@Adonay
Welcome back to the fold... :-)
If you want to get a kick-ass Amiga then you've a few options open to you. You can of course take an existing A1200 and mod it to the max, but it will cost a small fortune.
Or you could buy an AmigaOne or Pegasos, which will be more powerful and probably cheaper, BUT won't run old Amiga software that bangs the chipset directly eg demos, most games, Deluxe Paint etc. Oh, and OS4 - which is the PPC native version of Amiga OS is still in production and is expected for the AmigaOne and CPPC cards "when it's ready (tm)" (apologies to Hyperion who are working their collective bits off on the project as I type).
The Mediator SX isn't a bad idea, but I'd wait a month or so and see what their Dragon expansion is like. It replaces the Mediator, allows six PCI and one AGP slot to be added to your A1200 and best of all features a Coldfire 233Mhz CPU.
The full spec is discussed elsewhere, although Elbox claim that the Dragon will allow their vapour-esque SharkPPC to be fitted and will run OS4. The jury is somewhat skeptical, but it would be the ultimate system for bridging the classic and new generation Amiga ranges.
My own advice?
Log onto
www.amibench.org and find yourself an Elbox Power (or Winner) Tower for an A1200. You'll have plently of room for expansion and you can fit a 68040 card for cheap performance in the meantime. I got mine for £35 and am pleased to bits with it, five years on.
Next up, you'll need a buffered IDE interface and you'll be able to plug in hard drives, CD ROMs etc.
As for shops, there's plenty to choose from. Elbox have an online shop, as do Power Computing and Eyetech. Check the A.org directory for details.
Good luck...
