Is There an advantage to building an A1200 Tower?

[punkyclown]

Hi Al,l been a while. I have received back my A1200 motherboard re-capped and before
I put it back together I was wondering if I should instead build an A1200 Tower.  Something
that was popular a while ago and I still do see some items for sale for it.  So I was wondering if you all thought there was a real advantage to doing that.  Interested in your response.
Thank you
Brad Hansen

[kreciu]

Are you going to BUILD your own case or you want to put A1200 inside case?

[matt3k]

My recommendation is to not put your 1200 in a tower case.  It will be a lot of work and at the end of the day you still won't have Buster 11 for Z3.

From my experience, the more I tweaked and expanded my 1200 the more problematic it became.  I went big box Amiga and I never looked back.  Keep your 1200 in it's case and if you desire a zorro bus expanded Amiga get a 3k or 4k.  They are much more plug and play and when you really push the bus, you will really appreciate having Buster 11 on zorro 3.

Hi Al,l been a while. I have received back my A1200 motherboard re-capped and before
I put it back together I was wondering if I should instead build an A1200 Tower.  Something
that was popular a while ago and I still do see some items for sale for it.  So I was wondering if you all thought there was a real advantage to doing that.  Interested in your response.
Thank you
Brad Hansen

[klx300r]

only reason to go to a tower is for expansion reasons: mediator for RTG, PCI compatible cards, full size CD-Rom etc.

[dovegrace]

My A1200 setup was getting unmanageable, what with an external HD, CDROM drive, DCTV, serial cables, network cables, etc.

I thought about buying a tower, but found it was cheaper to buy a bigger desk

[utri007]

If you want to have RTG and AHI go for tower, if not keep it in it's original case. Just my opinion.

This is hobby, so do what ever you want to do, to keep interest on.

[B00tDisk]

For the heartache, I would say buy an A3000 or A4000 (or even A2000 if you can live with it's 16-bitness) and go with a busboard and call it a day.  I mean there's so many greeblies you can hang off of an A1200 board in a tower but then you've got issues of "Well is it compatible with my motherboard, okay now is it compatible with my motherboard and my accelerator, now is it compatible with my motherboard, my accelerator AND this busboard, AND this version of OS3 and and and..."

If you want a souped-up A1200, I would:

Keep it in the desktop case
Wait for the Vampire A1200
Then add a USB solution for external connectivity such as memory sticks, mice, 16 bit sound.

[punkyclown]

Thanks for all this terrific advise.  Guess I am staying put.  Does one really believe
there will be a Vampire A1200?  Would like to think that's reality but not sure.
Brad Hansen

[Niding]

A1200 is planned, but currently A600 version is being produced, while A500 version is in development, and shown to work.
A couple of days ago Kipper2k made a update that MIGHT be grounds for worry, and options are being explored by the team;

http://www.kipper2k.com/updates.html

UPDATE 21st Jun 2016

Hi All, i have completed all but a couple of paid for orders. We have now a little hiccup. Intel has purchased Altera and the price of FPGA has more than doubled. Here is a link so you can see....

http://www.digikey.ca/product-search/en?keywords=EP3C40F484C8N

 $152 is not a price we can obviously live with so i am trying to source them elsewhere (not EbAY!!), it appears Intel is trying to get some money back from the takeover costs or have other devious things in mind so at the moment we have a shortage of parts available  (strictly my own conspiracy theory

[agami]

...

If you want a souped-up A1200, I would:

Keep it in the desktop case
Wait for the Vampire A1200
Then add a USB solution for external connectivity such as memory sticks, mice, 16 bit sound.

+1

[Ral-Clan]

Towered Amigas seem so 1990s.  Back then, Commodore had abandoned us and our wedge Amigas were getting long in the tooth.  PCs were all going for the towered case design and it seemed like some Amiga owners were feeling a little inadequate and so were quick to transplant the A1200s into towers. We seemed a little ashamed of our "wedgies"!

But now it's 2016 and computers are small again!  Towers now seem old-fashioned, while wedge computers are retro cool!  Plus - the new Amiga peripherals are nice and small.

The A1200 wedge case should be appreciated as an irreplaceable vintage computer component and as a piece of industrial design from the golden era of personal computing - and thus preserved and used wherever possible!

[JamesG]

The A1200 wedge case should be appreciated as an irreplaceable vintage computer component and as a piece of industrial design from the golden era of personal computing - and thus preserved and used wherever possible!

I kinda agree with this...when you put an A1200 in a tower case it suddenly becomes another big box PC like the ones you see being sent to recycling.