A2000 which is better

[Dimitrios]

Hello guys,
 
I would like to buy an A2000.
I found two :1) Rev 4 1987, kickstart 1.3
                  2) Rev 6.2 wk06/1990, kickstart 2.04
Otherwise exact configuration on both
 
The second is 10eur cheaper but sound is a bit low ?
 
Which one do you prefer?

[gertsy]

Rev 6.2 is better, all other things being equal.
Bearing in mind one is 25 years old and the other 22 years old.

Check out the bottom of this page:
http://amiga.resource.cx/mod/a2000.html

[Darrin]

As Gertsy said, 6.2 in a newer and improved motherboard.  However, if you're planning on adding a 3.1 ROM (instead of living with KS1.3 or 2.0) then I'd look at the condition of each machine, number of floppy drives, any expansion cards included (SCSI?) and the condition of the battery.

6.3 is better if you can find one as it is ECS instead of OCS.

[motrucker]

If the condition is good, go for the 6.2. There is no reason in this world to pick a revision 4 2000 over a 6.x (unless the newer is fried).

[Dimitrios]

6.2 has the battery removed and the area cleaned as I can see.
4.0 has the battery removed, checked and reinstalled w/o any leak...

[Skyrunner]

I really don't like the picture of the 6.2.
Have you verified that the RTC works with a new battery?
Anyhow I'd avoid this one.

[Dimitrios]

Thank you all guys for you help.
I will take the 4.0 as I also like it a lot as is super clean inside...
 
D.

[orcish75]

Hi Dimitrios,

That rev 4.0 board is the original German A2000 board. Don't buy it!! It has the A1000 chipset and is a disaster! It has the thin Agnus, i.e. can only address 512K chipram and can't be upgraded to a fat Agnus. It has no Buster chip for the expansion slots and thus is very unstable with expansion boards. :madashell:

The first Amiga I bought was an A2000 with a German rev 4.0 motherboard in it. I got a GVP HC+8 SCSI/Memory board and it kept randomly hanging. I was an Atari ST fanboi before I bought this Amiga and was very unimpressed! I then bought a GURU Rom for my GVP board and that solved the problem. The hanging was caused by the GVP card DMA-ing into the chipram. The GURU Rom had a command to specifically avoid DMA-ing into chipram and then it worked OK. When I added my IO BLix multi I/O card the machine would just randomly crash.

After a bit of research, I discovered that the rev 4.1 and upwards motherboards used the A500 chipset and were much more stable as well as being able to use a fat Agnus for 1MB chipmem. I replaced the mobo in my A2000 with a rev 6.2 and has been as solid as a rock. I've currently got a GVP 030 accelerator, GVP HD+8 card, IO Blix card, A2286 bridgeboard, MiniMegi 2MB Agnus, ISA VGA card, Soundblaster 16 and a 3Com ethernet card installed in my machine and it's 100% stable. (It did take a LOT of tinkering to get it all working together, but now runs beautifully)

As long as the rev 6.2 motherboard you mentioned works with all that battery damage, I'd rather go for the rev 6.2

My rev 4.0 board is sitting in my cupboard, it still works, but I'm keeping it for donor parts for my rev 6.2 board.

I'm not trying to sound very negative, but my personal experience with the rev 4.0 board was not good.

Cheers!

[arttu80]

Yeah, I think too, you should go with 6.2 version. I had two 4.0 German A2000 machines and I replaced both of them with newer motherboard. It is (4.0) really, an old A1000 with expansion slots. So if you are after best user friendliness and expandability, stick with newer or if you like more collectible hardware go to 4.0.  I personally would prefer max.chip ram in my Amigas, and you just can't get past 512kb barrier in older one (at least not easily). And yeah, stability is an issue with old one. I used Apollo 030 card in mid '90s with my 4.0 and that made me swich to newer mobo.

[Dimitrios]

I already have an A200 with quatum HD and late kickstart but my knowledge about what specs have ends here
I need a disc drive as my old one does not work properly, I change it for another from one external drive that also does not work : if you insert a disc it does not found it...Also my cover has one or two scratches and I like to change that too...I will ask seller if the clock works in the 6.2
But I also think that should be avoided due to battery leak damage..

[Nostalgiac]

if it's a 4.0 then I can only add to the previous posts... don't go there (I had one.. in 1990, for 6 months... then had it replaced at big cost). The cleaned 6 looks good to me.

Tom UK

[Dimitrios]

Thanks guys...I ask the seller if the RTC still works in the 6.2...

[desantii]

I agree with the above, the rev 6,2 is much better.
 
Nothing but problems, specially with accelerators with the 4.0 ones

[Dimitrios]

Here is the answer from the seller :
 
>The board had some slight damage I fixed it and sprayed 'plastic'on it. looks dark. the connector was
> cleaned and functions are ok.
 
So should I get the 6.2 ?
Also what is a fair price for it guys ? (1MB & 1FDD)
 
Thank you

[Dimitrios]

Here is the answer from the seller :

 
>The board had some slight damage I fixed it and sprayed 'plastic'on it. >looks dark. the connector was cleaned and functions are ok.

 
So should I get the 6.2 ?
 
Also what is a fair price for it guys ? (1MB & 1FDD)

 
Thank you