A4000 upgrades?

[Abu the monkey]

This has probably been done to death, but.

Ok, so I have reanimated my A4000/30

I am amazed it works.  (although in need of some tlc from people with the skills to make things  last for ever. (amigakit) furry battery, brittle simm sockets and other  odditys))

what are the top 5 recomended upgrades for it? (apart from a cpu upgrade)

I  am looking at it from a developer point of view and would like to know  if it is worth kiting it out with usb, lan or stick a cf-card in it?

Currently I am using a PC for all the donkey work and using winUAE for testing, but, you can't beat the real thing, can you?

Lan would be nice I think, as I wouldn't have to plug/unplug things all the time for testing and what not...

and what options are there? (new, second hand/ebay/amibay/etc)

I would realy like to hear your expert opinions.

Cheers

[amigadave]

This has probably been done to death, but.

Ok, so I have reanimated my A4000/30

I am amazed it works.  (although in need of some tlc from people with the skills to make things  last for ever. (amigakit) furry battery, brittle simm sockets and other  odditys))

what are the top 5 recomended upgrades for it? (apart from a cpu upgrade)

I  am looking at it from a developer point of view and would like to know  if it is worth kiting it out with usb, lan or stick a cf-card in it?

Currently I am using a PC for all the donkey work and using winUAE for testing, but, you can't beat the real thing, can you?

Lan would be nice I think, as I wouldn't have to plug/unplug things all the time for testing and what not...

and what options are there? (new, second hand/ebay/amibay/etc)

I would realy like to hear your expert opinions.

Cheers

First thing to do is remove that "fuzzy" battery ASAP!  Then disassemble the A4000 completely and neutralize the whole area around where the battery was with something that will stop the battery acid from eating your motherboard traces and ruining your A4000 forever.

After you have done the above and re-assembled your A4000, I would suggest that you buy a Deneb card for it which will give you USB and flash-ROM.  One of my A4000's is now booting from an USB stick inserted in the internal USB socket on the Deneb card and boots quite quickly (thanks Tim for setting up the Flash ROM with updated Kickstart ROM modules and copying everything to the USB stick).  You then can add a cheap USB LAN NIC stick.

[mfilos]

I'd recommend the following. Just check what you need and what your budget permits:
- Deneb USB
- ZoRAM
- CPU Upgrade. You can find an El'Cheapo A3640 from Amibay or eBay or if you can afford, an Cyberstorm 060, Apollo 060.

...then based on appetite and need, you can add various stuff like PCI busboard, RTG Graphic cards etc etc.

[TheBilgeRat]

I second the deneb - I would also like to see the indivisions for the 4000 sometime.

[Abu the monkey]

usb lan nic stick?
can you give me any more detail?
but yeah a deneb card is on the radar

[Abu the monkey]

what is recomended as a nutralising agent?
an IPA/demin combo or something more spesific?

for the battery leakage that is.

[Darrin]

Another vote for the Deneb here too.  I love it in my A4000.

Also (and this is usually a controversial one) get a FastATA4000 Zorro 3 IDE card (I've got 2 80GB hard drives, a CF Card reader and a DVD drive attached to mine).

[DLH]

On Monday I got a A4000 with a Cyberstorm 060 card and 16MB ram.

Here are a few upgrades I have on my list

1. Remove Battery, clean and replace off board.

2. DeneB  - ordered already

3. 060 card - 4ea 32MB SIMM Modules

4. Indivision if i can find one

5.

DLH

[Retro_71]

They say lemon juice is good on it I would clean it with Isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) first then use the lemon juice. You can either carefully cut the legs off the battery or de solider it.
Deneb and Indvision (use new monitors) are a must.

[kzin]

what is recomended as a nutralising agent?
an IPA/demin combo or something more spesific?

for the battery leakage that is.

Use a bit of baking soda or baking powder (they are Base's & will neutralise's the acid) then clean/flush with water & a soft brush, just don't get it every where, and let it dry out thoroughly before you put it back together. Water wont harm the board or components as long as it is not wet when turned on.

[gertsy]

Yep,
Deneb USB
Cyberstorm 060@50-66
And an Indvision VGA.
8GB CF CARD Adaptor HD makes it nice and quiet too.

You'll have a usable machine then. Albeit a decade behind the times.

I'm waiting on the Invision and a nice 060....  oneday....oneday...

[smerf]

Hi,

@Abu the monkey,

In my A4000, I have the following:

3640 board (don't get one if you can afford it, this board is rather slow but carried me since 1992)

Picasso II board
GVP IV 24 board
X surf nic board
Buddha IDE board
CD-rom (read only right now)
Replaced battery with phone plug and phone battery mounted outside the case
Had a CF card in it, but removed for my A1200.

Plans for the future

Deneb

Do I use my A4000 anymore? Yes I keep all my important stuff on there, wouldn't trust a PC (especially with windows on it) for anything. I keep all my pictures and music, and all my data bases ( which pretty soon I will really have to start updating) since I took in over 3 dual layer DVD's of Amiga software. I am now starting to work on collecting magazines, scanning them and putting them in PDF format. These will also be stored on My A4000.

smerf

[LordSpunky]

Mine came with a Cyberstorm2 68040/40, with Picassio4. It also has a CD-ROM drive. I removed the battery and cleaned it up.

I plan a IDE CF 4GB, with 3.1ROM's. I too want Ethernet but kinda wanna an X-surf....I do what a deb USB but I kinda what its own ethernet card. I will stick in a DVD/CDR at some point - have many hanging around.........will do more when I can afford it.....good luck!

[alexh]

I too want Ethernet but kinda wanna an X-surf....I do want a deneb USB but I also want a dedicated ethernet card.

Heh, what on earth for?

To use more electricity?
To cost 1.5x as much as Deneb + USB ethernet dongle?
To work slower? (Zorro III - 100Mbit vs Zorro II - 10Mbit)

No need for a X-Surf if you've got a Deneb. After getting a Deneb my X-Surf is now in a box on the shelf :-)

[utri007]

Because Zorro cards are cool