My new Blizzard Acc a1200 accelerator

[Linchpin]

Hey chaps! Just been given a new Blizz ACC from a friend in work, its a :

BLizzard 1230 IV (TIAUNK) < Whats written on the bottom.

apparently, my mate says its 030/50 ?

Also, this blizz has no fan on the CPU. Is that correct?

Cheers

Kev

[Vincent]

030s are the coolest of the 030+ range.  I've never seen a cooler or a fan on a normal 030 board.  If it's going in a desktop case it might be an idea to keep the trap door off to help keep it cool, but a fan or cooler isn't needed :-)

--edit--

Looks bare compared to the 040/060s :-)

[Linchpin]

Well done ViNcE!

I wonder how it fare's up to my Apollo 040/28 ?

[keropi]

but adding a small heatsink, is not a bad idea at all.... :-D

[x56h34]

@keropi:

If you add a heatsink to B1230IV's CPU, you better be prepared to use a very small SIMM module from that point.

[Linchpin]

Thanks for the advice chaps.

I have an empty socket on this board, looks like its for :

FPU: Optional 68882@50Mhz (PGA)

Any idea where that can be obtained from and if it's worth it?

Cheers

Kev

[keropi]

unless you have software that support the FPU, then it is absolutelly not needed... as for games I have heared of only one flight-sim that uses the fpu... if u still want one perhaps u should check amigakit.com, or ebay, or PM CatHerder on this forum and ask him if he has one... when I accidentally burned my 68882 by putting it in the wrong way, I got a replacement from him at a very good price :-) not that I have any use for the fpu, but I just wanted one....

[Linchpin]

Hmm... i thought the FPU added more speed for most things...

[Vincent]

No probs LinCH!

Your 040/28 would still be faster than the 030/50, but at least you don't have the 030/30 like I did.  Boy that's slow compared to what I've got now :-D

[Linchpin]

Thats not good vince... I was kinda hoping this would be quicker ..

[KThunder]

040's are so fast compared to 030's i have an 030 @ 50mhz acc. for my 1200 i dont really use it for much that needs the acc. except for emulation of game systems.
A 68882 doesnt really help with emulation but id like to get one at 50 mhz anyway   :-D

[Linchpin]

Yuk.

[Vincent]

My 040/25 was drastically quicker than my 030/30 (over double) so I don't think a few extra MHz will make the 030/50 faster than an 040.

Using SysInfo (SysSpeed refused to work with my 030) my 030/30 was averaging 7.2x mips, the 040/25 was 18.xx mips.

Your 030/50 should make it to double figures, but I don't think it'll reach the 18.xx that the 040 does.

[Linchpin]

:-(

Oh well, If i finally get a working Amiga, Ill let you know!

[Chunder]

@LinchpiN

I used to have the same accelerator (recently sold via eBay) - and I never had any heat problems at all.
It didn't need a fan or heatsink, and I didn't leave the trapdoor cover off.

The Apollo A1230 that I had briefly before that, however, was a different story... instability is too mild a word :-)

The 030 is never going to be as fast as the 040 - but it is more compatible; many games and things will bork at an 040, but not 030.

The Blizzard A1230-IV can be disabled by holding down the "2" key when booting, helping compatibility.

The FPU is only useful - as pointed out already - for some flight simulators; also there are some rendering packages and things (Aladdin, Tornado, ImageFX, Vista Pro, etc.) that have optimised FPU versions or modules. Additionally, there are fractal generators that make use of the FPU. Not a big boost, but can be useful if you're using the calculations on a regular basis...