Amiga-4000-040 Vs Amiga-1200-030

[destro]

Hello All. I have 2 Amiga Systems.

System #1: Amiga-4000/040 @ 25 MHZ
16 megs of Fast Ram, 2 Megs Chip Ram,
4.3 Gig Hard Drive. 3.1 Roms-3.9 WorkBench,
X-surf Card, 24X IDE CDROM.

System #2: Amiga-1200, DKB Cobra CPU Card-030
@ 40 Mhz No FPU, Ferrette SCSI Add-On.
134 Megs Of Fast Ram (128 MB 72-Pin DIMM Chip).
2 Megs Of Chip Ram. 120 MB 2.5" IDE Hard Drive.
PCMCIA Network Card, PCMICA Modem Card, PCMCIA SCSI Controller, 3.0 KickStart Roms with 3.1 WorkBench Installed. Nec MultiSpin 3XP Plus
External SCSI CDROM Drive.

Both System share the Montior, Printer, and
DSL Internet.

Gven the Above Info what System would be more
Desirable IF either of these system were up for
Sale?

The Monitor, Printer and DSL Internet would not
be included.

[Damion]

Tough decision as the 1200 is more loaded in
some respects, but I would keep the 4000...if
you ever decide to upgrade further, the 060/PPC
cards for the 4000 have UW-SCSI...which I would
say is an advantage.

 

[QuikSanz]

Destro,

comparing an A1200 to an A4000 is like comparing an A2000 to an A3000, NO Comparisen.
Some of your stuff can still be used. Keep the A4000.
Wish I had One.

Chris

[amigamad]

Keep your a1200 an a4000 is not as reliable and cost more to get repaired.

[Linchpin]

Amigamad - agreed :-)

Still would like the a4k tho....

Kev

[Athlon]

agree also

_LinchpiN_ wrote:
Amigamad - agreed :-)

Still would like the a4k tho....

Kev

[J]

when I was deciding between a A1200 Tower and an A4000, I eventually chose the A4k because it had Zorro slots 'built in' and was there more suited to expansion.

However, I found cards expensive and very rare to upgrade with (PPC/060) so I wish I'd have gone for the A1200. Also my A4k clock has bust now cos of a battery leak.

So I'd keep the A1200.

[Damion]

Is the 4000 really more expensive to upgrade
though? With the '4k, you can just drop in an
060/PPC with UW-SCSI (like what...40-50mb/s as
opposed to 10-15mb/s on Blizzard SCSI?), drop
in a nice gfx board NO problem...plenty of
nice (albeit totally dated) hardware to choose
from.

To do the same on a 1200 what you can do "stock"
on a 4000, you need a

tower

keyboard and interface

some kind of "busboard"

possibly other random hacky bits

And that's just to get the 1200 as "upgradable".
I'd say the costs pretty much even out in the
long run...so the decision really comes down to,
"which one would I rather have" or "given the
same price, which one is cooler?" and in that
case I'd say the A4k. Personally, I dig my
1200, I wouldn't get rid of it, but if I
wanted to "build up" another retro amiga
setup it would be a 4000, 'hands down'.  
24 bit screens in the original case? That's
some interesting novelty to show your friends...

 

[spihunter]

I would keep the A4000 and buy a second hand graphics card for it. There getting cheaper these days.

[olegil]

I would go for the A4000, but start the expansion with a Mediator. A 68030 is too slow to have any fun with anyway, so not even a Mediator can help keep that 12300 alive.

I'm currently rebuilding my Apollo 1240 to an Apollo 1260, because the 68040@40MHz got too slot for me eventually ;-)

[Doobrey]

amigamad wrote:
Keep your a1200 an a4000 is not as reliable and cost more to get repaired.

Wow, either I`ve had some flakey 1200`s in the past, or your 4000 is dodgy..
 
 I`ve never regretted buying my A4000, it`s been solid as a rock in use, never had a single hardware problem with it.
But as for my A1200`s..sometimes I just have to look at them and they guru and reboot, even if they`re just sitting there idle!

 I agree about the a4000 being expensive to repair, since if the mobo is blown, replacements aren`t easy to find..whereas if a 1200 mobo goes, just open your local paper to the classifieds, and there`ll be some going dirt cheap.

[amigamad]

Never had any problems with any a1200,s all have been solid my ppc amiga tower uses an old commodore amiga 1200 3.0 motherboard updated to 3.1 ive had it since about 1996 or 1997 and paid £50 pound for it.Its even survived 2 ide interface and cable burnouts caused by damage cable the a 4000 desktop i have is dodgy and is the worst amiga i have owned. :-)

[KennyR]

An A1200 is very reliable...until you start adding bits it was never meant to have just to get it usable for this day and age. Tower, keyboard interface kludge, buffered IDE interface, clockport sound card, PCI busboard...

By the time its as operational as the A4000 it'll be like the Frankenstein monster, with bits precariously hanging off at all angles. Before you know it you'll have the tower case permenantly off so you can twiddle with the stuff just to get your A1200 to boot properly each morning.

That's not to say A4000s won't give you trouble: they're getting on a bit and most users go through the regular routine of "which zorro card isn't being detected today".

But compared to the A1200, this is nothing. Turning an A1200 into something as expandable as a basic A400 takes a lot of time, a lot of skill, a lot of effort, and a lot of money.

[Doobrey]

amigamad wrote:
the a 4000 desktop i have is dodgy and is the worst amiga i have owned. :-)

Well, if you don`t want it, you could always throw it my way  ;-)

[Ilwrath]

I have to go against the flow, and say the 4000 is the best computer.  I've owned three A1200s, and one 4000.  The 4000 has been more stable, for sure.  The 4000 is also worth more on the market, as they can use the Video Toaster.

Sure... It does cost more to fix an A4000 than it does an A1200... But, honestly, at this stage....  Why are you fixing either one???  It's cheaper to buy a replacement than it is to try to fix.

At least for myself, I'm open to offers on any computer in my collection... Except my 4000.  period.  Granted, a lot of that is sentimental value, but I honestly think it was the best Amiga.