Making Workbench faster for low-end Amigas

[8bitbubsy]

I'm running Workbench 3.1 on my A600 (kick 3.1, 2MB Chip RAM) and I want it to run as fast as possible.

Any patch or app I should run in startup-sequence to make it faster? Any other tips n' tricks?
So far I've changed the HDD buffers to 0 (256MB CF internal), changed screen colors to 2 (blue/white oldskool WB style), removed overscan, cleaned startup-sequence...
On boot I have 1.716.400 chip RAM left when the CF2PCMCIA adapter is inserted with a CF card

[thomas]

I've changed the HDD buffers to 0

That's the opposite of what you should do. The more buffers, the faster it will load.

On boot I have 1.716.400 chip RAM left

Why do you try to maximise the free RAM? The more parts can be run directly from RAM (without loading from HDD), the faster the machine will be. For example you could make all often used shell commands resident.

[8bitbubsy]

Well, the thing is that I want to have a lot of RAM left too, since I only have 2MB in it... But ok, I guess I'll prefer speed instead.

What's an ideal "hdd buffers" for an A600 with 2MB chip RAM?

[squidbass]

I installed ClassicWB Lite on my A600s - if you hold the right mouse button down on startup you get a nice menu where you can boot to CLI or have a minimum startup config booted...you can also customise these.

I use CWB lite on 2 A600s - one with 1mb RAM (ouch) and one with 1.5mb of RAM. 2mb is for wusses :-)

[cosmicfrog]

one word

fastram

as has already been said free ram is`t everything.
A way of starting a minimal config to load those ram hungry apps/games is always a good idea

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

What's an ideal "hdd buffers" for an A600 with 2MB chip RAM?

30? As much RAM as you can afford to spare really.

[khph_re]

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

I'm running Workbench 3.1 on my A600 (kick 3.1, 2MB Chip RAM) and I want it to run as fast as possible.

Any patch or app I should run in startup-sequence to make it faster? Any other tips n' tricks?
So far I've changed the HDD buffers to 0 (256MB CF internal), changed screen colors to 2 (blue/white oldskool WB style), removed overscan, cleaned startup-sequence...
On boot I have 1.716.400 chip RAM left when the CF2PCMCIA adapter is inserted with a CF card

might as well boot into NTSC if you can, that'll save you more chip ;-)

[Amiga1992]

4 colors, small filesize icons and as least shit on your startup sequence as you can, will deem a fast workbench.

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

I'm running Workbench 3.1 on my A600 (kick 3.1, 2MB Chip RAM) and I want it to run as fast as possible.

Any patch or app I should run in startup-sequence to make it faster? Any other tips n' tricks?
So far I've changed the HDD buffers to 0 (256MB CF internal), changed screen colors to 2 (blue/white oldskool WB style), removed overscan, cleaned startup-sequence...
On boot I have 1.716.400 chip RAM left when the CF2PCMCIA adapter is inserted with a CF card

• Consider moving Ram Disk to the HD. In my experience this has led to some disk corruption however on FFS...
• Make CF0 optional (move to storage, leave icon on workbench desktop).
• Consider removing buffers for unused drives (df0:, cc0: etc.)
• Disable clipboard functionality and unused assigns.
• Disable potential loading of unused devices (e.g. serial port) by moving the relevant files (serialport.device IIRC - haven't got my Amiga in front of me).

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

On boot I have 1.716.400 chip RAM left when the CF2PCMCIA adapter is inserted with a CF card

I don't know nothing about A600 and WB 3.1, but I have an A1200 and I've been concerned about Chipram, so I'm using Fblit, Ftext, WBControl, SimpleGels and the best of all CyberbugFixAga under OS3.9 boingbagged 2 and Dopus (Amikit on real Amiga) and when I open the pcmcia (1GB, full of things) the graphics memory is 1717864. With it closed it's 1753760; all using Ken's icons 2.4 and 256 colors instead of 2 !!!!!

Search if any of those patches will fit your 3.1, I don't know if any..., but you have to get more chip ram I believe !
I've just installed mathpatch, but there's no difference in chipram although I find it faster.

Ah, my HDD buffers are 100, but as I tell you I don't know about A600, I don't know if I help or on the contrary.

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by thomas

For example you could make all often used shell commands resident.

How do you do that? I'm learning....

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

How do you do that? I'm learning....

Look at your startup-sequence. You'll find something like this :

Resident >NIL: C:Assign PURE
Resident >NIL: C:Execute PURE

Add your most used commands like this.

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Look at your startup-sequence. You'll find something like this :

Resident >NIL: C:Assign PURE
Resident >NIL: C:Execute PURE

Add your most used commands like this.

Thanks, which do you have, for example?

[TCD]

For me it's 'more' and 'copy' right now, but I don't know how much faster they are with resident tbh.

[Retrofan]

Thanks, I will try it. Anyway I find very impresive the chip ram I've got compared to the one I had before I installed CyberbugFixAga. I don't remember exactly how much I had while playing AmigaAmp, but I know it went down a lot. I have just seen now while I play it is 1740856.

@TheCyberDruid or @Thomas, can you tell if you have so much?

@8bitbubsy I don't know if you can use CyberbugFixAga, but as you won't find it in Aminet, it's here:
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=175372&postcount=24

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

I've been concerned about Chipram, so I'm using Fblit, Ftext, WBControl, SimpleGels and the best of all CyberbugFixAga

All not suitable for A600 with no fast RAM

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

I'm running Workbench 3.1 on my A600 (kick 3.1, 2MB Chip RAM) and I want it to run as fast as possible.

Don't you have an accelerator?

[8bitbubsy]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

Don't you have an accelerator?

Nope, not for my A600

[cosmicfrog]

as a rule of thumb for me and makeing cli commands resident if I use them more than twice then I make em resident.
sometimes I also disable the last 2 lines in startupsequens that removes assign and mount from being resident