Another which o Amiga thread - 2000 or 1200

[MikeM3]

So, I never had an Amiga back in the day. I went Ti-99/4a to Apple IIc to Apple IIgs (very much an Apple IIe/c & IIgs power user) to Windows 95. I used Windows 3.1 & a classic Mac for work. I've built multiple Windows machines.

So I got intrigued with the idea of an Amiga to play around with. Right now it's either a A2000 with a bunch of expansion cards or a A1200 with accelerator and RAM, etc.

I'm really not interested in games. I have a Win7 game machine with a pile of games on it now and usually only play SimCity (2013). I'd be far more interested in pushing the hardware.

Input?

[aeberbach]

In your situation I would buy a 2000, much more opportunity for expansion. You’ll also be a lot more familiar with a row of slots coming from Apple II. The ability to install a flicker fixer card should not be underestimated... With the 1200 you have one expansion slot and then you have to resort to clipping things on top of chips for IDE or video expansion. Or you could buy the very expensive backplanes that are available and then you have basically an AGA-capable 2000 (or a bit better considering PCI retargetable video cards) but why not a 4000 if you have spent so much?

If you have the chance to pick up a 2000 grab it, I find they are a lot more rare too.

[amiman99]

It depends what you want from the machine. You said not games, but what do you want to do with it? Applications, graphics, music, emulation?

I have my weekly driver as A1200 50mhz 030 cpu with 64mb ram. I also don't play too many games on it mostly dpaint, redpill (game dev), music, midi. The A1200 does it all. I added an internal cdrom to it and that's it for modding.

My A2000 is different, 030 25mhz cpu, 6mb ram, video toaster, and Single Board Computer with 233Mhz Win95 and Sound Blaster. It's interesting to have a Windows PC inside the A2000, but requires separate kbrd / mouse and monitor.

You can also have Mac emulator using AMAX and Emplant. I have the AMAX IV on my A3000 with dedicated HD, and it works fine.

[stevelord]

The A2000 is the rarer machine and if you're not planning on using games will have Zorro slots and cards. For poking around in the classic Amiga era, the A2000 is probably worth looking at. You can run bridgeboards, ethernet cards and some graphics cards. The A2000 makes for a pretty ultimate KS/WB1.3 machine (A3000 notwithstanding).

The A1200 has more active development, there are cards available and out going all the way up to an 060. There are tower options like the Mediator PCI still available (last time I checked) and you get AGA.

Assuming the A1200 is cheaper I'd go with that. As a first Amiga you're going to find more support for problems than if you go with the 2000. You can always sell it later and get a 3000 or 4000 if you decide it's not right for you.

[Predseda]

A1200 is the most versatile Amiga.

[frank_b]

You can get a flicker fixed display on a 1200 by just hooking up to a TV via scart or or a scart to HDMI adaptor to 1080p monitor. Every one I tried would deinterlace at the cost of latency. Ie 25 vs 50 hz updates. Sucks for games though.