Which A500 accelerator?

[Mustangjeff]

I'm pretty excited to see the news that we'll have a couple new A500 accelerators to pick from. The ACA500 from Jens, and the Zeus68k from Mr.Vince both look like nice products that will serve my purpose in creating an A500 based WHDLoad machine.

The question is.. Which one to get?

Zeus68K - 7Mhz/50mhz, 8 mb ram, IDE controller, kickstart rom switcher

ACA500 - 14Mhz, 2 mb RAM, IDE controller, A1200 expansion slot

The Zeus appears more powerful out of the box, but a few things have me leaning towards the ACA500.

#1 I think Jens will have the ACA500 available in the next six months, and he has an excellent track record of bringing products to market. No idea when the zeus will be available.

#2 Cost for the ACA500 will be around 80 EUR, while the Zeus will be more. How much more we really don't know, but it's a factor. In fact the ACA500 + ACA1220 combo would cost 170 EUR so that becomes very attractive depending on where the zeus lands. Although, is a 50Mhz 680000 w/8mb ram better than a 16mhz 68020 w/128mh ram?

Any other thoughts or opinions on these two items? Anything I'm missing in making a decision?

Thanks

[1time]

I will not go in to details. But i will personally go for a Zeus.

[moijk]

I'll get any of them that work with the gvp hd+ for the extra oomph.

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by 1time

I will not go in to details. But i will personally go for a Zeus.

Pointless post, why wont you go into details? That's the whole point of a discussion thread...

Originally Posted by moijk

I'll get any of them that work with the gvp hd+ for the extra oomph.

Jens has stated you cannot use any side expansion with the ACA500

Chances are I'll be getting one of each, the ACA500 will be for my A500+ and the Zeus I'm hoping will fit in my A1000, if not can always go in the A500 if I'm not happy with the ACA for some reason.

I'm really hoping the ACA will work with a 1260 or PPC (will have to wait and see) I would love to have a PPC equipped A500+ for shits and giggles

The Zeus looks awesome, depends on price tag too but I try and support every new Amiga item when they come out.

[1time]

fitzsteve.. Thanks for your very "pointfull" comment. You are a true hero.

And now when im not typing from a conference room at work i will full fill my pointless post with the fact that Jens´s latest product´s has not been that great.
Sure, product´s is coming out very quick but with many errors. If it is not suffering from a missing MMU it is failing in some sort of software failure or timing issues. So my $ is on Zeus. I think some competition in this area is great.

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by 1time

fitzsteve.. Thanks for your very "pointfull" comment. You are a true hero.

You're welcome

[moijk]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Jens has stated you cannot use any side expansion with the ACA500

if the z does allow for that, it is of course the choice. if not i'll probably get one just to have one for the next a500

[kipper2k]

i like to buy from developers to keep the Amiga alive, but ultimately the pocketbook speaks the loudest

[Mustangjeff]

The side expansion is a non-issue to me since my A500 is a 1mb rev6a stock machine, and I don't own any side expansion peripherals.

I'm really amazed by both of these products. IMO the GVP A530 was probably the pinnacle of A500 expansion engineering, but that was created by a great company at the height of the Amiga product. These new products are being created by just a few people for a small retro based consumer group, and in some respects are offering more advanced options.

I'd love to see Jens create an 040 based A1200 accelerator to connect to the ACA500. That would be a rocking A500

[clauddio]

Originally Posted by Mustangjeff

I'm pretty excited to see the news that we'll have a couple new A500 accelerators to pick from. The ACA500 from Jens, and the Zeus68k from Mr.Vince both look like nice products that will serve my purpose in creating an A500 based WHDLoad machine.

The question is.. Which one to get?

Zeus68K - 7Mhz/50mhz, 8 mb ram, IDE controller, kickstart rom switcher

ACA500 - 14Mhz, 2 mb RAM, IDE controller, A1200 expansion slot

The Zeus appears more powerful out of the box, but a few things have me leaning towards the ACA500.

#1 I think Jens will have the ACA500 available in the next six months, and he has an excellent track record of bringing products to market. No idea when the zeus will be available.

#2 Cost for the ACA500 will be around 80 EUR, while the Zeus will be more. How much more we really don't know, but it's a factor. In fact the ACA500 + ACA1220 combo would cost 170 EUR so that becomes very attractive depending on where the zeus lands. Although, is a 50Mhz 680000 w/8mb ram better than a 16mhz 68020 w/128mh ram?

Any other thoughts or opinions on these two items? Anything I'm missing in making a decision?

Thanks

if you want the better for the A500 get the old A530 by GVP it's the best by far even better than the new projects like ACA or Zeus

[moijk]

Originally Posted by clauddio

if you want the better for the A500 get the old A530 by GVP it's the best by far even better than the new projects like ACA or Zeus

Unless memory is bottleneck in the gvp, the 030/40 ought to fly in comparison.

[Mustangjeff]

Like I said, the A530 is probably the best expansion device ever made, but they are old, rare, and expensive.

But... I actually prefer to have the entire expansion under the A500 case. The A500 has a big enough footprint without adding another 6 inches off the side. An A500 with a Zeus or ACA500 with a CF boot device makes for a nice and quiet, lower power, and somewhat portible machine.

I really need to sell one of my A2000's to fund the A500 upgrades

[dJOS]

Im not sure there is any point debating the merits of the 2 boards until the specs are finalised for both.

Jens has hinted at some sort of external connectivity option being incorporated into the design of the aca-500 and who knows what will ultimately be possible with the FPGA on the Zeus!

Personally I wish Jens would up the RAM to 8MB on the aca-500 as 2mb makes it hard for me to want his board (i dont know that I want to add an aca-12xx to my 500+).

[clauddio]

Originally Posted by Mustangjeff

But... I actually prefer to have the entire expansion under the A500 case. The A500 has a big enough footprint without adding another 6 inches off the side.

then you can search for the Viper 530 another great accelerator for the A500 but very and very rare...it seems that were done a few ...or fans love it and don't want to sell it

the viper 530 go inside the A500 case, have ide+scsi and supports up to 128mb
rethinking ....the VIper 530 is the best and more complete turboboard the A500

[Photon]

Hm, came here from a Google on accelerators in ACA500 It's about to be released so if you want to read about it there is some info here.

[mikele]

Originally Posted by Mustangjeff

I'd love to see Jens create an 040 based A1200 accelerator to connect to the ACA500. That would be a rocking A500

I guess Vesalia could probably release 040 easily by now, but what's the point? They prefer to make profit on older technology instead, since they figured out there's still significant demand for slower and lesser cpu's. There's no determination to update their offer, because 020 and 030 based cards are selling like hot cakes.

That's the reason I am buying Zeus instead of ACA, I choose Vampire/Furia over ACA 620. My money goes to Bobo, Majsta, Kipper and other mavericks willing to share their latest ideas. Their ideas prevent us from paying ridiculous prices, which are the result of monopoly (go to archive posts and find out about lousy A600 hardware options in the past - before Kipper2k FAST RAM expansion you had to pay $200 or so for ACA 630 just to be able to run Whdload !)

[DonAmiga]

For me its all about being inside the A500 case keeping the smaller footprint

[lukassid]

Originally Posted by mikele

That's the reason I am buying Zeus instead of ACA, I choose Vampire/Furia over ACA 620. My money goes to Bobo, Majsta, Kipper and other mavericks willing to share their latest ideas. Their ideas prevent us from paying ridiculous prices, which are the result of monopoly (go to archive posts and find out about lousy A600 hardware options in the past - before Kipper2k FAST RAM expansion you had to pay $200 or so for ACA 630 just to be able to run Whdload !)

I don't agree with you. These things cost time and a lot of money to make. With Individual Computers you get full support and working product. I'm buying anything for my a600 to support community but I actually use ACA daily as it's just work. But yeah I want more power.

[SS454]

Indi AGA MK2 works so well he stopped selling it for a while.

[Vot]

Originally Posted by SS454

Indi AGA MK2 works so well he stopped selling it for a while.

Winge winge winge winge.