A towered Amiga 1200...

[phill25]

I have wanted one of these for ages and I was going through the Ebay Amiga searches and I came across this beauty :-)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150235939982&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=005

I have contacted the seller and he's willing to sell it for around £125 not including postage (I dont think) as it comes with a fair few extra's as you can see.

All I wanted to know was, does anyone think it is worth the cash and secondly, how does it get power from the AT PSU into the back of the Amiga 1200?

I'm very interested in this and since playing with all of my Amiga 1200 stuff this weekend, I've started to get the bug back, that I want a towered one!!  :-D
Also wondering, would it be possible to connect it up to one of my PC monitors and use more so as an everyday type computer?
What else would I need to get myself backup and running the way I should be??  :-D  :-D  :-D   :-D

[tokyoracer]

If it's with everything that's pretty good considering the price of 030's these days. Ugly tower but thats possible to do up.
Mine doesn't have a zorro board like that one so that's a good enough reason to buy it (got no idea what boards will fit mine).

As for your monitor, it depends if it scans low enough 15khz or something is what Amiga's can do. If you have one like that then all you need is an RGB -> VGA converter. If not then you will either need to get an old RGB monitor (Commodore or Phillip's) but they may be un-reliable these days, flickerfixer/scan doubler but they are REALLY expensive or you can get one of them new fangeled converters but they are not that good apparently. Mind you I heard news of some guy who made one for an Atari ST but has made one for a non-AGA Amiga models but I have no idea if he's made one for AGA macines (1200 and A4000).
Last option would be to get a Multiscan monitor that will do 15Khz.

[motorollin]

I think that's a good price seeing how you get a Zorro board with it, which greatly increases the expandability of the computer.

--
moto

[phill25]

Would you say its a bargin to go for?

I currently have a desktop 1200 with a 3Gb HD (I do have a 20Gb drive providing I can get it to work!!) a Blizzard 1230 50Mhz + FPU unit with 16Mb and I've also managed to find and get working a network kit for the Amiga to the PC's I have (3 Towers and 1 laptop - Laptop has Vista on it which sadly dont help)

Are the price of 060's etc still stupid money?  I saw a Blizzard 060 50Mhz on Ebay from Denmark for £300 starting bid!!  I remember paying £620 for my PPC 603e+ @ 240Mhz and a 060 50Mhz..  Those where the days...

Are Amiga 1200 Towers easy to find or to make?

[tokyoracer]

Yup, all accelerators are still stupidly expensive. Sorry.

[motorollin]

You can buy towers separately, e.g. from amigakit.com. So to "upgrade" your Amiga to that spec you would have to buy the tower and the Zorro board.

Whether or not it's worth it depends on how much value you place on adding Zorro cards to your Amiga. If you're not interested in doing that then that A1200 tower won't do much you can't already do with your desktop A1200.

--
moto

[phill25]

Well wont be worrying about trying to find one of them in a hurry then!!

I have 2 x 22" LG widescreen monitors that I use for my PC's..   Somehow I dont think they'll work for the Amiga will they?

EDIT - If I can add Zorro cards to the towered 1200, would that mean I could use a graphics card of some sort?  If so, would this enable me to use a monitor without a scan fixer etc or would I still need one?

This is a link to my current monitors:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=587955

[tokyoracer]

Pretty much anything hardware for the standard A2000, A3000 or A4000 hardware will work on the Zorro board.

[phill25]

So for a graphics card that will probably be majorly over priced, what model would you say would be an overall benifit to the system?  Being able to put it next to my Server and PC Gaming rig would really make my day!!

Even more so, if I could get the network card to work in it a 100% of the time!! :-o

[motorollin]

A graphics card will not eliminate your need for a scandoubler if you want to use older software and games which are hard-coded to use the Amiga's built-in video output (so will not display via the graphics card). Unless you need a graphics card for a specific purpose, your money would probably be better spent on a scandoubler so you can use your VGA monitors with your Amiga.

--
moto

[phill25]

Where can I get the Scandoubler from and how much will it cost me?

I still might try and track down a graphics card as I could hope to try and get that connected up to my monitor.  Its just a case of price I guess...  I cant see any in the for sale section...

[motorollin]

Scandoublers aren't available new, so eBay or the marketplace here (or on other forums) are your only hope. Be prepared to pay a *lot* though. The alternative would be a more generic (i.e. not Amiga specific) SCART to VGA converter box. This is basically a scandoubler. They are often marketed for use with games consoles, but as long as the SCART input is RGB (rather than composite or S-Video) then it will work with an Amiga.

--
moto

[phill25]

I was gonna say, I've googled scan doublers and I've come up empty handed

If you know or see of one around, please let me know  I'm very interested in trying to get one, but more so just wondering how much it's gonna cost me..

Damn Amiga's where always so expensive...  I always hated how the customers (us) get ripped off by sellers...  I see Eyetech isnt trading anymore?  I cant find their webiste anyways..  Power Computing arent doing Amiga's either anymore...  Such a shame...

EDIT - Is that the kind of price and thing I'm trying to find?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DCE-Scan-Magic-Ext-Amiga-Scandoubler-Flickerfixer_W0QQitemZ320237638091QQihZ011QQcategoryZ98928QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[motorollin]

IIRC those scandoublers are not 24 bit so not idea for an AGA Amiga. It will work, but won't give full quality. And for that kind of money, you want it to be perfect! :-) Might be better to put a wanted ad in the marketplace for a 24bit scandoubler, though I have no idea how much it will cost you.

--
moto

[amigakit]

We will have new A1200 scandoublers within the next two months.  Watch this space.