Thoughts on the cyberstorm Mk II and III

[BIG-IRON]

What are your thoughts on the Cyberstorm Mk II and III are they any good? the one that has fallen into my lap is the 060 at 50 mhz and I dont know what to do with it, I could sell it or put it in a 3000. To your knowledge will it fit in a 3000? and what is it worth? is it rare? gimme your thoughts and help here guys. Also is it easy to install? I have had one person ask to buy it already and he will get first dibs if I sell it but I dont know what they are worth. I see softhut is selling it for almost 700 bucks! This could be a mark II as it came out of an A3000.

[Hyperspeed]

Isn't the Cyberstorm MK3 exactly the same as the Cyberstorm PPC but
minus the PPC604?

Thus, if I was to hazard a guess the fastest way to decide if your
card is MK2 or MK3 is to look for a small square of dots that is empty
and where the PowerPC 604 would have gone.

I could be wrong mind.

I do hear that the MK2 is much better than the MK1, but the MK3 just
has extra memory bandwidth that was refined for the PPC. Both are
faster than the Blizzard 1260 though by quite a few MIPS and memory
speeds will also be faster due to Zorro 3.

They'd fetch ultimate prices on eBay.

[HopperJF]

BIG-IRON wrote:
What are your thoughts on the Cyberstorm Mk II and III are they any good? the one that has fallen into my lap is the 060 at 50 mhz and I dont know what to do with it, I could sell it or put it in a 3000. To your knowledge will it fit in a 3000? and what is it worth? is it rare? gimme your thoughts and help here guys. Also is it easy to install? I have had one person ask to buy it already and he will get first dibs if I sell it but I dont know what they are worth. I see softhut is selling it for almost 700 bucks! This could be a mark II as it came out of an A3000.

If it came out of an A3000, then yes, it will fit in an A3000 ;-)

[TjLaZer]

The CSMKII does not have SCSI built in, so it will work in the 3000 w/o the INT2 mod.  Also the MKII can be overclocked to 66MHz very easily as long as you have good SIMMs.  The MKIII has UW SCSI built in so you need the INT2 mod and it does not overclock easily.  Also on the MKII you can mix and match SIMMs whereas on the MKIII you cannot, they have to be in patched pairs.

[Holley]

What are your thoughts on the Cyberstorm Mk II and III

I want one. Lots.

[BIG-IRON]

Well I payed 100 bucks for it did i get shafted or a good buy? If I were to resell it waht would it go for hazard a guess here. I hope its a mk II they sound a bit better.

[Corrie]

TjLaZer wrote:
The MKIII has UW SCSI built in so you need the INT2 mod and it does not overclock easily.

I have successfully overclocked the MKIII up to 80Mhz without any problems at all, the only limiting factor being that I did not have any oscillators greater then 80Mhz!! They would have to be one of the easiest accelerator cards to overclock...

[miles]

$700! WOW!  I wonder how many they sell?
/me looks at CS2 060 sitting here doing nothing...
The CS2 works really well in a 3000, the SCSI add on will not fit in a 3000 desktop as it would stick out the side of the case.  Even overclocked the CS2 is rock stable.  The CS3 has very fast SCSI3 and faster RAM access than the CS2.

[miles]

The Big Book Of Amiga Hardware has pictures of the different Cyberstorms to identify which board it is.

[Ilwrath]

$700! WOW! I wonder how many they sell?

None, as far as I know.  I think they are back inventory that they have sat on for 10+ years, now...  They might even be Phase5 models.

[TjLaZer]

@Corrie:

And SCSI works fine too? I remember some reports that up to 65MHz it was fine but over that caused SCSI errors or something.  Well on the MKII most had a socket so it was way easy to overclock, just pop in a new 66MHz oscillator.  I also heard MKII's were able to go to 80MHz more often than any other accelerator ever made!!!

I own a MKII and a GVP-m 4060, both OC.  Well I am running at 60MHz on my MKII as it is in a 3000 and has no fan, and I have crappy SIMMS that cannot handle 66MHz. LOL  But on my 4000 I have it at 66MHz and it works fine w/128MB Fast...

[BCP]

I've used a Cyberstorm MK II in an A3000 for many years, it along with a 24-bit graphics card makes the A3000 a very usable computer even now.  My MK II has been very reliable, I  wouldn't want to use an A3000 or A4000 without it.  For using with an A3000 it is probably the better choice if using without the optional scsi module. With either the MK II or III you will want to use the latest Cyperpatcher and 060 libraries from Phase5 (available on Aminet).

 - BCP

[mpiva]

> by Hyperspeed on 2004/6/26 11:36:56
>
> Isn't the Cyberstorm MK3 exactly the same as the
> Cyberstorm PPC but minus the PPC604?

   Is this correct?  If so, does that mean I can turn my Cyberstorm MKIII into a CyberstromPPC just be getting my hands on a 604 and plugging it in?   Somebody please let me know; I'd LOVE to have a PPC card but not at the price everyone seems to be asking for it.

[Ilwrath]

Is this correct?

Yes, and no, both...  They are the same logic board, and most of the components are the same between the two, but the PPC has some additional stuff for handling the PPC chip, and uses a different EEPROM system.

If so, does that mean I can turn my Cyberstorm MKIII into a CyberstromPPC just be getting my hands on a 604 and plugging it in? Somebody please let me know; I'd LOVE to have a PPC card but not at the price everyone seems to be asking for it.

AFAIK, No.  You'd need the PPC, the assorted surface mounted components (fairly easy), but you'd also need to force a different flash on the EEPROM and a few other things, according to a different thread on here.

[redrumloa]

@BIG-IRON

Aaah I just emailed you, I see you already have the card and you only paid $100? That's one hell of a good bargain. I'd receomend you keep it and use it in that A3000 you are building up. Setting it up isn't very difficult. I used to use an MKII on an A3000 myself. I can help talk you through set up if needed. It can also likely be overclocked to 66Mhz easily.