A3000 hardware

[melott]

I guess if money is tight ...
Them the one best upgrade (imho) would
be a GFX card. But if you go that route make
sure you get a Zorro III card, not a Z2 card.
You can pick up a good card on EBay for usually
around $150.00 or less. IMHO that would be the
best single upgrade you can make.
If you want to install an accelerator then the
3.1 Roms are a must since all the good one
(I think) require 3.1 Roms.

[aardvark]

Although the 3000T is the best Amiga IMHO, an A3000 is not half bad.  After the 3.1 rom/OS3.9the best combo to get would be a Cyberstorm PPC/Cybervision combination which will give you a reasonably kickass system for OS 4.0 which is right around the corner (real soon now  :-D ) It has a provision for an Ultra-wide SCSI drive and would give you excelent graphics as well.  The best place to find one of these used at a decent price is ebay.de, use altavista babelfish for German to English translations.  I bought the Cs PPC from one guy in Germany and the C-vision from another guy there.  The translations I used in emails probably made me soun kind of retarded to them, but at least the point got across.  I actually found the easiest way to pay for them was to go to Thomas Cook and get actual Euro currency and mail it well wrapped in opaque paper as World banking arrangements suck.  Either I would have to pay big bucks for wiring the money to their accounts or they would have to pay big bucks to deposit bank drafts, even if they were in Euro??!! No problems in the transactions occurred and they came well wrapped via normal post.

[Tenacious]

A stock A3000 with OS3.9 is great machine and very compatible with most software.  A graphics card will give you many modern abilities (good looking internet, playing most video clips) but, some games stop working.  Adding a 68060 or PPC will cost more compat. but open the possibility of MP3s, TVPaint and faster everything (030 is no dog though).  An 030 with a MasPlayer is supposed to be pretty good for MP3s.

It all depends on what you enjoy doing!

[aardvark]

I forgot to mentiuon to check the battery on the motherboard, they can leak and damage the traces. :-(

[Amiga4k]

There have been many great suggestions. Before you jump into an expensive upgrade, you must verify some chips. You absolutely must have a Buster 11, Ramsey 7, and DMAC 04 for an 040 or 060 card.
While your inside, verify the processor speed. Also you should check the SCSI (WD33C93A) controller chip revision. An 08 is preferred.

[MPVarner]

Thanks for all the help. Could somebody please tell me how to verify I have these chips?  Can I do it via software or do I need to take the machine apart? If I do have to tear it apart is there some sort of website that will give me the info I need to id the chips?
Another thing I'm not quite clear on is why I would need an accelerator. I'd like to run higher resolutions, surf the web things like that. I would also like to keep some compatibility with older games if possable. What requires the additional speed?
My plan was to save money buy doing minimal upgrades to the A3000 so that I would be able to afford the new motherboard/cpu to go with OS4.
I do have an x86 box that I use for work and such. I just prefer to use the Amiga when I can.
I have been watching the auctions on ebay as well and it does appear that the cost of another machine would be ballpark of the cost of upgrading this one.  I am on kind of a limited budget atm so I really want to make sure I can streatch the money to get as much as I can for it.
Thanks again for all the infos

[MrZammler]

You absolutely must have a Buster 11, Ramsey 7, and DMAC 04 for an 040 or 060 card.

You dont need a Buster 11 for a 040 card. (My cyberstorm here works fine). Plus, the cyberstorm works fine with the original Ramsey and DMAC.

[Jope]

MrZammler wrote:

You absolutely must have a Buster 11, Ramsey 7, and DMAC 04 for an 040 or 060 card.

You dont need a Buster 11 for a 040 card. (My cyberstorm here works fine). Plus, the cyberstorm works fine with the original Ramsey and DMAC.

I have a buster 9 in my A4000 with 060. Does this mean my machine will stop working now?-)

[zipper]

No. I used PicassoIV, CV3D and CVPPC at the same time in my A4000/CSPPCw/o any problems. They come when you install ZIII SCSI host adapter.

[adolescent]

Amiga4k wrote:
You absolutely must have a Buster 11, Ramsey 7, and DMAC 4 for an 040 or 060 card.

You don't NEED updated Ramsey and DMAC chips to run an 040.  I've run a Mercury 040/35MHz for years with the older rev (Ramsey 4/DMAC 2) chips.  I would find information on the particular accellerator to make sure, as the Ramsey/DMAC upgrades are not inexpensive.

The only card I can remember having problems was the A3640.

[Amiga4k]

Some 040's work with the older chip set, some do not. The 3640 rev3.1 and 3.2 need the newer chip set. The Apollo 060 (a problematic card, in m y opinion) requires the new chip set.  I have heard that Cyberstorm 060's require the Buster 11, as a minimum.
The 040's run hotter than on 060's.

[vortexau]

MPVarner wrote:
Thanks for all the help. Could somebody please tell me how to verify I have these chips?  Can I do it via software or do I need to take the machine apart?

Try SysInfo, or someting similar.

[Acill]

I have heard that Cyberstorm 060's require the Buster 11, as a minimum.

Not true at all. I've ran a CS MK III and a PPC in my A3000 for years with only a Buster 7 chip, with no problems. I only put a rev 11 in because I got it for free. The Ramsey and DMAC are both original in mine even still. You wont find a DMAC for a fair price, but you can use the newest Ramsey with the older DMAC even though they say you cant. I've seen several A3000 users do it with no problems again.

[MPVarner]

So what exactly would I need the accelerator for? Would it work ok to surf the web and play the older games if I were  get a video card and a network card and upgrade the roms/os?

[Tenacious]

Doesn't sound like you 'must' have one.  One of the few areas that OS3.9 is improved by an accel. is the new icon format, which, on an 030 makes the system seem only a little doggy.  Sticking with the original or 1 of the enhanced icon schemes puts the pep back in though.  (OS3.9's icon format isn't unuseable with an 030, it's just not lightning fast)  A faster file system (not FFS) helps in this reguard as well.  There are many threads here concerning this.

[MPVarner]

So would I be better off upgrading the a3000 or just getting an A1 and waiting for os4.0 since I'm guessing you can't run 3.9 on it.