New user to OS 3.9

[Edpon]

Hi all,
  I want to upgrade my A4000/A2000 to OS 3.9, but I need to know what I need as a minimum, and what I'll need to make it run without any problems no matter what I put on it ! I've noticed a lot of really beautiful WB screens, and would like to match them. Also, as a part 2 of this question/plee for help, what graphics cards can you put in these machines currently? Thanks.

Ed
 :-D

[adolescent]

From os.amigaworld.de:

AmigaOS 3.9 - Requirements
      
In order to upgrade your Amiga system to OS 3.9, it must be equipped with the following hardware:

    * CD-ROM drive
    * Hard drive
    * 68020 or higher processor
    * Amiga 3.1 ROMs (Version 40.xx)
    * 6 MB Fast RAM


For improved performance we recommends adding::

    * 68030 or higher processor
    * 8 MB Fast RAM
    * Graphics accelerator and/or scandoubler
    * Modem


To take full advantage of OS 3.9 we also recommend you add the following:

    * 68060 processor with PowerPC accelerator card
    * 16-Bit sound card
    * 32 MB Fast RAM
    * I/O Accelerator

[PPC]

will run good on a 040/25 too, but having a ppc in your Amiga is a must these days makes your classic amiga so much more fun .

having a cyberstorm with 233mhz ppc and 50 mhz 060 makes it rock!
ow and add a gfx card such as cybervision ppc or a pci board+voodoo card once you have 1 you cannot live without  :-D

the gfx cards available for the A4000 are:

-cybervision 64
-cybervision 64 3D
-cybervision ppc

with a mediator you also have acces to:

-voodoo 3
-voodoo 4
-voodoo 5

A cybervision ppc would be the minimum, a voodoo card is to be advised because the voodoo cards are much much faster then any native amiga gfx card.

with a voodoo 3 3000 pci i could play games and movie's at 1024*768*16 easy while with the cybervision ppc for movies 320*240*16 was the highest and for games (GL quake,shogo etc..) 640*480*16 was the maximum.
keeping in mind that the cybervision ppc is the fastest native amiga gfx card ever you can see that the voodoo series has great prefomance advantages.

The downside however is that some programs will not work properly with the voodoo coz of picasso<>cgx differences.
specially scene demo's hard coded for 15 bit resolutions will not work such as the killer 64k intro planet potion from potion etc..

so that's why i had a dual setup with voodoo and cybervision ppc.

but if you only plan to have a very nice wb a cybervision ppc gfx card would be fine and everything works the way it should  :-D  

[Dandy]

PPC wrote:
...
so that's why i had a dual setup with voodoo and cybervision ppc.
...

How did you manage that?
AFAIK you can't have both at the same time, as CVPPC needs Cybergfx and Voodoo needs Picasso96 as driver system - and you can't run Picasso96 and CGX at the same time.

Did you have two "System" partitions - one for CGX and one for Picasso 96?

[Edpon]

the gfx cards available for the A4000 are:

-cybervision 64
-cybervision 64 3D
-cybervision ppc

with a mediator you also have acces to:

-voodoo 3
-voodoo 4
-voodoo 5

A cybervision ppc would be the minimum, a voodoo card is to be advised because the voodoo cards are much much faster then any native amiga gfx card.

with a voodoo 3 3000 pci i could play games and movie's at 1024*768*16 easy while with the cybervision ppc for movies 320*240*16 was the highest and for games (GL quake,shogo etc..) 640*480*16 was the maximum.
keeping in mind that the cybervision ppc is the fastest native amiga gfx card ever you can see that the voodoo series has great prefomance advantages.

That's cool and all, but where would you get the drivers for the Voodoo's? Are they part of the OS 3.9? And which companies brand of Voodoo is best for the Amiga? Thanks.

Ed

 :-D  :-?  :-D

[Lando]

That's cool and all, but where would you get the drivers for the Voodoo's? Are they part of the OS 3.9? And which companies brand of Voodoo is best for the Amiga? Thanks.

Ed

 :-D  :-?  :-D

The P96 drivers for the Voodoo come on the CD that you get when you buy a Mediator from Elbox.  Picasso96 comes on the OS 3.9 CD.

I had a cheap 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 in my A1200 (and afterwards in my A4000) and I also tried a Voodoo 5 5500 but didn't see any improvement in games or Workbench performance so I went back to the Voodoo 3.  The Amiga drivers don't make any use of the extra GPU on the Voodoo 5, but do make use of the extra VRAM.

[Legerdemain]

Actually, I did manage to install OS3.9, aswell as both boingbags, perfectly without a CD-ROM in my AMiGA...  =)

What I did was simply to put the disc in the CD-ROM in my PC. Then through SMBFS mount the CD-ROM on the AMiGA (with correct labeling) and then simply run the installer.

So, if you have a PC with CD-ROM and a network card in both the PC and the AMiGA there should be no problem.

Just a tip for those that want to buy OS3.9 but lacks CD-ROM on the AMiGA but still have a network card to play around with (how often that happens I don't know).

[Lemmink]

OK you guys, I think you went way over the top.
If someone asks you about how to upgrade his car, du you recommend him to buy a Ferrari right away ?
What you say might be good for an absolute freak that is experianced and doesn`t care that much for money, as the solution you tell him cost several hundred EUR/Dollars.

As for Graphicscard, the A2000 Takes Zorro II cards only, the A4000 can Handle Zorro III cards and is backwardscompatible with Zorro II.
So for an overview of various GFX-cards have a look here:

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showcat.cgi?CATID=16

Or to summ it up recommendet GFX-cards:

Piccolo
PiccoloSD64
Cybervision64 (A4000 only)
Cybervision 3D
GVP Spectrum 28/24
Picasso IV (good but expensive)
Picasso II / II+ (only recommendet for A2000 as it are ZII only cards)

[Edpon]

The P96 drivers for the Voodoo come on the CD that you get when you buy a Mediator from Elbox.  Picasso96 comes on the OS 3.9 CD.

I had a cheap 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 in my A1200 (and afterwards in my A4000) and I also tried a Voodoo 5 5500 but didn't see any improvement in games or Workbench performance so I went back to the Voodoo 3.  The Amiga drivers don't make any use of the extra GPU on the Voodoo 5, but do make use of the extra VRAM.

Only one problem with this suggestion; there are no Mediator cards available for the A2000 on their site, or at all from I've been reading at The Big Book of Amiga Hardware. Am I only really limited to Zorro II cards for Graphics? Because they SUCK. 2MB of RAM, lol. Thanks.

ED
 :crazy:

[Lemmink]

Yes there is no PCI-board for the A2000. If there were a Mediator or prometheus for A2000 it wouldn make much difference in terms of speed, as the signals would have to go through the slow ZII bus anyway (3.5 MB/s max. in real live).

Belive me 2 MB on a GFX-card are quite decent when you only want 2D display (for 3D ZII is to slow anyway). If that not enough look out for a PicassoIV or Cybervision3D and you have 4 MB and that is really enough.
You really don`t want to go much further then 1024x768 (maybe one more step with a PIV) on a ZII Amiga as even the screenrefresh starts to be slow then.