Should I buy this A4000?

Puzzle · 08 February 2003, 13:08

There's an A4000/040 for sale on a local Norwegian auction-site. It has the following things in it:

Oktagon2008 SCSI-adapter
Ariadne I ethernet-adapter
IOBlix serial/paralell-adaptor
CyberVision64/3D graphics-adaptor
Plextor 12/4/32 CD-R/RW (SCSI)
2x4.5 GB SCSI harddrives
3-button mouse, and a keyboard

It has Kickstart 3.1, and OS 3.9 installed.

However, there are a few problems, like these:

The harddrives should be replaced, as they have some read/write-errors.
The keyboard lacks the ESC-button, and has some problems with the contact between the keys and the circuit-board underneath the keys.
The hard-drive bracket is partly defective.

How much is this thing worth?

Severin · 08 February 2003, 13:59

Quote:

However, there are a few problems, like these:

The harddrives should be replaced, as they have some read/write-errors.
The keyboard lacks the ESC-button, and has some problems with the contact between the keys and the circuit-board underneath the keys.
The hard-drive bracket is partly defective.

hmmm, duff harddrives...

you basically have 3 choices,

1 if the read/write areas are grouped together just partition around them.

2 replace them with a scsi drive

3 put a large ide drive in it

as for the keyboard, usually just totally stripping it down and cleaning it will cure the contact problems, the ESC key can be replaced if it's just a missing keytop, or get a pc keyboard adaptor...

The harddrive bracket is easy, it's only a rectangle of metal with the top edge bent over and a couple of holes drilled in it, easy enough to make one...

as for a price, I wouldn't pay over £200(uk) for it...

Unknown_K · 08 February 2003, 15:26

I guess you have to expect to do some repairs on older equipment. Good thing small scsi hard drives are cheap these days. Any mechanical part will crap out sooner or later especially cheaply built keyboards.

cv643d · 08 February 2003, 23:49

about 200-250 dollars max.

If it has the original C= 040 card think twice about it.

Miggy2TheMax · 10 February 2003, 01:43

Quote:

Originally posted by cv643d
about 200-250 dollars max.

If it has the original C= 040 card think twice about it.

just wondering, what was wrong with the original c= 040 cards?

Puzzle · 10 February 2003, 01:54

It has the original C= 040-card, or at least I think so. The seller would probably state something else, if there is some sort of accelerator in there.

Anyway, I think I'll turn this one down. A "big-box" Amiga with Ethernet and a graphics-card would be neat, but not for such a high price.

Maybe I should get a "regular" A4000, and one of those PCI-busboards, and a graphics card, and a soundcard, and a Ethernet-adapter, and... and...
Maybe I should win in the national lottery first.

IanS · 12 February 2003, 19:47

The controller board that Commodore shipped with their 040 machines was designed for the 030, hence the machine was partially crippled. The Warp Engine and Cyberstorm acelerators etc overcame this problem. But hey, an A4000 is an A4000, complete with Zorro 3, IDE and an 040... you have to start somewhere, and Cyberstorms can be added later.

cv643d · 14 February 2003, 20:19

Quote:

Originally posted by Puzzle
Maybe I should get a "regular" A4000, and one of those PCI-busboards, and a graphics card, and a soundcard, and a Ethernet-adapter, and... and...
Maybe I should win in the national lottery first.

Drop the PCI slots and go oldschool style with Zorro boards

IanS · 14 February 2003, 21:39

I saw some seriously souped up Amigas last year at a big trade fair/computer show at the National Exhibition Centre (Birmingham, England). 060, PPC, Voodoo 3, Soundblasters... the list went on and on. Some were A4000, some A1200, all in trendy towers with clear sides and flourecent lighting. Really cool stuff... but, and it's a BIG but... these things cost over 2500 UKP. Ouch!

I think I could get a G4 Mac AND a fast P4 PC for that price... and probably enough left for my favourite Sony Clie

IanS · 14 February 2003, 21:42

When I said cost 2500 UKP, I meant for the owners to build up... not that they were for sale.

It was nice to see what they could pull off on that kind of hardware though. Kinda makes you proud

Unknown_K · 14 February 2003, 21:43

And even with all that hardware the amiga would be kind of slow for the money

IanS · 14 February 2003, 21:47

Yep. There is definitely a law of diminishing returns on computer hardware, especially the "niche" stuff like the miggy. If money were no object I'd build one up for the sake of it. But then money is a big object at the moment

Syko · 22 February 2003, 16:38

If money were no object I'd track down all the transputer zorro II cards ever made and fitt them into a full size 19" rack mount cabinet

- real time rendering for VistaPro (on full rez/detail etc...) with enough cards, and they had their own versions of the system libs/commands so full mutithreading on a massivley parallell system... it'd still kick Intel's ass, unless you go for quad xeon running unix... cost a bit steep though.

IanS · 24 February 2003, 19:07

Link together all the A600's of this world in to one giant render farm and you average PC would do it faster!

It's so sad when your mobile phone has more processing power than your Amiga.

Syko · 25 February 2003, 16:20

Not my retro phone - Motorola 3788 it's a phone not a PDA/game box/modem etc, and it's cost me £120 in the last 2.5 years - including buying it. If I want to talk to my mates I go round their house and talk for free...

Amiga1992 · 25 February 2003, 16:46

Talking about A4000 prices, how about this one?

AMIGA 4000/040 (desktop)
18MB RAM
IDE HD 4GB
GENLOCK GVP G-LOCK
VLAB MOTION 2.0
TOCATTA
CSII-2 board + HD SCSII-2 2GB

All for less than 1000 dollars :P

IanS · 25 February 2003, 17:46

Sounds nice, but I wouldn't fork out that much money for an Amiga these days. I can't justify the cost.

If I were to win the lottery though, I'd have one no problem. And a dual processor G4 Mac, and dual Athlon MP's and... it goes on and on. I would love to get a Draco cube.

Hey Syko, glad to hear that I'm not the only one with an old Nokia. A phone is a phone is a phone. As long as you can talk to somebody, who cares hoe many games it has? I bought my girlfriend a new (cheapish) mobile and it does a zillion things and it's still half the size of mine!

Syko · 25 February 2003, 17:47

BUY NOW! That's a full PAL/NTSC video editing system! I would add as much RAM to the CSII card as you can get hold of though.

Fair enough you could get a PC that would just do the same job (not the s/w though) but it wouldn't be as nice to use...

Amiga1992 · 25 February 2003, 20:10

I'm not willing to spend 1k dollars on it yet, I have to move first.
After the studio is set up I might nab it. This thing will be there for ages, nobody in its right mind would buy an amiga for 3000 peso today

I'm not right in the mind, yes

Unknown_K · 25 February 2003, 21:50

$1000 is kind of alot for a machine that old. how many A4000's were made anyway?

08 February 2003, 13:08	#1
Puzzle Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: Somewhere Posts: 99	Should I buy this A4000? There's an A4000/040 for sale on a local Norwegian auction-site. It has the following things in it: Oktagon2008 SCSI-adapter Ariadne I ethernet-adapter IOBlix serial/paralell-adaptor CyberVision64/3D graphics-adaptor Plextor 12/4/32 CD-R/RW (SCSI) 2x4.5 GB SCSI harddrives 3-button mouse, and a keyboard It has Kickstart 3.1, and OS 3.9 installed. However, there are a few problems, like these: The harddrives should be replaced, as they have some read/write-errors. The keyboard lacks the ESC-button, and has some problems with the contact between the keys and the circuit-board underneath the keys. The hard-drive bracket is partly defective. How much is this thing worth?

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08 February 2003, 15:26	#3
Unknown_K Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio/USA Age: 55 Posts: 1,380	I guess you have to expect to do some repairs on older equipment. Good thing small scsi hard drives are cheap these days. Any mechanical part will crap out sooner or later especially cheaply built keyboards.

08 February 2003, 23:49	#4
cv643d Registered User Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Sweden Posts: 762	about 200-250 dollars max. If it has the original C= 040 card think twice about it.

10 February 2003, 01:54	#6
Puzzle Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: Somewhere Posts: 99	It has the original C= 040-card, or at least I think so. The seller would probably state something else, if there is some sort of accelerator in there. Anyway, I think I'll turn this one down. A "big-box" Amiga with Ethernet and a graphics-card would be neat, but not for such a high price. Maybe I should get a "regular" A4000, and one of those PCI-busboards, and a graphics card, and a soundcard, and a Ethernet-adapter, and... and... Maybe I should win in the national lottery first.

12 February 2003, 19:47	#7
IanS Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Nottingham England Posts: 277	The controller board that Commodore shipped with their 040 machines was designed for the 030, hence the machine was partially crippled. The Warp Engine and Cyberstorm acelerators etc overcame this problem. But hey, an A4000 is an A4000, complete with Zorro 3, IDE and an 040... you have to start somewhere, and Cyberstorms can be added later.

14 February 2003, 21:39	#9
IanS Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Nottingham England Posts: 277	I saw some seriously souped up Amigas last year at a big trade fair/computer show at the National Exhibition Centre (Birmingham, England). 060, PPC, Voodoo 3, Soundblasters... the list went on and on. Some were A4000, some A1200, all in trendy towers with clear sides and flourecent lighting. Really cool stuff... but, and it's a BIG but... these things cost over 2500 UKP. Ouch! I think I could get a G4 Mac AND a fast P4 PC for that price... and probably enough left for my favourite Sony Clie

14 February 2003, 21:42	#10
IanS Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Nottingham England Posts: 277	When I said cost 2500 UKP, I meant for the owners to build up... not that they were for sale. It was nice to see what they could pull off on that kind of hardware though. Kinda makes you proud

14 February 2003, 21:43	#11
Unknown_K Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio/USA Age: 55 Posts: 1,380	And even with all that hardware the amiga would be kind of slow for the money

14 February 2003, 21:47	#12
IanS Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Nottingham England Posts: 277	Yep. There is definitely a law of diminishing returns on computer hardware, especially the "niche" stuff like the miggy. If money were no object I'd build one up for the sake of it. But then money is a big object at the moment

22 February 2003, 16:38	#13
Syko Now got GSX750F :)) Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Halifax UK Age: 59 Posts: 584	If money were no object I'd track down all the transputer zorro II cards ever made and fitt them into a full size 19" rack mount cabinet - real time rendering for VistaPro (on full rez/detail etc...) with enough cards, and they had their own versions of the system libs/commands so full mutithreading on a massivley parallell system... it'd still kick Intel's ass, unless you go for quad xeon running unix... cost a bit steep though.

24 February 2003, 19:07	#14
IanS Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Nottingham England Posts: 277	Link together all the A600's of this world in to one giant render farm and you average PC would do it faster! It's so sad when your mobile phone has more processing power than your Amiga.

25 February 2003, 16:20	#15
Syko Now got GSX750F :)) Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Halifax UK Age: 59 Posts: 584	Not my retro phone - Motorola 3788 it's a phone not a PDA/game box/modem etc, and it's cost me £120 in the last 2.5 years - including buying it. If I want to talk to my mates I go round their house and talk for free...

25 February 2003, 16:46	#16
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	Talking about A4000 prices, how about this one? AMIGA 4000/040 (desktop) 18MB RAM IDE HD 4GB GENLOCK GVP G-LOCK VLAB MOTION 2.0 TOCATTA CSII-2 board + HD SCSII-2 2GB All for less than 1000 dollars :P

25 February 2003, 17:46	#17
IanS Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Nottingham England Posts: 277	Sounds nice, but I wouldn't fork out that much money for an Amiga these days. I can't justify the cost. If I were to win the lottery though, I'd have one no problem. And a dual processor G4 Mac, and dual Athlon MP's and... it goes on and on. I would love to get a Draco cube. Hey Syko, glad to hear that I'm not the only one with an old Nokia. A phone is a phone is a phone. As long as you can talk to somebody, who cares hoe many games it has? I bought my girlfriend a new (cheapish) mobile and it does a zillion things and it's still half the size of mine!

25 February 2003, 17:47	#18
Syko Now got GSX750F :)) Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Halifax UK Age: 59 Posts: 584	BUY NOW! That's a full PAL/NTSC video editing system! I would add as much RAM to the CSII card as you can get hold of though. Fair enough you could get a PC that would just do the same job (not the s/w though) but it wouldn't be as nice to use...

25 February 2003, 20:10	#19
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	I'm not willing to spend 1k dollars on it yet, I have to move first. After the studio is set up I might nab it. This thing will be there for ages, nobody in its right mind would buy an amiga for 3000 peso today I'm not right in the mind, yes

25 February 2003, 21:50	#20
Unknown_K Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio/USA Age: 55 Posts: 1,380	$1000 is kind of alot for a machine that old. how many A4000's were made anyway?

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