Amiga 500 upgrade help

Tolismlf · 10 July 2004, 20:56

I have my trusty Amiga 500 and i am thinking of upgrading it a bit.
I want to buy a HDD, memory expansion, 3.1 kickroms, and an accelerator.
I think all these shouldn't be expensive on ebay right?
The Amiga has 1.3 Kickstart and 1Mb memory.
What do you suggest?

10 July 2004, 21:04

I love my GVP A500-HD8+ It has a 80mb SCSI drive and 2mb GVP ram, strongly recommended.

Whatever you buy, look for a "disable" switch for some kind just to boot floppy games properly.

adgloride · 11 July 2004, 01:54

It may be cheaper getting hold of an amiga 1200 and expanding that and just leaving the amiga 500 how it is. If you get hold of the right a1200 on ebay it may have 3.1 roms and a built in hard disk. If your lucky it may also have extra memory. An accelerator board will probably be easier to find than looking for an a500 board.

Unknown_K · 11 July 2004, 03:59

It all depends on what you want to do with it when your done.

You are better off with an A1200 if you want to run an accelerator, the A500 is a bit limited on upgrades that dont cost a fortune.

An A2000HD system is nice if your into desktops

Tolismlf · 11 July 2004, 09:17

I bought that A500 1 MB and a 1084S monitor in 1991 for 600 euro!
I had sold that particular A500 back in 1994 for 120 euro (only the keyboard).. I was going to buy the A1200 but then Commodore crashed and i thought about it. I took back the A500 from the friend i had sold it for 50 euro in 1996 as he had bought a Playstation and he thought that Amiga was crap. All these years i had the Amiga in the closet! I am thinking maybe i should buy that A1200 now..
Just for having a powerful computer at home that doesn't need to Microsoft supported !!

23 July 2004, 22:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tolismlf

I have my trusty Amiga 500 and i am thinking of upgrading it a bit.
I want to buy a HDD, memory expansion, 3.1 kickroms, and an accelerator.
I think all these shouldn't be expensive on ebay right?
The Amiga has 1.3 Kickstart and 1Mb memory.
What do you suggest?

Well, I put my Amiga 500 into a nice vintage PC tower case. Works great and looks cool too.

Eny- · 28 July 2004, 13:22

I'm thinking of doing that with my A500 / A500+ and A600's. I will only keep my A1200

Amiga1992 · 28 July 2004, 13:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tolismlf

I think all these shouldn't be expensive on ebay right?

Wrong. This stuff is hard to come by and quite expensive on eBay. My suggestion: buy an expanded A1200 instead, or buyy an A1200 and expand that. It surely will be cheaper.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoomMaster

Well, I put my Amiga 500 into a nice vintage PC tower case. Works great and looks cool too.

ACK! How can it look cool?

Unknown_K · 28 July 2004, 18:44

I think the A1200's and A500's look cool in the keyboard cases they are in from the factory. Once you start towering them they look just like a custom built PC (except there is more fucked up wiring and adapters on the inside of the case).

Taking something that is distinct looking and making it look like a common item is not 'cool' to me. The only reason I would remove an A1200 from its case is if its case is extremely discolored or broken/cracked.

I do admit I have no need for processor upgrades faster then an 030/50 which neatly fits into the A1200 expansion bay, so people who want PPC addons for their gear (no fucking idea why they do) can shovel tons of money into a bottomless pit and tower away.

A destop 2000 or 4000 is much easier to upgrade and still retains the original Amiga look.

Syko · 03 August 2004, 17:18

I've posted a pdf on upgrading the A500 before (should still be around in the post, or I can mail it) and I have to say that to even get the same performance as an A1200 is a hell of a lot of work....

If you want max performance then A3000 or A4000 preferably one of the tower versions is the way to go, as you can get PPC cards, PCI converters, NIC's and fast, cheap PC gfx cards; all on the same bus and all running full speed... not cheap, but currently as fast as you can get using original Amiga h/w.

Or you could get a G4 Amiga One. Not at all cheap, but no contenders at all in performance. Not sure about compatability though...

If you want to play games, leave it std for best compatability... my A500 has 1.3 ROMs, a 286 16MHz bridgeboard, and 1/2MB chip, 1/2MB trapdoor RAM. It plays every A500 compatible game I have ever tried, and that's just the way I like it

OK, a few don't like the trapdoor RAM, but I can switch that off; none of them's complained about the 286 though...

And if you want to add zorro slots, I have an old doc for doing just that, four (or more) slots, full auto-config, but no bus controller

long as you don't try anything that locks the bus (usually accelerator cards) it's fine.

The only thing I'd add to your list is a couple of external floppy drives for multi-disk games

10 July 2004, 20:56	#1
Tolismlf Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Greece Posts: 237	Amiga 500 upgrade help I have my trusty Amiga 500 and i am thinking of upgrading it a bit. I want to buy a HDD, memory expansion, 3.1 kickroms, and an accelerator. I think all these shouldn't be expensive on ebay right? The Amiga has 1.3 Kickstart and 1Mb memory. What do you suggest?

03 August 2004, 17:18	#10
Syko Now got GSX750F :)) Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Halifax UK Age: 60 Posts: 584	I've posted a pdf on upgrading the A500 before (should still be around in the post, or I can mail it) and I have to say that to even get the same performance as an A1200 is a hell of a lot of work.... If you want max performance then A3000 or A4000 preferably one of the tower versions is the way to go, as you can get PPC cards, PCI converters, NIC's and fast, cheap PC gfx cards; all on the same bus and all running full speed... not cheap, but currently as fast as you can get using original Amiga h/w. Or you could get a G4 Amiga One. Not at all cheap, but no contenders at all in performance. Not sure about compatability though... If you want to play games, leave it std for best compatability... my A500 has 1.3 ROMs, a 286 16MHz bridgeboard, and 1/2MB chip, 1/2MB trapdoor RAM. It plays every A500 compatible game I have ever tried, and that's just the way I like it OK, a few don't like the trapdoor RAM, but I can switch that off; none of them's complained about the 286 though... And if you want to add zorro slots, I have an old doc for doing just that, four (or more) slots, full auto-config, but no bus controller long as you don't try anything that locks the bus (usually accelerator cards) it's fine. The only thing I'd add to your list is a couple of external floppy drives for multi-disk games Last edited by Syko; 03 August 2004 at 17:50.

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10 July 2004, 21:04	#2
oldpx Posts: n/a	I love my GVP A500-HD8+ It has a 80mb SCSI drive and 2mb GVP ram, strongly recommended. Whatever you buy, look for a "disable" switch for some kind just to boot floppy games properly.

11 July 2004, 01:54	#3
adgloride Amiga Mod Chipper Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: UK Age: 51 Posts: 229	It may be cheaper getting hold of an amiga 1200 and expanding that and just leaving the amiga 500 how it is. If you get hold of the right a1200 on ebay it may have 3.1 roms and a built in hard disk. If your lucky it may also have extra memory. An accelerator board will probably be easier to find than looking for an a500 board.

11 July 2004, 03:59	#4
Unknown_K Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio/USA Age: 55 Posts: 1,380	It all depends on what you want to do with it when your done. You are better off with an A1200 if you want to run an accelerator, the A500 is a bit limited on upgrades that dont cost a fortune. An A2000HD system is nice if your into desktops

11 July 2004, 09:17	#5
Tolismlf Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Greece Posts: 237	I bought that A500 1 MB and a 1084S monitor in 1991 for 600 euro! I had sold that particular A500 back in 1994 for 120 euro (only the keyboard).. I was going to buy the A1200 but then Commodore crashed and i thought about it. I took back the A500 from the friend i had sold it for 50 euro in 1996 as he had bought a Playstation and he thought that Amiga was crap. All these years i had the Amiga in the closet! I am thinking maybe i should buy that A1200 now.. Just for having a powerful computer at home that doesn't need to Microsoft supported !!

28 July 2004, 13:22	#7
Eny- R3tr0 G4m3r Join Date: May 2004 Location: Lisbon - Portugal Age: 44 Posts: 327	I'm thinking of doing that with my A500 / A500+ and A600's. I will only keep my A1200

28 July 2004, 18:44	#9
Unknown_K Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio/USA Age: 55 Posts: 1,380	I think the A1200's and A500's look cool in the keyboard cases they are in from the factory. Once you start towering them they look just like a custom built PC (except there is more fucked up wiring and adapters on the inside of the case). Taking something that is distinct looking and making it look like a common item is not 'cool' to me. The only reason I would remove an A1200 from its case is if its case is extremely discolored or broken/cracked. I do admit I have no need for processor upgrades faster then an 030/50 which neatly fits into the A1200 expansion bay, so people who want PPC addons for their gear (no fucking idea why they do) can shovel tons of money into a bottomless pit and tower away. A destop 2000 or 4000 is much easier to upgrade and still retains the original Amiga look.

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