Amiga 600 to buy or not to buy

[Kesa]

@Brian. That's a cool website you have. So what do you do with all those little precious ones?

[orb85750]

I just love the small footprint of the A600, but I'm
not sure that's reason enough to buy one.....

If it is NTSC: buy it (they're uncommon)
If it is PAL: perhaps upgrade to an A1200 instead

[Brian]

@Brian. That's a cool website you have. So what do you do with all those little precious ones?

To not hijack the thread the short answer is: Make them to work, upgrade them, play with them.

[XDelusion]

I thought Amigas went the other way around...

....if they are NTSC, shove them off on some poor sap, if they are PAL, cling to them.

Yes, I realize NTSC is less common because Amiga didn't take off as well here in the states, but then again all the good software was written for PAL machines, so it only makes sense to go with the hardware the majority had.

Both my 600 and my 1200 are PAL.

[magnetic]

I have a nice a1200 which I love but it takes up desktop space. If you dont need AGA go A600 all the way.

I actually have an A600 NTSC that is broken, and I think its the MB. Anyone know where I can repair it?   I could get a PAL MB on ebay but i'd rather stick to NTSC as I use genlocks and things alot and dont know if they work with a PAL Amiga in NTSC screenmodes?

[orb85750]

I thought Amigas went the other way around...

....if they are NTSC, shove them off on some poor sap, if they are PAL, cling to them.

Yes, I realize NTSC is less common because Amiga didn't take off as well here in the states, but then again all the good software was written for PAL machines, so it only makes sense to go with the hardware the majority had.

Both my 600 and my 1200 are PAL.

PAL A1200 makes sense due to boot options, but what type of set-up do you have here for your PAL A600?

[LaserBack]

The A1200 is obviously the better machine by far and I'd get one first with 030 CPU but I can't see why to not get an A600 also. I don't agree with you that it's the worst Amiga model, yes it was a bad model when it was released as it brought little new to the table and the A1200 was just months away but we don't live in the 90's anymore and with todays available expansions for it I think it's a great ECS machine thanks to its small size.

sincerely I do not see any advantage getting the A600 over the A1200
if you can name a program or game that fails on the A1200 but works on the A600
so....how you can justify it ? because the A600 it's smaller ?
maybe you can justify to get an A500 with kick 1.2 because all those old games will work there...... but for the A600?


btw, check this recent thread about the worst amiga model....check the winner lol

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=60102&highlight=worst+amiga+model

and please note I'm not a member of course my vote is not there

[TjLaZer]

I would not get an A600 unless you got it for CHEAP.  Reason?  1.  It's not much of an upgrade from your A500, and 2. It suffers from frequent and very common CAP damage.  (which will render it dead)  The A500 does have this problem (A500 plus has similar issues with battery leak damage)

I have thee of them and two have had their motherboards repaired a few times and one replaced due to bad caps.

[mfilos]

A600 is most of the times cheap comparing it with A500+ and personally I never had an issues with cap damage in an A600 (and I had 4 of them).
Only had an cap issue once in an A1200 mobo of mine.

A600 is a nice upgrade from an A500 for the following reasons:
- Mainly DUE to it's easy 2MB Chip (unless you find frequently A500+ without leak damage, or you plan to get expensive MiniMegi boards for your Rev.6A ones).
- Fitting an IDE internally is too easy and cheap. Try doing that with an A500!!! (For example CF2IDE adapters for 80 euro each). Unless you prefer the expensive path of big external enclosures of A590 and SCSI drives!
- Having PCMCIA for easy file transfer via CF adapter is easy and awesome. Unless you find transferring files with your PC via null modem cable or CrossDOS via floppy disks... such full of win!
- Networking is piss easy with PCMCIA Ethernet NICS. I can't recall any easy solution for networking in A500 UNLESS you wanna get a Subway and USB Ethernet NIC. Oh wait... you'd need an 030 then to be able to use networking.
- Acceleration is easy, with neat features and warranty.
- Putting an 1MB 27C800 Eprom with custom Kickstart is easy and doesn't require modding!

Small footprint might be not important to many so I'm not putting that as an upgrade.
Sure there are many fans of A500s and I respect it, but there are also fans of an A600 (like me) as well. In the end... it's just a matter of personal preference. Telling NOT to buy or to BUY is not something that helps really the future buyer. Just point out the pros and cons of both systems and let the buyer be the judge of that.

Personally I'd choose an A600 over an A500 any day. Apart from that... "Opinions are like a**holes. Everybody has one "

[TjLaZer]

A600 is most of the times cheap comparing it with A500+ and personally I never had an issues with cap damage in an A600 (and I had 4 of them).
Only had an cap issue once in an A1200 mobo of mine.

Do a Google search and search Amibay for Cap issues on A600's then report back

[mfilos]

I'm speaking of myself (4xA600s) so I don't need to do a Google search to prove anything to me. Even if I had a problem with the caps... I would have replaced them myself. Not such a big deal.

Same problem with the caps exists in almost every retr0 hardward that uses caps like also in A1200s, A4000s (with audio problems frequently as well). Do you suggest not buying any of those and go get A500s instead? LOL
And even if that is a CON for an A600 (Oh wait there is another one - No Numeric keypad - Doh!), you surely can't overstep the PROS that I mentioned above.

Don't get me wrong I don't have anything against A500's but they are indeed hard to upgrade machines imho when it comes to rarity and money (well not close to CDTV or CD32 but you get the point). Eventually ACA520 will change the whole scene due to silly prices that you see in eBay etc for A500 accelerators. Also stacking different components like accelerators/clockport adapter/CF2IDE... makes a huge height problem most of times not to mention fitting issues with Indivision ECS!
I really tried to love my A500 (Rev.6A) but sadly CF2IDE (depending on version) didn't fit with IndivisionECS and despite working fine with an awesome Phase5 8MB module that a friend lend me... it didn't fit (keyboard wasn't put in place due to height issues). Also CF2IDE adapters aren't compatible with all A500 accelerators.
Having to manually wire 68k away for everything to fit (even by wires or custom PCB) is such a huge time and effort scenario I'm not about to cross

[TjLaZer]

^ Well you are lucky then, most of us are not with regards to the little old A600, but the fact of the matter is newer Amigas are plagued with CAP issues so the OP asked if he should buy an A600 or keep his old trusty A500, so I threw him my two pennies.  

Not sure about you but If I had a choice in a retro computer where I did not have to constantly be replacing caps I would pick that one.  The A500/2000 series do not have SMD caps to replace like the A600/1200 and 4000.

But hey he can get it and have both!  (Like me I collect all Amigas)  But just don't think you can replace the A500 with a A600 as you might end up having a dead Amiga sooner than you think

[AndyLandy]

Let's be fair here. The A1200 is just as likely to have cap issues as the A600.

On the other hand, the A1200 will do much more than the A600. There's no denying that the A1200 is a more-capable Amiga.

The A600 on the other hand, is very compact and has its charm. As ever, it all comes down to personal preference. If the A600 is cheap enough and you can afford the house-space, why not take it and have a play? Otherwise, give it a miss, knowing your A500 will do most of what an A600 can, particularly if you're thinking off getting an A1200 as well.

[mfilos]

There wasn't ever an issue on this thread whether an A1200 is better than an A600! It's silly to just compare these 2.

A600 doesn't only have it's charms. It has many assets that are difficult to get to an A500 without putting your hand DEEPLY in your pocket. Even if you pay much, you'll find that there are compatibility issues if you want things compact. OFC you can get a dozen expansions having to get an extra table to fit the Amiga but hey... it's a matter of preference as I told some posts back.

Also revisions and cost killing mobos of A500 sux tonz imho. Rev'6 can't get over 1MB Chip without an MiniMegi that sometimes has it's issues. Also you can be a lucky winner like me (/sigh) and have an Rev.8 mobo with 8372 Agnus (yey) but without extra RAM, without the clock components plus battery (yey x2) and with old Denise and without ANY jumpers to set.
Well you can always mod everything to MAYBE get an A500+ mobo but then again how that comes easier than replacing SMD caps?

I'm not trying to convince anyone cause simply I don't want to, but I can't get convinced that an A500 is superior to an A600 (especially after the ACA release). Back then I might have agreed but now... it nothing to think about
(Unless you have an Harms 040 or making custom Mods to awesome A500T projects)

[runequester]

the one advantage in a 500 is better compatibility with classic games. Relokick will fix a lot, but some just won't play nice.

The 600 is much easier to do stuff with, particularly in this day and age.

[Colani1200]

Buy it!