Apollo 040 or Blizzard 1230-IV... what is the best for my A1200?

[starf81]

[pjhutch]

I have had an Apollo 040 in my A1200, all I did was leave the trapdoor lid off so the heat could escape. I have had no problems with the Apollo either. Its a bigger speed boost than the 030 was.

[starf81]

Thanks pjhutch.
Could you give me some informations about the "disable" possibility and the fan's noise?

Now I'm asking to the person the speed of his Apollo... is it better than Blizzard 1230 even if should be a 25 or 33mhz model?

Thanks again!
Alex

[golem]

Hi Alex
I've used both with my 1200.
My Apollo is a 28Mhz 040 and it is a lot faster than a Blizzard 030 for most applications but the fan obviously
makes noise compared to the silent 030. As far as I know
you can't disable an apollo on boot. If speed is your prioity and you don't mind the noise go for the 040.
Personally I prefer a silent Amiga and use my 030.

[starf81]

Hi Golem, thank you too!  :-)

I admit... I'm very undecided!
Obviously I prefer the faster one but I hate the noise. So my question is... how strong is the noise?  :-P
Could I change the fun with an actual one? Is it a standard measure?

Thanks again!   :-D
Alex

[starf81]

Sorry... another question  :-D

If I can't disable the card during the boot, what type of games or programs could have problems?

Thanks again  :-P
Alex

[Lemmink]

When it comes to compatibility 030 is better then an 040.
Most likely you will have trouble running diskbased games from the first and second generation. Games that actively supported accelerators shouldn't have any problem at all.
If you only want a retro game machine I would recommend the Blizzard, when you actually want to use the amiga, I strongly recommend the Apollo 1240 (though even that could be alittle to less power to make actual use of a PCI board).
The blizzard 1230IV should give 15 MIPs while the Apollo 1240 at 28 MHz should reach 23 MIPs (estimated from a Blizzard 1240 40MHz that gives 30 MIPs)

[golem]

starf81 wrote:
Sorry... another question  :-D

If I can't disable the card during the boot, what type of games or programs could have problems?

Thanks again  :-P
Alex

An 030 without an FPU is probably the fastest most compatible config you can get for general gaming. But if you use your Amiga mainly for CPU-intensive apps like rendering and general OS compatible stuff the 040 is better. The 040 is generally not so good for games - the CPU is designed differently from 020s and 030s and this can make it incompatible.

I've never tried replacing a fan but on my Apollo it is not
so loud (maybe twice as loud as a laptop with a fan inside it). But I am fussy - I use my mig for music and I hate fan noise and hard drive noise so I disable the hard drive spinning as well until I save!

[starf81]

Hi Lemmink!

I have already three Amigas: A500+, CDTV, CD32. I bought them between 1992 and 1995 and they're great for old generation games!

So, with my 1200 I want an "actual" system to run OS 3.9 and recent software. Taking in mind this, perhaps I have to buy the Apollo...

Many thanks again!
Alex

[Karlos]

I had an early apollo 1240 card for many years before it got totally knackered. On the whole I'd say it was one of the best purchases I ever made. The compatibility issues raised here do exist, but most things written in post ECS era worked OK with it.

For those that do not, there is always WHDLoad :-D

[Brian]

As said already... speed isn't everything. If a "noisy" fan-cooled hot-running machine isn't a problem for you then compability is the next big hurthel. I can easily say if I was you I'd either go for the 030 for optimal compability or if speed is a big criteria skip the 040 and go hunting for a 060 (the 060 also got back much of the compability you lost with the 040, though obvisly not all).

Only 040 card I'd concider for the A1200 would be the BPPC040(full) as it have some other positive sides that overpower the downside of a 040, but that card isn't realy practical for a desctop machine (but if you're looking to get mediator you're also talking tower and then that isn't a problem).

[Karlos]

I should point out that I replaced the original fan and heatsink which as Brian points out, are louder than standing next to the intake of a jumbo jet engine :-D

Power wise, my old 1200D used 2 power input cables from a 200W AT PSU I hacked. First there was the normal one, then a second cable that (via a molex connector fitted in the back of my case) supplied 0/5/12VDC rails to power the internal drives and a second cooling fan.

[starf81]

Karlos, after replacing original fun, did you get a silent and "not-stressing" computer?

Alex

[Karlos]

It was very much quieter.

The fan/heatsink I got was one of the old 486/Pentium-I low profile jobs. It is exactly the same area as the 040, but it can't fit exactly under the keyboard, so I had to move it about 5mm. That said, it gave much better cooling and was far,  far quieter than the original fan, which was this tiny, noisy little thing sat atop a small bonded heatsink.

[starf81]

Great!

So, if the seller will accept my offer for the Apollo, I'll change the fan.

Regarding the compatibility, I've checked the requirements of softwares I need... they should work.

Last question (sorry but I was out from Amiga world for too years...): I've visited the WHDload site. It looks a very nice program. Can you sure me that it work with Apollo?


THANKS!
Alex