Beefing up A3000

[matt3k]

I will be receiving an A3000 that I bought from a local acquittance (68030 030 CPU and 68882 FPU @25mhz, rev 9 motherboard, 2mb chip ram, 2mb fast ram, Kickstart 3.1 rom, Workbench 3.9 installed in HDD and additional 8 mb Static Column ram).

I want to beef it up by adding a modem (wi-fi, if at all possible) and a bigger HDD. Any recommendations? and where to find them? Thanks.

Congrats, it is IMHO, the 3000 is the best Amiga ever made.

First thing is if it has an battery mounted on the motherboard, remove it and install a new one preferably off the MB.  

I would recommend for upgrading the WD SCSI chip.  The latest is the Rev 8, and you will be just fine with that.  You can pick up a compatible one for about 20USD.  Find a nice sized SCSI HD, they are everywhere.  Many come out of older servers.  You may need to purchase an adapter to convert the HD to SCSI II Internal.  The last item is to use PFS 3 off of Aminet to format the drive.  I have a Quantum Atlas 10k in on of my 3k's and it works great.  If your into silent computing, you can find an SSD, you can go with the Mercury Legacy from OWD and use an IDE TO SCSI adapter.

[matt3k]

Here are a few tips:

Take inventory of your chips on your motherboard.  Find out the Buster, DMAC, Ramsey, and SCSI.  You still can find Buster version 11's and I would recommend you upgrade if you don't have it.  The DMAC 04 and Ramsey 07 are near impossible to find and upgrade.  If you plan to upgrade to a Commodore 3640, be careful since some DMAC 02's had trouble with that card.

IMHO, you will need 16 total fast memory if you plan to surf the web.  If you want to upgrade the zip memory, make sure to see what kind of chips you already have.  If you have 80ns static column chips, try to match them when you buy new memory.  If you mix page and static you will have fun playing with them to get them to work.

If you plan on really using this system and don't mind putting money into it:
1.  There are only 2 (hopefully 3 someday with the ultimate ppc) accelerators that you can use that have local memory and a faster scsi controller.  The Warp Engine 3040 or the Cyberstorm MKIII.  You can get away with the mercury 040 or the GVP if you don't care about faster Disk IO.  These cards will really make a huge difference in performance and usability of the 3k.  I do have a Commodore 3040 in a 3000 now and it works fine, but it is only 4x the speed a stock 3k.  There are more options for other cards, but you will have to hack the 3000D case to get them to fit and work properly.  

2.  Add a video card.  These are easier to come by.  jammarob has a GVP spectrum which is a nice card.  It has a path through with is very handy.  You won't need the indivision ECS  with the video card, get a video card and be done with it.  IMHO the Amiga video has 3 tiers of video cards (speaking only for zorro cards).  The Picasso IV, Cybervision 64 (or 3d), and the Retina BLT Z3.  These 3 cards have the fastest chips and offer the best performance.  The second tier: GVP Spectrum and Picasso II are really fine cards both provide pass through and have decent chips on them. The 3rd tier :  The Retina ZII and the Merlin, they are ok but wouldn't be as nice as the others.

If you are going to hold off on the accelerator for now, hook the 68882 directly to the 50MHz crystal (see aminet for instructions), this will boost the math and give a cheap speedup.

If you have green corrosion from a leaky battery from the past, I would recommend clean the MB.  May as well reseat the chips while your at it.

As far as where to purchase Amiga stuff: ebay or amibay are your best bets...

Have Fun!

[matt3k]

So reading the 50mhz hack then for the fpu and i wonder if it really worth it? Just for a machine to play games? And in reality would the life of it be shortened more?

I just wonder about this and i quote form the doc.

   [FONT="]My theory on FPUs was that the following: It's too
 expensive for them to have different assembly lines producing different grades
 of FPUs so they just produce the top grade, then label them different to keep
 the price high for the "top" grades.  WELL - I've since talked to Dax of
 Creative Computers @ Lawndale (Amiga Tech)  He statess that my theory is close
 but not exact.  The TRUE story for FPUs is that Motorolla has one assembly
 line for all FPUs (like I had thought) , and they always TRY to make 100 mhz
 FPUs.  But only about 10% of the FPUs produced actually pass at 100mhz.  These
 10% are then labeled 50mhz.  Then the rest of the FPUs that didn't pass are
 tested at 80 mhz.  Those that pass are labeled 40 mhz.  Then the same for 66
 mhz, 50mhz and 40mhz.  So in other words, the 25mhz FPU in your a3000 has
 already passed a test at 50mhz!![/FONT]


[FONT="]un quote[/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
[FONT="]If this is true has one done this?[/FONT]


[FONT="]lost[/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
[FONT="]ps sorry not trying to hijack the thread but add to it![/FONT]
[FONT="]
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I hacked my 3000D about 20 years ago and it still works...

[matt3k]

Congratulations on your purchase!

The A3000 is truly a great Amiga system to beef up. Besides from the expandability, it is probably the best
looking too. Box design was made by Herb Mosteller (I think he did C128 case too).

I bought mine almost 20 years ago, back then I had "only" 4 + 2 M ram, a 100M HD and a C= 1930-II VGA monitor. Not a bad setup by standard then, and I had it like this for several years. Very reliable.

I must say that if I had to pick one Amiga system Ive been using over the years, the A3000 is the one that kept me coming back. A4000T may be more technically advanced, but it lost just a tiny bit of that soul.

A couple of years ago I decided I had too much dosh laying around and started to expand the A3000. I wanted to see how far it could be pushed really...

So this is the current state of it:

- CyberStormPPC 060/66 604e/367 128M. Upgraded by Stachu.
- CyberVisionPPC.
- Indivision ECS.
- Deneb USB. Wish we could see these available at retailers again.
- FZ357A HD floppy.
- VLab Motion
- Toccata sound card.
- 73GB HD.

The system is running very stable with this setup, although heat is building up inside the box, so the next project will definetly be to fit the FastATA controller and replace the HD with a SSD. I have also been thinking about replacing the PSU, but somehow things would not be the same without the "jet- engine" sound. Thats the sound of A3000 personality

Would be lovely to add an A3070 as well, but it seems there are fewer available than the holy grail.

Wish you all the best with your A3000!

Might have a 3070 somewhere in storage, if I can find it I will let you know...

Nice system you made for yourself, nice job!

Should upload pics to the gallery.  Think the best route for an SSD is the OWC Mercury Legacy IDE.  Haven't found a better solution in my travels yet.

How is the indivision ECS?  My 3k's have video cards right now, so I don't need one, just wondered how well they worked...