Beefing up A3000

[WeiXing3D]

You can add a PCI bussboard which will give you access to USB.

You could also add something with a clockport (like X-Surf) and add a subway to that, but subways are getting hard to find as well and will be slower than a denab.

Thank you for reply. I forgot to mention that the model I'm receiving is a 3000 desktop model. I found several options (pricey by the way) of PCI bus boards with USB port but for the 3000T model. Can I still use that one?
Like I explained this is my first 3000 (I had a 500 last century:lol:), so I need some coaching and easier to digest guidance:confused:

All in all, what I want is to be able to connect my 3000 to a printer using a USB connection and add internet connectivity.  Of course, I need things that I can still find and buy with relative ease. Any help will be welcomed.

[B00tDisk]

PCI busboard, as mentioned above.  Maybe consider an Indivision OCS, but then the 3000 has a built in flicker fixer and VGA-out so maybe not.  ZorRAM is a nice way to get lots of RAM, quick.  Substitute your noisy old HD with a flash card.

[Sandman]

Although I have Amigas with the CF Card solution, I for one like my A3000 to sound like an Amiga with a SCSI hard drive and its jet fighter noise.  Cooling may be an issue but I added a slot cooler in mine above my RTG card and it works great.  I also put in a 73gb SCSI drive and it works great, it huges and was reasonably priced.

Saving the Deneb, PPC, and PIV for the A4000t, hehe.

[WeiXing3D]

PCI busboard, as mentioned above.  Maybe consider an Indivision OCS, but then the 3000 has a built in flicker fixer and VGA-out so maybe not.  ZorRAM is a nice way to get lots of RAM, quick.  Substitute your noisy old HD with a flash card.

This is my computer config:
- 68030 030 CPU and 68882 FPU @25mhz
- rev 9 motherboard
- 2mb chip ram
- 2mb fast ram
- Kickstart 3.1 rom
- Workbench 3.9 installed in HDD
- 16 mb Static Column ram

Could you please tell me then what PCI bus card to consider, what modem and flash card, so that I can look them up and buy? Thanks

[wollev45]

get fastram, kick 3.1 and buy a network and a Indovosion/GFX Card.
If you have a Network Card you dont need a Modem or USB.
For best Compatibility get a HcX Floppyemulator and your Floppydisks are not longer needet.
For a PCI Bus System you need a 060CPu.
With standart 030 you have no fun with this !

[shaf]

Although You can buy a Mediator 3000D  PCI Interface from Elbox it would require that the A3000 be placed in a Mirage 3000 Tower which is no longer available.  With the Mediator the Spider Card could be used for USB Devices.

I don't believe the GREX PCI Adapter is available any longer.

If your 5.25" slot is free then you could add the SCSI Card Reader from Mechware.

Another Option is to Move your SCSI HDD's into an external box so you have upgrade room.

I've still got the SCSI External Box I used for when I had an A1000 with Comspec SA1000 but it would be costly to ship due to weight.

[WeiXing3D]

get fastram, kick 3.1 and buy a network and a Indovosion/GFX Card.
If you have a Network Card you dont need a Modem or USB.
For best Compatibility get a HcX Floppyemulator and your Floppydisks are not longer needet.
For a PCI Bus System you need a 060CPu.
With standart 030 you have no fun with this !

I checked on line and it seems that the Lotharex HcX SD Floppy Emulator is not compatible with the A3000. Is this correct?

Any recommendations for network card and USB card?

[lost_loven]

ebay - adapter -
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SCA-80-Pin-Female-to-Ultra-SCSI-I-II-III-UW-HD-50-68-Pin-Female-Male-Adapter-/150800588464?pt=UK_Computing_ComputerComponents_InterfaceCards&hash=item231c6a5eb0

kijiji (local classified)- i found cheapo scsi 36 gig hard drive
HEHE also found my A3K for $50 there too!

mechware - scsi chip - always nice to be updated.
http://a4000t.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65_98&products_id=210&zenid=b3d07ecbd2b9274f45827db2ca1d24f7

Amigakit - ram -
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=958

Amigakit - indivision ecs - My vga is wonky and this is better anyhow!
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=918

www.Amibay.com for more cheapo parts.
get a scsi box or make one out of a old tower for cdrom and extra hard drives.  
Whdload is awesome on this! And get a classic workbench and install it!
I also got a PC TO AMIGA PARALLEL LINK CABLE
Works great.
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=247

lost

[wollev45]

I checked on line and it seems that the Lotharex HcX SD Floppy Emulator is not compatible with the A3000. Is this correct?

Any recommendations for network card and USB card?

Network Card: X-Surf or Ariadne

Look here, the Floppyemulator works Great with a A3000D

[WeiXing3D]

get fastram, kick 3.1 and buy a network and a Indovosion/GFX Card.
If you have a Network Card you dont need a Modem or USB.
For best Compatibility get a HcX Floppyemulator and your Floppydisks are not longer needet.
For a PCI Bus System you need a 060CPu.
With standart 030 you have no fun with this !

Please forgive my ignorance, what is the Indivision/GFX card?

I looked into the HcX Floppy emulator and I will definitely get one of those when I receive and have my "new" old computer in my hands. Thanks for your input.

[WeiXing3D]

Network Card: X-Surf or Ariadne

Look here, the Floppyemulator works Great with a A3000D

Thank you for your input. What makes more sense: adding a USB controller card and use USB modems (with or w/o) wi-fi connectivity) of buy both separately a network card and a USB controller card?

[jammarob]

EDIT: Sold.

[matt3k]

I will be receiving an A3000 that I bought from a local acquittance (68030 030 CPU and 68882 FPU @25mhz, rev 9 motherboard, 2mb chip ram, 2mb fast ram, Kickstart 3.1 rom, Workbench 3.9 installed in HDD and additional 8 mb Static Column ram).

I want to beef it up by adding a modem (wi-fi, if at all possible) and a bigger HDD. Any recommendations? and where to find them? Thanks.

Congrats, it is IMHO, the 3000 is the best Amiga ever made.

First thing is if it has an battery mounted on the motherboard, remove it and install a new one preferably off the MB.  

I would recommend for upgrading the WD SCSI chip.  The latest is the Rev 8, and you will be just fine with that.  You can pick up a compatible one for about 20USD.  Find a nice sized SCSI HD, they are everywhere.  Many come out of older servers.  You may need to purchase an adapter to convert the HD to SCSI II Internal.  The last item is to use PFS 3 off of Aminet to format the drive.  I have a Quantum Atlas 10k in on of my 3k's and it works great.  If your into silent computing, you can find an SSD, you can go with the Mercury Legacy from OWD and use an IDE TO SCSI adapter.

[B00tDisk]

Please forgive my ignorance, what is the Indivision/GFX card?

It is a scandoubler/flicker-fixer that mounts directly on to the motherboard (does not occupy a slot) that promotes the Amiga's native video output to resolutions and refresh rates supported by VGA monitors.  Additionally, a framebuffer was included in the design and as such it has begun to take on the characteristics of a video card as well.  The designer and creator, Jens Schoenfeld, could probably answer your questions better than I have.  He's a semi-regular poster at http://eab.abime.net/

[matt3k]

Here are a few tips:

Take inventory of your chips on your motherboard.  Find out the Buster, DMAC, Ramsey, and SCSI.  You still can find Buster version 11's and I would recommend you upgrade if you don't have it.  The DMAC 04 and Ramsey 07 are near impossible to find and upgrade.  If you plan to upgrade to a Commodore 3640, be careful since some DMAC 02's had trouble with that card.

IMHO, you will need 16 total fast memory if you plan to surf the web.  If you want to upgrade the zip memory, make sure to see what kind of chips you already have.  If you have 80ns static column chips, try to match them when you buy new memory.  If you mix page and static you will have fun playing with them to get them to work.

If you plan on really using this system and don't mind putting money into it:
1.  There are only 2 (hopefully 3 someday with the ultimate ppc) accelerators that you can use that have local memory and a faster scsi controller.  The Warp Engine 3040 or the Cyberstorm MKIII.  You can get away with the mercury 040 or the GVP if you don't care about faster Disk IO.  These cards will really make a huge difference in performance and usability of the 3k.  I do have a Commodore 3040 in a 3000 now and it works fine, but it is only 4x the speed a stock 3k.  There are more options for other cards, but you will have to hack the 3000D case to get them to fit and work properly.  

2.  Add a video card.  These are easier to come by.  jammarob has a GVP spectrum which is a nice card.  It has a path through with is very handy.  You won't need the indivision ECS  with the video card, get a video card and be done with it.  IMHO the Amiga video has 3 tiers of video cards (speaking only for zorro cards).  The Picasso IV, Cybervision 64 (or 3d), and the Retina BLT Z3.  These 3 cards have the fastest chips and offer the best performance.  The second tier: GVP Spectrum and Picasso II are really fine cards both provide pass through and have decent chips on them. The 3rd tier :  The Retina ZII and the Merlin, they are ok but wouldn't be as nice as the others.

If you are going to hold off on the accelerator for now, hook the 68882 directly to the 50MHz crystal (see aminet for instructions), this will boost the math and give a cheap speedup.

If you have green corrosion from a leaky battery from the past, I would recommend clean the MB.  May as well reseat the chips while your at it.

As far as where to purchase Amiga stuff: ebay or amibay are your best bets...

Have Fun!

[lost_loven]

So reading the 50mhz hack then for the fpu and i wonder if it really worth it? Just for a machine to play games? And in reality would the life of it be shortened more?

I just wonder about this and i quote form the doc.

   [FONT="]My theory on FPUs was that the following: It's too
 expensive for them to have different assembly lines producing different grades
 of FPUs so they just produce the top grade, then label them different to keep
 the price high for the "top" grades.  WELL - I've since talked to Dax of
 Creative Computers @ Lawndale (Amiga Tech)  He statess that my theory is close
 but not exact.  The TRUE story for FPUs is that Motorolla has one assembly
 line for all FPUs (like I had thought) , and they always TRY to make 100 mhz
 FPUs.  But only about 10% of the FPUs produced actually pass at 100mhz.  These
 10% are then labeled 50mhz.  Then the rest of the FPUs that didn't pass are
 tested at 80 mhz.  Those that pass are labeled 40 mhz.  Then the same for 66
 mhz, 50mhz and 40mhz.  So in other words, the 25mhz FPU in your a3000 has
 already passed a test at 50mhz!![/FONT]


[FONT="]un quote[/FONT]
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[FONT="]If this is true has one done this?[/FONT]


[FONT="]lost[/FONT]
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[FONT="]ps sorry not trying to hijack the thread but add to it![/FONT]
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