PCI cards og Zorro cards. What is best ?

[Palm]

I am planning to sell my Zorro cards and buy PCi cards for my mediator and use standard and much cheaper PCI cards in my amiga 4000 tower.

However, my good old CV64-3d card works nice, but I am wondering if I will lose some good features of the CV cards which e.g. a radeon doesn't give ? I do have a scandoubler on my CV card, which enables me to use PAL modes on plain VGA screens which is good for games. I guess this is the major drawback I can see if I go from CV64 to a PCI card.

Any suggestions ?

When it comes to replacing my Zorro USB controller + Norway module, I can easily use cheap PC networkcard+usb controller.

[countzero]

radeon  :getmad:  I thought mediator supported voodoo 3-5 max.

you'll need an external monitor switcher. choice is yours.

Usb controller ?  :getmad:  again, which usb controller is supported by mediator and which usb stack are you planning to use ?  :crazy:

edit : are you from norway ? (og gave you up)

[wawrzon]

 some versions of radeon should be supported, depending on voltage they need, i think there should somewhere be info on the elbox site. but there is still no warp3d for radeon i believe. my desktop solution with voodoo3 is magnitudes faster than any existent zorro card in both 2d and 3d (voodoo got a good blitter too). im able to use screens up to 1600x1200 in hicolor without serious lag. but scandoubling 15khz resolutions is pain in the ass the desktop solution hasnt even got video slot, but thats not the case with tower enchancements. and there might be some problems with some demanding zorro cards like deneb, the dma datatransfer could be less dependable than with an normal zorro busboard (solution: switch to pio).

all in all i would not like to miss my di, even if this is not the most elegant solution

[Piru]

@Palm

When it comes to replacing my Zorro USB controller + Norway module, I can easily use cheap PC networkcard+usb controller.

Since when? Network yes, if you can find the specific supported card, but USB?

[darksun9210]

not sure about the mediator. i thought the USB drivers for it only supported the elbox branded usb2 PCI card? afaik, the current version poseidon doesn't support elbox USB cards? i know there was some kinda hoo-har regarding own brand USB cards, mediators, drivers, and over-written hard disk RDB's!
even if i did have an a4000 mediator, i'd use a deneb USB card, as i don't think the mediator uses zorro3 DMA, so i don't think there would be any problem with conflicting DMA xfers.
nice to have a 1600x1200 workbench :-D and if you see a good improvment in 2D performance over the CV64/3D, then go for it. i'm not sure of the driver situation for the radion cards on classic amigas.
personally, i'd only use the mediator for graphics, sound, and ethernet.
USB i'd use a deneb. plus with a deneb, you can boot off USB devices and use keyboard and mouse in early startup if needed..
the scan doubling of standard res screens... well, thats a price of the deal, unless there is a scandoubler released for the A4000 like the one for the A1200

[Palm]

I am wondering if I should keep my A4000 in tower and build further with this, or go for a new tower for my a1200 and invest cash here. I like that the a1200 has normal tv-out for classic gaming.

I am very in doubt on what to do. I can spend $2000. What the heck shall I do. I really want the setup to be classic-compatible so I can e.g. boot up a game from a floppy or watch demos, but I also want a highend setup with a good gfxcard+soundcard for desktop use + a good CPU to power it with.

So, should I maybe sell my A4000 with its 040-40 and the zorrocards, and istead build on my A1200 and go for PPC ?

If you set money aside, what is the MOST coolest setup one can go for ?



CountZero: yes ..norway :-) Wanna buy alot of nifty classic amiga HW ?

[wawrzon]

darksun9210 wrote:
the scan doubling of standard res screens... well, thats a price of the deal, unless there is a scandoubler released for the A4000 like the one for the A1200

you would still need an external monitor switch, thats what i really hate!
and while we are at it where are the warp3d drivers for radeon btw? i mean 68k ones or at least warpup of course

[Tension]

Palm wrote:

I am wondering if I should keep my A4000 in tower and build further with this, or go for a new tower for my a1200 and invest cash here. I like that the a1200 has normal tv-out for classic gaming.

I am very in doubt on what to do. I can spend $2000. What the heck shall I do. I really want the setup to be classic-compatible so I can e.g. boot up a game from a floppy or watch demos, but I also want a highend setup with a good gfxcard+soundcard for desktop use + a good CPU to power it with.

So, should I maybe sell my A4000 with its 040-40 and the zorrocards, and istead build on my A1200 and go for PPC ?

If you set money aside, what is the MOST coolest setup one can go for ?



CountZero: yes ..norway :-) Wanna buy alot of nifty classic amiga HW ?

A4000/060/PPC

[kolla]

Piru wrote:
@Palm

When it comes to replacing my Zorro USB controller + Norway module, I can easily use cheap PC networkcard+usb controller.

Since when? Network yes, if you can find the specific supported card, but USB?

Didnt someone write USB-over-IP driver for Poseidon? Hm, maybe not... well, someone should  :-D

[pVC]

Palm wrote:
However, my good old CV64-3d card works nice, but I am wondering if I will lose some good features of the CV cards which e.g. a radeon doesn't give ? I do have a scandoubler on my CV card, which enables me to use PAL modes on plain VGA screens which is good for games. I guess this is the major drawback I can see if I go from CV64 to a PCI card.

Voodoo (and Radeon too) is faster than CV64/3D and gives better resolutions, but yes, losing scandoubler in your situation is big loss. Options for that is two monitor setup or using TV-card on PCI as cheap alternative for scandoubler, but it gives worse quality.

When it comes to replacing my Zorro USB controller + Norway module, I can easily use cheap PC networkcard+usb controller.

Keep your Zorro USB controller, but get PCI NIC, they're much faster and more reliable on PCI.

For sound card I'd still recommend Zorro ones. At least I like sound cards which can play mp3 with DSP for example. PCI-cards can't do that.

[Palm]

Ok. So I will try to get HW to get 060 and PPC (which is probably what I would have gone for years ago if I had the cash for it hehe).

However, this leads me to the next question:

Should I keep my A4000 in elbox tower with PCI/Z3 slots along with my Algor+Norway and exchange my CV643D+ScanDoubler with a Mediator to run Radeon PCI ? If I sell my VLAB+CV643D+warpengine4040+apollo6060+sunrie I can maybe finance parts of the Mediatorboard + a PPC board.

I can also sell my a1200+network+cdrom+w/gvp a1230 also, sine I won´t be needning it anymore.


I am open for suggestions.

[Tension]

@ Palm

I`ll buy the CV64/3D from you.

[doctorq]

@Palm

Any particular reason for upgrading to PCI? As I see it, you already have one of the best setups in regards of classic Amiga. Upgrade the WarpEngine to a CSMK3, go SCSI and you are set (or stick with the WarpEngine, I enjoy mine a lot and it's in fact quite fast, and reliabel, at 40 MHz)

I have a couple of PPC cards, both A1200 and A4000; if I was about to start from scratch again I would go for A4000, 68060 accelerator with SCSI, CV64 and scandoubler (or as you have; a CV64/3D with scandoubler module), Ariadne ethernet card and Toccata soundcard. That configuration will be more than enough for most high end things, and keeping your A1200 with a CF card as harddrive, as well as a 030 based accelerator with 16 MB or more of fast ram will give you the best of both worlds; a high end Amiga for everyday use, and a gaming machine when you feel like giving your joysticks a beating.

Just my two cents...

[stefcep2]

I'd agree with doctorq.  You have a fantastic A4000 that a lot of people would dream about.  The only upgrade worth considering IMHO is PPC.  I wouldn't get rid of all your zorro cards just to go PCI, can't see the point for what will be not a lot of gain.  And keep your A1200:  its fun to run classic software that uses the chipset eg dpaint, ppain, brilliance, scala and ofcourse games in a portbale machine that you can pull out and hook up to your tv quickly.