A step up, A600 to A1200 ownership

[Lorfarius]

I recently went through the process of buying an A600, installing a CF card HD, buying SRAM etc to upgrade my trusty A600. Then after playing The Settlers in a limited way looking at A-Train constantly in low resolution and then finally buying a copy of Star Trek 25th Anniversary only to realise its AGA only I decided to go down the A1200 ownership route.

My first step was to pick up an Accelerator card from ebay as the cheap ones don't come up all that often so picked the following A1200 Hawk board for £60 with 4mb. Thanks to fitzsteve I now have an 8MB stick of RAM winging its way to me to upgrade the board:



Of course I don't have an A1200 yet and I wasn't just going to rush in buying any old yellowed tat from ebay luckily the board seller also posts on Lemon Amiga and happened to mention he was thinking of selling his A1200 in the future which is in perfect condition. Several emails and a bit of bartering later a fully boxed A1200 with WB 3.1 and all the manuals is on it's way in the post in excellent condition, no yellowing in sight.

My first step will be to pull the 2GB CF HD from the A600 then plug that into the A1200 but this time using a 4GB card instead to hold a lot more games for WHDLoad. Just glad the 20MB drive is still working as that will be set back into the 600.

I do have a CF PCMCIA adaptor so transferring stuff to and from the A1200 shouldn't be a problem though I believe the PCMCIA slot won't work when you go over 4MB on the accelerator card so I'll have to leave it as 4 for the time being then upgrade it to 8 when I'm satisifed everything I need is on the HD which should give me masses of maps and stuff to mess with on The Settlers

My main query is about which WB version to use. Now I have the disks for 3.1 so it should just be a straightforward install yet I keep hearing talk of ClassicWB and have had a bit of a trawl around the relevant section of the forum but I'm still not sure what it's all about. Would it really be of any use over 3.1 seeing as I'm only using the system for games?

Sad to see the A600 go but needs must!

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Lorfarius

Thanks to fitzsteve I now have an 8MB stick of RAM winging its way to me to upgrade the board

No problem

Originally Posted by Lorfarius

I do have a CF PCMCIA adaptor so transferring stuff to and from the A1200 shouldn't be a problem though I believe the PCMCIA slot won't work when you go over 4MB on the accelerator card so I'll have to leave it as 4 for the time being then upgrade it to 8 when I'm satisifed everything I need is on the HD which should give me masses of maps and stuff to mess with on The Settlers

With your card it it wont be too easy to change the simms over, with it in the machine. Does it have a jumper you can set for PCMCIA compatibility? Worth having a look on the board and in the book. I can't tell from the pic...

Originally Posted by Lorfarius

My main query is about which WB version to use. Now I have the disks for 3.1 so it should just be a straightforward install yet I keep hearing talk of ClassicWB and have had a bit of a trawl around the relevant section of the forum but I'm still not sure what it's all about. Would it really be of any use over 3.1 seeing as I'm only using the system for games?

Sad to see the A600 go but needs must!

Definately check out the Classic Workbench packs, they come pre installed with lots of useful extras such as IGame and screenshot packs for IGame which is a very nice WHDLoad games front end.

Look at the Classic Workbench Lite and Full packs, you could try them first on WinUAE to see how you like them? Then its just a case of transfering all the files to your hard drive

Have fun with your new project.

Steve.

[Lorfarius]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

No problem
With your card it it wont be too easy to change the simms over, with it in the machine. Does it have a jumper you can set for PCMCIA compatibility? Worth having a look on the board and in the book. I can't tell from the pic...

Definately check out the Classic Workbench packs, they come pre installed with lots of useful extras such as IGame and screenshot packs for IGame which is a very nice WHDLoad games front end.

Look at the Classic Workbench Lite and Full packs, you could try them first on WinUAE to see how you like them? Then its just a case of transfering all the files to your hard drive

Have fun with your new project.

Steve.

Will have a nosey at the card tonight to see if there's any jumpers to change

I'll download a copy of WinUAE and see what ClassicWB is like, never even thought of that

[Bloodwych]

ClassicWB is all about creating a nostalgic Workbench to give you that Amiga feeling when playing games. You can play music through Eagleplayer, launch games without trawling through drawers, create your own game icons easily, boot directly into game launchers (even better when KGLoad is finished)....watch the vid for an idea if you haven't already:

http://classicwb.abime.net/classicweb/features.htm

It just makes your A1200 much nicer to use than a standard install, even if you are just playing games. You have the perfect setup - A1200 plus 4MB fastram. Obviously 8MB is better, but everything will work fine with 4MB if it stops you working with the PCMCIA port.

You're not only limited to ClassicWB, AmigaSYS offer a pack too:

http://amigasys.extra.hu/

Of course you can just have a standard install, but packs like this help you to get more out of your Amiga and saves loads of time trying to track down all the right files.

The LITE is quite close to a standard install if you don't want all the extras and all packs can of course be cut down and customized quite quickly in WinUAE.

Or you could build your own install and just use the ClassicWB packs for ideas or to pilfer files and programs you want.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Lorfarius

My first step was to pick up an Accelerator card from ebay as the cheap ones don't come up all that often so picked the following A1200 Hawk board for £60 with 4mb.

Ouch. £60 and it isn't even an accelerator card

Originally Posted by Lorfarius

I believe the PCMCIA slot won't work when you go over 4MB on the accelerator card

Because it isn't an accelerator card, just a RAM board, it cannot be PCMCIA friendly. So yes 4MB is the limit for PCMCIA use.

[Lorfarius]

Originally Posted by alexh

Ouch. £60 and it isn't even an accelerator card

Because it isn't an accelerator card, just a RAM board, it cannot be PCMCIA friendly. So yes 4MB is the limit for PCMCIA use.

There's a slot to take an FPU processor which I'm hoping to pick up on the cheap from a guy in Oz (can't find the site right now but was recommended here) so doesn't this make it into an accel card? Or is that something different?

Just noticed airery36 has posted an auction for one at a cheaper price but I'm just not eager to buy hardware from him due to a few bad experiences in the past.

[fitzsteve]

No its not an accelerator card and to be honest there no point getting an FPU for what you will be using your Amiga for.

Your Amiga 1200 has a 68020 processor running at 14mhz an accelerator card has a 68030/040/060 processor running at 33-66mhz depending on the card you choose. These cards will help you run the likes of OS3.9 and the games/apps that require a faster Amiga setup.

Again for what you are using your A1200 for a bog standard memory upgrade which you have purchsed is perfect for the job. You've paid a bit of a premium for it but at least its boxed and looks to be in immaculate condition so thats nice

On ebay they tend to go for around £45 but accasionally a little cheaper, a few have sold on here for less but its quite a waiting game. I was looking for ages and ended up paying the £45 premium on ebay...

Steve.

[Lorfarius]

I'll stick to using the 8MB then I'll see if I can use WinUAE to setup Classic WB on the CF card as well as it can be a bit of a pain transfering CF to CF via the Amiga. Even one of the smaller KG packs seemed to take 10 minutes God knows how long it would take to transfer one at 300MB size!

[DDNI]

Fitting an FPU?

Now there is a well worn question...

Will it add to your system experience? No
Will it speed up your WB? No.
Do games use it? No (one or two exceptions)

BUT as I have said before, you dont get an FPU because you "need" the FPU.
You get one because for $20 extra, you may as well save yourself the heartache of always wondering.... "what if I had an FPU?"

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Lorfarius

I'll stick to using the 8MB then I'll see if I can use WinUAE to setup Classic WB on the CF card as well as it can be a bit of a pain transfering CF to CF via the Amiga. Even one of the smaller KG packs seemed to take 10 minutes God knows how long it would take to transfer one at 300MB size!

I spent 4 hours just doing A-C lol via the CF in the PCMCIA port (and that wasn't the full packs, just my selections)

Much quicker way is in Winuae. I do all my work in Winuae now and then transfer the HD (or in your case the CF) to the real Amiga.

Steve.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Lorfarius

I'm hoping to pick up on the cheap [an FPU] from a guy in Oz (can't find the site right now but was recommended here)

http://www.amigamaniac.com/CPUs_FPUs.html

I do not recommend getting an FPU. All it will do is produce heat and use more electricity. Almost nothing uses it as we have discussed many many times.