Opinions please! Blizzard1260 or Apollo 1260

[zx6r6]

I'm skint and need to sell one, question is which!?
Apollo 1260 @64mhz 32mb(full MC68060 f43g) or
Blizzard 1260 @50mhz 64mb XC68060

I'm more towards the blizzard, they seem to sell for more on ebay and I think the Apollo may clock higher. Having said that the blizzard has more memory.
Opinions?

[keropi]

correct me if I am wrong, but the XC 060's can clock higher... I would certainly keep the blizzard!

[Matt_H]

No, I believe it's the MCs that are more tolerable to overclocking.

That being said, I think the Blizzard is a better board. More reliable and slightly more expandable (SCSI Kit). I wouldn't recommend overclocking for either board though, since these things are so rare. Better to keep them running longer, if slightly slower, in my opinion. Overclocking just risks damaging them for a not-so-significant speed boost.

[Doppie1200]

If it is Apollo 1260 vs Blizzard 1260 the blizzard has the edge quality and feature wise.

However an Apollo is a good board. Because it is less wanted they tend to be a little cheaper.

But the blizzard has the edge because; turns off on hotkey and has a real scsi that even allows you to add more ram.
Perhaps the board has more features but I don't have an blizzard so I cannot really say for sure.

The Apollo can have SCSI but it is programmed IO and relies on the CPU. The CPU on the apollo is faced upward. I beleive the blizzard's faces downwards. This would make an apollo more suitable to have extra cooling.

Also I beleive the apollo being slightly faster at accessing the chipram (this does not have to be an advantage).

[Lemmink]

About the only thing the Apollo has going for itself (beside the lower price) is the faster Chip-RAM access.
So if you are into scene demos or other stuff that requires a lot of Chip-RAM access stick with the Apollo. In any other the cas the Blizzard is the card to keep.

As for the XC / MC thingy: XM marked chips are preseries Chips, they are less advanced engeneeringwise and run a lot hotter then the later MC series models, even at 50 MHz.

[patrik]

@all:

Does anyone have any testresults for chipmem-access for an Apollo1260 with say bustest?

As the B1260 isnt directly lightyears away from the card which is the fastest I have seen in this aspect - the B1230IV, I got interested in how big the difference really is.

These are the results for a B1260:

Code: [Select]

BusSpeedTest 0.19 (mlelstv)   Buffer:     262144 Bytes, Alignment: 32768
========================================================================
memtype   addr       op         cycle     calib         bandwidth
chip      $00018000  readw     887.6 ns   normal       2.3 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  readl     888.1 ns   normal       4.5 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  readm     888.1 ns   normal       4.5 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  writew    692.2 ns   normal       2.9 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  writel    692.0 ns   normal       5.8 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  writem    692.4 ns   normal       5.8 * 10^6 byte/s
And these are the results for a B1230IV:

Code: [Select]

BusSpeedTest 0.19 (mlelstv)   Buffer:     262144 Bytes, Alignment: 32768
========================================================================
memtype   addr       op         cycle     calib         bandwidth
chip      $00018000  readw     890.1 ns   normal       2.2 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  readl     890.3 ns   normal       4.5 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  readm     630.5 ns   normal       6.3 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  writew    570.8 ns   normal       3.5 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  writel    570.8 ns   normal       7.0 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  writem    570.8 ns   normal       7.0 * 10^6 byte/s

/Patrik

[Brian]

I'd keep the Blizzard with it's faster SCSI option, more memory capasity and over all better quality.

However the Apollo with the 060 fasing inwards will probably allow for better cooling option (if you intend to clock it) and still have a original CPUcover on without holes in it and/or without extra high feets on the system.

When it comes to XC/MX then yes... MC runs cooler and that usualy translate into better overclocking potensial... however it's also up the the mask of the CPU. I personaly know of a XC marked 33Mhz FPU that runs stable at 66Mhz (though at a "heatsink is a must" hot) where's the MC marked 40Mhz FPU that was intended to upgrade the system crashed before reaching 50Mhz.

[fragment]

Here are the results for Viper060:

Code: [Select]


BusSpeedTest 0.19 (mlelstv)   Buffer:     252144 Bytes, Alignment: 32768
========================================================================
memtype   addr       op         cycle     calib         bandwidth
chip      $00018000  readw     894.1 ns   normal       2.2 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  readl     893.9 ns   normal       4.5 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  readm     894.5 ns   normal       4.5 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  writew    635.3 ns   normal       3.1 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  writel    635.2 ns   normal       6.3 * 10^6 byte/s
chip      $00018000  writem    635.8 ns   normal       6.3 * 10^6 byte/s


[patrik]

@fragment:

Cheers!


/Patrik