Just received a CyberstormPPC!

[xeron]

Unfortunately the tax man got me for £60 because it came from Canada! Damn... but I've wanted one of these since they came out, and now i've got one. Its a 50Mhz 68060/233Mhz 604, with 128Mb of 60ns RAM. Oh yes. :-D

I've never had one of these before. I'm going to install both OS4 and OS3.9 on it. With OS3.x which is better to use, WarpOS or PowerUP?

Has any fellow CSPPC owner got any tips or things to look out for?

[Brian]

Sweet... I was very happy when I got my CSPPC late last year and it sure is impressive.

I would say that WarpOS is better... it should also be able to "emulate" so powerup software will run if I'm not mistaking (not played around too much with that system yet actually so can't confirm that).

What to look out for is quite simply... heat. The heatsing/fan for the PPC is ok for "minor" PPC work but I would not recommend running OS4 with it so you will probably need to customly manufacture a bigger heatsing to use the existing "holders" and put a fan on that. The PPC is however quite delicat so no 300g cobber blocks please. Same for the 060, it sits in there are get quite hot so at least put a heatsink on it (causious me also added a fan for this one).

[Jose]

You lucky {bleep}! :-D

[Framiga]

Hi Xeron

WELLCOME in the CSPPC world :-)

Got mine, 3 months ago . . .great purchase.

So, the best thing to do, is to install WarpOS 5.1 with the latest ppclibemul (for PowerUp emulation).

http://www.haage-partner.net/download/Amiga/WarpUP/WarpUP_V51Update.lha

ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/ftp/aminet/pub/util/libs/ppclibemu.lha

Test the system in this way and remember to install even the 68060 and (not necessary with the latest 3.8 BB2) the dummy 040

-46.7 library

ftp://ftp.meanmachine.ch/pub/phase5/ppc/68060-191099.lha (not with IBrowse)

-46.15 library

http://www.dcecom.de/pub/driver/68060_20011029.lha

Good luck :-)

PS- remember that if you use ie ProStationAudio (in PPC mode), you must use it ONLY in PowerUp NOT emulated.
(i've created a boot partition PowerUP only).

[bonkers]

Xeron, you lucky {bleep} =)

So I guess you will live on noodles for the rest of the summer now.

[doctorq]

@Xeron

Check if the PPC is working, as mine didn't Saves you the trouble of installing software that you don't need anyway

[xeron]

@Thread

Thanks for all the great advice and links! Its going to be fun this evening ;-)

@doctorq
The seller assured me that the card is fully functional, so... it'd better be

[redrumloa]

@Xeron

Welcome to the club;-)

#1 concern - handle it ever so gingerly! Never press on the PPC chip.
#2 concern - HEAT! Make sure the fan works properly, and the case it is in has proper ventilation.

What kind of system is it going in?

[x56h34]

Make sure you don't press down on the PPC heatsink when installing this card, as the PPC chip is very fragile and would most likely die.

Make sure that some memory (at least 8MB) is present on the card when you power on, as CSPPC must have some memory on it in order to let you boot up.

The motherboard CPU clock jumpers should both be placed to EXT position.

The fan that goes over the PPC oroginally came in the 5V flavor. If it's still a 5V fan, I'd take it off and replace it with a quality 12V one (Sunon makes good quality fans) which will directly receive power from the PSU, instead of the PPC card itself like the old one.

Remove the PPC heatsink and blow off all the dust that is underneath it, or the PPC chip itself, with a can of compressed air.

Remove (CAREFULLY!) heatsink grease if it looks dried out and replace it with a new coating. Make sure it is only passive heatsink grease, and not adhesive!

That's all the tips I can think of. ;-)

[xeron]

@redrumloa

Its going to take my A4000 specifications to:

Amiga 4000
Power Tower MkII (usually with the lid off, so plenty of ventilation
CSPPC 68060/50, 604/233, 128Mb 60ns Fast RAM
Repulse soundcard
Algor USB
Powerflyer 4000 Gold (i know... but i don't have SCSI kit)
Mediator 4000
Voodoo 3 3000
Realtek 8139 10/100 NIC
WinTV Primio FM TV card
40Gb HD, crappy old CD-Rom (The CD-RW moved to my A1)

[Framiga]

@doctorq

should be interesting how the heck, he could test the PPC, without installing the software!

To be honest, the first thing i've done, was to install PowerUP to check the PPC board.

Ciao

[xeron]

Hey bonkers!

Xeron, you lucky {bleep} =)

So I guess you will live on noodles for the rest of the summer now.

Well, luckily I got an £800 bonus completely by surprise with my last paycheque... so... i'll survive :-)

You're welcome to come over and see OS4 running on both machines as soon as i've tidied my flat up (its even worse than the last time you saw it... damn i'm so lazy...)

[jj]

@ xeron

comon misconception, having the case open a computer will not reduce the heat on the mobo and chips, for any chasis fans to work correctly they need proper airflow.

i.e makes sure the case is tight and that any unused holes or backing plates or filled in, this will give proper airflow across the mbobo and chips

[xeron]

JJ wrote:
comon misconception, having the case open a computer will not reduce the heat on the mobo and chips, for any chasis fans to work correctly they need proper airflow.

Yes, but also for chasis fans to work, you need to have some chasis fans ;-) The Power Tower didn't come with any fans connected to the tower, just the usual PSU one.

[jj]

hairy muff

chasis fans are cheap enough, u could even knock one up from an old psu

cool blue led ones are cheap as chips as mr dickinson would say, plus they look cool as