A500+ vs. A600

[vince_6]

I have both.
A500+ 2MB chip, 2MB fast (below 68k) and 2MB fast ACA500
A600 ACA620.

A500 is better for me, A600 is too hot and hard to repair.

[paul1981]

I have both.
A500+ 2MB chip, 2MB fast (below 68k) and 2MB fast ACA500
A600 ACA620.

A500 is better for me, A600 is to hot and hard to repair.

I have a little hot A600 as well. It runs a bit on the warm side mind you.

[AmmoJammo]

What part of the A600 gets hot?
Mines hot, but that's my own fault xD

[Jiffy]

With either of these 3.1 should probably be the goal for configuration and not attempting to run older 1.3 games.

Agreed on the 3.1 roms.

And WHDLoad for the games...

I really do like my A600: ACA630/25, KS3.1, Indivision ECS, 4 GB disk-on-module, 3C589 NIC... Really nice system.

And I also like my A500: A508IDE, KS3.1, Indivision ECS, Power PC Board, 256 MB CF, 68010 cpu. Also really nice.

My much 'heavier' machines like the A1200 and A2000 are put away in boxes, I prefer the A500 and A600 for normal use. Maybe that'll change in the future, but for the time being I prefer using my 'small' Miggies.

[Iggy]

I believe the Warren Commission was too quick in overlooking the grassy knoll!

Nah, Oswald did it.
Although...made not without help.

[Motormouth]

Both are 2nd class choice for gaming and 2nd class choice for productivity work (whatever this would be in 2015).

IDE (PATA) drives used to be cheaper and easier to find but now it is obsolete technology just like SCSI.

I thought, even for the diehards out there, that the amiga is primarily a hobby (at this point)  and a little bit of gaming.  I personally just like to tinker around with a computer I know something about .  

Oh for the hardware junkies it is also a fun computer to collect.  This is reflected in the crazy prices that hardware goes for on ebay.   Supply and Demand at work

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I read somewhere though that you can't have graffiti emulation for Doom on the A500 with the IndivisionECS. Maybe I'm wrong... Can anyone clear this up?

I tried this on mine, it didn't work.  When I looked into why, it had to do with even though the Indivision hardware is exactly the same, the way it interfaces through the system is different (A500 it fits underneath Denise, A600 it fits on a card in the trapdoor slot, for anyone who didn't know).  It's this interfacing difference... that makes all the difference, so to say.  

[psxphill]

There was a PC emulator card for the A600's trapdoor, but it is very rare. The IndivisionECS can be mounted in here too on top of one of Jen's chip ram expansions (A603, A604).

That board was available for all the a500/a2000 as well.

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

The a600 slot is also hoked up to the chip register bus, which is how the indivision ECS can be placed there. AFAIK there is no equivalent to that on any other Amiga.

There are some signals on the a600 slot from the 86 pin expansion. However if it is possible to use it for an accelerator or scsi host adapter, either nobody knows how to go about it or there isn't enough room for that and the chip ram (and for jens it would make sense to still allow the IndivisionECS in the slot).

On the other hand you can get 86 pin expansion peripherals, so the a500 is more expandable than the a600. Although I wouldn't buy either of them to expand them that much (although I did back in the day). An action replay cartridge for the a500 is a pretty cool retro thing to have, but I'm not really into WHDLoad. I'd rather run off floppies (or at least virtual floppies).

[Dandy]

There was a PC emulator card for the A600's trapdoor, but it is very rare. The IndivisionECS can be mounted in here too on top of one of Jen's chip ram expansions (A603, A604).

There also was the Vortex ATonce classic 286 (http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=346) for the CPU socket of the A500...

[paul1981]

What part of the A600 gets hot?
Mines hot, but that's my own fault xD

All of it. Custom chips run hot, 68000 runs hot.

[B00tDisk]

There also was the Vortex ATonce classic 286 (http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=346) for the CPU socket of the A500...

The PC286 from GVP that fit inside the 530 Turbo.

[candyman]

I think A500 is always useful for compatibility with games and the possibility to use Action Replay cartridge: don't know if A500+ is compatible with without a ROM switcher.

[Motormouth]

I think A500 is always useful for compatibility with games and the possibility to use Action Replay cartridge: don't know if A500+ is compatible with without a ROM switcher.

Some of the older 1.3 game expect chip ram to be at one memory location and fast ram to be at another low "slow" fast ram memory location.  Many of these games don't work with even 1meg chip ram A500s and 1.3.  Some really old game don't even work with 1.3 and need 1.2.  The original old rom switchers had three dip socket one for 1.2, 1.3, and 2.04 (or 2.05 in a pinch) from back in the day, obviously the 2.04 would be switched out for 3.1 today.

The ACA500 actually help with this by providing for "slow" fast ram memory locations that is actually faster than "fast" fast ram and it works great with WHDLoad.  I would love to have an A500+ with 2meg of chip a ACA 500 with very fast "slow" fast ram and an ACA 1233 with 128 meg of 32 bit ram and a 40Mhz 68030 (of course).  This would blow even a stock A3000 away.  Alas, if you could only get RTG graphics with the config.......

I don't know if the A500+ would have problems with a 1.3 rom.  My guess (and only a guess) (someone out there knows the answer to this) is that it would not be able to address the second meg of chip ram.  Can A2000s or a500 with a megachip address 2 megs of chip ram with 1.3 roms?

What about the old softbooting A3000s, are they able to address all of its chip ram in 1.3?  I use to have one of these at work almost 25 years ago, but cannot remember.

I would guess that the A600 would be more incompatible with 1.3 rom particular the IDE controller and PCMCIA controller.  Even the original A600 roms were incompatible with IDE controller (ie necessitating 37.300 to 37.350 roms).

[Motormouth]

The PC286 from GVP that fit inside the 530 Turbo.

The PC286 also fits inside the original GVP A500HD8+, I am fortunate to have one of these, that is the A500HD8+ and PC286.  (back in the day I wanted an A530)

It basically is an At Once Plus.  It actually work very well except for the slow graphics, and no access to high density floppy (which were standard on PeeCee's even back in 286 days).

[Drummerboy]

Being honest, when the A600 was released, i don't liked. But late 90s, i start to like the system.

Nowdays, both models could be head to head, because the ACA500 for the A500, on other side the A600 have PCMCIA port, IDE HD, and maybe is easy expand for use WHDLOAD games, and others things.

[giZmo350]

Being honest, when the A600 was released, i don't liked. But late 90s, i start to like the system.

Nowdays, both models could be head to head, because the ACA500 for the A500, on other side the A600 have PCMCIA port, IDE HD, and maybe is easy expand for use WHDLOAD games, and others things.

 Good points Drummerboy... I think the only reason I never bothered with an A600 with, like you said, PCMCIA & IDE, is that to use it as a WHDLoad machine you may probably still need an accelerator and quit a few games need additional ram. And then the obligatory scan doubler and memory expansion! Starts getting pricey then.  I think the A600 shines as an expanded A500 though.