Amiga n00b, plz help! :)

[sardaukar]

 Hello!

I am in the process of acquiring an Amiga 2000 for around 50€.

I was hoping to get an A1200 (PowerPack) but for 145€, I believe the A2000 (with SCSI hard-drive, SCSI-DVD writer, VGA out, 2 joysticks, keyboard and monitor) is a better buy.

BUT I would like to run AmigaOS 3.9 and the requirements (listed on Vesalia) is a 68030 and 3.1 Kickstart ROM. Can I get a replacement ROM and 68030 cpu card for a *reasonable* price? I would like an Ethernet card too... On eBay I either find very expensive items (200£ for a 68030) or I can't find them at all.

I would like the chance to run Amiga stuff (demos and games) natively, but at 300€ or more, it's a big push... Any ideas?

 Thanks in advance,

sardaukar

[Tahoe]

On the whole prices are probably equal, the A1200 is more expensive as a buy, but 030 cards and specially ethernet cards are much cheaper to come by. A strong reason to go for the 2000 would be the VGA (Flicker Fixer i presume?), getting one for your 1200 would set you back at least 100€.

In case you choose for the A2000: Word of caution, look closely at the battery, they leak. It's not a gamble if they have leaked or not, the gamble is how much damage was done by it.

[Tomas]

the a1200 is actually more bang for the buck when you list these uprgades. You can probably get a cheap used a1200. You can run most classic games on the a1200 as when running them from HD using whdload + you also get to play the newer aga games that didnt run on the a2000 because of no aga chipset.

Both accelrators, network cards is cheaper and much easier to get for the a1200. It also has a ide controller, so you can use a standard ide hd and ide cdrom, though i guess you will get better perfomance with scsi..

[c64_d0c]

and another thing tha a2000 dont got the aga chip, alot of games/demos need this.... you are better of getting the a1200 and you dont need the vga output, but you need an amiga monitor(multisync prefered but not needed)...


________
Headshops

[redrumloa]

Depends what you want to do. If you specifically want games and demos, you may mean AGA ones. An A2000 has ECS so can run OCS-ECS games & demos but not AGA. If you want more productivity and expandability I'd say the A2000, though others will disagree. The A2000 has tons of Zorro II and ISA slots, but you will never be able to expand it to PPC or PCI. The A1200 you can add (theoretically) a PPC card and PCI slots, if you tower it. But to do this is a major, major expense and the results can be mixed and frustrating.

Personally, I'd go for the A2000. Expand it to a nice retro system.

[motrucker]

This is really hard to advise you on. If you were in the U.S., I would say go with the A2000. You can find accelerators, network cards here. In the U.K. or Europe I might go with the A1200.
I have both an A2000 and an A1200, and I like them both a lot. It all hinges on what software you plan on running.
Here in the States, better deals can be found at HAM Fests, computer fests & flea markets than on eBay. And eBay is NOT the only place to find Amiga parts for sale! Amibench comes to find, although I haven't been there ina while.
Good luck, which ever way you go.