What should my next amiga be?

[runequester]

So I have a bit of disposable income with more likely coming in a month or so.

I have some trinkets left to get for my 1200 (Subway and printer mainly, as well as some CD32 gamepads) but I am looking towards acquiring a second machine.

Option number 1: The bargain I thought I had for a mac mini fell through, but there's still the option of getting either a cheap powermac or a mac mini and running Morph OS on it.

Advantages are it'd give me a cheap "amiga like" machine, with quite a lot of horsepower (by amiga standards anyways).
It'd give a modern web browser for pretty regular content.
Total cost wouldn't be too bad (figure about a hundred for the machine, 150 for the license and Id need to set up a wireless bridge to get it online)

The other option is to save up a bit more and get either a 3000 or my dream from when I was a kid, a 4000.

Advantages here is that its the real deal, the 4000 has a decent speed boost over my 030 1200, and plenty of slots to stick things in. I figure a ZorRAM card, and possibly an RTG card if I can find one would get it going good. Toss in Deneb and ethernet and we're about good for an awesome hardcore miggy.

Of course, this is also a ton more money to spend, though I can spend it over a period of time.


So nyeh.. not sure what to do. Tempt me either way guys. (Or give me offers for either, if you have either a morph os system or a 3K or 4K you are looking to part with for reasonable money within the next month or two)

[Darrin]

FPGA Arcade.  That's my target.  

[ElPolloDiabl]

If you've got the money it would be worth it to own an RTG Amiga, even if you get bored with it after a few weeks and sell it.
For me I wouldn't bother because even a 50mhz machine is too slow for your 'high end' Amiga compared to UAE.
If you will use it a lot it will be worth it. Otherwise keep you money for a Natami.

[giZmo350]

If you've got the money it would be worth it to own an RTG Amiga, even if you get bored with it after a few weeks and sell it.
For me I wouldn't bother because even a 50mhz machine is too slow for your 'high end' Amiga compared to UAE.
If you will use it a lot it will be worth it. Otherwise keep you money for a Natami.

[runequester]

well, I use my 030 1200 every day, so whatever I get next will be used daily as well.

No interest in emulation mates, sorry : )

[TheBilgeRat]

I am loving my A4000D.  My goal with it now is a mediator 4000Di, radeon 9200, a USB card, a NIC and a Sound card.  That would cover practically everything apart from acceleration.  If the mediator will allow a zorro card in that mix as well then a zoram 256Mb.

EDIT:  So my vote is for the 4000

[runequester]

I am loving my A4000D.  My goal with it now is a mediator 4000Di, radeon 9200, a USB card, a NIC and a Sound card.  That would cover practically everything apart from acceleration.  If the mediator will allow a zorro card in that mix as well then a zoram 256Mb.

EDIT:  So my vote is for the 4000

I dont know if it'll go quote that far, but zoram, deneb and rtg for sure.
Are there a zorro solution for ethernet, or is it pci only?

The mediator is cool but pretty pricey

[TheBilgeRat]

right now they have a deal on the 4000Di, a radeon and some other card for around 300 something.

[runequester]

right now they have a deal on the 4000Di, a radeon and some other card for around 300 something.

Thats not so shabby. Maybe Im being slow, but any other nifty stuff that works with an amiga in the PCI slots, other than 3D cards?

[TheBilgeRat]

Thats not so shabby. Maybe Im being slow, but any other nifty stuff that works with an amiga in the PCI slots, other than 3D cards?

According to elbox: sound cards, ethernet cards, USB 2.0 cards.

[runequester]

According to elbox: sound cards, ethernet cards, USB 2.0 cards.

hrm, ethernet would be the biggest one, as deneb gives usb 2.0 anyways.

[XDelusion]

If you are looking at picking up a machine for MorphOS, might I advise something that has it's own Video card as opposed to a built in Video chip that uses Shared RAM.

I don't understand why exactly, but MorphOS and it's programs expect a LOT of Graphics RAM and will not default to the Fast Ram (unless I'm missing something).
 In my case I'm running MorphOS on an eMac and I had to turn a lot of the extra features off just to be able to use my Web Browser, not to mention multi-task.

[Piru]

@XDelusion

As much as possible gfx mem is of course desirable but none of the integrated graphics cards MorphOS supports use shared memory.

[NovaCoder]

Go for one of those nice AROS boxes

[fishy_fiz]

Between my a1200 and amithlon box Im perfectly content as far as my classic amiga interest goes. Amithlon provides more hardware grunt than any of the ppc options (even running 68k code vs ppc code, let alone running x86 native amiga os software), which lets you do things like watch movies, watch t.v (via tv tuner card and amithlontv)play quake1/2, freespace, etc. at high framerates (over 100fps in q2 using software rendering in n640x480 for example), etc. and without the need to install windows, linux, etc. Simply install amithlon and os3.9, and the pc is suddenly an RTG/RTA based "amiga"  
It's amazing how capable os3.x is still with some customisation and some hardware grunt behind it. I guess some of this applies to x86 based UAE as well, but the experience is so much more pleasant with amithlon for my tastes (not just cos of being faster). It's also a lot more authentic an experience. A uae user for example doesnt need to worry about file systems, tcp/ip stack, cant create custom rtg screenmodes and a variety of other "amiga" things. Amithlon behaves exactly like an amiga.

MOS is undoubtedly a little nicer than a tweaked os3.9 system (even if having lesser hardware resources than amithlon on a modernish machine), but for me there's a charm in the more or less D.I.Y nature of os3.x, and it's a lot of fun building up. That said though I do like MOS, theyre just different aspects of the same hobby.

Give it a try if you get a chance, you might enjoy it