Beginner from Sweden

[Kawazu]

First of all excuse my bad gramar and spelling.

I just descoverd this site when i where looking for some information about my old A500 that my parents bought me back in 93-94.

And thru this site and forum i discoverd that you can actualy upgrade and moodify your amiga alot and that just got me hocked right away, i love playing around with hardware and tweeking stuff just to get out the most of every part.

I did not find to much information about ppl upgrading the A500 but the 1200 and the 4000 on the other hand looks very nice indeed. But as always new members have alot of old and stupid questions for the "old" members to answer

1. Can i upgrade my A500 to do anything besides gaming with it? Like browsing the net and stuff like that.

2. I can get my hand on a A2000 that i think is 100% working for about 30-40 Euro. Is it worth bying that A2000 and upgrade it to have some fun with it and by fun i men can i upgrade it so i can do everything a 1200 and a 4000 can do?

3. Am i better of ignoring the offer on that A2000 and go for a 1200 or a 4000 and upgrading one of those? I dont belive i have seen any 4000 on any site i have looked, but alot of 1200.

Would be very greatfull if you guys could help me out here, i dont rly dont know where to start.

[Everblue]

Welcome aboard. Unfortunately, you cannot do all that you can do with an A1200 or A4000 for the simple reason that they do not have an AGA chipset, and % games make use of this.

If you are serious about getting a decent setup, save that money from the A2000 and get yourself an A1200 (or even an A4000). If you get an A1200 you can upgrade it in the future, perhaps put it in a tower and get PCI cards for it

Have fun!

[Moto]

Welcome to the slippery slope of Amiga hardware upgrades!  Once you start going down the path, you'll find it's hard to stop the upgrade fever!

I'd say start off by spending as little money as possible and see if you are still interested after a month or two.  Upgrading Amigas can be very expensive because of the marketplace that exists.  Figure out what it is you like to use your Amiga for (games, programming, etc) and then do the research on the hardware you want before you buy anything.  Each system has its pros and cons.  The 1200 seems to be the sweet spot for upgrades as there are still a lot of products being made for it.  Spend a little time reading through the forums and figuring out all the technologies before you make your decision.  

And also realize that lots of people come and go.  I see people selling off their systems on one day and the next day somebody new comes back into the picture wanting to buy.  So it's a nice ecosystem we have here.

[Nickman]

Hi

This is an excellent site to get help..
But if you want to type in Swedish i can also recommend http://safir.amigaos.se/
A very friendly swedish amiga site.

//Nickman önskar dig välkommen.

[CSixx]

An A1200 is the most cost-effective machine for upgrading. It is also a very capable machine (as far as Amiga's go).

If you like upgrading, and maximizing your computers, you may feel a bit limited if you go with the A2000.

[Damion]

The 2000 can be a nice machine, not a whole lot of performance difference between a 4000 when both have a good accelerator and Zorro gfx card. No reason not to get it if the price is reasonable.

However, the A4000 does make a better computer to upgrade. The Zorro bus is much faster (at least 3x), there are more upgrades available (PCI busboards, PPC acclerators) and you'll probably want your main machine to have AGA.

Having an expanded A2000 and A1200 here on the desk, I'm starting to think replacing them both with an A4000 is the way to go.

[zipper]

Another swedish site: http://news.amigarulez.se/
Välkommen!

[Christian Johansson]

1. Perhaps but it would probably be pretty darn expensive, an A1200 or A4000 (or A3000 with gfxboard) would be a better machine for that. A Graphics board makes it a much nicer to browse the net. There is no web browsers that can handle CSS, that is fast enough for an Amiga with a 68k CPU though.

2. An A2000 has zorroslots (but they are Zorro2 which is said to be pretty slow) so it's probably a better idea to get an A1200 or an A3000/A4000.

3. Go for an A1200 or A4000 instead.

and as Nickman said, safir is pretty nice swedish Amiga forum.

[cv643d]

If you are living in Stockholm, maybe you can purchase my A2000? :-)

CU at Safir BTW.

[Kawazu]

Thank you all for the advice, i will be aiming for the 1200 or the 4000. Have not found any 4000 for sale yet but some one out there must be selling one that dont cost a fortune

[marcfrick2112]

Hello, and welcome to Amiga.org !

First, I have only AGA Amiga's right now, but I do have a soft spot for the 500.  (my first Amiga, and the first computer I ever bought with my own money  )

I love the 500, but really, unless you just happen to have a 500 accelerator+RAM, and HD + interface handy, it will be cheaper / easier to go with an A1200. In particular, I've never gotten my 500 on the net, I'm sure it can be done, others may have to help with this.

I still have my Supra HD interface and original 40MB drive just in case I find a fairly cheap A500 + '030 accelerator.... I'm assuming my old MegaChip still works

My 500 setup 'back in the day' : A500, OS3.1, 2MB chip, 32 MB Fast, 2MB on HD int., CSA Derringer '030/50MHz '882/50MHz, 640MB Quantum HDD, 100MB Zip, DCTV....

Just my 2 Kronor .... (hmm, hope that's right..)

Marc

[smf]

@Kawazu If you really want to be extreme you can upgrade your A500 with an micronik A500 bussboard and then you'r A500 will have almost the same possibilities as an A2000

[Everblue]

Good luck finding a tower

[Tension]

Welcome to Amiga.org -- You'll never leave!!

[Crumb]

@Kawazu

welcome!

1. upgrading an A500 is expensive. You'd better leave it as it (it will be more compatible)

2. A2000 is nice but also has expensive accelerators. At least it allows you to fit a gfx cards/hd controllers easily.

3. An A1200 is probably the best option to update it step by step unless you want to spend 600Euros on a full upgraded A4000.