a600 upgrades

[evilhomer2]

hi guys im new to the upgrading scene and im thinking of upgrading my a600 with version 2.00 rom (37.300) with a hard drive to start with. i know i got to buy atleast a 4gb 2.5 hdd and cable and also locate an install disk. is there anything else i need to do to make this work?

many thanks in advance

[alexh]

Nothing you need but several things you might desire :

• RGB SCART cable if you live in the EU.
  
• A registration for WHDload
  
• An A601 chip RAM upgrade (or similar) if you don't already have one. (~£30)
  
• A PCMCIA SRAM card (2Mbytes ~£35)
  
• A PCMCIA->CF adapter + card for quick transfers of data from the PC to the Amiga.
  
• A 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter so you can plug your 2.5" laptop drive into your desktop PC to prepare it initially before putting it in the Amiga.
  
• A pre-programmed 27C800 EPROM + Switch containing KS 3.1 v40.63 & KS 1.3 v34.5 patched for A600 internal IDE

[evilhomer2]

alex thanks for the info.
im buying the HDD 2.5 ide and the 2.5- 3.5 converter cable next friday. so many things to ask and i dont know where to start.

how does the RGB SCART cable improve the amiga experiance?

what does WHDload do? is it simple to use from a non programmer point of view?

what is the a601 chip ram upgrade for?

where is a reccommended place to get a PCMCIA->CF adapter?

[evilhomer2]

is it possible to fit the amiga MB into a standard desktop case?

[alexh]

Originally Posted by evilhomer2

how does the RGB SCART cable improve the Amiga experience?

The image is so much clearer and no colour bleeding. Using RF (aerial) or Composite (Yellow connector) will give a blurry picture.

Originally Posted by evilhomer2

what does WHDload do? is it simple to use from a non programmer point of view?

It is the only reason to fit a hard drive. It is the program which retro-fits games to run from hard drive. Just install it onto the hard drive. Transfer some game images. Click on the icon and play the game.

Originally Posted by evilhomer2

what is the a601 chip ram upgrade for?

Erm, it's RAM. Memory. The standard Amiga 600 has 1Mbyte of RAM and can take another 1Mbyte in a trap door below (A601, A602 or A603 they all do the same thing) and another 4Mbytes of PCMCIA SRAM through the connector on the side. To play games from hard drive you really need 2Mbytes of RAM. Ideally 4Mbytes.

Originally Posted by evilhomer2

where is a recommended place to get a PCMCIA->CF adapter?

eBay? You also need a CF card and the CFD & FAT95 drivers installed on your internal hard drive.

Originally Posted by evilhomer2

is it possible to fit the amiga MB into a standard desktop case?

No. Why bother anyhow? Certainly nothing for you to be thinking about until you've used your Amiga for a while.

[Jonathan Drain]

Hi, fellow A600 owner

The RGB SCART cable will give you better video quality than composite or RF. That's assuming you're connecting to a TV with SCART input.

WHDLoad is a tool for hard disk installs of games. You'll need more RAM than normal for some games.

The A601 goes in the trapdoor slot and adds another megabyte of RAM. It's useful because you can load games from Workbench that normally use up the full 1MB, and some other software written after the A1200 is still A500/A600 compatible but requires 2MB RAM or can take advantage of the extra RAM.

For the PCMCIA CF/SD reader, I bought one of these, and it works perfectly (for A1200 at least). The drivers are on Aminet. It's extremely useful for transferring data to and from PC.

Some people have used an IDE-CF adaptor instead of a hard disk. I have an old 4GB laptop hard drive in my A1200.

I've heard there are some issues with the 37.300 ROM and large hard disks. I never installed a disk bigger than 20MB in my A600 so haven't checked. There's some misinformation about which A600s can install which size of hard disks. Perhaps someone has the correct information?

[evilhomer2]

Originally Posted by alexh

No. Why bother anyhow? Certainly nothing for you to be thinking about until you've used your Amiga for a while.

i was thinking of making it look tidier by running a keyboard and mouse and video splitter between my pc and my pride and joy

[ajk]

Main issue with fitting the mobo into a standard case is the back panel; none of the connectors are going to line up properly with anything so it takes a lot of effort to make it tidy.

I'd just keep the A600 in its own case and use as such, and set up a similar environment inside UAE on the PC for convenience. But if you want to go ahead, there are plenty of project threads on this and other forums showing how people have towerized their Amigas (usually A1200s but the same principles apply).

[ChrisUnionNJ]

Hey Jimbo crammed a 1200 into a 600 case so anything can happen...lol

Chris

[evilhomer2]

well 1 positive thing i just found out. amigakit.co.uk is 7 miles down the road from me

[alexh]

Originally Posted by evilhomer2

i was thinking of making it look tidier by running a keyboard and mouse and video splitter between my pc and my pride and joy

How would you connect a keyboard?

Forget about it. The A600's form factor is it's best feature, changing case is impractical, expensive and mad for novices.

If you prefer an Amiga in a desktop case then I recommend you get a desktop Amiga (A2000, A3000(T), A4000(T)).

Sell your A600 and buy an A2000. They are about the same value (£20-30).

Or spend a bit more money and get an A4000.

[evilhomer2]

thanks for the advice i think i will stay with my a600 get sum major fun out of it and by a desktop amiga later down the line