Classic HW, SAM440 or EFIKA ?

[takemehomegrandma]

1. Mac Mini w/MOS: cool, but unavailable at the moment.

Nothing in the Amiga NG scene will (ever?) beat this though, so I think it's worth waiting for. :-)

2. Efika + MOS:    Not quite powerful enough, imho.

Available, about equally powerful as the Sam but much less expandable.

3. Peg2 + MOS:     "old" HW ....naaaahhh..

Pegasos2 G4 is the fastest Amiga solution available *today*, although only by second hand. Powerful, good quality and good price on many of them.

Let's have a poll. Which one would YOU go for ?
1,2,3 or 4 ?

I would go for (in order):

If you want power and don't mind waiting: 1, 3, 2
If you want it cheap and have it now: 3, 2, 1

Personally I don't consider the Sam an option. If it had a 7447A CPU or 8640 SoC I would buy it at that price, but not with this class of CPU.

[Hans_]

Everblue wrote:
I this case good for Sam440?

Thanks!

It's a Mini-ITX case, so it should be fine.

Hans

[Palm]

On acube it is definitely $99, but thanks for the tip on the other webpage. I will order one from there definitely for the cheap $99 (exchangerate from USD->NOK is dead-cheap these days).

I think I will go for a EFIKA solution, and wait for

a) SAM to be "better"/faster / cheaper
and
b) MacMIni port to come out :-)

I still ahte NOT to be able to run AOS, but I do know that MOS will give me more or less the same satisfaction. I just feel ashamed to to use AOS ... hehe.  Almost like i am unfaithful by using MOS and enjoying it :-)


Espen

[Everblue]

I think I wi ll go against all common sense and get a SAM  :-D

[Everblue]

I think I wi ll go against all common sense and get a SAM  :-D

[TiredOLife]

@Everblue

You don't need that big a power supply.
Less than half that power is needed.

I have yet to hear from anyone who has not been happy with their purchase of Sam and 4.1.
I'm sure you will love it. :-D

[Palm]

I plan to order the Efika now, as it is dead-cheap. I will get a kolleague in the US office to receive it, then he might be able to send it to my home country. That probably saves me some cash :-) He can then send it as a "gift" and I don't have to pay tax/toll.

I also ordered a pico psu 60W. I guess 60W will be more than enough, as it seems that efika w/hdd + gfxcard never even exceeds 10W consumption.

I will SO have a SAM someday too, but at the moment I am going for efika because it is cheap, available and the DIY casing is cool :-)

[takemehomegrandma]

60W is fine.

You will *love* MorphOS! :-)

[Ruud]

Hi,
What you go for all depends what you want from an Amiga-like machine. I used to have an A1200 tower with BlizzardPPC & Blizzardvision etc. a few years back but I found it too unreliable to use as a main machine so I broke it up and sold it off.  I currently own both a SAM and an Efika.  The SAM has become my main computer, so much so that I'm getting rid of my Athlon64 tower pc and replacing it with an Asus Eee Box.  I still need a pc around for a few things but I don't want it taking up a load of space. I like playing with the Efika and Morphos and I will register it in the new year. But as a package it doesn't cut it as a main computer.  If you got a Peg with Morphos then sure that could be a main machine or the Macmini but not the Efika, it is too limited.  Macmini does sound good, keeping half an eye out for one myself!
The SAM of course is a lot of money but I'm fine with that because I'm using it more than I would a PC because Amiga stuff is a hobby. If you think you are still going to use a PC/Mac as a main computer I would get the Efika because of the price but if you want a main machine buy the SAM or wait for Macmini Morphos.

Just my thoughts.

Cheers,
Rudi.

[Everblue]

This maybe a stupid question, but can you watch a dvd on SAM?

[Palm]

Now, if the guys at the Directron can ever answer my request on sending me a board, I would love to buy it

Getting one over to norway isn't that easy, it seems, because they don't send abroad unless you manually wire transfer cash to them. Plus they charge alot to ship it. And when it comes to norway, I have to pay tax for it...that sucks. it is gonna cost me a fortune :-)

Are there any friendly enthusiast in the usa who can help me out and buy one, and mail it to me labeled as "gift" in the customspaper so that I can get it over here easy and without the gigantic taxes ? Of course, I pay the cost of the board+shipping etc.

Or maybe trade with some of my Amiga HW which I am about to sell ? here is a list. I plan to put it all to ebay as soon as i make this list complete... I have lots more at home which I wanna add. here is a preview:

cD32 SETUP:
-----------
1 x cd32 FMV Module      http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=488
2 x cd32         http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=32
(no PSU's, so I do not know their state. They look nice, though)
2 x unused cd32 Competition Pro Controllers


A4000 SETUP:
------------
1 x A4000 32MB kick 3.1      http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=30
1 x A4000 Orig kbd without any bad yellowing
1 x new style amiga mouse
1 x Elbox tower         http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=1326
1 x Mediator board:      http://www.vesalia.de/e_mediator4000d.htm
(needs mediator enabler to use the pci slots. Zorro slots work natively)
1 x Lyra PS2 KBD Adapter
1 x Mroocheck PS2 Mouse Adapter
1 x WarpEngine 040-40:      http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=257
(card has XC68040RC40M CPU onboard on socket + some 2 x SIMM memory)
1 x CV643D-Scandoubler:      http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=447
(Phase5 version)    
1 x AD516 Sunrize R2.1      http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=1292
1 x Algor USB:         http://www.e3b.de/usb/main_algor_e.html
1 x Algor Norwaymodule:      http://www.vesalia.de/e_norway.htm
(10mbit network module addon card for Algor)
1 x VLAB 1.3:         http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=301
1 x Apollo 4060 4060.      http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=217
(card does not boot. Seems like MACH is 66Mhz (written 66 on mach). Xtal is 66Mhz)
(card has XC68060RC50A CPU onboard on socket)


A1200 SETUP:
------------
1 x a1200 w/kick3.1 plain + internal floppy intact.
1 x internal (yes) SlimLine CD drive mounted inside.
1 x Dataflyer SCSI+:      http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=1176
1 x surf squirrel:      http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=1202
1 x pcmcia nic a1200
1 x gvp a1230 030 40MHZ:   http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=131


DIV:
----
1 x Internal Zipdrive in A4000 tower
1 x Internal Travan SCSI Stramer in A4000 tower
1 x original OS3.9 CD
1 x External Amiga floppy (think it's a 1,76 Drive. Blue ejectbutton i think)
1 x Rocgen Genlock:      http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=436
1 x Alcotini Stereo Sampler for parallell port. Insanely good quality!


I prefer to sell as much as possible intact. If someone wanna buy before I put on ebay and give me a nice price, I will happily sell.

My goal is to finance EFIKA motherboard+case and a MiniMig with the cash ;-)

[Ruud]

Everblue wrote:
This maybe a stupid question, but can you watch a dvd on SAM?

Yes you can, assuming you install a dvd drive  :-) . DvPlayer is included with os4.1 although it doesn't seem to support dvd menus.  I've been using Mplayer to play avi files but I haven't tried playing a dvd with it.

Cheers,
Rudi.

[gazgod]

Palm wrote:

1. Mac Mini w/MOS: cool, but unavailable at the moment.
2. Efika + MOS:    Not quite powerful enough, imho.
3. Peg2 + MOS:     "old" HW ....naaaahhh..
4. SAM440+AOS4:    Available, yet indeed expensive.

Let's have a poll. Which one would YOU go for ?
1,2,3 or 4 ?


Espen

Having 2, 3, and 4 (and a g4 macmini that's currently my itunes server) I would say that the Peg2 + Morphos 2.1 is still my favourite.

Gaz

[takemehomegrandma]

Ruud wrote:

Everblue wrote:
This maybe a stupid question, but can you watch a dvd on SAM?

Yes you can, assuming you install a dvd drive  :-)

And that is in full screen with no frame skipping of course? (Just to be sure about the details... ;-))

[Everblue]

Before buying a Sam, I'd wait for the Sam flex version to come out as it is supposedly cheaper and has 3 PCI slots.

[Ruud]

takemehomegrandma wrote:

And that is in full screen with no frame skipping of course? (Just to be sure about the details... ;-))

Now that is a good point.  I must admit I haven't tried much with playing dvd's, it's not what I bought the SAM for  :-)  and I have dvd players coming out of my ears (a quick count reveals 8  :crazy: ).  I will do some tests and report results.

Cheers,
Rudi.