Apollo 1260 32MB FAST or Blizzard 1260 64MB FAST?

[prart]

Ok, so i have to make choice here: apollo is a professionally tuned 1240 version in perfect condition, rock stable.
i know that apollo is slighty faster (ram access) but blizzard have more ram.
so which one do You recommend?

[Zetr0]

@prart

now this is a difficult question... hmmm...

Cost effectively I would plumb for the Apollo060 (i have one mmmMmm yummy) they can be really pissy about what memory you put in it though. its like there timings are absolute! (which they all are but.. meh bad joke)

If you are after MAXIMUM RAMOSCITY, then the Blizzard has that in spades, It also has FASTER Fast Ram Access and THE BETTER SCSI interface being DMA and allowing for a further 128MB of ram. (256MB on an Amiga Oooo weak at the knees)

"All Rev'd up and no place to go"

If i was building an accelerated Amiga from scratch i would SERIOUSLY consider a managed SCSI solution, it free's up the CPU hogging IDE controller. even a standard 68000 chip really benefits from SCSI!

The Apollo implementation of SCSI is beyond the pathetic, being not DMA and just a slightly faster PIO manages a pathetic 2MB persec with an 060 behind it!

personally I would go for a fast scsi option and then convert this using an ACard to IDE, thus all the speed increase of SCSI management, and the cheapness of IDE

However that being said, there are Other IDE solutions like Fast ATA to consider.

anyway i do hope that the above ramble helps.

[Damion]

Originally Posted by prart

Ok, so i have to make choice here: apollo is a professionally tuned 1240 version in perfect condition, rock stable.
i know that apollo is slighty faster (ram access) but blizzard have more ram.
so which one do You recommend?

It's a tough decision, but I think Zetr0 summed things up nicely. I also love my Apollo, as my main interest on the A1200 is AGA demos... so the "overclockability" and fast access to the amiga chipset makes it a good choice. (Downside is the 32 MB limitation in the desktop case, a real bummer for the few demos which require more.) I've also found the Apollo to be just as stable as my Blizzard was. :shrug:

For general use the Blizzard might be a better choice, if I owned another I would definitely find a SCSI kit (and use an ACARD adapter).

[laser]

blizzard is the best choice by far...more memory...can be disconected in every boot...better scsi....better design.....fits better on the A1200 desktop

the apollo' faster memory access is noticed only in benchmarks ....not on real life....means....not speed difference noticed on applications or games

[DoogUK]

either way you are flying.

I think the apollo would be the winner if it allowed for the extra ram.

[prart]

Blizzard is made by DCE model if it makes some difference.
i`m still undecided, maybe blizzard after all...

[Charlie]

I'd go for the blizzard, reasons mentioned so far...
...but either (working stably) would be fine.

[Iznougoud]

I guess it all boils down to cost, and type of usage. From what I'm told, the Apollo actually outperforms the Blizzard when it comes to RAM-access - that is, in speed. By how much, I don't know. On the other hand, the amount of RAM is severely limited on the Apollo. At least by todays standards. I suppose that when it was marketed, 32Mb RAM was an almost ridicilous amount of memory (I know for a fact it was - I bought myself a stick of 32Mb EDO in 1998 for my A1200, and almost felt guilty doing so - what on Earth could justify all that RAM? . On the A1200 I never came close to using all those 32Mb (other than as a RAM-disk), although it was nice to have and made some "lazy" handling possible. Now I'm using an A2000 with a graphics board and AOS3.9, and what do you know - just by booting into Workbench some 3 or 4Mb is gone. Which is an insane amount by Amiga-standards. If you, for example, on top of that decide to play around some with 16 or 24-bit graphics - well you're way past those 32Mb before you know it - correction: If you only have 32Mb, you will definitely KNOW it

As for SCSI, whatever SCSI offered by Apollo is crap. Still from what I've been told. Blizzard's SCSI works fine. I know that from experience.

Personally, I would go with the Blizzard - because of the amount of RAM - you just can't get enough of it. And 32Mb simply isn't enough anymore. But as mentioned earlier, there's also the matter of cost that needs to be taken into account.

[Charlie]

Hmmm,
I'm sure I saw a table comparing the memory speeds of these cards in an old AF I was reading a couple of days ago...
...yes, I'm that sad!

I'll try to scan it & stick on on this thread this evening an case any are interested.

[Zetr0]

Although you need to modify the Apollo 060 to support a further 32MB ram (64MB total)

I will say you could get a 90 degree angled simm port and add that to the Apollo, it would fit in a desktop amiga then with 64MB of ram *tasty*, i have one of these,

I would also love to mug alexh and take one of his Uber l33t 100mhz capable 060 chips .... what thats a bad thing... hey i have tried financial bribery, love.... even undying souls.... the man just wont budge... so imma thinking a lump on the head with my trusty skip-jack will bring him round to my way of thinking

Hmmmm whats that about legality?.... oh.... dont tell me that now... wait till after i can then claim ignorance... (before the fact for a change )

[DoogUK]

http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZic-china

these have the said 060's oh bearded one...they even have some 020's

[Zetr0]

Oh this is going to make me sound bad...

I already have I2C China in my favourites and check them weekly.... yeah yeah... geeky as hell i know.

They have stopped doing CPU job-lots which is a shame I managed to pickup 3 060's and 3 040 all various models for £25 including postage... it would seem that they googled a price then settled on a higher one

I do appreciate the link though, this reminds me to buy some more eeproms and make a couple of programming converters

[Iznougoud]

Originally Posted by DoogUK

http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZic-china

these have the said 060's oh bearded one...they even have some 020's

"Unsolder"? What do they mean by that? That it isn't socketed?

[Zetr0]

@Izy

its either a chip that has been removed from a board (unsoldered) or you have to unsolder it yourself.

I bought two batches of EC020 from them, the first batch was immaculate NOS, but the second batch i had to get the hot air fired up as they needed to be removed from the boards they were on, but hey at 50pence each i wasn't complaining

[Iznougoud]

Well, if you're to practice soldering or de-soldering chips, I suppose that's the price range you should be aiming at

[ant512]

*Hated* my Apollo 1260. Hated it so much, in fact, that I threw it in for free when I sold my two A600s. Badly overclocked rubbish that never worked properly in the two years I owned it, despite trying every cooling fix I could think of, getting the 1d.4 mobo problems fixed, trying dozens of SIMMs, tinkering with the OS, tinkering with the PSU and tinkering with hacks and patches.

The Blizzard 1260, on the other hand, is great. So great that I bought two, the DCE tower version for my main 1200, and a Phase 5 desktop version for one of my other 1200s.

[Iznougoud]

I've had two Blizzard-boards over the years, and not one Apollo. The Blizzard IV (68030/50MHz), which in my opinion probably was the one expansion for the A1200 at the time that offered the most "bang for the buck". Hands down. Also ran flawlessly for 10 years. And probably still does.

At present, I'm using the Blizzard A2040, which undoubtedly does it's job. As has been stated elsewhere, I'm not quite as happy with that particular board though. But that is most probably due to the properties of the 68040/40MHz rather than the board itself. In both cases, however, I've found the ability to expand the system with FastRAM to be crucial. The Blizzard IV had, at the end, 64Mb FastRAM. And the A2040 is expanded to 128Mb FastRAM. Hence my preference for Blizzard, without even having experienced Apollo.

[Zetr0]

@ant512

I can understand the loathing!!! when i got my Apollo 060 the first couple of months were a complete nightmare, with errors, guru's and random system hangs... I was infuriated! that card at the time cost me the better part of £300.

So i went on a what can only best described as a journey to find the fault. and it turned out to be MEMORY, the Apollo 040/060 are perhaps the MOST ANAL card for memory i have ever known.. it took me a better part of a month to find the most appropriate memory that didn't crash / hang the system. (60ns FPM 32mb module) which at the time was not overly cheap.

But once i had that sorted out. Mmmmmmmmm life was good

[jimmer78]

Hi,

Will this work with an apollo 1240?

http://www.memory-configurator.co.uk...ule/index.html

[DoogUK]

No, the apollo 1240/1260's only support 32 mb maximum in one slot.

You can add a second simm socket to the card if you want to achieve 64mb.

Personaly i've never run out of memory with just the 32 mb.