A500

[irishmike]

Hi All:

I was really looking for a A3000 system, but I have aquired a A500 and want to make it functional as possible or figure out its worth relative to the A3000 I originally was after and still would buy.

This A500 is still in the box and I am not sure what it has until it arrives.  I would entertain any help determining what I can and can not do with this system via PMail.

Thanks,

Mike Needham
Shawnee, Kansas USA

[TheMagicM]

Worth relative to a A3000?  not much... A3k depending on condition are $100+ on ebay, if upgraded, more.
A500 + hard drive and a few other goodies about $75..plain A500 $25.  

[BoingBoss]

I put my Amiga 500 into a really nice vintage PC tower case.  It has 2 Teac disk drives, 1 Seagate hard drive, 1 Pioneer CD-Rom drive, a 68030 accelerator with 128 megs of memory, and a flicker-fixer board.  I am using a spare Amiga 2000 keyboard with it.  Everything looks and works great.  The Amiga 500 has a higher quality motherboard then the Amiga 3000, but the 3000 has Zorro III slots and can readily accept a video card.  My advice: keep the Amiga 500 and put it into a nice PC tower case.  Do NOT buy the Amiga 3000 computer.  People are always having problems with the Amiga 3000.  The Amiga 500 uses the same chips as the Amiga 2000 computer.  Did you know that the Amiga 500 was the most successful, most popular, and the best selling Amiga?!  More Amiga 500s were sold then any other Amiga model, including the Amiga 2000 in the USA and the Amiga 1200 in Europe.  So, if you have one "in the box" KEEP IT!     :-D

[Ilwrath]

uh-oh..... guess who's back.......

[edit] irishmike-
I'd take everything BoingBoss says with a grain of salt.  Preferably one the size of the salt flats in Arizona...

[MontrealCL]

I put my Amiga 500 into a really nice vintage PC tower case. It has 2 Teac disk drives, 1 Seagate hard drive, 1 Pioneer CD-Rom drive, a 68030 accelerator with 128 megs of memory

I thought it was physically impossible to address 128 megs on an Amiga 500?  Up to 9 megs max???

[miles]

I thought it was physically impossible to address 128 megs on an Amiga 500?  Up to 9 megs max???

On a standard a500 yes, but there are some accelerator cards that let you have more, the Viper 030 can have 128Mb installed.

[PMC]

@BoingBoss

I'd like to see a picture of your A500 project.  Years ago, I did contemplate putting my old A500 into a tower, but decided on towering my A1200 instead.  I'd be very interested in seeing some pictures and/or an article on how you built it.

Not sure about the reliability issues you report though...  My original A500 suffered a keyboard malfunction after a week (from new), but my A1200s are going strong despite both being over a decade old now and having both been generally hacked around and modified.  The only problem I've had is with accelerator cards, not the actual machine itself.

I can't speak from experience with the A3000, but I don't recall anyone ever complaining about reliability issues there.  

[TheMagicM]

A local here in San Antonio put his A500 into a tower.. check it out

http://theweeks.org/toms-stuff/AMYHACKPAGE.html

[irishmike]

wow:

That looks like some project!  I am not sure of the limitations of the A500 once it is freed from its factory house, but mine is at least as old as 10 years and so far (finds wood to knock on) has no issues at all abeit not setup to be functional yet.. needs hard Disk and monitor and accelerator... hence my decision to simply buy a 2500 right now and go with that :-)

The A500 will be up for sale soon so pmail me if you'd be interested :-)

[BoingBoss]

Hi TheMagicM,

A local here in San Antonio put his A500 into a tower.. check it out

He did a real crappy job too!  My Amiga 500 Tower looks a lot nicer.  I will upload pictures and an article of it as soon as it is finished.   :-D

[sir_inferno]

BoingBoss wrote:
Hi TheMagicM,

A local here in San Antonio put his A500 into a tower.. check it out

He did a real crappy job too!  My Amiga 500 Tower looks a lot nicer.  I will upload pictures and an article of it as soon as it is finished.   :-D

dude, at least it works  :-)

[PMC]

BoingBoss wrote:

He did a real crappy job too!  My Amiga 500 Tower looks a lot nicer.  I will upload pictures and an article of it as soon as it is finished.   :-D

@BoingBoss,  

Full marks to the guy for effort, I'm quite impressed with that piece of kit.

In the meantime, can you not post some "Work in progress" pics? At least it'll give us an idea of the construction of your tower.  

Have you sourced a PC case and made a custom backplane, or have you gone for a completely bespoke custom job?

[TheMagicM]

Boingboss:

He did a real crappy job too!

I dont know.  Oh well, i give him credit for taking the time to do that.. I would of just sold the sucker for something else.

[melott]

> Do NOT buy the Amiga 3000 computer. People are always having problems with the Amiga 3000.

I bought my A3000 in 1991 new. I've used it regularly since
it was new. I've upgraded it with a WarpEngine 040 @ 40 mhz
and a GFX card and 80 megs ram.
NEVER one bit of trouble.........NEVER.
IMHO the A3000 is the BEST Amiga ever built.

Keep the A500 for the old games, but GO for the A3000.