Blizzard IV SCSI performance and availability

[Hodgkinson]

Hi folks,
I've been thinking about the possibility of upgrading the speed of my A1200's HDD access. Unfortunately, due to the necessity to keep the upper RF shield intact, and the recent addition of a heatsink to the custom chips, conventional IDE Fixes and the Fast ATA interface appear to be out of the question.

I’ve seen that the Blizzard 1230IV card (Which I am using in the A1200) can be upgraded with the Blizzard IV SCSI module. As this card is unaffected by the use RF shield etc, and it provides additional RAM capacity, whats' peoples experiences of this add-on like (Especially getting the 1230IV in and out with it in place...) and how rare/expensive do these cards recon to be?

Thanks,
Hodgkinson.

[MickTheLip]

You've just missed one on Ebay mind you it went for £2 less than what they are advertising on Amigakit that's if they have one.I've heard that this is probably the best SCSI interfaces for the Amiga.

[Hodgkinson]

Any idea what the URL of that auction was? I'd like to have a look...

£2 less than what they are advertising on Amigakit...

Can't say i've ever seen them on amigakit...If they had them, then thats where i'd buy one from if I decided to get one.

Hodgkinson.

[scuzzb494]

Sad this... cus we were just talking on AFB about the last SCSI KIT that I got from Amibench. Looks like Amibench have thrown in the old towel... That really hurts.

Ar hum... Never mind.

You have to take out the Blizzard and attach the KIT or card which is easy enough. You can add the memory to the KIT. The tricky bit is following the very informative guide on folding the ribbon so it goes through the slot to the back plate. Ever wondered what that extra hole was in the bottom of the Amiga. Bang out the cover plate by the mouseport and insert the plate and port and screw in placethrough the hole. I have a CDRom, two external SCSI hard drives and a ZIP drive on my SCSI kit. Far better than a PCMCIA option. I had no end of probs with my Apollo 060 and a Squirrel. The Blizzard and SCSI combined are just magic.

I watched that auction tonight. I paid £103 for mine... Came with the accelerator though :-)

Pictures of the SCSI are among this lot on my website.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz163.htm

I have lost count just how many A1200s I have now. I have around three SCSI kits.

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

[leirbag28]

@scuzzb494

Dang!  dude!   THat is a seriously impressive collection.   I want to ask you something


PM sent!

[tokyoracer]

Yes he does. I've seen his site build over a good 2 years and it's insane! I know who to ambush soon. :lol:

As you can see in my signature I have one, there damn good! That is if you can get a bloody CD drive to work with it. I still cant get mine to work...

[scuzzb494]

Hi

And why can`t you get the CD to work. What device are you using and what's your CD0 say .. Also do you have anything else on the daisy and are you using termination.

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

[Hodgkinson]

Thanks for the replies.

Amibench still seems to be online...Going to www.amibench.org/ doesn't work, but going to http://www.amibench.org/cgi-bin/view.pl?type=sale&country=All Does. Must be some redirect problem with their website.

:-) Re the rear plastic panel. That’s going to be interesting...I've already got a HyperCOM MK1 in there...Looks like I’d have to fabricate some kind of dual header bracket to hang out the back of the A1200.

What’s the going price on these SCSI kits? Any ideas?

Thanks,
Hodgkinson.

[zipper]

Well, it did accept a little trial ad on
http://www.amibench.org/cgi-bin/view.pl?type=wanted&country=All

[pVC]

I have two SCSI-kits, one in B1230-IV and one in B1260. Both work just fine. The speed is much better than on any IDE-hack on A1200 and transfers are done without load on the CPU (which is the most important thing when using slow 68k CPUs).

They're not rare either... our local reseller has them still in stock for example.

Only problem I had with one CD-RW drive, but it was solved by soft-upgrading the SCSI-kit's ROM. I've had lots of different devices in use: four different DAT-drives, bunch of CD-ROM/RW drives, dozen of different HDs, scanner.. at the best times I had whole SCSI-chain full. External SCSI-cases are nice too

[dbrads]

Scuz, My wife thinks I am mad owning 3 Amigas, I will show her your site!!!! maybe she will let me buy another one :lol:

[tokyoracer]

@ Scuzz,

Not sure why. I'm a noob at this stuff. Plus my WB OS has packed up so I got to sort it out all over again. If it's ok with you I can give you a PM when it's sorted if you wouldn't mind helping. Would be much appreciated.

P.s. The CD drive only has 1 SCSI port so termination isn't necessary.

[scuzzb494]

by dbrads on 2007/11/19 12:20:26

[ quote ]
Scuz, My wife thinks I am mad owning 3 Amigas, I will show her your site!!!! maybe she will let me buy another one  
[ end quote ]

Giggles. Trying to remember a time when I only had three Amigas. That would be a 1200, 600 and a 500.. Too long ago now to properly recollect... And I still have them. The hard drive in the MTEC for the 500 is the only thing that I don`t still have. It has a GVP sidecar now and I play Space Invaders on this when I have spare moments in the Amiga Workshop... There are just never enough Amiga minutes in any day....

If you study the site you will see this image. That's what you call a real Amiga Workbench :-) Some years old now and spread into two other rooms in the house. And don`t ask where I store it all... I am highly imaginative.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz04.htm

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

[scuzzb494]

Hi tokyoracer

Probably just your CD0 mount file and the device you have installed. You get a disk with the SCSI KIT .. IIRC. I can get a copy to you if nobody objects. Probably easier for me to put it on my site for everyone. I have a secret page with other stuff on... er... don`t tell anyone.

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

[A1260]

the problem i got is to get a scsi hd....i allready got a 1260+scsi card+128mb ram and scsi plexor cd...