A1200 Accelerator - best buy - price vs performance?

[bob808]

I have an A1200 and would like to put in an accellerator and beef up the processing power and RAM.

I still have the A1200 in the original wedge casing, and if possible would prefer to keep it this way (for now atleast).

Can anyone recommend a good accelerator that will let me use OS 3.9 with good performance, and run a number of titles with WHDLoad?

Also - where is the best place to buy are there a number of stores (I came across amigakit and amigadeals on the web) or is it better to look for bargains on the likes of ebay?


Cheers

bob808

[amigagr]

blizard 1230 IV

[c64_d0c]

go for the blizzard1260 and that blizzard addon. so you can fill it up with two 64mb, and have 128mb ram in total...
________
Avandia heart attack

[doctorq]

I'll second the Blizzard 1230 MK4. Good card for a gaming machine. If you only want to use the computer to play WHDLoad, there is no need for OS3.9.

[ChaosLord]

030 is tooooooooo slooooooooooooow

030 has practically no cache
so its very very sloooow

The fastest instructions on an 030 take 2 cycles
The fastest instructions on an 040 take 1 cycle
The fastest instructions on an 060 take .5 cycles
although predicted branches take approx 0 cycles

The answer to your question is very simple:
Check how much money you have
and get the best accellerator that you can get for that price.

I recommend an 060
but if you are poor then you could try an 040

p.s. 030 sux for web browsing

[d0pefish]

I have a 1230 Mk4 which will be for sale very soon.

Honest opinion is that it's more than adequate for OS3.9, and WHDLoad games run very smoothly.

It's not as bad as the last guy makes out. It does very well considering its specs.

Web browsing is a little slow, but there's no real point in doing that unless your Amiga is fully expanded with a graphics card anyway. If all you're going to do is play games and run the odd desktop app, it makes sense to save some money.

FWIW, it does the job. It's served me well to this day for about 8 years and never failed me once. I even have the box and manual somewhere.

[nadoom]

i would go for a card with a 68040 @ 40 mhz, an 060 is way overpriced and the 040 is fast enough for all except the most demanding tasks such as decoding movies and mp3's.

[pVC]

"go for the blizzard1260 and that blizzard addon. so you can fill it up with two 64mb, and have 128mb ram in total..."

You can fill it up even with two 128 MB simms... = 256 MB total.

[odin]

I had a 040/25MHz on a BPPC with a BVision and I found it dogslow for browsing.

Also a 030 allegedly should have less compatibility problems when it comes to running hardware banging games.

[doctorq]

Seriously, why not match the card with the demand the original poster comes with??

OS3.9 needs a 020 CPU, and some fast ram. WHDLoad needs Kickstart 2.0 (is it possible to use WHDLoad under 1.3??) and 4 MB fast ram for most games, and 32 MB fast ram for any WHDLoad game.

Why bother with a 040 or a 060? Soo much power, and not even used for these purposes? A 040@40 in an A1200 needs seriously cooling, and if used in a desktop A1200 it will be total carbage. A 060 is good, but quite pricy, but the speed the card delivers isn't used for WHDLoad, but only for some libraries under OS3.9.

Even a Blizzard 1220/4 would cover the ram requirements for most WHDLoad games, but the Blizzard 1230 is easier to get hold of, and if needed, the card can get the SCSI add on installed. Max ram without SCSI add on is 128 MB, so using the SCSI add on for a memory upgrade alone would be insane.

[keropi]

if u plan just to play games, get a 030 accell... no need for anything more + the compatibillity is better in some cases...
I know 'cause I used a 1200 + 030/28 + 8MB Ram with whdload+os3.9 ... everything was great!

[rare_j]

Another vote for the Blizard 1230 IV. Great compatibility with almost all floppy games, and everything I've tried with whdload works no problem. If you must, you can press F2 as you switch the amiga on and the whole card is deactivated until you restart.

[amigagr]

rare_j wrote:
If you must, you can press F2 as you switch the amiga on and the whole card is deactivated until you restart.

no you don't, you have to press the ''2'' button for this :-)

[rare_j]

amije wrote:

rare_j wrote:
If you must, you can press F2 as you switch the amiga on and the whole card is deactivated until you restart.

no you don't, you have to press the ''2'' button for this :-)

There you go - it's so compatible I even forgot what the 'disable' key is - never have to use it!   :cheers:

[bob808]

d0pefish - when would you be selling, and for how much - send me a PM.


Thanks

bob808