A500 and PC harddrives

Greets

I was just wondering if its possible to alter a pc hardrive or the amiga 500, so that you could use the pc harddrive like a normal amiga one.

I hope this is possible, by the way it does'nt matter how much electronics have to be change, I've had enough practise.

Also I was looking around for a 68010 cpu but they seem to be pretty scarce these days.

Thanks in advance.

Keltic

[Walker]

Yup, it's possible. I have no clue how to do it, though.

There was a detailed description in a Swedish Amiga mag, and one of my pals tried it with success. This info is probably available on Aminet.

[Twistin'Ghost]

I have a couple of 68010's in CA, but I can't for the life of me imagine why you would want one, other than for a conversation piece...

[Amiga1992]

Tehre ws a brit company that used to make IDE interfaces for A500s, so you could install a normal IDE hard drive...

The E-530 accelerator also has this feature (and a mighty fast 030 @ 50Mhz )

Thanks, I'll have to check out aminet a bit, for the harddrive. Anymore tips would be greatly appreciated.

I need a 68010 because I want to replace the processor of the a500. It might only be a 15% increase, but that'll still be handy (And maybe make a good conversation piece).

If you could part with one of you It would be much appreciated.

Keltic

The above message was pretty crappy so I've rewritten it, I would of added this to the above message but it would'nt let me for some odd reason.

It was supposed to be:

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I actually looking for, both a 68010 and a 16Mhz 68000 (68000P-12). The idea is both of them give a speed increase but of a different amount and compatibility.

So, if I can get them both, Piggy back them on the standard 68000 cpu and make a switch so I can flick between to what ever one is required.

If you could part with one of your 68010 chips, It would be much appreciated.

------------------------------------------------------------------

There we go, I think that's a bit better.

Oh and I found some stuff on aminet about using pc hardrive, the only problem will be finding one old enough, that it will work.

Keltic

[Shadowfire]

Quite frankly, the performance gain by either of these methods probably isn't worth even the postage paid for the items.

1. Replace a 7mhz 68000 with a 7mhz 68010 and you get:
- negligible speed improvement (only measurable with benchmarks)
- reduced compatibility with games
2. Replace a 7mhz 68000 with a 14mhz 68000 WITHOUT adding a new faster memory subsystem and you get:
- negligible speed improvement (5-10%)
- you also need to build circuitry to do this

#1 just breaks compatibility, #2 just doesn't make sense without faster memory. I owned a CMI Processor Accelerator, which is just a piggybacked 14mhz 68000. 5-10% speedup. No lie.

[Twistin'Ghost]

This is true. Both of the 010 chips were given to me because they were useless (except for collectors and packrats). For a short time, I had one installed in my A500 and the only noticable difference was the reduced compatibility. When I get them from CA, if you are still around this place, I will just give them to you. If you search on the web, they aren't even that hard to find. I have seen them on ebay and on sites that sell Amiga hardware. And they are cheap, since nobody wants them.

[RetroMan]

Hm, back to the PC Harddrive !! You definitely have to use an A500 IDE Controller to connect a PC Harddrive to the Amiga (e.g. AlfaPower HD Controller which allready has the option for 8 MB FastRam btw.) These thingies fit into the Expasion Port on the left side of your A500. And if you want a faster CPU, as Akira allready said, buy yourself a Turbocard with a 68030, it is placed in the socket of your 68000 and makes much more sense then a 68000@14 Mhz oder a 68010 !! And it isn´t expensive anymore

Actually with the help of a patch the 68010 is completely compatible with existing software, and I meant the 16 mhz 68000 its true the speed increase is not huge but it does sound neat in my book. A 14 mhz does'nt increase speed at all, however the 16 mhz does.

And I found some stuff on aminet how to convert a pc hardrive into an amiga one. So, as much as I'd like to get an AlfaPower HD and a turbocard, I don't see the point as I just want to beef it up a little (just a harddrive to be honest, and the cpu upgrade was so easy). Just to play some games that can only really be played of HD, Ambermoon, etc.

In good time though, I'll get a A4000T, and probably replace my pc in the process.