The Best Amiga PCI Solution?

[Zetr0]

Hello my fellow Amigan's

Okay so here i am, towards the impass you might say,
I have tried and are now tired of the Zorro implementations of many-a-cheap pci version but as i am to go PCI what solution should i go for?

This threads title proclaims the best, however this is really a personal level between compatability and cost.

So obvously like anything in life their are constraints:

1) Must be compatable with A1200

and

2) Must operate with standard 68040 or 060 and not demand a PPC
(as i dont have nor want one *ppc that is* ).

yet finally

3) Cost (the ultimate constraint) is under £120 (any more is kept as a future thought LOL )
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okay so lets list a little of what might be possible

I have a Winner Z4 bussboard.

I have a Micronic Z3i 686 R6.8

these are mutable if need be (ie i can completely replace them)

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so why oh why to go PCI

well thats another whole thread in it's self, which would be amusing to read i am sure however for me its simple..

My amiga running my SB Live 5.1 (with live driveII?), Voodoo3 2000, NEC200 NIC 10/100 maybe 1000 and SCSI / SATA adapter is awsome.

Amiga + Voodoo = Absolute yummyness (theres something both unholy and so right about it..)

why would i want all that possible productivity but no PPC well thats another story.

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okay, i await you thoughts, musings and probable flames and love bundles.

Z.

[RetroMan]

Well, if you do not own or want a PPC, the Mediator is the only one since the GRex demands a PPC ....

Dunno about the Prometheus, but I guess you need a ZIII Board for that ....

[Zetr0]

Thanx RetroMan,

the only problem with the Prometheus (other than the ZIII required) is the fact that it places the PCI backplane Vertical as opposed to the standard horizontal (kinda sux when all you got is horizontal mounting ability ...oooerrr.... that doesn`t sound quite right...).

so can the mediator SX and LT4 pci boards accept an 040 / 060 running them ?

interesting.

have you gone PCI ?

[DoctorQ]

All Mediator boards can be used together with a Blizzard 1240 and 1260, and no Mediator board requieres PPC.

Personally I have 3 Mediator boards, 1 in my Amiga 4000 and 2 for my Amiga 1200 tower system. The 2 for the Amiga 1200 (a Mediator ZIV and Mediator PCI 1200) is going to be sold to fund a Mediator SX board, as the Mediator ZIV I got unfortunately can't be used with my tower :-(

In the end, the Mediator is a good product, at least I haven't got anything to complain about. The only thing that would be nice would be to be able to use the USB ports from a Spider USB card right after power on; a thing that is only possible if you have a Kickflash board installed. As there isn't any of these around for clockports (at least not yet) then the Mediator ZIV is the only way to go, but if you aren't going to use USB anyway, this wouldn't be an issue to you. Oh, and the final complaint, Mediator isn't supported by MorphOS either, but since MorphOS requieres a PPC CPU, then this isn't an issue for you either ;-)

[RetroMan]

I personally use a GRex, because a) I got a PPC and b) I use MorphOS for Classic Amiga

[keropi]

g-rex here too.... faster and without silly limitations...

[DoctorQ]

Ha, but no chance of running OS4 :-)

[keropi]

we'll just have to wait and see that... IF os4 ever gets released and is usable...

[DoctorQ]

Anyway, since the poster don't want PPC anyway, this issue isn't anything to worry about for him.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by keropi

g-rex here too.... faster and without silly limitations...

Care to elaborate?

[DoctorQ]

I can imagine Keropi is talking about the 8 MB Warp3D limition of Mediator boards together with a PPC board. At least I don't know of any other limitations on the Mediator side...

At least Mediator can use a wider range of PCI cards...

[RetroMan]

But the GRex got DMA Support for PCI Ports, the Mediator doesn´t

And no joke, the GRex IS indeed faster, it´s even visible when playing W3D Games etc.

[DoctorQ]

OK, the G-Rex has DMA, but isn't it only for two ports at max??? And how many cards are supported? Voodoo 3, Voodoo 4, Voodoo 5, 10 MBit ethernet, Terratec 128i soundcard, and some TV cards???

Only reason I'd buy a G-Rex would be for the sake of MorphOS, and to have the Voodoo to display my early bootmenu. Anyway, people have different preferences, and I think the hardware companies are happy that we do :-)

[RetroMan]

Well, in reality only gfx cards use full DMA, so in fact only one DMA port would be needed

I also wouldn´t consider this PRO grex, it´s just nice to have it

[keropi]

nope, only soundcards actually need DMA, not video cards...
and what about the range of pci cards that g-rex supports?
it supports S3 375 , S3 325, SIS 6516, voodoo 3/4/5 videocards, the ess-solo1 and fortemedia 801 soundcards, 878/879 based fm-tv tuner cards and realtek 8029 network cards... I mean all this are easily found these days and are dirty cheap... so what gives? because the mediator supports the live! soundcards? does it also support their fx dsp? can you adjust it like in windows? does it support both v5 gpu's??? The bottom line is that everyone should get what they can based on their hardware, but really if someone has ppc on their amiga, getting a mediator would be not very smart...

[Bamiga2002]

Originally Posted by RetroMan

But the GRex got DMA Support for PCI Ports, the Mediator doesn´t

Hello! It says on Elbox page that Mediator has DMA in ALL PCI slots: http://www.elbox.com/products/mediat..._1200_lt4.html

Originally Posted by RetroMan

And no joke, the GRex IS indeed faster, it´s even visible when playing W3D Games etc.

That i don't know, i'll have to wait & see (still waiting to get my Mediator from Vesalia).

[keropi]

I've read several reports that the g-rex is indeed faster in warp3d games, but having 25 instead of 19 fps is not a big deal... lol
bottom line is use what is cheaper for you, pci solutions for the amiga are not so much about speed as for supporting cheap pci cards instead of zorro ones... at least that is the case for me...
ah, and I only used a zorroII bus, but whatever vga I put on pci, it seems A LOT faster... I wonder if pci solutions much or exceed the speed of zIII on a 4000...

[DoctorQ]

Originally Posted by keropi

The bottom line is that everyone should get what they can based on their hardware, but really if someone has ppc on their amiga, getting a mediator would be not very smart...

Yes, that is YOUR oppinion, doesn't mean that it is the right oppinion.

The G-Rex can only use certain cards, at least the list of supported cards are much longer for Mediator than for G-Rex. Both busboards have faults and errors, you prefer G-Rex, I prefer Mediator.

I didn't get a G-Rex card because of the way it attaches to the PPC board, because of the few boards accepted for the busboard, and because of the drivers not being updated.

[keropi]

of course it is MY opinion, u and everyone else can buy whatever they want!
I got the g-rex because it was faster, had cgx, fitted my tower, I liked the way it connected to the bppc, and because drivers were free (openpci is promising...)
although the cards u can get are specific models (like on mediator), as I said before they are very common and dirt cheap...
and according to elbox's site, the supported hardware is not much different than the g-rex... only a couple more network chipsets and soundblaster sound cards... ah and the spider usb cards...

[Zetr0]

And then they declared WAR!!!!!,

hmm deffinate PCC V's Native non PPC here...

Interesting to note that mediate has a few more chipsets supported, and also how GREX has OpenPCI (why doesn`t Mediator, or have i read that wrong?)

And even though a PPC can give me the FPS for Warp3d aps, I have a TON of fast PC's that can do that *and more*,

Its just the thought of having a dedicated 68060 CPU crunching the numbers in its own special way- while using the Vodoo series gfx cards, and AHI-ing that Sound Blaster Live 24Channel. ....

You know PC's have been able to do this for decades it seems now, and i just want to prove, more to myself atleast, that you dont need a PPC chip to do a lot of the stuff there is to do.

besides I really wanna see what med-studio is gonna make of the SB-LIVE (when they bring out drivers)

And yeah. a 16MB gfx card ain`t nothing on a PC, but when an install of Workbench 3.5 is only 10MB for a full OS... you have just goto love the amiga

So tell me DocQ, if you were going to sell the ZIV PCI BusBoard, what kinda ball park figure are you looking at (Eruos, GBP, or USD) as i believe it would mount quite nicely in my tower.