Greetings and Help !!!

[Retromania]

Hello Everyone

I am new to this site and finally got round to signing up.  How are you all ?

I need some advice. I also need my head seeing to ! I sold my A4000 and now regret it.  Big time !!!  I am trying to get over it right now so have decided to look at upgrading my 1200.

I have one of the original EZ Towers from Eyetech (in the UK) so the 1200 main board is still in the lower half of the desktop case (minus the floppy drive) which is in turn secured inside the EZ Tower. I have 5 drive bays as it is a large format tower (might even be 6) and at the moment I have an Apollo 040 accellerator card.

So, what options are available to me ? How do I get to use a more modern graphics card like an ATI Radeon ? Do I need a Z4 board ? What about PPC cards ?

I guess what I really need to know is what is the best way to upgrade and with what ?

I would appreciate your help out there !

Thanks

Retromania

(4000-less, gutted and trying to move on) :-(

[Roondar]

I can't help with everything but here goes:

As far as processor and memory goes there are two* possible upgrade paths: You could get a 68060 accelerator for more speed or a PPC/68K card for even more speed (but less apps use it).

Both are expensive and can be hard to find.

*) not counting vaporware.

I'm not fully familiar with the Z4 board, but unless I'm mistaken it's a proprietary expansion standard so I'd be wary of using those. PCI slots are probably a better bet. You could also add USB devices via a Subway (IIRC) or similar device.

However: I'm pretty sure* you cannot use an AGP or PCI/Express card in a Classic Amiga at this time. You might be able to find a PCI card, but they do not have comparable performance to the AGP/PCI Express ones.

*) 95%

Hope this helps a bit!

[Retromania]

Hi and thanks for your reply.

I will check out the PPC options and see what (if anything) is available.

What is the Mediator board and how does this fit in to the big picture of things ?

Also, can I get my 1200 to a similar (or better) spec than an A4000 030 ?

Thanks

Retromania

[amigakit]

@Retro-Mania

Welcome!

If you have the Eyetech MK4 tower then the backplate would need a lot of work to accept a Mediator 1200 busboard - the A1200 motherboard would also need to be rotated around too.

See here for the Mediator pictures/specs:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=mediator+busboard
 

[Roondar]

Retromania wrote:
Hi and thanks for your reply.

I will check out the PPC options and see what (if anything) is available.

What is the Mediator board and how does this fit in to the big picture of things ?

Also, can I get my 1200 to a similar (or better) spec than an A4000 030 ?

Thanks

Retromania

Yes you can, altough if you want the same ammount of expansion possibility you'll need to get a card like the Mediator for more slots.

CPU/RAM wise there is no problem meeting or beating a A4000/30.

[uncharted]

Unfortunately, the EZ towers are incredibly poor for expansion, neither a Z4 board or mediator will fit it.  My EZ tower is the worst Amiga purchase I ever made.

[CLS2086]

Get a loan and buy that :
Micronik Infinitiv tower 1 or 2
Micronik or ATEO Keyboard Adapter (i have an Elbox...)
Micronik Keyboard Case or an Ax000 keyboard
BPPC 060/50 603e+/240 SCSI rev2
256 Mb of RAM (ask to Effy ;-) )
GREX 1200 rev2
ATX 420W PSU
Ide Fix Express (the safe IDE booster)
Voodoo 3-3000 pci for OS3.X and MOS PUP
Voodoo 5-5500 pci for ultra highres 2D apps OS3.x, and MOS PUP (no 3D support under OS3.x)
Creative Xtremme Pci 4 or 8 mb SGRAM - Permedia 2ev (same than on Bvision, but for around 4/5e...) for old demos, for OS3.x and MOS PUP (no 3D support yet under mos)
a big slot FAN for GPU
a small VentiRAD FAN for 68k CPU
Terratec 128i PCi for sound
Cheap Pci Network card based on RTL 8029AS, and with openpci driver you may find a compatible RTL 8139 card
Voodoo TVFM for TV + FM (only PAL mode..)
Subway USB on clockport
PCMCIA extender
...
..
.
 :-D

[Retromania]

Thanks for the reply - I'm saving up right now !!!

Quite a lot to go for there.  Is the Micronik Infinitiv tower still available to buy new ?  If so, where from ?

Regards

Retromania

[doctorq]

A word of advice; avoid the Micronik towers. The MK1 wasn't exactly a rock solid tower, and the MK2 can't house a Mediator busboard.

You can buy a new D-Box tower if you wan't it to be new, or find a nice looking tower you can addapt for your hardware yourself.

[amigakit]

Unfortunately not, the only new tower available at the moment is the D-Box 1200 tower system

This is designed to fit Mediator busboards and other Zorro busboards

It is sturdy metal construction (unlike the plastic Micronik tower) and is a stylish silver design so it will not 'yellow' over time.  It is supplied with the keyboard adapter.