how hard is it to upgrade from ocs to ecs?

[runequester]

How much trouble is involved in replacing the chips to make an OCS A2000 into an ECS machine?

Do the chips come out pretty easy, or are there soldering involved?

How expensive should I expect the required chips to be?

[MelbourneBen]

Most later A2000's already have a 1 meg ECS agnus (you can check using sysinfo), the only other upgrade you need to do is replace your standard denise with a super denise. If you find a supply of these please let me know as I'm also looking for one.

[runequester]

hm, the machine came with 1 meg of ram, so I am guessing it has that part already. I guess its time to quest for super denise then

[bbond007]

hm, the machine came with 1 meg of ram, so I am guessing it has that part already. I guess its time to quest for super denise then

Super denise is only going to offer 4 color (out of a fixed 64 color palette!) productivity mode (640×480 noninterlaced & requires a multi-sync monitor) and "Super-HiRes" (1280×200 or 1280×256 also limited to 4 colors) that you don't have now. Super denise was obviously C= 's answer to EGA.

I would double-check you have the Fatter Agnus. Just because you have 1mb ram does not guarantee that its configured all as chip and not split between 512k chip / 512k slow.

[omnicron10]

If you need a super denise and can't find one... you can use the Indivision ECS.

With a Indivision ECS you can use the super denise modes even with a normal denise WHEN using the VGA output of the Indivision ECS.  

I use it on my A500 and show super denise modes with it.  The normal Amiga RGB output looks wrong but the VGA output works and works better!  I can use nice VGA monitors/lcd and get rid of the 1084!

I would suggest it to anyone!

[bbond007]

If you need a super denise and can't find one... you can use the Indivision ECS.

With a Indivision ECS you can use the super denise modes even with a normal denise WHEN using the VGA output of the Indivision ECS.  

I use it on my A500 and show super denise modes with it.  The normal Amiga RGB output looks wrong but the VGA output works and works better!  I can use nice VGA monitors/lcd and get rid of the 1084!

I would suggest it to anyone!

Totally - a very worthwhile upgrade

But a that point you have a nice 640x400 or 640x512 non-interlaced 16 color mode, so why use those crappy (4 out of 64 color) ECS modes?

[VingtTrois]

hm, the machine came with 1 meg of ram, so I am guessing it has that part already. I guess its time to quest for super denise then

Hello Runequester,
You can find some of ECS chipset on EPAY, but I don't know if these chips are 100% working fine (120587929031 + 120587921778).
You only need Fat Agnus & Super Denise + Kickstart 2.x or 3.1

[omnicron10]

Well in Workbench 1024x768 even in 4 colors can be very nice with Indivision ECS/ECS modes...

Although possible without Indivision ECS, getting something to display it would be a pain.

Also a new 800x600 16 color mode is in the works.  Does not use superhires modes from ECS.  Again, would not be very useable without Indivision ECS even though it does not require it I believe.

[Zac67]

Chances are very low in the US, but if you've got an early rev 4.0 A2000 model (A1000 chipset) there's no way to upgrade to ECS. Check whether yours has a square PLCC Agnus to make sure.

To change the 512 KB chip & 512 KB 'slowfast' setup to 1 MB chip with an ECS Agnus, you need to change jumpers J101 (moves 2nd 512 K down) and J500 (disables $C00000 mem).

[runequester]

also, what is actually involved in replacing the chips?

Do they come out, kinda like the rom chips, or do I need to desolder anything?

[tone007]

also, what is actually involved in replacing the chips?

Do they come out, kinda like the rom chips, or do I need to desolder anything?

Denise is DIP and pulls out just like a ROM, Agnus is PLCC, might be worth buying the correct PLCC extraction tool but it's not impossible to remove without one.

[rrete]

How much trouble is involved in replacing the chips to make an OCS A2000 into an ECS machine?

Do the chips come out pretty easy, or are there soldering involved?

How expensive should I expect the required chips to be?

Hi!
Simply you must change two chips: Denise x Superdenise and Rom 1.2/3 x 2.04 or better to run properly Amiga OS to use new graphic/screen modes. I've done in one my A2000 and works fine.

Two chips are in sockets no soldering works needed. Only be carefull to extract it from the sockets, place new in the same direction.

Price? first, look for it in ebay here 10 € each one. Second vesalia.de for example With 30 € maybe it will be done.
Bye

[runequester]

thank you so much guys