Best upgrade path for stock A1200?

[justinr12]

What would be the best upgrade path for a stock A1200 computer?  I'm looking into upgrading the CPU and RAM with an accelerator, and make it a bit more capable.  Though I don't want to towerize the system (I prefer to keep it in the original case if I can).  My usage would be:

Music composition/mod tracking
Light Graphics work (something like DPaint)
Mild networking stuff (IRC, web browsing, FTP)
Some gaming (like WHDLoad and such)
Connection to future home file server.

If anyone knows of a decent upgrade path, let me know.

[4pLaY]

justinr12 wrote:
What would be the best upgrade path for a stock A1200 computer?  I'm looking into upgrading the CPU and RAM with an accelerator, and make it a bit more capable.  Though I don't want to towerize the system (I prefer to keep it in the original case if I can).  My usage would be:

Music composition/mod tracking
Light Graphics work (something like DPaint)
Mild networking stuff (IRC, web browsing, FTP)
Some gaming (like WHDLoad and such)
Connection to future home file server.

If anyone knows of a decent upgrade path, let me know.

Most of those things would only require a 030/50mhz card to run at a resonable speed however if you really want to do networking stuff i cant recomend anything below 060! however on only AGA it will look very poor so a gfx card is a must then at least for web surfing! I almost forgot to Add a HD :-) 1gig 2.5" drive should be more then enough + 32mb of ram.

[justinr12]

While I understand I'll need a graphics card, is there anything in specific you can suggest to use in a stock 1200?  I ask because I think the trapdoor bay in the back might be taken up by an external SCSI port.  I'm not sure yet about that.

[4pLaY]

justinr12 wrote:
While I understand I'll need a graphics card, is there anything in specific you can suggest to use in a stock 1200?  I ask because I think the trapdoor bay in the back might be taken up by an external SCSI port.  I'm not sure yet about that.

Then you will need to go the expensive route and aquire a PPC card and Bvision gfx card! that should fit in the original box  but its very expensive and will probably cause heat issues.

[meega]

Please run ShowConfig and tell us what it says.

[beller]

meega wrote:
Please run ShowConfig and tell us what it says.

Took the line right out of my fingers, meega!  

Sounds like there might already be an upgrade in the machine if there's a SCSI port already installed.  

Bob

[justinr12]

Ok, here's what it shows:

CPU 68020
Custom chips: AA PAL (Alice), AA Lisa
Vers: Kickstart version 40.60, Exec version 40.10, Disk version 40.42
RAM: ~2.0MB Chip

[beller]

justinr12 wrote:
Ok, here's what it shows:

CPU 68020
Custom chips: AA PAL (Alice), AA Lisa
Vers: Kickstart version 40.60, Exec version 40.10, Disk version 40.42
RAM: ~2.0MB Chip

Hmmm, what's the port on the rear door attached to? Is there a cable unattached inside?

[justinr12]

Nope.  Empty.  Same for the trapdoor space under the system.

[beller]

Oh...earlier you said there was perhaps a scsi port there.

I added a Blizard '030 with 128mb of memory and scsi to my 1200.  Wished I could push in the PPC but can't justify the cost.

Just looked at www.amigakit.com but they don't have any accelerators at the moment.  

Bob

[justinr12]

Yeah, I just read in a few posts that some emulators of older systems (like my C64) may need faster than an 030 to emulate (for one or two I apparently need an 060 or PPC).

[Jiffy]

Because you want to run games, I would advice an 68030. A Blizzard 68030/IV with SCSI-card would be perfect for this. If you want more speed, an 68060 card is (much) better, but less compatible compared to an 68030-card. With a Blizzard 68060, you can use the same SCSI-card as for the 68030, giving you great expandability.

If you're planning to do some websurfing, be ready for a rather, ehm, new experience... You need every drop of speed you can get for it, both through updating your hardware and tweaking the software. If you're only using AGA (and you will, if you're not towerizing your A1200), it will be horrendously slow. Apart from the speedissue, Amigabrowsers have a hard time of displaying websites correctly, apart from the most basic webpages. Aminet & Google work fine, but don't expect it to replace a normal Windows-, Linux- or OSX-browser.

[utri007]

You have some choises, try to find multisync monitor like NEC 3d or similar, with FBlit configured correctly web surfin is not that painfull than others said OR you can get ordinary VGA monitor and put 15mhz video singnal to TV-card of your PC, you still need FBlit.

AND FBlit needs at least 68040 prosessor to get some speedup


Ofcourse HD is must

[tom_a_spar]

I am in the same boat
what about adding a cable to the CPU slot?
and running it out to a box?

[SamuraiCrow]

@tom_a_spar

You'd be better off towering your a1200 then trying to find an extension cord to the cpu slot because: 1) they don't exist, 2) the delays when accessing the custom chips or chip ram would be intolerably slow and would probably crash the system.

That being said, you could probably keep using your keyboard case and keyboard with the Keyrah adapter and use that to connect to the motherboard in the tower case.