My GVP A530 story, and a few questions ;p

[Damion]

Hi all,

Several years ago, I went to visit an old C= buddy from back in the "days". After a bit of chatting, he pulled out a box of "junk" Amiga stuff... cables, loose disks, manuals, etc, and informed me it was all going in the trash if I didn't take it. I almost passed on the offer, until I spotted the GVP A530 in the box. Though I hadn't used my own A500 in years, I thought it might be fun to play around with it someday, so I took the "junk" home. (I had always wanted *something* cool for my own A500, yet could never afford it since I was just a kid.) At this point, I really had no clue as to the "cult status" of the A530, in fact, I *almost* trashed it all later myself, LOL.

The case was somewhat abused (nicotine, crayon marks, etc), and the hard drive gone, but otherwise it seemed to work fine. Not in perfect shape, but nonetheless an A530, "gratis" even... so that's pretty cool.

Its sat in my garage for years, and I've finally decided to clean it up, install a hard drive, etc. (Then I'll get bored, and it'll sit for another 10 years, LOL.)


Therefore... I have a few questions for those more familiar with the device:

Will any 68-pin SCSI drive do? (I'm expecting the usual Amiga size-limit issues.) If so, any recommendations on a quiet SCSI drive?

Can I format the drive using PFS3, or is there some necessary GVP software? (Actually, I've thought about doing this on the PC with WinUAE, then installing in the A530.)

Overclocking -- I have a 50 MHz 68030 CPU and FPU laying around, thought I'd install them, replace the oscillator and see what happens. Any thoughts?

And finally... anyone want to trade for a GVP A1200 accelerator? j/k ;p


cheers

Damion

[Jiffy]

-D- wrote:
Will any 68-pin SCSI drive do? (I'm expecting the usual Amiga size-limit issues.)

As far as I know, the A530 contains a 50-pin SCSI-connector, so without a 68-to-50 pin converter, no 68-pin drive can be connected. Those converters are relatively easy to be found, although in the end it might be easier ánd cheaper to find a 50-pin harddrive.

[DonP1]

I have a Quantum 540 in my A1000 DataFlyer. It works. It's been 10 years since I put it together so don't ask too much :lol:

[OldSchool]

-D- wrote:

Will any 68-pin SCSI drive do? (I'm expecting the usual Amiga size-limit issues.) If so, any recommendations on a quiet SCSI drive?

I just put my A530 up on Ebay (this week) but did some research prior.  I believe that you need a SCSI-1 drive.  While SCSI-II drives may work if they fully support the old standard, you may be on safer ground with an older drive.  Mine had a Conner Peripherals CPP1080S - Approx 1 gig.  Anything below 4 gig should work without issue.

Overclocking -- I have a 50 MHz 68030 CPU and FPU laying around, thought I'd install them, replace the oscillator and see what happens. Any thoughts?

I would advise against it.  The other circuitry, the RAM and its controller in particular, are not rated for that kind of speed.  I know 10mHz doesn't sound like much - and GVP did make 50mHz versions of the A530 - but you'd probably end up frying your A530 and making a whole lot of Amiga fans cry in the process.  They're already tearing up at the thought.  :lol:

Regards.

[Damion]

DOH -- It is a 50-pin, brain must have taken a vacation yesterday. Lots of those around on ebay, I'll look for a smaller size to avoid problems. (Too bad old SCSI drives are so freakin' loud.)

I'll *probably* refrain from overclocking it then... it would be a shame to blow it, LOL.


Thanks a bunch for the info guys.

[redrumloa]

Are you sure it isn't 030/50 already? I used to own one and it was 030/50. Does your's have memory already installed? GVP ram is propreitary and expensive as hell.

[Damion]

redrumloa wrote:
Are you sure it isn't 030/50 already? I used to own one and it was 030/50. Does your's have memory already installed? GVP ram is propreitary and expensive as hell.

Yeah, the one I have seems to have been a "stripped down" version, LOL. It has an EC030 running at 40 MHz, and no FPU installed. I'm going to install my full 50 MHz '030 (need an FPU, guess I don't have a PGA version like I remembered), and a 50 MHz oscillator since I'm *mostly* certain at this point everything else is the same.

It didn't come with any ram, either. The guy my buddy got the equipment from was using a giant "baseboard" type expansion with a bunch of DRAMs on it. :shrug:  Fortunately, I have 2 GVP 4 meg SIMMs from an old A1200 expansion (GVP RAM+SCSI+FPU) laying around.

 

[Damion]

SWEET!!! Just scored a 50 MHz PGA 68882, brand new for $25... :crazy: Gotta love ebay. Just need a drive and I'm all set.