Switching to Amiga

[steve30]

I'm now getting a bit fed up of PCs and would like to switch to amiga. Not a complete switch, obviously, as there will still be quite a bit of stuff that I have to do on the PC.

To start with, I got a 1438 monitor, and bought an A1200 + Blizzard 1230 50Mhz from Effy. (should arrive in the next couple of days).

Over at classicamiga everyone told me that this card gives a great speed increase over the standard 68020 processor.

I now have a few questions:

How well does AmigaOS3.9 run on this card?
Would internet access be fast and usable via 2mbps broadband?
How would it compare to using a 500MHz PentiumIII with Windoze?

Also, if there's any other comments you have about how nicely this machine might run, please tell me.

Thanks
Steve

[Argus]

It's going to be slower than the Pentium for a number of reasons but all in all it should be quite useable.  You should get a 3Com or even wireless pcmcia nic card and off you go.  The graphics are going to be limited to 8-bit AGA and tcp/ip stacks and browsers are not the fastest on earth nor do the browsers have all the modern features like javascript and CSS, etc.

[steve30]

I know the browsers arn't very good. I've used them in WinUAE.

What would it be like running OS3.5? Might this be faster than OS3.9? Or would OS3.9 be better than 3.5?

[Oliver]

If you want speed and features on the internet, the PC will be better.  Putting the Amiga online is handy for doing Amiga related stuff, but your PC will be better featured/supported for internet usage.  If you're trying to avoid Windows issues, you may also consider an alternative operating system for your x86 box.  The 1200 should still be good to use for a number of things, but it's not really the best system for all purposes.

[Tomas]

The most important part for os3.9 is the amount of ram. If you want to actually surf the internet using a web browser, then you might also want to invest in a graphic card, as the main thing that slows down the browser is the slow aga chipset. If you just want to irc, mail or similar then aga should work just fine even though things look ugly due to lack of colours and small res.

[steve30]

I think I will eventually get a graphics card.

Would I need a tower conversion for things like graphics cards? I don't currently plan on doing that as I would like to keep it all in the desktop case.

[SamuraiCrow]

The only GFX card for the desktop A1200 is the BlizzardVision which only works with a PowerPC accelerator card and is very expensive as such.

There is another accelerator with a graphics cardslot and sound chip being designed right now called the PowerVixxen from ACK Software Controls which is what I'm going to upgrade my A1200 to when and if it comes out.

[Argus]

It isn't recommended to run a BlizzardPPC and Blizzardvision graphics card in the standard desktop case.  These babies take a lot of juice and run *hot*

[Sparky]

SamuraiCrow wrote:

There is another accelerator with a graphics cardslot and sound chip being designed right now called the PowerVixxen from ACK Software Controls which is what I'm going to upgrade my A1200 to when and if it comes out.

Is this ACK Software Controls accelerator a really real thing ?
I've been out the loop for a while and I don't know if it's just wishful thinking or if there is concrete evidence that it exists.

Regards

[jjans]

My A500 is running with a GVP A530T (68030) @40MHz, which is slower than your system. For Internet surfing I found the that the pages loaded significantly faster by limiting the Workbench colors to 8. When using 16 color, loading is pretty slow.

This results in an uglier picture, but you can look at the screen grab of Amiga.org I submitted here: A500 surfing the net.

The fact that you have AGA should give you better performance.

[Jiffy]

I have a pretty souped up A1200 (68060@50, 128 MB ram) with OS3.9. Very nice machine, works like a charm. Browsing the web is almost unbearable, though. FTP, mail, IRC and stuff works great.

A completely maxed out A1200 is blown to pieces, speedwise, compared to the PIII/500 you mentioned. As you already know, Amigabrowsers are hardly comparable to their Windows & Linuxcounterparts. If you've never used a classic Amiga for surfing the web, you're in for a special treat...

I use my Amiga's (1200 & 3000) for the things they can handle easily. Browsing the web isn't one of them.

[SamuraiCrow]

@sparky

If you look closely at my post I said "when and if" it comes out.  ;-)

[steve30]

Thanks for all the information.

As I said I've used the amiga browsers in WinUAE so I know how crap they are. Perhaps if I just VNCd my PC to use Mozilla.

I've heard that the Amiga's email and IRC clients are great. I've used AmIRC. Are there any better ones? Wheat are the best email programmes?

thanks :-)

[amigagr]

Wheat are the best email programmes?



for e-mail search simple mail or/and yam on aminet
http://aminet.net/tree.php?path=comm

-edit-
and ftp clients are cool too. amftp amiftp

[Sparky]

SamuraiCrow wrote:
@sparky

If you look closely at my post I said "when and if" it comes out.  ;-)

hehehe .. good choice of words, but I missed them in the first pass at reading  :-D