Updating an Amiga 600

Lorfarius · 15 January 2010, 13:37

Before Xmas I picked up an A600HD with 20mb HD and it wasn't long before I went down the route of pulling it free and replacing it with a CF card of 2GB thanks to a chap on Youtube called Retrosofer who has posted some pretty good tutorials for beginners.

My next step was to upgrade the memory and the best I could find on ebay at the time was a 1mb expansion to fit in the bottom slot giving me a whole 2mb of power! Not 100% sure but I could have sworn I read that sliding a memory upgrade into the PCMCIA slot on the side but can't find anything to confirm this now.

Is this possible or have I dreamt it entirely? If it is can anyone recommend a good place to buy such an update from or even what it's called so I can look on ebay?

I'm sure a few people will simply tell me to flog the system and buy an A1200 but I have a lot of fond memories of it when I was a kid being my first ever computer it also fits perfectly into the shelf on my desk. An A1200 wouldn't

As a side note I've also ordered a PCMCIA CF adaptor with EasyADF from ebay and I'm hoping to install WHDLoad onto the HD when it arrives (I'll probably get stuck and end up back here for help trying to get it to work!), have so many games and looking forward to converting them to HD running should speed things up no end

Zetr0 · 15 January 2010, 14:05

@Lorfarius

Awesome, great to see a fellow Retr0-Gamer on the board sir!

now before anyone says differently the A600 is a wonderfull machine, yes its small, yes it has a very limmited and expensive upgrade path, but for the most part its an awesome little machine!

Upgrading the A600 memory -

Firstly its best to upgrade the Chip Ram first, for arounf the £20 area you should be able to upgrade from 1MB to 2MB of Chip. This upgrade is found in the trapdoor-slot on the bottom of the Amiga.

Fast Ram on the other hand is little more difficult to source - for the moement* - you will need to find 16bit PCMCIA SRAM (upto 4MB) cards, these can be source between £20 - £40 pedning on size.

These cards plug into the PCMCIA port and provide upto 4MB of Fast Ram, (taking the A600 upto 6MB total)

Now, at the moment I am in the middle of a group buy/build of the A608, I am waiting on PCB prices and hope to have this settled soon to know more goto www.a608-amiga.co.uk

If you would like to see an expanded A600 - lookie here

Welcome to the Boards btw

Lorfarius · 15 January 2010, 15:20

Thanks Zetr0

I've managed to get my hands on a 1mb upgrade for the Chip Ram thanks to Airey36 on ebay. I'm certainly interested in one of these group boards you are trying to sort out so I'll register and post my interest on the forum later

Cammy · 15 January 2010, 22:11

The A600 is one of my favourite computers! I love how small and compact she is, and I think it's a fun challenge to upgrade her as much as possible and try fitting everything inside that case. My next project is to try installing an internal S-Video adapter so I don't have an exposed circuit board hanging out the back of my otherwise neat little computer. I can't wait for Zetr0's A608 expansion, but I can't afford any SRAM cards I ever see on eBay, there seem to be many more people looking for them than there are for sale. Here are a few photos of my expanded A600 before I got the S-Video adapter and LCD monitor for her http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=47986

Merlin · 15 January 2010, 22:19

@ Lorfarius

I'm not too far from you near Manchester Airport and I work in Staly Vegas, so if you need help, it's close by, OK?

Get yourself signed up at AmiBay as well, if you haven't done so already....

amigakit.com · 15 January 2010, 22:51

Hello and welcome.

Quote:

I've also ordered a PCMCIA CF adaptor with EasyADF from ebay

We don't sell our EasyADF software on Ebay...

prowler · 15 January 2010, 23:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by amigakit.com

We don't sell our EasyADF software on Ebay...

Must be second user, then.

Lorfarius · 15 January 2010, 23:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by amigakit.com

Hello and welcome.

We don't sell our EasyADF software on Ebay...

Worry not I meant to type WHDLoad (which if I can figure out how to work will be getting registered soon). If you check your records you will notice a recent transaction for EasyADF software thats been winging its way to Glossop. Arrived today

amigakit.com · 15 January 2010, 23:56

Hope you have fun with EasyADF and WHDLoad. Thanks for your order!

salax54 · 16 January 2010, 17:37

The A600 is a very misunderstood computer! Actually it's my second fav next to the A1000 (the "REAL" Amiga LOL) and has drained my wallet lots of times in the past. If only it had the decent support it deserved... I remember the ACA 630/40 and prayed it would come to the market, but i guess it disappeared.

Imagine the power of a 030/40 and 128 MB RAM, now that would make it a beast! It could easily be a multi-OS machine and run Mac OS (</= 8.0) as an alternative -although in 16 colours. I know it can handle it since i have the experience from the Viper 630.
Don't let any one fool you that this is an unexpandable machine. Got the dough? Then you can fix 'er up real nice!

Cammy · 16 January 2010, 23:17

The A600 is the Amiga that becomes more expandable as time passes. Once the A608 comes out it'll be the only Amiga you can buy brand new RAM expansions for (until that A500 one comes out). Actually, with the A603 it still has the newest Amiga RAM expansion card on the market at the moment.

amigakit.com · 17 January 2010, 02:18

We were stuck with a dilemma after financially funding the original A602 and they sold out, on whether to fund a new production run of the A603. When the prices of second hand A600 RAM expansions starting rising once again on Ebay, it was clear that a new production run of the A603 was required to keep the pricing under control.

When this batch is sold out completely, we will have to make a decision on a new production run once again...

Currently we are working on some A1200 hardware peripheral projects.

prowler · 17 January 2010, 22:02

Thanks for the news about the A600 RAM expansions, AmigaKit!

Let's hope for a favourable outcome.

Quote:

Originally Posted by amigakit.com

Currently we are working on some A1200 hardware peripheral projects.

Now that is very interesting!

alexh · 17 January 2010, 22:30

You gotta wonder why they don't fund the manufacture of a 8Mbyte RAM upgrade for CD32. They are very easy to design. Only the connector is expensive. Unlike A600 & A1200 which had existing solutions they would have almost 100% market share as no-one ever made RAM cards for CD32. Everyone would want one as it would enable the vast majority of WHDload titles to be run from CD.

Rebel-CD32 · 17 January 2010, 23:04

I'd prefer an 8MB expansion on any Amiga than a 4MB one. 4MB isn't enough for many programs, but 8MB is just enough for most of them to run. Of course people who only play games with their Amigas probably wouldn't notice, but there are many of us who still like to use the Amiga for its OS and programs on the original hardware and I don't see how making a new expansion 8MB instead of 4MB in this day and age would bump the cost up that much higher. I definitely think any new CD32 expansion needs either an IDE port or a CF slot so the CD32 has some internal storage. The icing on the cake would be a Clockport and a Real-Time Clock, then the CD32 is maxed out as much as it can be without a CPU upgrade.

The CD32 has no PCMCIA port so there's no conflicting with that causing the card to only need 4MB RAM. Putting only 4MB on any Amiga expansion card is like saying "This is for games only, nothing else!". Same with any new A1200 RAM card, but that would need an automatic switch (software controlled perhaps) to make it 5.5MB when the PCMCIA slot is in use like the DKB 1202 does.

15 January 2010, 13:37	#1
Lorfarius Registered User Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Glossop/UK Posts: 532	Updating an Amiga 600 Before Xmas I picked up an A600HD with 20mb HD and it wasn't long before I went down the route of pulling it free and replacing it with a CF card of 2GB thanks to a chap on Youtube called Retrosofer who has posted some pretty good tutorials for beginners. My next step was to upgrade the memory and the best I could find on ebay at the time was a 1mb expansion to fit in the bottom slot giving me a whole 2mb of power! Not 100% sure but I could have sworn I read that sliding a memory upgrade into the PCMCIA slot on the side but can't find anything to confirm this now. Is this possible or have I dreamt it entirely? If it is can anyone recommend a good place to buy such an update from or even what it's called so I can look on ebay? I'm sure a few people will simply tell me to flog the system and buy an A1200 but I have a lot of fond memories of it when I was a kid being my first ever computer it also fits perfectly into the shelf on my desk. An A1200 wouldn't As a side note I've also ordered a PCMCIA CF adaptor with EasyADF from ebay and I'm hoping to install WHDLoad onto the HD when it arrives (I'll probably get stuck and end up back here for help trying to get it to work!), have so many games and looking forward to converting them to HD running should speed things up no end

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Updating WinUAE	Justice	support.WinUAE	1	27 November 2010 13:54
updating Amiga back in 90`s?	Amiga Forever	Retrogaming General Discussion	32	11 October 2010 02:53
Updating Picasso	terryhan	support.WinUAE	4	29 September 2007 12:44
The updating starts :)	Galahad/FLT	Amiga scene	14	30 September 2005 18:58
Updating my Amiga's KICK rom?	Kitty-chan	Retrogaming General Discussion	4	04 February 2002 21:06

15 January 2010, 14:05	#2
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	@Lorfarius Awesome, great to see a fellow Retr0-Gamer on the board sir! now before anyone says differently the A600 is a wonderfull machine, yes its small, yes it has a very limmited and expensive upgrade path, but for the most part its an awesome little machine! Upgrading the A600 memory - Firstly its best to upgrade the Chip Ram first, for arounf the £20 area you should be able to upgrade from 1MB to 2MB of Chip. This upgrade is found in the trapdoor-slot on the bottom of the Amiga. Fast Ram on the other hand is little more difficult to source - for the moement* - you will need to find 16bit PCMCIA SRAM (upto 4MB) cards, these can be source between £20 - £40 pedning on size. These cards plug into the PCMCIA port and provide upto 4MB of Fast Ram, (taking the A600 upto 6MB total) Now, at the moment I am in the middle of a group buy/build of the A608, I am waiting on PCB prices and hope to have this settled soon to know more goto www.a608-amiga.co.uk If you would like to see an expanded A600 - lookie here Welcome to the Boards btw

15 January 2010, 15:20	#3
Lorfarius Registered User Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Glossop/UK Posts: 532	Thanks Zetr0 I've managed to get my hands on a 1mb upgrade for the Chip Ram thanks to Airey36 on ebay. I'm certainly interested in one of these group boards you are trying to sort out so I'll register and post my interest on the forum later

15 January 2010, 22:11	#4
Cammy Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Tasmania, Australia Age: 39 Posts: 1,189	The A600 is one of my favourite computers! I love how small and compact she is, and I think it's a fun challenge to upgrade her as much as possible and try fitting everything inside that case. My next project is to try installing an internal S-Video adapter so I don't have an exposed circuit board hanging out the back of my otherwise neat little computer. I can't wait for Zetr0's A608 expansion, but I can't afford any SRAM cards I ever see on eBay, there seem to be many more people looking for them than there are for sale. Here are a few photos of my expanded A600 before I got the S-Video adapter and LCD monitor for her http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=47986

15 January 2010, 22:19	#5
Merlin AmiBay MegaMod Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Manchester, UK Age: 62 Posts: 1,163	@ Lorfarius I'm not too far from you near Manchester Airport and I work in Staly Vegas, so if you need help, it's close by, OK? Get yourself signed up at AmiBay as well, if you haven't done so already....

15 January 2010, 23:56	#9
amigakit.com Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: www.amigakit.com Posts: 2,015	Hope you have fun with EasyADF and WHDLoad. Thanks for your order!

16 January 2010, 17:37	#10
salax54 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Athens Greece Posts: 153	The A600 is a very misunderstood computer! Actually it's my second fav next to the A1000 (the "REAL" Amiga LOL) and has drained my wallet lots of times in the past. If only it had the decent support it deserved... I remember the ACA 630/40 and prayed it would come to the market, but i guess it disappeared. Imagine the power of a 030/40 and 128 MB RAM, now that would make it a beast! It could easily be a multi-OS machine and run Mac OS (</= 8.0) as an alternative -although in 16 colours. I know it can handle it since i have the experience from the Viper 630. Don't let any one fool you that this is an unexpandable machine. Got the dough? Then you can fix 'er up real nice!

16 January 2010, 23:17	#11
Cammy Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Tasmania, Australia Age: 39 Posts: 1,189	The A600 is the Amiga that becomes more expandable as time passes. Once the A608 comes out it'll be the only Amiga you can buy brand new RAM expansions for (until that A500 one comes out). Actually, with the A603 it still has the newest Amiga RAM expansion card on the market at the moment.

17 January 2010, 02:18	#12
amigakit.com Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: www.amigakit.com Posts: 2,015	We were stuck with a dilemma after financially funding the original A602 and they sold out, on whether to fund a new production run of the A603. When the prices of second hand A600 RAM expansions starting rising once again on Ebay, it was clear that a new production run of the A603 was required to keep the pricing under control. When this batch is sold out completely, we will have to make a decision on a new production run once again... Currently we are working on some A1200 hardware peripheral projects.

17 January 2010, 22:30	#14
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,337	You gotta wonder why they don't fund the manufacture of a 8Mbyte RAM upgrade for CD32. They are very easy to design. Only the connector is expensive. Unlike A600 & A1200 which had existing solutions they would have almost 100% market share as no-one ever made RAM cards for CD32. Everyone would want one as it would enable the vast majority of WHDload titles to be run from CD.

17 January 2010, 23:04	#15
Rebel-CD32 Amiga will never die! Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Tasmania, Australia Age: 43 Posts: 532	I'd prefer an 8MB expansion on any Amiga than a 4MB one. 4MB isn't enough for many programs, but 8MB is just enough for most of them to run. Of course people who only play games with their Amigas probably wouldn't notice, but there are many of us who still like to use the Amiga for its OS and programs on the original hardware and I don't see how making a new expansion 8MB instead of 4MB in this day and age would bump the cost up that much higher. I definitely think any new CD32 expansion needs either an IDE port or a CF slot so the CD32 has some internal storage. The icing on the cake would be a Clockport and a Real-Time Clock, then the CD32 is maxed out as much as it can be without a CPU upgrade. The CD32 has no PCMCIA port so there's no conflicting with that causing the card to only need 4MB RAM. Putting only 4MB on any Amiga expansion card is like saying "This is for games only, nothing else!". Same with any new A1200 RAM card, but that would need an automatic switch (software controlled perhaps) to make it 5.5MB when the PCMCIA slot is in use like the DKB 1202 does.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)