Classic Amiga for Web Browsing

[anglosaxonusa]

I've been running Amiga through emulation for ages and would like to return to hardware.  I'd like to build up a 3.X-ClassicWB machine capable of running Netsurf.  Would an A1200 with the recently released ACA 1232 fit the bill?  If not, would one of the workstation models be better for this scenario?

I'd like to run a 500 or 1200 wedge if at all possible, but I will use one of the workstation models if that's what it will take to get a decent browsing experience.  I'm fond of the old A500 chassis, but I assume it would could not be made powerful enough for something like netsurf even with an accelerator.

I have not been able to get Netsurf working through emulation without enabling Picasso so I assume any hardware solution will need to support this.  Is this something that an accelerator will take care of?

Cost isn't really an option; I can afford a powerful accelerator provided it can be found.

Thanks in advance.

[anglosaxonusa]

What sort of web browsing?
An 030 is fine for basic forum stuff, visiting aminet, internet chat and whatnot.

Mainly reddit, amiga.org, ycombinator, slashdot, aminet, gmail in html-mode, and hopefully my bank.

[anglosaxonusa]

It might be possible to get NetSurf running with native AGA, you'll still need a powerful machine to run it though.

I see in your signature that you're running an A1200 @ 80Mhz.  Do you browse from that machine?  If so, how does the system behave with that power?

[anglosaxonusa]

Still wont beat a £50 PC though :laugh1:

Point taken.  I'm still amazed that Amigas have held up as well as they have though.  I'm sure there are a few on the forum still posting from an upgraded A500 or A1000 somewhere.

I plan to learn 68k assembly on the machine, so it will be used for more than just browsing, FYI.

Not to derail this thread, but, why haven't replacements for the A1200 *motherboard* been more popular historically?  The original motherboard has a slow bus, correct?  Why, then, haven't there been aftermarket replacement motherboards with broader busses, etc?  It seems like the aftermarket vendors are focusing on one part of the system rather than the whole.  Is it because of kickstart and other chips are hard to relocate to a new board?  Many of the people frequenting the Minimig and Natami sites are owners of the classic machines, yet these vendors are targeting their products for new cases.  Production of drop in upgrades for the older machines would seem to be more business savvy than producing new 68k hardware targeted for x86 cases.  The price and scarcity of some of the more powerful accelerators on eBay and AmigaKit would seem to confirm that assumption, but I digress...

[anglosaxonusa]

Hi Chris, I have no idea who you are, probably one of the Netsurf guys? Anyway it looks really, really fast on that Falcon machine. If an Amiga 030 even had half of that speed it would be perfect on my 060. Hope this will happen some day!

I, too, have seen the video and agree, what was shown is exactly what would be desired for browsing from a classic Amiga.  Is there a bounty set up for porting NetSurf to AGA?  If so, I would gladly contribute.

Also, would an A1200 with an ACA 1232 accelerator perform similar to the Falcon in the video, assuming NetSurf is ported to AGA from SDL?