A few questions about the GVP Impact A500 HD8+ Series II

[smerf]

Hi,
Had a gvp card for my old Amiga 2000, when I tried to get it working I had to change a line from SCSI to gvp.SCSI I believe it was in the HD setup. Can not totally remember for it has been about 5 years or more since I played with SCSI drives.

[motrucker]

Hi,
Had a gvp card for my old Amiga 2000, when I tried to get it working I had to change a line from SCSI to gvp.SCSI I believe it was in the HD setup. Can not totally remember for it has been about 5 years or more since I played with SCSI drives.

The point here is that you must use the correct name for the SCSI driver, which is dependent on the interface used, so this would be gvp.SCSI for an A500 or A2000.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

The point here is that you must use the correct name for the SCSI driver, which is dependent on the interface used, so this would be gvp.SCSI for an A500 or A2000.

gvpscsi.device or omniscsi.device, depending on if you have the Guru-ROM.

[scuzzb494]

Me last month ...

http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_september17/scuzzblogdseptember17_1304.htm

Me in August ...

http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_august17/scuzzblogdaugust17_1402x.htm

I switch on a GVP each morning first thing with my 500 in the workshop. Sadly the drives do eventually die but they are a pretty hard working unit. Fortunately I have enough to see me out.

The 590 is funny cus it has this fan that will kick in at odd times. I just tap the case and it stops. Thing is it is so noisy it will wake up the neighbourhood .. so I do have to remember I left it on. I could disable it but just adds a bit of character to the unit.

Some of the GVPs power up on the switch and others power up when the Amiga powers up. My Turbo only kicks in when the 500 fires up. The one in the Workshop runs from the switch from the getgo. I actually prefer the 590s on the XT.

[motrucker]

gvpscsi.device or omniscsi.device, depending on if you have the Guru-ROM.

Thanks for the correction. Can't believe I got that wrong..... Must be getting old.

[Giallo-Sporting]

Hi. I read this article with great interest as I too had purchased a GVP Impact A500 HD8+ Series ii (revision 6) a few weeks ago and so far have just been reading about upgrades

I am new to this forum since over the past year or so I had been tinkering with vintage iMacs and so.
I am in the process of reviving my Amiga 500 which already includes the 512k trapdoor upgraded in 1991.

I would really appreciate if you can enlighten me with the following upgrades I got intrigued about:

- 2MB Chip - upgrading Agnus and what please?
- 16MB Fast - possible in the GVP Impact?
- 68030+68882 - I am really intrigued about this upgrade as well
- Indivision ECS - which version?

Naturally I will be upgrading the HD to a CF and the Kickstarter as well.

Any hints, tips and ideas are so much appreciated. Thanks!
 

[utri007]

Upgrading to 2MB Chip RAM is possible, but it requires the 8375 Agnus chip along with some motherboard modifications (easiest if your A500 is a Rev. 6A board). Without this Agnus, 2MB Chip isn’t an option.

On the other hand, 16MB Fast RAM and a 68030 CPU upgrade are not possible with the GVP Impact A500 HD8+, the card supports a maximum of 8MB Fast RAM and has no provisions for a 68030/68882 accelerator.

For modern video output, the Indivision ECS V2 is the recommended choice.

I’m not sure how straightforward it is to replace the original SCSI hard drive with a CF card on this controller, but as an alternative you could look into something like BlueSCSI, which is inexpensive and uses SD cards.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Upgrading to 2MB Chip RAM is possible, but it requires the 8375 Agnus chip along with some motherboard modifications (easiest if your A500 is a Rev. 6A board). Without this Agnus, 2MB Chip isn’t an option.

On the other hand, 16MB Fast RAM and a 68030 CPU upgrade are not possible with the GVP Impact A500 HD8+, the card supports a maximum of 8MB Fast RAM and has no provisions for a 68030/68882 accelerator.

For modern video output, the Indivision ECS V2 is the recommended choice.

I’m not sure how straightforward it is to replace the original SCSI hard drive with a CF card on this controller, but as an alternative you could look into something like BlueSCSI, which is inexpensive and uses SD cards.

For 2MB Chip, maybe a Megachip board?  Anyone still producing these?

As above, for the other stuff.  Sidecar supports a maximum of 8MB.  I had mine upgraded to 16MB fast by using 8MB 16-bit fast in the sidecar and 8MB 32-bit fast in a CPU-socket based VXL*30 68030 accelerator.  It was a hack and a kludge but it worked, until (iirc) my RAM board stopped working due to tinkering with overclocking.  It's been a long time since I poked at it.  Assume more modern solutions exist now?

+1 for the whatever the latest Indivision ECS is.

I upgraded my sidecar to a CF card using a Mechware SCSI card reader.  That was the most direct solution since the Amiga "sees" the card reader just as another HDD.  I had to trim a few pieces for optimal fit, but since the power draw was much lower (and cooler) I was also able to ditch the internal fan and the external power supply.  It's packed up for nigh on five+ years, now, but am sure pictures exist somewhere on this forum.  😆  BlueSCSI sounds interesting - just gave it a google...