Mediator 4000Di..should I or not?

[dangermouse]

Hi guys

Just looking for some help if anyone can

Currently the system is as follows:

A4000, CSPPC, CVPPC, Deneb USB, ATX power supply - running OS 3.9 (mostly) and OS 4.0 (rarely)

I'm seriously looking at the current Mediator 4000Di with Radeon bundle from Elbox but, after looking into it further, I don't know if it's such a good idea.

What I'm hoping to do is to get the Mediator and use the Radeon with DVI output in 3.9 and a Voodoo 3 I have lying around here in 4.0. I would also like to get a compatible USB PCI card (with drivers..I hear there is a problem with Poseidon and the Spider).

If I can manage that I can pull the Deneb and CVPPC out and stick them into my spare 4000 so she's a decent machine.

I don't think I've got any issues with the Radeon or Voodoo..that seems clear enough. The issue I'm concerned about is the USB. Questions I have in this area are:

1. Should I buy the Spider or is that dead hardware really? I need keyboard/mouse support and USB stick support would be handy.
2. If not the Spider what card is compatible and with what driver?
3. If neither 1 or 2 and I have to leave the Deneb in with the Mediator will the machine operate? I've read posts on other forums saying that with a Deneb and Mediator installed the machine won't boot

And on another non-USB related note:

1. If I use the Radeon or Voodoo in 3.9 and fire up a game is it possible to configure the native screenmodes to come out of those cards or will I still be needing my KVM?

Any help appreciated as this is my first dip into PCI based Amigas and, quite frankly, I'm clueless and don't want a 280 Euro lemon

Cheers

[Thomas]

About the Spider:

- it is cheap standard hardware rebranded and overpriced
- it is difficult to find the right version of Poseidon which works with the Spider driver
- it is even more difficult to get a keyfile for Poseidon.

About Deneb + Mediator:

I never tried a Deneb in my Mediator, but I know that the Highway works quite well, so I would expect the Deneb to work, too. Maybe it does not work in DMA mode, though.

About gfx card and native modes:

You still need a switch. You don't even get the native Workbench or startup menu on the Voodoo/Radeon like you get with the CVPPC.

[fitzsteve]

On my Voodoo/Mediator setup (A1200T) I use an LCD TV so I use Scart input for Native screens, this setup works for me but can be an annoyance with apps that change screens a lot, you can use a promotion tool like 'NewMode' but a lot of stuff like games needs the native output.
 
What I do like about the Voodoo 3 is Warp3D which is totally awesome for games like Quake 2 in MiniGL
 
Steve.

[Darrin]

On my Voodoo/Mediator setup (A1200T) I use an LCD TV so I use Scart input for Native screens, this setup works for me but can be an annoyance with apps that change screens a lot, you can use a promotion tool like 'NewMode' but a lot of stuff like games needs the native output.
 
What I do like about the Voodoo 3 is Warp3D which is totally awesome for games like Quake 2 in MiniGL
 
Steve.

I use the 256MB Radeon and an Indivision on my A4000.  My 1920x1080 monitor has VGA and DVI inputs.  I've connected the Radeon to the DVI and the Indivision to the VGA.  If only one screen mode is active on the Amiga (native or RTG) then the monitor usually just jumps to that mode, and if both are active and I close one down then it swtiches to the other.  Toggling between 2 active screens is as simple as pushing the INPUT button on the front of the monitor.

@ Dangermouse:

I use the Deneb for USB in my setup.  You have 3 Zorro slots on the Di, so stick with them for USB.

Use the PCI slots for your graphics card(s) and a Soundblaster 128.  

[fitzsteve]

I use the 256MB Radeon and an Indivision on my A4000. My 1920x1080 monitor has VGA and DVI inputs. I;ve connec ted the Radeon to the DVI and the Indivision to the VGA. If only one screen mode is active on the Amiga (native or RTG) then the monitor usually just jumps to that mode, and if both are active and I close one down then it swtiches to the other. Toggling between 2 active screens is as simple as pushing the INPUT button on teh front of the monitor.

That is an awesome solution you use :cool:

[Darrin]

That is an awesome solution you use :cool:

Cheers.  It was certainly nice to be able to cut down on the number of cables and and get rid of the ugly manual switcher box.

In all honesty though, if you want to add a great graphics card to your A4000 and have a HUGE, fast Workbench screen then PCI is the way to go.  I bought my Mediator used and I kick myself for not doing it sooner.  PCI is like USB, once you have it in your Amiga then you can't imagine being without it.  

The next PCI card I want to get running is my PCI Catweasel.  I just need to find the time...

Edit:  And don't forget the extra RAM you get!  My Radeon had 32MB allocated, the rest (224MB) is allocated to the system.

[fitzsteve]

Cheers. It was certainly nice to be able to cut down on the number of cables and and get rid of the ugly manual switcher box.
 
In all honesty though, if you want to add a great graphics card to your A4000 and have a HUGE, fast Workbench screen then PCI is the way to go. I bought my Mediator used and I kick myself for not doing it sooner. PCI is like USB, once you have it in your Amiga then you can't imagine being without it.
 
The next PCI card I want to get running is my PCI Catweasel. I just need to find the time...

Yes you are right PCI is a real advantage on these machines, I've stopped myself from PCI'ing up my A4000 so far (becuase I have the A1200T/Mediator) so on the A4000 I have PicassoIV on the ZorroIII which has the built in SD/FF so on my LCD Monitor, its the same self switching.

[dangermouse]

@Darrin - you hit the nail on the head there. I'd just like to run WB 3.9 in OS 3.9 at 1920x1080 and with a sharp image. I can do it no problem in OS 4.0 on the CVPPC but, no matter what I try, I cannot get it displaying on my LCD under CybergraphX under 3.9.

I have read somewhere that an Indivision is a tight fit (potential heat problem) when used with the Mediator? Is this something I need to be concerned about (extra cooling??) or not really? Asking as my 4K does have an Indivision in her and I'd rather not fry it

Thanks all

[Astral]

I'd just like to run WB 3.9 in OS 3.9 at 1920x1080 and with a sharp image. I can do it no problem in OS 4.0 on the CVPPC but, no matter what I try, I cannot get it displaying on my LCD under CybergraphX under 3.9.

I use Cybergraphx 4.0 with the 4.2 update - works for me.

[dangermouse]

@astral - yes, given that 4.0 does, I'm sure 3.9 will but I've spent a month of Sundays trying to get it to display and no good. All other resolutions are fine..running 1280x800 at the moment.

[tone007]

A4000, CSPPC, CVPPC, Deneb USB

With all that good stuff already, I don't think I could spend the money on a Mediator setup.  Might make sense if you had no RTG or network capability and were relying on cheap PCI cards, but that setup as it stands sounds pretty nice to me.

[wawrzon]

@dangermouse: deneb works in mediator di, in dma mode. initially there were some crashes copying big files like cd images over usb, but i havnt experienced it lately. might be due to timings or buster. obviously pio works fine all the time.
dunno why you think deneb can couse heat issues. but a gfx card definitely can. glitches. i sacrificed one pci slot for a custom fan. otherwise my desktop is very packed including a csppc. only one zorro slot left free atm, working stable though.

edit: ah and voodoo3 displays under p96 (requirement, no cgx driver) up to my current lcd native res which is 16xx someting by 10xx something (never remember these numbers). is mostly a matter of available vmem so radeon should do fine anyway. requires tweeking though, google linux forums for settings.

[dangermouse]

@tone007 - good point but what I failed to mention is that I've got another 4000 CSPPC desktop sitting here with nothing in it but the CSPPC and a Retina Z3.

I was thinking that if I bought a Mediator with gfx, network and USB I could have 2 nicely setup 4000s instead of a 'good' one and a 'bad' one buy moving bits between them.

As I'm currently in the process of thinning my collection down to just the bare 'essentials' this was just my thought process as part of the downsizing. Instead of having piles of Amigas in various states of disrepair I just want a few with kickass components in them.

@warwzon - it's not the Deneb I've heard has heat issues. I've read that a Mediator 4000Di can sit quite tightly against an IndivisionAGA so some people use spacers to get some sort of gap between them and install an additional fan

[wawrzon]

you will not circuumnavigate around a fan of some sort i fear. mediator big contra is that you will not get *faster graphics* so far framebuffer is concerned. its limited to around 7bms throughput to gfx mem. then again 3d might gain hardware support, but the drivers are still quite a mess.

[slaapliedje]

I have both a Mediator 4000Di and an Indivision AGA.  Doesn't seem to cause any major heat issues that I've noticed.  Then again, I haven't actually put my hand between the the two while it was turned on.  Could possibly explain my lockups while using the internet though.

It's kind of odd though, I would browse the net with the Aweb version that comes with OS3.9, and then it'd start to lock the system after a short while of browsing some sites.  Then I'd switch to ibrowse, it'd work for a while.  Then it too would start crashing the system.  So then I would use the Aweb_APL_040 I had laying around my hard drive, and it too would do the same thing.  

Then I updated my Mediator drivers to the newest.  Odd thing  is, I swear the card I bought from Elbox was a 64MB card, and I had manually added the extra ram to Fast RAM.  But then when I updated the drivers... suddenly I have 100MB of Fast RAM instead of the 55MB I had before.  Awesome, free major upgrade!

Otherwise my fairly stock A4000 (040 with 16mb of ram and above addons) is very fast for a 15+ year old processor!  

I haven't bought a Deneb yet, still trying to think of a very good reason to spend the cash on it.

slaapliedje