A contest! Best classic Amiga of A.org! :-)

[x56h34]

doctorq wrote:
I fully understand PaSha I must say. I wouldn't mind running my A4000 in the standard desktop case, but to much of my hardware needs cooling, and for the moment I wouldn't like to ditch my 2 x CD drives.

Exactly one of the reasons why I didn't install an internal CD drive and why I used a Voodoo 3 2000 PCI card instead of 3000. 2000 produces way less heat than 3000, and it feels like the performance gain of 3000 with Amiga is minimal.

I have thought about using an external SCSI box for a desktop setup like my WarpEngine setup does, but since I haven't got a nice looking desktop case, it's not a plan for the near future. In case I do it, then I would go Mediator instead of course :-)

I am a big fan of Grex so naturally I had to get the 4000D version :-) ...however if I were unable to find one then I would have gone with Mediator 400Di, for sure. What I like about Grex4000 is that it utilizes the CSPPC PCI bus, thus offering faster performance, and not to mention the availability of the video slot on it, unlike Mediator 4000Di. Of course, Mediator is way better supported so that counts for a lot of points for it. :-)

Btw, nice looking setup you got there Nenad.

Thanks. :-) I'm thinking I should post pictures of the A1200T next.

[x56h34]

TheMagicM wrote:
come on A3000D owners.. I know some of you have some awesome machines!!!  I <3 A3000's!!

Nenad: that is a very clean A4000!!  

Thanks. I can post pictures of my A3000D setup too, however it's a very, very stockish config. The best thing about it is its mint condition. Other than that it's a simple 16MB fast / 2MB chip, 3.1 roms, A3640 config. :-)

[x56h34]

@T_Bone:

I thought you were getting a MicroA1? ;-) :-P

[PaSha]

@x56h34
Regarding the heat, I must say that I'm surprised to see that you haven't modified the PSU. That'll be the first thing I do with mine; cut away the original fan grill and install a mesh one, maybe even a 92mm fan if there's room, and cut away the air outlet vents on the back of the PSU and replace them with mesh. Less noise and less heat = happy amiga owner.

Edit:
Oh and btw: regarding an Amiga-compatible round floppy cable, just buy a PC cable and 'untwist' pins 10-16, making it a straight-through cable working with your Amiga. Or, just make a round cable yourself with colored heatshrink-tubing.

[PMC]

I'm quite proud of my Rat-Miga.

It's built around a 1993 A1200, with Mediator, Voodoo, Apollo 1240, Twister, 4-way IDE interface and SB128 all packaged into a second hand Power Tower and treated with benign neglect.

The keyboard is a fetching beige AT item, carefully decorated with coffee stains, breadcrumbs and an unidentifiable sticky subtance bonding the right shift key down.  The mouse is of 1991 vintage, with a cable cobbled together from an even older mouse and is suitably battlescarred.

[MrZammler]

Ok, my 3000D is not top of the line (missing PPC) but fine anyways. Specs are on my sig, I think the special thing about it is it's very clean (have changed the front bezel), it's Picasso IV (great for 1-monitor solution), usb and NetBSD 2.0 on the second (internal) hard disk. No floppy drive, too!  :-D

[adolescent]

Mine's not the fastest by far, but it's stuffed full of fun. :-D

A4000
2M Chip/No Fast
3.1 ROMS
"Re-worked" Buster 11 (originally SMD Buster 9!)
HD Floppy

Cyberstorm Mk3 060/50MHz w/128M RAM

Western Digital SE 120GB HD (on CSMK3 SCSI w/Acard SCSIDE AEC-7720UW)
LiteOn LTC-48161H DVD/CD-RW Combo IDE/ATAPI
Iomega Zip 250 IDE/ATAPI

DCE ScanMagic Internal SD/FF

Mediator 4000Di
Voodoo3 3000
SoundBlaster 128
Realtek RTL-8139 NIC
Spider USB
Kickflash OS4

RAKA PS/2 Keyboard Interface
RAMA PS/2 Mouse Interface

I have yet to finish the power supply mods, external SCSI (I'm using the "Expansion" hole at the back, and finalize some of the cable routing.  But, it works great!

[x56h34]

PaSha wrote:
@x56h34
Regarding the heat, I must say that I'm surprised to see that you haven't modified the PSU. That'll be the first thing I do with mine; cut away the original fan grill and install a mesh one, maybe even a 92mm fan if there's room, and cut away the air outlet vents on the back of the PSU and replace them with mesh. Less noise and less heat = happy amiga owner.

I am actually looking into mounting a small form factor ATX PSU of higher wattage (~300W or more) inside the original 4000 PSU's casing and also making an ATX connector to 4000 power connector conversion. The ATX power switch would replace the commodore switch that is located on the 4000 PSU. The only problem is finding a suitable ATX PSU for the job and of course measuring all the space needed, drilling holes, etc...but some day I will go for it. :-)

Oh and btw: regarding an Amiga-compatible round floppy cable, just buy a PC cable and 'untwist' pins 10-16, making it a straight-through cable working with your Amiga. Or, just make a round cable yourself with colored heatshrink-tubing.

Cool. I'll see what I can do about that. Thanks for the tip.

[amigatower]

Yep...can't wait to post mine!!!

[X-ray]

@ PaSha

Only my 060 is clocked at 64mHz. Everything works fine at the moment.
I agree about the A4000T being a big bulky lump. At some stage I will make a new case for mine from scratch, preferably with brushed aluminium, in desktop config. In terms of the innards though, I'd pick the A4KT over any other classic Amiga.

@ X56

Are you also going to beef up your A4KT?

[amigadave]

I'll use these posts to find the best parts to modify or add to my own A4000 and join this contest.  Thanks

[x56h34]

X-ray wrote:

Are you also going to beef up your A4KT?

Probably not for now. There's really no reason to have more than one beefed up Amiga. That would make four heavily expanded units for me, so I think I'll stick with only 3. :-D

[X-ray]

I'm curious: why did you beef up the D instead of the T?

[x56h34]

Well, I originally expanded a 4000D into a Mirage 4000 tower. The Escom 4000T I mainly kept around for collecting purposes, and as a backup unit. I then received another desktop 4000D, which I've expanded to the originally mentioned specs at the top of this thread.
4000D is overall a bit wealthier with expansion options available out there than 4000T, epecially as far as Grex4000 goes. I really wanted it instead of any other PCI solution. IIRC Grex4000T version was only made in very small numbers (something like less than 5 units?) so as far as that is concerened, there really was no chance of making it happen. Oh yes, I do have a Picasso IV in that 4000T, so it's not really that bad of a system afterall. :-)

[Oli_hd]

Hi,

Let the contest begin!  Judges?

Ok, my Amiga specs:

68000 7.14Mhz
1MB of Chip Ram
0MB Fast
No floppy,
Double speed Cd-Rom
It can display up to 4096 colours and its black.

I win.
Oh and its a CDTV CR prototype, one of only about 6 known to exist.

so a big  :-P to your PPC mate, Ive got a 68000

[x56h34]

@Oli_hd:

Oh yeah? Well my Amiga has a rare built-in paging service, so in case of problems Dave Haynie gets a page directly from it and he appears on-site within 2 hrs to fix the problem! :-P ;-)