Microtek Z3i. A good fit?

[Blinx123]

I've been offered a Z3i for what I consider a budget price.
Unfortunately, I don't know very much about the Amiga 1200 ecosystem yet.

Will I be able to utilize a Blizzard 1260 + the Z3i at the very same time?

More interestingly, will I be able to install an Elbox as well?

The setup of my dreams would look like this:

- Towerized Amiga 1200
GPU: Voodoo 5 5500
CPU: Blizzard 1260@77MHz
Fastram: 128MB (Blizzard 1260) + 256MB (Radeon 9200 inside the Elbox)

Micronik Z3i for a possible future upgrade to PPC.

[Blinx123]

Embarrassingly misspelled the company which created this great busboard.

It's Micronik, of course.

[utri007]

There is a problem, if you connect blizzard to it it will work only Zorro II mode and then you can't use mediator. You should buy cyberstorm or any other A3000/A4000 acelerator, wich are much more rare and that's why more expensive.

Why don't you just buy mediator? Do you really need zorro bus?

[Blinx123]

There is a problem, if you connect blizzard to it it will work only Zorro II mode and then you can't use mediator. You should buy cyberstorm or any other A3000/A4000 acelerator, wich are much more rare and that's why more expensive.

Why don't you just buy mediator? Do you really need zorro bus?

Well.

I actually only want the Z3i for a possible future upgrade to PPC (this and the SCSI).
Before that, I'll probably stick with either plain AGA or install a Mediator.

When you're saying, I need Zorro III, you're actually referring to Mediator 4000, right?
So I can only install a Mediator 4000 but not the Mediator 1200, if I'm going with a Z3i?

Furthermore, wouldn't a Mediator 4000 need DMA over the Zorro III slots? The Zorro III slots on the Z3i are, unfortunately, not fully compliant and don't support DMA.

[fitzsteve]

Unless you really want to use OS4.1 Classic I would suggest a Blizzard PPC & GREX, this is the fastest PCI option for A1200.

As has been said you can't use the Micronik with a Mediator, they both use the A1200 passthough.  I understand the Micronik works better with A4000 accelerators, if you were going to get a CSPPC then I would suggest the Elbox Mirage Pro Tower and mediator 4000D, I've had this setup and it rox :banana:

Right now I just use mine with a CSMkIII since my CSPPC died but I still have my BPPC's.

I ran a Blizzard 1260 with a Meditor 1200SX for a while, it's a very nice setup, I would always go for that instead of the Z3i

You might be interested to read my A1200T project thread:

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=5643

(I think I saw you also on Amibay)

I have a few threads over there so if you need any tips let me know!

[fitzsteve]

Well.

I actually only want the Z3i for a possible future upgrade to PPC (this and the SCSI).
Before that, I'll probably stick with either plain AGA or install a Mediator.

When you're saying, I need Zorro III, you're actually referring to Mediator 4000, right?
So I can only install a Mediator 4000 but not the Mediator 1200, if I'm going with a Z3i?

Furthermore, wouldn't a Mediator 4000 need DMA over the Zorro III slots? The Zorro III slots on the Z3i are, unfortunately, not fully compliant and don't support DMA.

The Z3i does not have Zorro III, it is only a ZorroII Busboard, if you have an A4000 CPU attached then you can access the fast ZorroII mode supported by a few cards (I think maybe the CV64/3D) but it's still not Zorro III

The Mediator Boards have both PCI and Zorro III slots.

By the way, in case you didn't know the PCI slots on the Micronik don't work.

As said in my other post too, you cannot use both a Z3i and a Mediator, they both connect in the same way and occupy the same space, it's one or the other!

All the best,

Steve.

[Blinx123]

Yea. You definitely saw me on Amibay.
Even replied to my RAM thread and the one where I was searching for a Blizzard 1260.

Shame one can't simply put a Mediator 1200 and a Z3i together.
This would've been a really awesome setup.

I see you've got a Z3i yourself. How much did it cost you (if you don't mind me asking) and is it compatible with Mediator 3000/4000 or would this require functional DMA?

Even if I won't use it in the foreseeable future, I still consider buying that Z3i, since it seems to be pretty rare and I could get it for less than 200 euros, which is probably a good price for it.

EDIT: Missed your second post.
Darn. So there's really no way having a CPPC and PCI on an Amiga 1200 at the same time then?

Knew about the unusuable PCI on those Z3i boards, btw. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't even have asked if it was possible to install another busboard on top of it.

[utri007]

Z3i has a zorro III, it also has a A3000/A4000 cpu slot. If you want to use it as a zorro III you will need to put your accelerator to CPU slot not a passthrough connector.

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/micronik1200z3

With Cyberstrom and Z3i you can add mediator to it.

It just not make a sense, you will get really unreliable computer. Much better would be make a choise between zorro and pci. Or even better get A3000 or A4000.

[zipper]

The Z3i does not have Zorro III, it is only a ZorroII Busboard, if you have an A4000 CPU attached then you can access the fast ZorroII mode supported by a few cards (I think maybe the CV64/3D) but it's still not Zorro III

Huh huh...http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/search.pl?product=Micronik+A1200+Z-3i+&company=&amiga=&intf=&mid=&base=dec&pid=
...but the ZorroIII implementation is clearly slower than the original.

[Blinx123]

Huh huh...http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/search.pl?product=Micronik+A1200+Z-3i+&company=&amiga=&intf=&mid=&base=dec&pid=
...but the ZorroIII implementation is clearly slower than the original.

To be fair. Steve seems to own/have owned such a card in the past.
According to his thread, he tried something similar and very much failed.

So there's a fair chance that he's right about it.

The Z3i still seems like a nice busboard worth of testing, though.
If I interpret it correctly, it's rather rare and even if I couldn't use it apart from giving my curiosity a well deserved rest, I could  probably sell it for a small profit later on.

[Blinx123]

Does anyone know the approximate value of such board?

I tried asking on Amibay but totally forgot you weren't allow to do so anywhere (including the parts that don't belong to the marketplace itself).

[fitzsteve]

Huh huh...http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/search.pl?product=Micronik+A1200+Z-3i+&company=&amiga=&intf=&mid=&base=dec&pid=
...but the ZorroIII implementation is clearly slower than the original.

Looks like I may well be wrong here!
 
http://eabmobile.abime.net/showthread.php?p=291458
 
There is some good reading in that thread at EAB.

[utri007]

If you really want both zorro/pci, you should get this, in fact this is only way to keep blizzard and get pci http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/eboxz4

[J-Golden]

If you really want both zorro/pci, you should get this, in fact this is only way to keep blizzard and get pci http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/eboxz4

Ug, the "Winner" board.  You will not believe the headaches I got from trying to configure this with the rest of my system!  It is the #1 reason why I only use big box Amigas now.  It didn't line up right so cards were always flexing a bit.  This was all in the Elbox tower too.

It was a good idea on paper but either I had a bad/flaky one, or there really is a good reason why they don't make they any more...

[cgutjahr]

I actually only want the Z3i

These boards are known to be rather picky at what cards they accept and in which slots they accept them - their implementation of Zorro is  "just close enough" to get many things working somewhat reliable - other things (most notably RAM cards) simply don't work or work only half the time and/or in half the slots.

I had the predecesssor of the Z3i, and for a simple gfx card (Picasso 2) and an Oktagon SCSI controller it was okay. Not a performance miracle, but better than AGA/scsi.device I had used before.

The more cards you try to use, the less stable it gets (both mechanically and electronically). And don't even try to use one with a A4000 cpu card, that's a recipe for desaster.

for a possible future upgrade to PPC (this and the SCSI).

For network, you can (should) use a PCMCIA card. BlizzardPPC also means access to a Blizzardvision that I would prefer over a Mediator/Voodo-combination due to my experiences with Zorro bus boards ("don't cough near the computer or something will get loose"). For IDE/SCSI you can use either the BlizzardPPC or a FastATA.

Only sound and USB might require a bus board, but a Mediator + two PCI cards would probably be cheaper than some (quite rare, especially as far as USB is considered) Zorro cards. Luckily, I never felt the need for either of these.

Before that, I'll probably stick with either plain AGA or install a Mediator.

I'd stay clear of the Zorro bus board. 15 years ago, it might have been an option worth considering - but today, it's not worth the headeache IMHO.