Does anyone have any news on the "new" 4.1 systems

[Overmann]

Hi all,

I've been wanting to get into OS4.1 for a while now and have tried to get some overview of the available and upcoming hardware. From what I can gather there are many systems in the work but only one for sale, and it is quite expensive (but not as expensive as X5000/40).

So we have the X5000/20 which is for sale, the X5000/10 and X5000/40, both still unavailable (?) and A1222 Tabor which should be around the corner (?) and should be an affordable board (less then £500 :P)

Am I correct so far?
Does anyone have any more (or more up to date) information?

[hth313]

You can check out http://www.acube-systems.biz/ too, but their computers seem to be unavailable at this point. I am not familiar with them at all.

I have not heard about the X5000/10 but otherwise it sounds about what I gather is the situation.

In some way I do not agree with you about that the X5000/20 is quite expensive. Yes, it is a lot of money, but if you compare that with the price of an A3000 or A4000 back in the days, the X5000/20 costs less and that without taking inflation in account.

These are low volume products, and while they cost more than many high volume computers you compare it with, if you consider the actual cost per unit to make them, it is not really that bad.

I specced a rather high end x86 computer from parts and it came out at a similar price level. That machine is of course a lot more than the X5000 is hardware wise, but it is not running the same software.

[Overmann]

Originally Posted by hth313

In some way I do not agree with you about that the X5000/20 is quite expensive. Yes, it is a lot of money, but if you compare that with the price of an A3000 or A4000 back in the days, the X5000/20 costs less and that without taking inflation in account.

Well, I am not really making any judgment wether or not the cost of the machine is reasonable considering the small volume and obscurity of the hardware. I am merely saying that it is an expensive machine (as in it costs a lot of money). I spent roughly that on my PC workstation 3 years ago and I use it every day for work so I feel that i can justify spending such a considerable amount on a computer.

As I am not wealthy I have to be quite selective when buying hobby-related items which is the reason why I am excited about a more affordable AOS4.1 system. I don't see how any of this could be a matter to be disagreed with. I could never have afforded an A3000 or A4000 back in the day, because they were expensive machines..

[MartinW]

Yeah, I don't think it's really fair to say that it's around the cost of a 3000 or 4000 back in the day. That's as maybe, but quite simply PCs don't cost that much any more unless you start speccing in gaming level components like GTX2080 GPUs and I assume the X5000 doesn't have such a beast.

Bottom line is, like Overmann quite rightly says, justified or not, the X5000 series is prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of people.

For me personally, when the cost of ownership into 4.1 drops to around £500 then I may buy a system but any more than that and it's simply not worth it to me. It's never likely to become my day to day system and there just isn't enough compelling reasons to shell out close to £2000.

One of the problems is that by the time you get up into the realms of 4.1 with high resolutions and modern feel etc. you have lost all the retro goodness of the old stuff and the modern stuff on it just can't compete with a modern PC so the system is placed right in a grey area for me. A bit like 3D 1st person shooter games in 320x256 resolution. IMO they just look so blocky that I end up not bothering.

Anyway, that's all purely my opinion.

To the original question - yeah, I think you're pretty much on the money as I've been checking from time to time. The only thing I will say is that the Tabor has been "just around the corner" for a few years now so don't hold your breath. Unless there is more up to date news that I don't know about?

[Daedalus]

But, they also cost similar money to a highly-specced Amiga 4000 these days too. They don't often come up, but if you price a good condition 4000 with 060, PPC, fully decked out with SCSI, RTG, AHI, networking and so on, you're not far off the cost of an X5000. And an X5000 will run rings around such a setup.

If you can't justify it, you can't justify it and that's fine. I can't justify the cost because I already have an OS 4.1 machine (an A1-XE G4). That machine cost a fair bit back in the day too - far less than the X5000 but that was also second-hand. But I'm still using it now, around 15 years later, and it's still a very enjoyable machine to use. Sure, a PC will be much cheaper, but if PC gaming is your hobby, it will cost you a lot more in the same timeframe. I'm only a casual PC gamer, but I've spent far more on my PC (PCs? It's had so many parts upgraded over the years that you could probably build several complete systems) in 15 years than I have on my AmigaOne. On a year-to-year basis, owning an AmigaOne machine is actually a pretty cheap hobby. I'm sure I'll still be using mine long after I've forgotten about my current PC.

Comparing these machines to commodity PCs is just a silly way of looking at it.

Edit: For dipping your toe into Os 4, you can get an introduction for the cost of a classic licence and run it in WinUAE. It will be slow and clunky compared to dedicated hardware, but might at least be enough to give you a taste of it without the massive outlay. Second-hand Sam-based systems come up from time to time and might also be worth considering.

[Overmann]

It was never my intent to have a discussion about the cost of the hardware available. It's absolutely fine that it's expensive. What i en was wanting to have a discussion about was the upcoming products that a-eon have been talking about for a while and if anyone has any news. Now, I did state that the reason for my interest in the upcoming hardware is that the price point is said to be lower, but perhaps i shouldn't have brought it up. :P

[indigolemon]

I know someone who has an A1222 for testing, from what he has said it implies to me we must be close. I know they had to change some parts midway through due to supply issues, which did cause a setback, but I'm hopeful we should see it this year.

[number6]

Originally Posted by Overmann

It was never my intent to have a discussion about the cost of the hardware available. It's absolutely fine that it's expensive. What i en was wanting to have a discussion about was the upcoming products that a-eon have been talking about for a while and if anyone has any news. Now, I did state that the reason for my interest in the upcoming hardware is that the price point is said to be lower, but perhaps i shouldn't have brought it up. :P

The most recent news was the interview with Trevor Dickinson in late April:
english
Summary

#6

[thellier]

Hello

I would recommend you to find and buy a second hand Sam460
1) It allow all that can do a X5000 (warp3d, nova, etc...) of course not as fast but speed for doing what ? as there is no lots of software to use it...
2) It is faster and more compatible than Tabor

I have seen Tabor running at Alchimie party in november 2015 and we still waiting a release date...

[Overmann]

Thank you, that interview was fantastic! Lot's of great info there! I was hoping to get a Checkmate case for my (future) tabor motherboard. I'll still hold off on the case but from the interview I'm quite optimistic.

Perhaps Trevor or someone else should set up a patreon or similar system to help elieviate the cost of softwaredevelopment. I would happily donate $5-10 monthly, and I'm sure there are quite a few who would happily make a small monthly donation. It wouldn't be a fortune, but It might help a bit