Extreme Amiga overclocking.

[Brian]

@BoingBoss

Every time you get the chance you promote the old fart A2000 and no it's not the highest quality Amiga. About the 040 CPU I'm prepared to agree with you that it is the worst 68K CPU, though the not so common 3.3V version didn't run nearly as hot and much more stable than the 5V version of the CPU.

[PMC]

BoingBoss wrote:

My system is an Amiga 2000 Series computer, the highest quality Amiga, so NO, my system is working just fine.  

Hi BoingBoss

Are you experiencing any instability with your system at 28Mhz, or are you simply downclocking to 25Mhz just to stay within the stated rated speed of the chip?

Assuming you're not experiencing any stability issues, I'd say you'd be better off seeking out an '060 board as you suggest.  That way you'll be able to play mp3 file etc without having to overclock a system in order to do so.

Assuming you are experiencing stability issues, it might not neccessarily be the hardware.  You might want to try starting your system with no startup sequence, or commenting out some of the programs launched in the script to see if any one individual program is causing you problems.  

Good luck!

[melott]

@redrumloa

Do you have all your wares listed on your EStore
or do you have another site??

[redrumloa]

melott wrote:
@redrumloa

Do you have all your wares listed on your EStore
or do you have another site??

I have most items listed on the eShop, though I will be adding more items this weekend.

[Amiga1200PPC]

> The PP&S 2000/040 board is a piece of crap

Not if it is the military grade 68040 !

I never had any problems with my 68040-25 overclocked to 33 MHz.

[billt]

@Mugo

Do you have any docs for your 040->060 upgrade? I've done a similar upgrade to my CSMK2 card as well as overclocking the 060 a bit. I've had the thing up to 72MHz, but it was somewhat flaky there. 70MHz seemed more stable, but I backed it down to 66MHz and all seems quite well.

If you have a web page describing how you upgraded your BPPC 040 to 060, I'd like to add a link to that from my CSMK2 upgrade page. Anyone else in seeing my page, which needs some of the text cut down to be easier to read through, it's at
http://home.comcast.net/~amiga.bill/csmk2.html

[BoingBoss]

Hi Brian,

Every time you get the chance you promote the old fart A2000 and no it's not the highest quality Amiga. About the 040 CPU I'm prepared to agree with you that it is the worst 68K CPU, though the not so common 3.3V version didn't run nearly as hot and much more stable than the 5V version of the CPU.

YES, the Amiga 2000 is the highest quality Amiga.  Commodore had lowered the quality, to make more profit, starting with the release of the Amiga 3000.  I use to work for Commodore, so I should know.  Brian, do your home work before talking crap!

Now for the 68040 processor.  The XC68040 is the 5 volt version.  The MC68040 is the 3.3 volt version and is very hard to find.  I have been looking for one on eBay for months and have not been able to find one.  All of the sellers only have the XC version for sale.

[Eco]

Doomy, care to explain us the things that make A2000 the "highest quality Amiga" ever? Plenty of detail, please.

[BoingBoss]

Hi PMC,

Are you experiencing any instability with your system at 28Mhz, or are you simply downclocking to 25Mhz just to stay within the stated rated speed of the chip?

As always, my system works fine.  I never experience any instability with any of my systems, because I know what I am doing when it comes to the hardware.  Yes, I want to downclock to 25 MHz to stay within the processor's rated speed.

The problem I am having is that my Amiga 2500 will not "see" the memory on the Progressive 2000/040 board.  SysInfo sees the 68040 processor just fine, but not the SIMMs.  I am sure that I have the jumpers set correctly, but just in case, how should they be set?  I need the extra memory because I am working with 24-bit graphics and the 8 megs on the Zorro II bus is not enough.  I need at least 8 to 16 megs of 32-bit memory in order to use my GVP EGS 28/24 Spectrum video board to its fullest potential.   :roll:

[adolescent]

BoingBoss wrote:
Now for the 68040 processor.  The XC68040 is the 5 volt version.  The MC68040 is the 3.3 volt version and is very hard to find.  I have been looking for one on eBay for months and have not been able to find one.  All of the
sellers only have the XC version for sale.

Again with incorrect facts.  

The 3.3V 040s are the MC68040V (no-FPU) or MC680EC040V (no-MMU/FPU).  The V designates the low power, all the other models are 5V, no matter if they are MC or XC.  The V series chips are not pin compatible with standard 040s.

As for the one that said the 040 was the worst.  Hindsight has probably proved that.  But, at the time it was the best, and is still leagues ahead of the 020-030 chips in speed.  (A 40MHz 040 is more than twice as fast as a 50MHz 030).  

[adolescent]

BoingBoss wrote:
The problem I am having is that my Amiga 2500 will not "see" the memory on the Progressive 2000/040 board.  SysInfo sees the 68040 processor just fine, but not the SIMMs.  I am sure that I have the jumpers set correctly, but just in case, how should they be set?  I need the extra memory because I am working with 24-bit graphics and the 8 megs on the Zorro II bus is not enough.  I need at least 8 to 16 megs of 32-bit memory in order to use my GVP EGS 28/24 Spectrum video board to its fullest potential.   :roll:

RTFM. :roll:  What version of the software?  What command line are you using to initialize the card?  AFAIK, early versions required AddMem, but later ones have it built into the Init040 utility.  Have you tried the MemTest program?

[BoingBoss]

Hi Eco,

Doomy, care to explain us the things that make A2000 the "highest quality Amiga" ever? Plenty of detail, please.

All you have to do is take a good look at the way the Amiga 2000 Series computers are built and you will plainly see that they are the best built of all the Amiga models.  Afterall, the Amiga 2000 was designed and made in Germany, so hence the higher quality.  Let's start with the chassis.  It is made out of very heavy gauge steal and is well designed.  The "cross" on the bottom helps make the case more rigid.  The German Amiga Team had decided to use 3mm and 4mm metric machine screws because there are more threads per inch, so less of a chance for stripped out screw holes.  Next let's take a look at the Amiga 2000's power supply.  It is "beefier" and much better made then the power supplies that are found in the other Amiga models.  The cooling fan is made in Japan or Germany and is very high quality.  The electronic parts in the Amiga 2000's power supply are also very high quality (just look at the heat sinks and caps).  Now let's look at the Amiga 2000's motherboard.  It was designed and made in Germany.  It is the higher quality "thru-hole" design, not the lower quality "SMT" design (like the Amiga 600, 1200, 4000, 4000T and the AmigaOne piece of crap).  All of the main chips are socketed for easy replacement or upgrades.  The Zorro, CPU and video slots are on the motherboard, which is a better design.  They are not on a daughter board, which is a poorer design (the Amiga 3000 and 4000 have their slots on a daughter board).  This is the reason why I prefer the Amiga 3000 Tower, because its slots are on the motherboard, just like the Amiga 2000 computer.  Also, the Amiga 3000 Tower has a very nice case and power supply, just like the Amiga 2000.  I can go on and on as to why the Amiga 2000 computer is the highest quality and best built of all the Amiga models, but I think you already get the picture.   :-D

[BoingBoss]

Hi adolescent,

Again with incorrect facts.

No, I am correct.  You yourself even stated that the "MC" version was the one with the lower voltage.

Not all of the 3.3 volt chips had a "v" at the end.  MANY of them were misprinted and sold to companies like Progressive and GVP at a lower cost.

[Brian]

@Doomy

Lets see now... you claim that "thru-hole" design is higher quality than SMT... care to explain?

If by being big and heavy qualify for being higher quality then a tank is a higherquality car than a ferrari.

Exactly what makes a riserboard a poor quality?

Ever think about all the extra cooling in the A2000 was needed to keep it cool where in the newer Amigas this wasn't needed as better quality chips where used?

Oh and about the 040... you go do your homework. Lol coming and start defend your wrong statement by stating that some chips where marked wrong. So they where marked "wrong" just as you where wrong. Please have a look at the different MC040 versions and you'll see that the V is just what marks a 040 chip as a 3.3V version. All other MC/XC040 chips are 5V.


@adolescent
The MC68040V have FPU and MMU, the MC68EC040V doesn't.

[Eco]

@Gloomy

Made in Germany: How exactly does this make the product better? Zero argumentative value.

Rigid steel case with screws: A3000 and A4000 were rigid enough for my purposes, I don't think the A2000 had any advantage here. And I've seen some bombproof tower conversions in my time.

Power supply: what are the exact specifications; how much amps to each rail, as opposed to A500/A3000/A4000? Pardon me for not trusting your biased visual inspection.

Cooling fan: Japan/German made high quality fan? Is it double ball bearing? MTBF? As opposed to fans in other Amigas? What makes it special and worth mentioning?

Socketed design vs. surface mount: allows for replacement, but subject to oxidation of the socket/chip legs. And the A2000 is not the only Amiga with chips on sockets.

Zorro, video and CPU slots on motherboard: Why is this a better desing? It doesn't allow for easy replacement? And it makes the motherboard HUGE!

I am not convinced.  :-)

[BoingBoss]

Hi Eco,

Made in Germany: How exactly does this make the product better? Zero argumentative value.

As all smart people know, the countries that produce the highest quality stuff in the world are England, Germany, and Japan.

"argumentive"?!  I am not arguing, I am just stating facts.   :-)