement in performance, whilst at the same time presents a lot of potential problems.
 
Get some IDE kit instead, and spend the change on a wireless card and a printer

Question for you:
 
I know IDE stuff is easier to get nowadays, but I am concerned about the practicality.
As far as I can figure out, I'd need an IDE buffer thingie (as I have a hard drive already). Then trail the cable to the CD ROM out the back somehow, to an external drive, which seems like a bit of a mess.
The reason I considered SCSI was mainly since with something like the squirrel, it seems a bit neater and easier.
 
Any easy / practical ways to set it up, without making my poor miggy look like she's on life support?
 
 
Im currently leaning towards getting CD ROM last, but it never hurts to think about it ahead of time.

[runequester]

@Runequester
 
The only reason you'd want to go for SCSI is if you need full DMA and your accelerator card supports it. Otherwise, stick with the IDE port. The transfer speed on a CD-ROM is low enough that you shouldn't notice the difference.

Gotcha. Thanks!
 
Any suggestions on a reasonably nice looking way to set it up, for a wedge-case 1200 ?

[runequester]

No. All that stuff about needing a buffered IDE interface is just propaganda that Eyetech deployed so they could flog their 'Buffered interfaces'.
 
There are some photos on here of Amigas with custom connectors on the side to attach IDE devices, all you need is an adaptor to convert the 44 pin header to a 40 pin header. You will need a seperate power supply for the drive. You also have a PCMCIA slot free for a wireless card.

Apologies if these are dumb questions but will this work even with a hard drive already in the IDE slot?
 

At this point, putting the Amiga in a tower case becomes tempting.

It does, but I kinda prefer the "wedge" Also, towering sounds like a pretty significant amount of work and money.
 

Think Franko had a similar type setup, but I could be wrong about that one.
 
All the best.

I imagine Franko had one of everything
 
Thanks so much for all your help!

[runequester]

Thumbs down on the wireless card. They dont' really work too great on the Amiga.
 
A wired Ethernet card, you will have a better time with.

The wired ones are way cheaper too, but my amiga is set up quite a ways from where the cable modem is
 
We need a spacier apartment pretty bad

[runequester]

One of these should do the job nicely: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Laptop-44-40-pin-Hard-Drive-HD-IDE-adaptor-converter-/280613974352?pt=UK_Computing_Laptop_Accessories_LaptopCables_Connectors&hash=item4155e57150
 
You will need to put another 44 pin socket on that cable though for the Hard drive, or else put another 40 pin socket and you could use a 3.5 inch hard drive instead of the 2.5 one...
 
Pretty cheap solution though!!
 
Glad to help

yeah, that looks pretty economical all things considered.
 

The 4-way buffered IDE connection will attach your existing hard drive and other IDE peripherals at once.

Awesome, another option. I love how there's so many ways to do these things.
 
 
Okay, so definately IDE for the CD ROM option!
 
 
Now, which of the three options should I get first? (CD ROM, Printer, Networking)

[runequester]

Networking would probably be handiest. Trying to get stuff from the Aminet to a non-networked Amiga often proves to be a pain.

yeah, I have a compact flash adapter for the PCMCIA slot, and a card reader on my PC, which works a charm, but the point is to reduce my use of the PC

[runequester]

ah yeah, good idea on using an old router as a bridge. That might come in handy for other things too.
 
Its pretty much a toss up between the net connection and printing capability at the moment
 

Yeah. $54 for this one would only be worth it to someone who doesn't know how to hook it up otherwise.

There might be concerns about stability of connection, but wouldn't that device from amigakit still end up cheaper?
PCMCIA ethernet cards (wired) seems to be in the 15-20 dollar range, and to that, would have to add in the cost of a bridge (don't have a spare router atm) or similar ?
 
unless I can score a leftover router from one of my friends I'll have to check

[runequester]

I guess you're right. I hadn't tallied the cost fully. I just was wishing that AmigaKit still carried new PCMCIA Ethernet cards and didn't stop to think that the cost of a router would be higher.

They used to, but maybe they ran out. I think what I'll do is look around to see if I know someone here that has a spare router I can turn into a bridge (as a "proper" bridge seems to be wicked expensive, from a quick glance at best buy's website).
Otherwise, wireless might end up being the way to go.

[runequester]

I saw a WRT54G at the goodwill the other day. That + tomato or ddwrt firmware = bridged router. should have the bonus of being able to use wpa2 which I am sure would be nothing but a headache on the amiga.

A trip to freegeek might be in order

[runequester]

As you just want CD access and not to be able to burn DVDs, why not get a USB adapter for your A1200 and then you can use a cheap external USB CD/DVD drive, a USB Ethernet adapter and have the ability to use memory sticks, etc?

USB is on the list long term, though I've heard bad things from people who tried using USB CD ROM for their amigas.
 
would USB Ethernet adapter work for an amiga?

[runequester]

I use an A4000 with a Deneb for my main "real" Amiga and the Deneb is a lot faster than the A1200's solution. That said, once you have USB it is hard to live without it. I use an external HP DVD+RW drive and I connect to the Internet via a $20 USB Ethernet dongle.
 
It works fine for me, but as I said, I'm using a Deneb.
 
It is handy though to keep a backup of all of your essential files on a USB memory stick just in case your hard drive goes down and you need to reinstall.

Hm. I'll have to google for some user experiences a bit, but if it worked out good, it'd be extremely tempting to go that route. Maybe add a self powered USB hub to one of the two ports the subway supports, and I could cover ethernet, CD ROM and storage easily
 
Would it be possible to use a printer through USB or is that expecting too much?

[runequester]

I think I agree. I know I'll use networking almost daily, and printing at least weekly. CD ROM is more of a "isn't that nice" thing.

I'll toss USB on the list though, if nothing else, at least for some easy additional storage, and cheaper than CF cards.

[runequester]

No worries about being off topic Its all good.
 
 
Settled for getting internet set up first. Then printer (pretty much settled on getting an old HP laser) and finally USB and CD ROM.