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Offline uniteTopic starter

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A1200 Upgrades
« on: May 29, 2007, 10:29:59 PM »
As some you might of seen in another post I recently joined this site cause I recently dug out the old amigas.  Have been head scratching over the 1200 and reckon she deserves a bit of a boost.  Basically I'm setting her up to play all the old games again but am going to go for a hard drive this time to save on all that annoying disk swapping.  My question is, since I've been using WINUAE a fair bit is it possible with a few upgrades to get the amigas workbench looking a bit more upto date i.e. higher res, more colours say something like the Amiga in a box addon for WINUAE.  I have been looking at various accelerator boards but to be honest I don't really have a clue and I know you guys know yer stuff so if I said I had £100 to spend what kinda bits would you recommend.  

P.S. I would like to be able to display on a spare 14" PC monitor I have.  Been reading up and it seems I just need a converter of some sort.  
 

Offline stopthegop

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Re: A1200 Upgrades
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2007, 02:50:56 AM »
100 gbp isn't going to get you very far, I'm afraid.  On estimate, you're looking at around 300-400 to get it looking and running really good.  I suggest to start looking for a P5 1260 or BlizzardPPC.  They're not so easy to find, but they do crop up every now and again.  That'll set you back a cool 200 right there.  The next biggie is PCI in the form of a Mediator.  Software Hut and Amigakit both have them in stock.  Thats another bill, at least..

Once you get those two essential items out of the way, then you'll naturally want more.  :)  You can really go kinda nuts upgrading Amigas..  I mean you have Zorro slots, PCI slot, multiple clockports, even a cardslot!  You could have three of everything if you really wanted to..  Its only really limited if you are married.   Welcome to the wonderful (and expensive) world of classic Amiga.    
Primary:
A4000T. Phase5 PPC604e-233mhz/060-66mhz. Mediator, Z3 Fastlane, Voodoo5, Delfina, X-Surf, AD516, Peggy Plus.

Collection:
A4000D, A1200, A500, Milan060 (Atari clone), Atari MegaSTE, Atari TT030, C64, C128, Mattel Aquarius, (2) HP Jornada....
 

Offline Donar

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Re: A1200 Upgrades
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2007, 06:58:34 AM »
Quote

unite wrote:
Basically I'm setting her up to play all the old games again but am going to go for a hard drive this time to save on all that annoying disk swapping.

A 2,5 IDE PC Drive will do, beware more than 4GB will need a patch. And you probably need something to hold that HD inside the A1200.

Quote

unite wrote:
My question is, since I've been using WINUAE a fair bit is it possible with a few upgrades to get the amigas workbench looking a bit more upto date i.e. higher res, more colours say something like the Amiga in a box addon for WINUAE.

Erm sotware wise it's no problem to have a funkier Workbench. The Problem is that resoulution and 256 colours will stay until you upgrade to a gfx card as they are an hardware limitation.

Quote

unite wrote:
I have been looking at various accelerator boards but to be honest I don't really have a clue and I know you guys know yer stuff so if I said I had £100 to spend what kinda bits would you recommend..

I don't know exact prices maybe have a look at some Blizzard, MTec, whatever 1230 Board with a bit of FastRam. A Ram only expansion will also help. A 1240 or 1260 Accelerator board should be nice but you will see that Amiga accellerators are insane priced. If you have compatability issues with your Accelerator and some games try WHDLoad and if you like it register it then.

Quote

unite wrote:
P.S. I would like to be able to display on a spare 14" PC monitor I have.  Been reading up and it seems I just need a converter of some sort.

Depends on if it can syncronyze on 15 kHz, if not you need a Scandoubler/Flickerfixer bye bye hard earned money...
<- Amiga 1260 / CD ->
Looking for:
A1200/CF CFV4/@200,256MB,eAGA,SATA,120GB,AROS :D
 

Offline uniteTopic starter

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Re: A1200 Upgrades
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2007, 01:33:22 PM »
lol looks like the wifes going to kill me then :P
 

Offline uniteTopic starter

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Offline Donar

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Re: A1200 Upgrades
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2007, 09:04:05 PM »
A 1240 should be fast enough, you will need WHDLoad for certain Games. The seller also admits that he paid 160 new (that was ten? years before 2007) so keep that in mind while bidding on it. Good hunting.

And for the wife, let she show you all her shoes and say that your AMIGA was much cheaper than that... :lol:
<- Amiga 1260 / CD ->
Looking for:
A1200/CF CFV4/@200,256MB,eAGA,SATA,120GB,AROS :D
 

Offline motrucker

Re: A1200 Upgrades
« Reply #6 on: May 31, 2007, 04:29:19 AM »
If you mainly want the machine for games, the '040 may not be the best choice. You may want to stick with an 68030 accelerator, with maybe 32Mb of RAM.
A2000 GVP 40MHz \'030, 21Mb RAM SD/FF, 2 floppies, internal CD-ROM drive, micromys v3 w/laser mouse
A1000 Microbotics Starboard II w/2Mb 1080, & external floppy (AIRdrive)
C-128 w/1571, 1750, & Final Cartridge III+