A1200 with 4mb Trapdoor expansion

[guest1955]

mikeymike wrote:

Robert17 wrote:
Is there any way to put better graphics into the desktop case though? I'd like to get out of towerising but I'm nto really interested in going PPC.

I don't think there is, but don't take my word for it.

What about the Graffiti by Individual Computers? I have saw the write up on their website and not entirely sure what it does, it seems it is what Robert17 wants but I'm skeptical...

[adolescent]

FAST RAM will actually double the usable speed of the A1200.  CHIP RAM access is very slow compared to FAST RAM.  I agree that an accellerator is a better choice but some FAST RAM and a FPU go a long way.

[mikeymike]

adolescent wrote:
FAST RAM will actually double the usable speed of the A1200.  CHIP RAM access is very slow compared to FAST RAM.  I agree that an accellerator is a better choice but some FAST RAM and a FPU go a long way.

If a particular application runs better with more RAM, then it will be faster with just more RAM, but otherwise Workbench is perfectly happy with the 2MB chip.

In short, it won't make it faster unless you have something that could really do with more RAM.  Just like with any other computer.  What do you want to do with the machine?  For example, if you want to use IBrowse, then check its system requirements.

Don't upgrade RAM unnecessarily, it's a waste of money.  My Amiga runs just as quickly whether it has 8MB FAST or 64MB FAST (I picked up the latter stick of RAM off a friend :-)).

[Kronos]

Robert17 wrote:
Just I read somewhere ages ago from a company selling the ram expansions that adding fastram doubles the speed of the A1200 to 28mhz, I didn't think it was true either lol

Well there were low-end accels featuring a 68020 at 28MHz which would just to that (the Blizzard 1220 for example), but a pure RAM-expansion without CPU will only boost the machines speed by faster RAM-access compared to the on-board RAM (but you were allready told that).

[Brian]

Well... I also have one of those 4Mb ram cards and they do in fact speed ut the computer quite a bit (id guess somewhere around 2-3times). Everything done on the computer is somehow related to shifting memory or acting on it so fastram do a great deal even if it's a small program that don't use very much memory.

About the Harddrive you got... 4.1Gb is a perfect size, old FFS only handled 4GB harddrives (max 2Gb per partision).

[Lemmink]

What about the Graffiti by Individual Computers? I have saw the write up on their website and not entirely sure what it does, it seems it is what Robert17 wants but I'm skeptical...

The Graffiti is only supported by 4 Programs and that are: Trapped, Trapped II, Nemac IV and Shapeshifter (the only way to use 256color Display in an exeptable speed without an RTG-Board). There are some viewers that use it too, but that about all. It is a really nice card and it is a shame that it didn`t get that much support say in a form of an CGX/P96 driver.

[adolescent]

@mikeymike

Agreed.  An app that runs fine on 4MB of FAST RAM will run the same on 8MB or 128MB.  But, we're talking the difference between CHIP and FAST.  Like I said (I think) CHIP RAM access is horribly slow.

[Robert17]

I only have the stock power supply though, will it have enough juice for my A1200 with the 4mb fastram, internal 2.5 hdd and an external disk drive?! I read somewhere that ChipRam is 160 or 170 ns ? as apposed to say 60ns of an EDO simm

[adolescent]

A simple RAM card shouldn't take much power, so the standard black power brick should work.  Only way to find out is try.  If that fails, then try an A500 power supply.  They're easy to find and have a bit more juice.

As for the RAM speeds, the chips are actually 80ns or so.  But, as I recall everything goes through the Alice so this slows everything up.

[Robert17]

Yeah, not as much power as a full accelerator obviously, it does have an FPU socket but it is currently unused, so shouldn't take too much juice.

[Holley]

the Blizzard 1220 for example

I had one of these with 4Mb of ram, great little bit of kit for the price - selling it was pretty dumb in retrospect!

Oh, and it ran perfectly on the stock PSU too ;-)