A500 OCS to ECS

[polomint]

Hi all,

I currently have an A500 and am hoping to upgrade to ECS.

The current Agnus is the 1MB 8372A 318069, and Denise is the 8362.

I believe that the 1MB Agnus does not need to be changed (although changing it for the adapter with the 2MB Agnus is definitely going to happen at some point), but I believe that Denise needs to be changed to the Super Denise 8373 R4 390433-0.

Does anyone have any suggestions where to source the Super Denise ROM for the A500, are there any reliable suppliers that anyone would vouch for?

Once ECS is done, and my Gotek order gets here, the intention is to then shell out (within the next month or two) for an ACA500+, what kind of pricing is reasonable for those?

Thank you in advance !

EDIT: Almost forgot... Any recommendations for memory cards for ACA500+ ? Are there any pitfalls I should watch out for

[brett71]

Originally Posted by polomint

Hi all,

I currently have an A500 and am hoping to upgrade to ECS.

The current Agnus is the 1MB 8372A 318069, and Denise is the 8362.

I believe that the 1MB Agnus does not need to be changed (although changing it for the adapter with the 2MB Agnus is definitely going to happen at some point), but I believe that Denise needs to be changed to the Super Denise 8373 R4 390433-0.

Does anyone have any suggestions where to source the Super Denise ROM for the A500, are there any reliable suppliers that anyone would vouch for?

Once ECS is done, and my Gotek order gets here, the intention is to then shell out (within the next month or two) for an ACA500+, what kind of pricing is reasonable for those?

Thank you in advance !

EDIT: Almost forgot... Any recommendations for memory cards for ACA500+ ? Are there any pitfalls I should watch out for

You pretty much have the correct course of action planned out. Your 1MB Agnus is the right chip and you're right about the part number for the Super Denise. I sold one of those on eBay not too long ago, and there are others, mostly in the UK that are selling used/tested ones. I've bought 3 from those very same UK sources and can confirm the ones I've gotten have been working and genuine. They're about $50 without shipping, which I find reasonable.

As for memory cards for the ACA500+ I use the Sandisk Ultra 8GB CF cards and they seem to work well for me.

[polomint]

Originally Posted by brett71

You pretty much have the correct course of action planned out. Your 1MB Agnus is the right chip and you're right about the part number for the Super Denise. I sold one of those on eBay not too long ago, and there are others, mostly in the UK that are selling used/tested ones. I've bought 3 from those very same UK sources and can confirm the ones I've gotten have been working and genuine. They're about $50 without shipping, which I find reasonable.

As for memory cards for the ACA500+ I use the Sandisk Ultra 8GB CF cards and they seem to work well for me.

Excellent, thank you for confirming that for me. I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to make a stupid mistake with the above

Time to go a'hunting Super Denise

[Toni Wilen]

Why do you need Super Denise? Super Denise features are almost useless. (It is fine if you only want it because you can )

[zipper]

That's why I got it; the new modes were nice on the WB - except four colors not...

[polomint]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Why do you need Super Denise? Super Denise features are almost useless. (It is fine if you only want it because you can )

Yeah, it's mainly because I can I did the same with my last A500 back around 1991 and added an A590. I'd just like to get this A500 to around that same spec.

Hmm, forgot about getting a KS2 chip heh

[polomint]

Originally Posted by zipper

That's why I got it; the new modes were nice on the WB - except four colors not...

Yeah, I will spend 90% of my time using Workbench so some half decent screen modes would be good.

[Jope]

Then you need an 030+RTG.. :-)

[polomint]

Originally Posted by Jope

Then you need an 030+RTG.. :-)

Ohhh this is going to end up costing me a bit in the end lol. The fun of retro

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[simon_m74]

I have a 500 with:
Agnus: 8372A / 318069-02
Denise: 8362R8 - but I have a 8373R4 ready to install.
Gary: 5719
Paula: 8364R7
ROM :3.1 v40.63
Rev 6A motherboard.

I have an A501 - so I plan to do the JP2 & JP7 mod to make it all 1mb ChipRam.
I also have a TF536.

Do I have the correct kit to ECS my 500?


The board states `512k/1M RAM`, where only 4 of 8 slots are populated.

If I was to buy more Ram of the same, what mods (if any) would I have to make it 1mb internal ?

OR just do the JP2/7 mod, to use the A501 as additional ChipMem ?

[zipper]

Jumper mod - if you really need 1MB Chip. Then a fast mem addition would be nice...I think some games woud benefit of some Fast Ram.

[simon_m74]

I also have a 1.5mb upgrade that has a gary mod board. It's almost as old as the amiga though!
If I were to use that instead of the 0.5mb a501, could I get 2mb fast/chip mem?

[Jope]

Not so trivial to get a rev 6 to 2MB by utilizing a large trapdoor expansion.

It is possible with an A3000 2MB Agnus, which is mostly pin compatible with the A500 Agnus. Jens is apparently working on an adapter board that converts an A600 Agnus to be A3000 compatible.

However I would recommend finding a megachip board instead.

[simon_m74]

I have a few A3000 Agnus`s
2x 8375/390544-01

2x 8372A/318069-02 (and another already in my A500)

1x 8372AB/318069-03

[duga]

Originally Posted by Jope

Not so trivial to get a rev 6 to 2MB by utilizing a large trapdoor expansion.

It is possible with an A3000 2MB Agnus, which is mostly pin compatible with the A500 Agnus. Jens is apparently working on an adapter board that converts an A600 Agnus to be A3000 compatible.

However I would recommend finding a megachip board instead.

Or be happy with 1 MB chip in a rev 6A A500, and go the route for a 2 MB ECS machine via A500 Plus, A600 or A3000 instead.

[zipper]

I went the Megachip way. Supraturbo, then Apollo 520. (and tower + Blizzard2060...)

[Jope]

Originally Posted by simon_m74

I have a few A3000 Agnus`s
2x 8375/390544-01

These are 2MB A600 Agnuses. The pinout is subtly different to the A500/B2000/3000 and will need a carrier board.

2x 8372A/318069-02 (and another already in my A500)

These are 1MB A500/B2000 Agnuses.

1x 8372AB/318069-03

This is a 2MB A3000 Agnus. The pinout is close enough to an A500/A2000 that motherboard modifications are sufficient to achieve 2MB without a MegaChip.