Speed vs compatibility

[Alma96]

Hello to all,

I've joined Amiga.org recently. I regurlarly follow and appreciate the discussions about the various threads and today, I have a question.

First a quick introduction.

I become an Amiga enthousiast in 1992, starting with an A500. I switched to the A1200 shortly after, when a hard drive become necessary for productivity applications. I left the Amiga community in 1997, but recently I've come back to the Amiga platform.
Today, my arsenal is comprised of an A500, an A600, two A2000 and a bare A1200 recently purchased from ebay.
I use my main Amiga, the A2000 (Rev6.2, Rom 3.1 + OS3.9, GVP's Gforce 040 giving 24Mips, CV643/D, 2MB Chip [Megachip], two 4.3GB HDs and IOBlix) for web browsing, image processing and games.

Now, here's my question.

As I was upgrading my A2000 to its current configuration, I noticed that the more speed and performance I was getting from the A2000, the less games/old programs I was able to run (especially when I switched to the 68040).
I would like to upgrade my A1200. I would like to have a pretty versatile machine, usable for Scala presentations, AGA and ECS/OCS games, web browsing, personal finance and word processing.

What would be the ideal set-up ?

ROM 3.0 with OS3.1 or Rom 3.1 with OS3.9?
And Which accelerator board ? 68020@28MHz ? Full 68030 ? or 68040/60 ? It really seems that many pieces of softwares, especially games, do not work well with 68040/60 processors, even though they provide more speed.

Thank you for your advice,

Alma96

[itix]

In my opinion 68030/50MHz (i.e. Blizzard-IV) offers ideal performance/price ratio. 040 is relatively slow, sometimes even slower than 030 and 060 is quite expensive. ROM 3.0 is enough, getting newer ROM/OS is matter of taste...

And you need WHDLoad to play old games.

[cgutjahr]

I have to agree with that. A 68030 is as (in)compatible as the A1200's original 68020, it doesn't generate much heat (in contrast to a 68040) and it has a very good price/performance ratio. The only advantage of an 68040 would be that it is twice as fast (68030/50 vs. 68040/25), but for most of the things you have in mind, the 68030 should be sufficient.

web browsing, personal finance and word processing.

Don't try to do these things with an A1200, unless you are very patient or willing to spend a fortune on upgrading the machine.

Web browsing without a graphics card is a real pain. Word processing would benefit from a faster cpu and a gfx card aswell. Better use your A2000 for stuff like that.

ROM 3.0 with OS3.1 or Rom 3.1 with OS3.9?

Kickstart 3.0 and OS 3.0 should be sufficient for retro-gaming, Scala and some basic networking stuff (e.g. drive sharing between the A1200 and the A2000).

It really seems that many pieces of softwares, especially games, do not work well with 68040/60 processors, even though they provide more speed.

That's right, but even a stock A1200 has a lot of problems running old games. Use WHDLoad to install your games to the HD and your problems are gone. Get a good degrader (I'd recommend T.U.D.E.) for the stuff not supported by WHDLoad.

[X-ray]

@ Alma

Yep, its true. I had an A1200 with an 030 @ 50mHz and it was more compatible with games than my A4000T 060. As for Scala, if you playback big anims for genlocking then the 060 is a gem, but if it is standard 1 pic wipes and titles I think you'll get away with the 030 (50).

I think you must decide where your bias is: if it's games, or 50/50 games/apps, then take an 030. If its big time Scala, Apps and only small amount games, get an 060.

[Brian]

Well... if compability before everything else is what you're after then 030/50 is the best you'll get.

ROM3.1 is never bad... it's a better rom and of cause lets you install OS3.5/3.9 if you like.

OS3.1 or 3.9 is a question of taste... I have different on different machines as I see fit. 3.9 uses up more power but gives you more eyecandy while 3.1 is dull but also faster (and if you like more stable).

I'd never recomend a 040 board for anyone... 060 boards runs alot less hot, are more compatible and gives you much better speed for the extra $ you have to spend when uppgrading from a 030 anyway. With a Blizzard1260 (and probably others aswell) there's a fallback mode so if a perticular game refuce to work under 060 you can sacrifyse your fastmem and try run it under 020 with the use of a key. :-)

[Alma96]

Thank you for your advice.

Alma96