Suggestions for p*imping up an A600
 

Been tinkering with the idea of getting a A600, jut because it's so compact :D I have a A1200 (see sig), but I never was a AGA gamer, so I could easily live with just ocs/ecs games as soon as the rig otherwise works as reliably as the current one.

So, if I get A A600, what expansions should I get for it? My main target is to play whdload games :D I'll have the same software setup (Classicwb etc. excluding aga games...) on an 8GB cf hdd (pfs3), but what else? Naturally the computer will be recapped before I'll start tuning it :)

I know everybody will scream for Vampire (or Furia for that matter), but what about for example the A604n chipmem expansion? Do I need it for whdload games?

Timing fixes? Other fixes?

*edit*

It seems upgrading the chipmem to 2MB is very useful/must have for whdload games.

Having a chipmem expansion (of which the 604 is just one) is not a bad idea, and then you really need a Furia to avoid a lot of WHDload headaches.

Unfortunately the Furia can't be disabled, so compatibility with floppy-only games will be low.

2MB chip + Furia or ACA620. Vampire is overkill for WHDLoad and won't really add anything compared to the mentioned 020 accelerators (other than cost).

Indivision ECS could also be useful depending on your choice of monitor. It works reasonably well for gaming as well as standard WB stuff.

Ok, so 604n + ACA 620 + Indivision ECS together start to sound pretty nice indeed :) Thanks for the tips!

I have a Furia EC020 in one of my A600's. It could be slightly unstable under 3.0 Rom, but is much better under 3.1. its a 68020 @33Mhz with FPU, and it's pretty zippy, gives a Sysinfo speed of around 6700 ish, compared to the A1200 with an ACA1221ec @28mhz, which gets around 5600. These figures mean nothing of course, but its something to gauge against. in real world use, there is quite a noticeable difference, and mapping the ROM makes WB a joy to use, cheap to, about the same price as a RAM only upgrade, although be wary, it does, for some reason, make the miggy very picky about what CF cards it will use, Transcend wouldn't have it, Sandisk, as always, rock. the makers of the card have acknowledged "dropping some card compatibility for speed"

:spin

Ok, it seems I could also do just fine without the Indi, so...

What about compatibility? If I'd have a recapped A600 with ACA 620 V2 and 604n, are there any significant problems with whdload compared to my current setup (excluding the "problem" of running AGA games)? The current setup is very compatible (there are several threads about the 1230IV + A1200 compatibilitywise), but how would the A600 compare to that?

I just wanna be sure :D

Some people report a few compatibility problems with some WHDLoad slaves and the ACA620, but most slaves seemed to work fine for me.

I don't know if the Furia does any better in this regard.

had no issues here laoding WHDLoad stuff with the Furia, although the biggest problem the o/p might face, if sourcing an ACA620, if i would leave it TBH, the ACA620 is quite to find used, and nowhere near as zippy as the Furia, which offers almost identical performance to the ACA630.


:evilgrin

I wouldn't get the Indivision.

Personally I have an ACA620 and it works just great, and I haven't had as many problems as I ever did with my Microbotics XA1230. I cannot think of a single game that gave me issues. So I usually try WHDLoad on my A600 because my A1200 is a shit show in comparison.

I heard good things of the Fúria and am kind of interested in getting one (if I can ever muster the necessary expendable income).

Also to keep your options economic and varied, I wouldn't get a 604n, and would go for any generic 1MB Chip RAM upgrade. I See no point on a 604n unless you want a Clockport (what for?) or connect an Indivision (which I wouldn't get as I said). Look on Amibay for RAM expansions.

sell your ACA620, and get the Furia, it's double the speed of the ACA620, and since the 620 is a kinda rare bird now, you would get a good price on it :)

:spin

I have no need for extra speed, this trend of trying to put as fast a processor in an Amiga as possible really pisses me off.
The ACA620 works well for me for what I use and I intend to keep it. Don't worry, I have 2 other A600s to put a Fúria on, but as I said, I don't have the means, and I am not one going to profit off Amiga hardware like a scalper. I cannot see how one can get more than the $90 it costed originally and if it does, am not interested in promoting such stupidity in the used goods market for Amiga.

not advocating "scalping" anyone, or anything fella, the cost of a new Furia, would be the cost of an ACA620 if you sold it for cost price. and also not trying to condone more speed for the sake of it, but the FPU and other features, make for a far better card, at roughly the same cost. Just putting it out there

:p

Ok, now this is bgetting interesting :) I never thought that the suggested accelerators would actually not be available as new... Bugger :/

Ok, if I'd want to have a new accelerator (warranty and all, you know), what are my options in that case? It seems that ACA 620/630 is out of stock. Furia (and Vampire) are the only ones which are available.

I then thought that what if I go with the "just add ram" option: get a cheap 1MB chipmem board and also a cheap 4MB fast ram board (to be able to use the pcmcia) from Kipper2k. Then I'd have the original (very slow...) cpu, but enough ram to run 99% of the ocs/ecs whdload games, right? I'd have to downgrade to ClassicWB 68k from the curent Full, but, that's not a problem.

Just having the plain 68000 CPU can be an issue with some slaves since they are mostly designed for 020+. But it would be a cheap solution to find a 8MB fast mem expansion which clips on to the CPU. No matter what you get, you would need to get a 1MB chip mem board for the trapdoor so might as well start with that.

An FPU is irrelevant towards running WHDLoad and so is the speed difference between the ACA620 and Furia. It was possible to get the ACA620 not long ago so perhaps it will be available again soon? I also thought it was possible to get the Furia without too much trouble.

Ok, I guess I'll set my sights on the Furia without the FPU and a 1MB chipmem expansion plus a cheap SD card adapter + 8GB SD instead of a CF. I understood that SD cards would be less picky about the Furia compared to CF cards?

Correct. I gave up on CF as I couldn't get it to work so switched to an SD card and it worked straight away.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ps8m9lh2bp.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...psd70w7ftv.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...pskmdv1qn0.jpg

Great setup :great That's pretty much what I'd want! Any problems with whdload games?

You mention the Furia without FPU but can you even get it without FPU?

It's listed without FPU here:

http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=164

Looks like very good value for money that one.