Q: What's the best accelerator for the A3000D?

[mousehouse]

I'm looking for an accelerator for my A3000D but am having a hard time given the constraints... My A3000 does not have the INT2 modification made, but I put a rev.8 SCSI chip in it so I can live without SCSI. Preferably I would use an 68060 accelerator to get the most performance out of te machine, or a solid 68040 card with fast memory access...

However, I see a lot of boards have issues - for example the Cyberstorm Mk2 (I am offered one for a hefty price):

notes
CyberStorm 040 SN# B400506 - B400569 and CyberStorm 060 SN# B002827 - B003065 are affected by several DMA related problems due to a slight difference in the electrical specifications of certain parts caused by supplier change
symptoms:
SCSI units connected to the internal SCSI bus of the A3000(T) are not recognized while having RAM installed to the CyberStorm
does not work in the A4000T with RAM installed on the CyberStorm
in an A4000 with a Fastlane or a A4091 SCSI controller installed, peripherals connected to the SCSI bus are not recognized
boards with these serial numbers had to be sent back to Phase5 for rework

Are those symptoms often encountered?

Other than that there are the A3640 (which I have and runs OK in my A3000D - despite the DMAC-02), GVP T-Rex and T-Rex2 and the Cyberstorm Mk2 040/060 and Mk3.

What would be a good solid board to look out for?

[gazgod]

I have a Cyberstorm Mk2 060 in my 3000 and have not encountered these issues but as the machine came with the accelerator fitted i'm not sure about whether the INT2 mod has been done.

Gaz

[Tahoe]

I would say a Cyberstorm MK3.

[dannyp1]

I use Cyberstorm MKII's in my A3000's.

[Damion]

I also have an MKII in mine. Aside from the SCSI module not fitting, it's a nice, stable card, and easily overclocked.

[Tumbleweed]

I've run a CS MKII in my A3000D (no INT2 mod) without encountering any probs. It was more stable than in my 4000D when running alongside a deneb USB card.  At the moment my A3000D is fitted out with an A3640 V3.1 board. The only issue with this board is the well documented issue with the capacitors being fitted the wrong way round, which can cause them to leak. Also there is no ram on the board, which really throttles the speed.

For the 3000D I'd suggest considering the CS MKII only be aware of the confines of the A3000D's case, which will limit you to fitting a half height heat sink, unless you want to cut out the tray for the floppy drives to allow you to fit a full heat sink with a fan (needed if you want to seriously over clock the card).

Weed.

[mousehouse]

Thanks for all the tips, I'll be on the lookout for a MK2 card then ;-)

[T3000]

Running a MacroSystems Warp Engine '40 in my A3000D. The int2 is not needed with this card as I understand. Comes with a jumper wire. Limited to 64 meg ram onboard with the A3000 model of the card because of C= brilliant case size reduction idea. I'd imagine with enough modification, the A4000 model with 128mb ram of the Warp'40 could be fitted. I've made some vent holes in the drive tray to help the cpu fan breath. The onboard scsi II header [strike]is[/strike] would be nice if I could get it to function properly...

[VingtTrois]

I'm looking for an accelerator for my A3000D but am having a hard time given the constraints...

I've a "PPS 040 MERCURY" (without SCSI) with 32Mo for my A3000D (now towerized by Micronick) and it works fine !
But I think CYBERSTORM I/MKII/MKIII/PPC are the best for A3000(T)!

[aggro_mix]

I'm using the Apollo 4060 in my A3000, doesn't need the INT2 mod as it uses it's own mod. Sadly it patches the scsi.device in some strange way so you can't use the scsi updates from OS3.5 or 3.9. The Apollo SCSI is crap so don't bother using that.

I have the A3k in an Elbox tower so no space problems, teh Apollo 4060 won't wit in a desktop version though but there's a 3060 version with only 64 MB RAM.

[Zac67]

Running a MacroSystems Warp Engine '40 in my A3000D. The int2 is not needed with this card as I understand.
[...]
The onboard scsi II header would be nice if I could get it to function properly...

The INT2 mod is necessary for SCSI to work...

[Tahoe]

@mousehouse:
The fact that the MK2 is used most often in this thread does not make it the best card for the A3000. In fact, of all Cyberstorm's the MK2 is the least one, although not a bad choice. My personal preference list is MK1 (as an accelerator it is the fastest, lacks a little in SCSI) but this won't physically fit your A3000. The MK3/PPC is the second choice, and has blazing fast SCSI but does require the Int2 patch to work (just one wire soldered to make this patch). The MK2 is the slowest of the 3.

The Warp Engine also is a very stable, very fast card, providing you can find the A3000 version which has a jumper wire for the Int2 fix (no soldering) and angled SIMM sockets.

[sandpiper]

&Tahoe

I have a WarpEngine in my A3000 and the onboard SCSI works just fine without the INT2 mod. The WE uses a jumper rather than the int2 mod.

@mousehouse

As far as accelerators go, I would love to have a Cyberstorm 060 (any MK) for my A3000D, but they are very hard to come by. If you can't find one, the WarpEngine is a good alternative for an 040 based card.

[tone007]

The int2 is not needed with this card as I understand. Comes with a jumper wire.

The WE uses a jumper rather than the int2 mod.

The jumper is an int2 mod, just a temporary one that can often need some maintenance due to the possibility of bad contact/falling off the pin it's supposed to be connected to, depending on how you connect it.

The WarpEngine is a decent accelerator if you find the A3000 desktop model to fit at a bargain price, otherwise I'd go for a Cyberstorm card.  I'm happy with my CSMKII.

[dannyp1]

As stated, MKI won't physically fit in the A3000 so it is not even an option.  Also if I recall correctly, the MKIII almost always has problems with soldering of the cpu socket going bad which is not an easy fix for an amateur, and can be expensive for a pro to do.  That brings us back to the MKII.  There might be good reasons why it is the most used accelerator by the Amiga.org community.