aca 1232?

Hi guys, I've posted this on a few forums as i'm trying to find out which Amiga board is still somewhat active. I only had one reply and i was told to stay away from the ACA due to no FPU but I don't think I have many app's or games that requires an FPU.

About 6 year's ago I had my pride and joy, my power tower A1200, mediator, Bppc060/240 setup. But fell on a few hard times and I needed to get rid of a few bits. So the BPPC and Bvision was the first thing to go, tho I knew I would regret it later on. So once I got myself back on my feet, I decided to try out MorphOS and tho I'm happy ish with it. So i set up fab's great e-uae and got it all working like I wanted but still felt like a empty shell.

So last week I finally dug out my PT Amiga and fitted it all back into its desktop case and found a few other bits I had lying about like a 8mb memory expansion board. Switched it on and instantly felt the love so I downgraded my OS3.9 to 3.1, fitted an internal cd drive got everything working and installed fired up whdload and got a dos error on every game. so changed the jumpers on the memory expansion down to 4 megs and worked fine. So now one happy little camper so to say!

But I've looking at making my Amiga wireless, More for the sake off something I always wanted to do but never got around too even in the ppc form. So as my system is pretty stock I was looking at getting an accelerator for it. So main things I'll be doing on the internet with my Amiga is simply emails and aminet and uploading images to photobucket etc.

So seeing accelerators are at a premium these days, I saw the ACA1232 on amigakit and I was wondering would this be a good option for what I need for now? as it's for the internet things above, whdload, soundtracker and general just messing about! I did think about going down the PPC lines again but the cost involved and the pay off on usefulness isn't worth it to myself so I think the goal this time once I'm sorted is to go 060. So if any members on here can offer advice or tell me what there views/experience on the ACA1232 is I'd be happy.

[demolition]

I have the ACA1232 and I think it's a good little board. You'll only miss the FPU if you do some math-intensive stuff on it like 3D rendering or possible 3D games.
For normal games and WB3.1 stuff there's no need for an FPU.

If you're used to 060 and PPC systems, the 030 CPU will probably feel very slow. I have AWeb on my 1200 and while it does work, it only works for basic web pages, and it is quite slow. Even posting on EAB mobile feels tedious (much faster on my mobile phone).

Originally Posted by demolition

I have the ACA1232 and I think it's a good little board. You'll only miss the FPU if you do some math-intensive stuff on it like 3D rendering or possible 3D games.
For normal games and WB3.1 stuff there's no need for an FPU.

If you're used to 060 and PPC systems, the 030 CPU will probably feel very slow. I have AWeb on my 1200 and while it does work, it only works for basic web pages, and it is quite slow. Even posting on EAB mobile feels tedious (much faster on my mobile phone).

Thank you demolition, I'll hold off until amigakit get some more back in stock. Ive got my MorphOS machine for the games that require that extra bit of power like nightlong, tho saying that I don't enjoy playing much of that game on MorphOS due to the graphic corruption around Joshua.

When i first started expanding my amiga1200 i started off with a viper 030 and the apollo 040,blizzard 060, 040/160 ppc to the 060/240 and found very little use for the PPC except from nightlong and buggy heretic II.

And the thing I remember most was when i first fitted the viper and was greeted with the game telling me it found the accelerator so i think i'll be happy with it. I don't expect the amiga to fly on the internet but just something i wanted to do and experience but most of it is just as i said above getting files from aminet and emails. But i just wanted to check that the aca1232 would offer something other than memory over a stock amiga with memory expansion board.

[demolition]

Alternatively I can see that Vesalia has a few ACA1231/42 left for approximately the same price. It's clocked a bit faster and has RTC, although it's without MMU and only half the memory.

Originally Posted by demolition

Alternatively I can see that Vesalia has a few ACA1231/42 left for approximately the same price. It's clocked a bit faster and has RTC, although it's without MMU and only half the memory.

Thanks for that demolition, I was just going to get the aca1232 from amigakit at £116:00 but just noticed they have changed the price to a few pence short of £120.00 and vesalia want £127.70. I'm not to bothered about the 128meg seems a bit overkill on a 030 amiga So might just go for the aca 1231/42.

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by orko

Thanks for that demolition, I was just going to get the aca1232 from amigakit at £116:00 but just noticed they have changed the price to a few pence short of £120.00 and vesalia want £127.70. I'm not to bothered about the 128meg seems a bit overkill on a 030 amiga So might just go for the aca 1231/42.

That's a beast, I've got it

[fitzsteve]

I just picked up an ACA1232/33 I'm quite pleased with it, I'm making up a Gaming A1200 as I sold quite a few of my Amiga's recently. I also managed to pick up an Indivision AGA MkI tonight so it should make a nice little A1200.

The 1232 seems really quick, the MapRom function is excellent, I'm running OS3.9 and I have the BB2 Updates inside my custom Rom that is Mapped into the ACA so no waiting for the OS to reboot

I don't miss the FPU as it's only used for WHDLoad Games and occasional simple networking (WookieChat/Ibrowse which had non FPU version)

I don't browse the Internet on it really, just Aminet and EAB/Amibay mobile sites.

I must admit for productivity I have other Amiga's here in my collection, I have a couple of A4000's (one maxed out in a Mirage Pro Tower) and 2 A1200 with BPPC's (one in Tower with Mediator & one in Desktop with BVision) but it's much easier just to fire up the 1230 for some WHDLoad gaming!

You could even look for the ACA1230/56, that is pretty damn fast for a 1230! If you end up wanting more maybe a Blizzard 1260 would be a good choice? Along with an Indivision AGA in HighGrafX it's the next best thing to the BPPC/BVision setup at less than half the price

Oh and it'll run happily in a Desktop wedge without the need for vacuum cleaner cooling!

Anyway! Good luck with your project

[amigakit.com]

The newer ACA 1232 will be a better option for most WHDLOAD retro-gamers because it has a full 030 CPU with MMU (the ACA 1231 has an EC030). The ACA 1231 reportedly gets very hot and has a cooler to make it stable. The 1232 does not suffer this problem.

[demolition]

The heat is a good argument against the 1231, but do you really need an MMU for WHDLoad? I've never used it on my ACA1232.