What does this cost? At the crossroads. Only room for one.

[haywirepc]

In my home, I have room for just one more computer. I have a windows pc and a linux pc. There is room for just one more pc. I'd like to make it amiga but I have some hard choices to make.

Amiga 4000 with 68040 at 25mhz,scandoubler to run on any vga monitor, 4 gig cf boot drive with amiga os3.9, 32 gig cf work drive. Internet capable by whatever means.

Amiga 5000 - Dedicated emulation pc. In the past, I have used winuae booting straight to os3.X and ran many classic games, demos, and so on. Seems like a nice solution, and if I take this option I'll spring for some nice extras like a boingball keyboard and mouse, maybe a white pc and monitor.

g4 or G5 (if ready soon) powermac with MorphOS which is capable of running any legacy amiga software, demos or games, including those that bang the classic amiga hardware. Internet capable.

Building a new aros pc at 3ghz, internet capable and also able to run any legacy amiga software, demos, or games, including those that bang the classic hardware. Internet capable.

Final option? - Give up and just put everything software wise, on my linux box. Use the extra room for another windows or mac machine. I may be
leaning this way due to financial constraints, but it will have to be one hell
of a virtual machine. Need joysticks too for this to work. Linux machine needs
7 or 8 nights work to install and configure everything amiga in my archives.

Note that as big an amiga fan as I am,a "nextgen" AMIGAOS machine is not even on my list because its too crazy expensive for 10+ year old hardware. I saw a friends sam system, which he paid 1200$ on choke on super stardust aga and demos also. Not going to go there, its a dead end, and not a solution
for my amiga fix.

Anyone who has traveled these different roads, please let me know what you think. The budget I have is perhaps 500$ by paypal, dependent on proceeds
of my ebay adventures in the next month or two.

[commodorejohn]

I'm not clear on this, is any of the non-PC hardware listed stuff that you have? Or are you looking to buy? I dunno that $500 is going to get you all that far on a 4000 setup. On the other hand, G4s can be had quite cheaply ($10-50) if you know where to look, and you could save the rest towards a G5, but that depends on how much you like MorphOS...

[Duce]

Hard to beat a dedicated UAE machine, or better yet - an Amithlon rig.

I've got a wee little mini itx rig that boots directly into 3.1 via WinUAE that I just love, don't see the windows side of it at all.

[Delta]

You already have 2 PCs for the "software options", why not choose the A4000 or the MorphOS machine to have something really different hardware-wise?

[persia]

You don't need a separate machine to run AROS.  Just use VirtualBox, there's no difference between a virtual AROS machine and a bare metal AROS machine....

[ElPolloDiabl]

Check out the FPGA arcade. It looks like Mike is just about to start a big production run.
The Amiga hardware is getting quite old now. I personally wouldn't buy one unless it was very cheap.
Also are the upgrades you might want available and what would they cost?
If the FPGA Arcade doesn't interest you, go for the AROS box and have lot of fun with it. AROS gets drivers faster than any other next gen system.
G5 sounds good too, if you like the Macs.
A1000 it's for rich collectors and people who don't mind waiting years on end for software to be released.

[Darrin]

I grabbed some removeable hard drive bays on eBay a while back.  Why not have 1 PC, insert a removeable Bay and have 3 hard drives on trays:  Windows, Linux and AROS.

Now you've got space for 2 Amigas:  A claasic and a NG!  

[haywirepc]

You don't need a separate machine to run AROS. Just use VirtualBox, there's no difference between a virtual AROS machine and a bare metal AROS machine....

I don't know I think I tried aros in virtualbox once and it was very slow...

I'll try it again on my linux box...

Multiboot machine would be nice, I did look at a cf card bay that would work nice for that, windows, linux, aros or amigaforver booting on the same machine.

There is something to be said about different hardware than standard pc though.

[Kesa]

I have Virtual box on my laptop. I intend to use it for OSX lion if i can't get my hackintosh to work out. But i disagree that there is no difference between a dedicated AROS machine and using AROS on Virtual box. I will never shake the feeling that i will always be using Windows7 while using something else. Does that make sense?

[persia]

No, it doesn't.  It's all just the movement of electrons.  Plus having one Machine allows you to spend all you resources on one machine, getting the most bang for your buck.  A virtual machine is no different to a bare metal machine.  

I have Virtual box on my laptop. I intend to use it for OSX lion if i can't get my hackintosh to work out. But i disagree that there is no difference between a dedicated AROS machine and using AROS on Virtual box. I will never shake the feeling that i will always be using Windows7 while using something else. Does that make sense?

[_ThEcRoW]

What persia says is 100x100 correct. On a decent specced machine(be it desktop or laptop), you can run aros under virtualbox and is as if it were running from the bare metal. No slowdowns or strange stuff. Don't forget that aros won't install on any hardware right out of the box.

[Rob]

Note that as big an amiga fan as I am,a "nextgen" AMIGAOS machine is not even on my list because its too crazy expensive for 10+ year old hardware. I saw a friends sam system, which he paid 1200$ on choke on super stardust aga and demos also. Not going to go there, its a dead end, and not a solution
for my amiga fix.

Mac G4 hardware should fare a lot better with games than the Sam hardware but will still be too slow for AGA demos.  The main problem with UAE on the PPC operating systems is the lack off JIT emulation.  Raccy is working on UAE-JIT for OS4 and I think Thore and Itix have plans to get it working under MorphOS.

Anyone who has traveled these different roads, please let me know what you think. The budget I have is perhaps 500$ by paypal, dependent on proceeds
of my ebay adventures in the next month or two.

A Mac G4 or G5 + MorphOS license will easily fit into $500, you'll maybe have half or more of that budget remaining.  Like others say you can get the hardware dirt cheap if you look carefully,  MorphOS is free to try and if you don't like the hardware can easily be sold on, maybe even for a profit.

[dammy]

Don't forget that aros won't install on any hardware right out of the box.

Say what?

[Ilwrath]

I don't understand why someone would want a dedicated piece of hardware for UAE or Aros.  Just dual/triple/quad boot one good high-end primary use Intel/AMD machine that you use for Win or Linux.  Heck, you could make one of the installations boot straight into UAE, if you wanted.  They're all x86-based.  Just have one GOOD x86, and save the rest of the space for the more unique hardware, like an original Amiga, G5, SGI/MIPS, FPGA Arcade, or whatever thing sounds interesting to yourself.

[commodorejohn]

I have Virtual box on my laptop. I intend to use it for OSX lion if i can't get my hackintosh to work out. But i disagree that there is no difference between a dedicated AROS machine and using AROS on Virtual box. I will never shake the feeling that i will always be using Windows7 while using something else. Does that make sense?

It makes perfect sense, because you are using Win7 while using something else, and you know that perfectly well. Saying that there's no difference at all is lying to oneself.