A1200 or A500 with V2+?

[franeti]

Hi everyone!

I have an A500 since 1989. The only "hack" is the gotek drive.

I have always wanted an A1200 and I was decided to buy one and step by step make the upgrades and learn about the OS. Because with my A500 only play games.

One colleague, a "Amiga Genius" said me, right now is better to buy a Vampire 500 V2+. It´s cheaper and better than A1200 in many things others no but it´s coming (gold 3) Don´t buy a A1200 it would be more expensive with all the upgrades that finally you will get.

But I have to recognize that I prefer to don´t touch my A500, it´s my baby, after 28 years I have never upgrade it (only 1mb expansion and 1 year ago the Gotek drive). I prefer to don´t touch it but and the same time I think that the A1200 will be more expensive and I won´t use my A500 if I have an A1200 with hdd and more features...

What do you recommend me?

Sorry for my english If there is any mistake.

Thanks in advance. Regards.

[Robbie]

Your genius friend is right.
The new core will bring AGA to the Amiga 500 anyway so there will be no real difference. I think the only thing you won't have with the 500 is a clockport... so, correct me if i'm wrong, no possibility of USB devices? I'm sure there's ways around it though. But yes, essentially the same, and the 500 will be cheaper overall.

[UberFreak]

I say keep the A500 original.
There will be a Vampire for the 1200 at some point (they say this year), and it will be better than the A500 one (faster, more memory, etc).

[Predseda]

A1200 plus vampire

[demolition]

The important question here is - what do you want to use your Amiga for? Mostly old games like most other Amiga users (e.g. WHDLoad)? Because then a Vampire is way overkill and a cheap ACA1221ec for your 1200 might be a better choice, or an ACA500plus for your 500. Performance, price and features are comparable between those two and they are both a lot cheaper than a Vampire. The ACA500plus is fully external and can operate in 'stealth' mode so could still be acceptable even if you want to keep the 500 original.

Suggesting a Vampire is kinda like suggesting a Porsche to someone who just needs a car to take the kids to school and pick up groceries. Yes, a Porsche is a nice car and would be the right choice for some, but surely not everyone.

[talybont]

Another option is to wait for the Vampire standalone.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by talybont

Another option is to wait for the Vampire standalone.

But who knows how long that will be? Also, the standalone is not the answer for everyone and I don't see any indication in the original post that he's looking for that kind of performance and feature set.

[franeti]

Originally Posted by demolition

The important question here is - what do you want to use your Amiga for? Mostly old games like most other Amiga users (e.g. WHDLoad)? Because then a Vampire is way overkill and a cheap ACA1221ec for your 1200 might be a better choice, or an ACA500plus for your 500. Performance, price and features are comparable between those two and they are both a lot cheaper than a Vampire. The ACA500plus is fully external and can operate in 'stealth' mode so could still be acceptable even if you want to keep the 500 original.

Suggesting a Vampire is kinda like suggesting a Porsche to someone who just needs a car to take the kids to school and pick up groceries. Yes, a Porsche is a nice car and would be the right choice for some, but surely not everyone.

Really, play whdload games and learn about OS (3.1 or 3.9) because I have never used, only a few times emulated.

I suppose that A1200 with a cheaper aca is enought for me, but its same price as the vampire. (A1200 with Cf around 220€ (fb seller groups) and the aca 100€ from a person I know) vampire 500 300€.






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[demolition]

I thought that you had the 1200 already, but if you're including the price of the 1200 as well, then I guess it adds up.

The ACA500plus would be enough for running OS 3.1 in a nice fashion, however I would not use 3.9 with it (same with ACA1221ec). In a 500 though you will be limited to 4 or 8 colors due to the lack of AGA. The ACA accelerator paths are more plug n play while with the Vampire you should expect to tinker more with things yourself, although it has improved lately.

[emufan]

you really want that construction next to you amiga 500:

https://www.ppa.pl/images/graffiti/s...29a1b46c86.jpg ?

the red card is an additional accelerator, pluged in, coz the aca plus is not fast/good enough.

get a vampire for the a500.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by emufan

the red card is an additional accelerator, pluged in, coz the aca plus is not fast/good enough.

Not fast enough for what? My ACA500plus runs perfectly stable at 42 MHz so it has plenty of speed for common Amiga stuff like WHDLoad. Obviously not everyone can expect it to run at 42 MHz but even at 28 MHz it should run WHDLoad nicely.

But yes, it is not as nice looking as something that can be installed internally. On the other hand, it makes it a lot more convenient to access the CF card.

Originally Posted by emufan

get a vampire for the a500.

I think we should just present the alternatives and let him choose for himself what he wants. Perhaps he won't mind a PCB sticking out on the side. That is not for you or me to decide.

[franeti]

Originally Posted by emufan

you really want that construction next to you amiga 500:

https://www.ppa.pl/images/graffiti/s...29a1b46c86.jpg ?

the red card is an additional accelerator, pluged in, coz the aca plus is not fast/good enough.

get a vampire for the a500.

No no, that's horrible!

Or my 500 with vampire or buy 1200 with aca inside.




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[demolition]

Originally Posted by franeti

No no, that's horrible! Or my 500 with vampire or buy 1200 with aca inside.

If you want to keep your A500 original, you could also get another A500 (or a 500+ so you could have 2MB chip) to use with a Vampire. A500s are plenty and not that expensive. But if you then end up with leaving your other A500 in the closet for eternity, then you might as well use that instead and abolish the idea of keeping it original. You pretty much ruined the originality when you put a Gotek in it, but I hope you didn't cut the case to do that.

[emufan]

Originally Posted by franeti

No no, that's horrible!

Or my 500 with vampire or buy 1200 with aca inside.

yep. the decision you have to make on your own.
you did the math above, with 1200+aca you are at the same level as a500 and vampire.
i can predict, sooner or later you want more ram, faster cpu, rtg gfx card - thats what vampire is about

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by franeti

One colleague, a "Amiga Genius" said me, right now is better to buy a Vampire 500 V2+.

This "genius" recommendation isn't correct because it's narrow and doesn't weigh in all options. Also tinted by fanaticism

It all depends on what you want to do with your machine. And Vampire, right now, is a WORK IN PROGRESS project. There are incompatibilities and issues. SAGA core isn't complete. 68040/60 applications (like the latest demos) don't work or are ultra slow (because of FPU implementation). Also if you are one of those people who want to play from floppy, really old games will crash with expanded setups (this includes an ACA accelerator).

If you want to stick to mostly "original feel", games and old applications, Vampire isn't a good route, at least not now, maybe not ever (like any other accelerator). Gotek is probably the best option for the hardcore retro feel.

If you want to somehow turn your Amiga into something that plays MP3s, watches videos, browses the web, then I guess Vampire is a good option. Also you have to be willing to work with a WIP project that isn't 100% now. I don't care to do any of that with an Amiga but I'm waiting to see the standalone version though.

If you want something in between, ACA 500 Plus and HC508 are great options that add IDE/CF hard drive, some RAM and a little processor boost to your A500. They also can be disabled to run old stuff, so compatibility is great. Personally, this is my favorite option for A500s. (Also cheapest)

Hope all these options lead you to choose what's right for you.

[franeti]

Thanks everyone for your opinion. I think I will take A1200 with Aca to start and because I would like to have one A1200 in my life!

I dont like the aca for the A500 and I think it was discontinued, only second hand.

Thanks!


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[emufan]

i should have mentioned it myself - there are certain drawbacks with the vampire.
you cannot switch of the "accellerator" - you might be forced to use the hdmi video output on the vampire.
the game incompatibility can be circumvented using whdload in most cases.

Originally Posted by franeti

Thanks everyone for your opinion. I think I will take A1200 with Aca to start and because I would like to have one A1200 in my life!

a1200 is for sure a good choice

[demolition]

Originally Posted by franeti

I dont like the aca for the A500 and I think it was discontinued, only second hand.

ACA500 was discontinued yes, but it was replaced by ACA500plus which is still available:
https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/shop/...CA500plus.html
The ACA500plus is an improvement in pretty much all areas compared to the old version.

A 1200 is a good allround choice though coupled with a decent accelerator (030s gives a bit more 'beef' than the plain ACA1221ec, but obviously at a higher cost).

[franeti]

Originally Posted by demolition

ACA500 was discontinued yes, but it was replaced by ACA500plus which is still available:

https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/shop/...CA500plus.html

The ACA500plus is an improvement in pretty much all areas compared to the old version.



A 1200 is a good allround choice though coupled with a decent accelerator (030s gives a bit more 'beef' than the plain ACA1221ec, but obviously at a higher cost).

One friend can sell me for the A1200 the aca 1221 with rtc around 100€. What do you think?


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[demolition]

Originally Posted by franeti

One friend can sell me for the A1200 the aca 1221 with rtc around 100€. What do you think?

Is it stock config or was it upgraded?
A full upgrade from 17->28MHz, 9MB>63MB RAM and MAPROM costs €40, so if it has been fully upgraded, I'd say it sounds like a decent price. I think the original price for the basic version was around €100.