A4000 questions

[bebek]

I am about to put together my A4000 (when I repair main board ) .

What PSU should I use for : PPC233/MC60/50 , CV64, prelude, 1 scsi hdd, 1 ide hdd, 1 dvd rom, opalvision ? Is original PSU enough? Should I change inside with PC 370W? Any mods I can do to original PSU to make it safe? I do not want to risk PPC card.

I have got two sound cards: toccata and prelude. which one should I keep ?

Should I use SCSI HDD's (noise ) or IDE is enough ?

System is set to work with PicassoII. I can switch between P96 or CV system. Can I easy replace picasso with CV64 when using CV ?

Any help appreciated.

[alexh]

I don't think you can risk your PPC card. Either it will work well or it will be unstable.

If you want to limit current draw, dump the IDE drive, DVD-ROM & opalvision permanently (you don't need any of them)

The SCSI hard drives will be roughly 10x the speed of the IDE if they are Ultra-Wide SCSI III (or better) and connected to the CSPPC with no other devices on the chain. If it is too noisy (I cannot imagine it is noisier than the PSU fan) then get a new one. You could get a brand new 20Gig U320 + adapter for £20 off ebay.

CV64 is a supported device for Picasso96 so you can just continue to use that. No need to install Cybergraphics software. (Unless you want to try it)

There is very little difference between the Toccata & Prelude ZII. Both are supported in AHI. Both do not have a DSP (i.e. no MP3 offload). Whichever you like. I think Prelude ZII has more inputs.

[bebek]

Wow, thanks for reply . This SCSI speed is tempting ... .SO it never happened that A4000 PSU went berserk and burnt everything (like it happens in PC) ?

[alexh]

Never known that happen in a PC either!? Only fires I've ever had were due to either DUST clogging the fan or incorrectly connected wires.

[Zetr0]

@bebek

if you notice any unstibility then would be the time to change the PSU,

the original A4000 PSU is 175Watt unit (some are infact 150watt) - with the hardware you are plumbing into it a 300watt unit will more than suffice - my A4000 PSU whenway of the dodo's a while back - it was good opportunity to retro-fit a 450watt unit.

Its very unlikely that the 450watt unit will even see 50% use with a fully maxed out A4000D with Zorro cards (even with 4 IDE devices and say 4 SCSI HDD devices as well) to be honest.

Which is good because that means it wont be taxed as hard - as such the voltages will be nice and stable =)

[bebek]

So you think that I should start with stock PSU and see what happens ?


I thought opalvision will be good as scandoubler/deinterlacer ?

[alexh]

Originally Posted by bebek

So you think that I should start with stock PSU and see what happens ?

Yup. Whip everything out you don't need and give it a go. Perhaps give the PSU a clean with an Air-Duster. Replace the fan if it is whiny.

Originally Posted by bebek

I thought opalvision will be good as scandoubler/deinterlacer ?

Ok, if that is what it works as. I thought that it was a lame pre-RTG gfx card. Does your CV64 not come with the scan doubler module?

Are you sure the OpalVision has scandoubler capability?

EDIT: Answer is no, so bin the OpalVision it has no use what so ever.

[bebek]

From Amiga Hardware Database:

optional OpalVision Scan Rate converter / TBC
achieves 31 kHz non-interlaced output of Amiga and OpalVision graphics and animations
deinterlaces any incoming video source in either PAL or NTSC and includes full time base correction of incoming video


oops it is optional

[alexh]

Not only optional it was never ever released.

[rkauer]

The Opalvision only have the proprietary Hotkey that is a superimposer software, so a promotion tool is required with it to work, but the effort to mix it with another true RTG card not worth it.

[DarrenHD]

Originally Posted by bebek

I am about to put together my A4000 (when I repair main board ) .

What PSU should I use for : PPC233/MC60/50 , CV64, prelude, 1 scsi hdd, 1 ide hdd, 1 dvd rom, opalvision ? Is original PSU enough? Should I change inside with PC 370W? Any mods I can do to original PSU to make it safe? I do not want to risk PPC card.

I have got two sound cards: toccata and prelude. which one should I keep ?

Should I use SCSI HDD's (noise ) or IDE is enough ?

System is set to work with PicassoII. I can switch between P96 or CV system. Can I easy replace picasso with CV64 when using CV ?

Any help appreciated.

On my system I measured a peak load of approximately 72 watts, using stock A4000 power supply. My system was:

Amiga 4000, Mediator 4000Di, Voodoo 3, Realtek 8029PCI
Cyberstorm PPC with PPC and 060, 128MB ram, 16MB motherboard ram
IDE drive connected to cyberstorm scsi (via ACARD)
Floppy drive, IDE cdrom drive.

That was maxxing out PPC CPU. So for me, stock A4000 power supply was sufficient.

I don't know how much power the opalvision will suck, though.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by DarrenHD

I don't know how much power the opalvision will suck, though.

Hopefully non while it is sitting in a box waiting to be sold

[bebek]

Is there any use for 16 Mb memory on board when PPC card has got 128Mb ?

[orange]

I think 2Mb of those 16Mb are used as CHIP ram, and it won't boot without it.

[Zetr0]

@orange

The A4000 has 5 72pin sockets - the first socket (closest to the Zorro 3 port) is infact only for CHIP RAM, and can only use double sided SIMMS I beleive -

its maximum it can read from a souble sided SIMM is 2MB - I have tried this with a 4 MB double sided and an 8MB double sided SIMM

the remaining 4 72pin SIMM sockets can only use 4MB SIMMS - because of the angle of the sockets it physically rules out 95% of double sided 72 pn SIMMS.


@bebek

Its wise to use a little of the fast RAM (even just 4MB) for speed in setting up any adapter cards etc.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by bebek

Is there any use for 16 Mb memory on board when PPC card has got 128Mb ?

The software will setup priorities so the slower FastRAM on the motherboard is not used unless you absolutely need it.

[bebek]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@bebek

Its wise to use a little of the fast RAM (even just 4MB) for speed in setting up any adapter cards etc.

So ,the ram from CPU card kicks off later ? Is on board one first to see by system ?

[alexh]

Originally Posted by bebek

the ram from CPU card kicks off later ? Is on board one first to see by system ?

I would be amazed if this is really true. Or if it had any real impact. (i.e. not a theoretical issue) I'd like to know for sure.

[Zetr0]

@alexh

I will confirm later with some proper tests - but as far as I know a little fast goes a long way -

if I am not mistaken its quite likely only to be an issue with those accelerator adapter that DONT have any fast RAM as thats gets a higher priority - but I will confirm this with some test during this week (since the A4000's are out)

[alexh]

I've never seen one which does not put it's local RAM priority above motherboard fast RAM, but I've only had a Apollo 4040 & CS MKIII.

I am also pretty sure you could change the RAM priority as the first thing in your start-up sequence if you needed to and I imagine it would have the same effect.