A4000 Mediator

[trixster]

Updated Oct 2023

Hi all,

I bought an A4000 last year to satisfy an itch I've had for a big box Amiga which has plagued me for about 25 years. I've had an A500 and A1200 since I was a teenager but have decided it's time to expand the collection.

The current set up is:

A4000D
64MB motherboard fast ram
BFG 9060 100Mhz
Warp Engine 96Mhz Rev 6 68060, 128MB ram
Mediator 4000Di V3
Radeon 9200 128bit / Voodoo 3 3000
Ragnarok G3 750FX 950Mhz PowerPC PMC/PCI card
Deneb USB
ICY V2 i2c
Indivision AGA
Soundblaster 128
Prisma Megamix
A314-CP (mounted on Prisma Megamix)
Ratte Switch
Realtek 8139 Ethernet NIC
Acard AEC 7720UW SCSI to IDE bridge
16GB IDE SD card
32 GB USB Drive
DVD-RW
Corsair SF600 SFX PSU
EPROM emulators with Workbench 3.9 BB 1 and 2 and Diagrom

Motherboard has been recapped, battery removed.







Cyberstorm Mk2


Zorro and PCI slots


Silent PCI and Cyberstorm cooling fans

[trixster]

Sonnet Crescendo 7200 G3 400Mhz PPC accelerator


PCI cards - from top to bottom: Soundblaster, Sonnet, Voodoo, Ethernet/Ratte switch


Indivision AGA. There is 'just' enough clearance between it and the Mediator bus board.


Rear of the machine. The voodoo and sonnet brackets now have holes drilled for cooling. The cable goes from the voodoo to the Ratte switch. The switch is also connected internally to the Indi. The VGA is the output of the Ratte to the monitor. On the same PCI bracket as the Ratte VGA port is the Ethernet port (obscured by the cable).


Sonnet with 192MB (3x64MB dimms). This has been modded to work on 5V only Mediators however it still runs ok on my 4000Di V3


3DFX Voodoo 3 3000

[talybont]

Beautiful photos of a beautiful machine! Almost brings a tear to my eye.

[spudje]

Awesome machine, similar to what I am aiming for, when my repaired mediator is back. I'm still in doubt whether to use a soundblaster or not. What type of show is that, it's nicely compact. Smart mod of the fan mount too, I may steal that idea.

BTW what exact sonnet memory did you order in the end and where?

I'm hoping for similar however I'm interested in finding some sort of tower kit for my a4000. I don't have room for a horizontal computer, but a vertical tower I do. I'd also like to use more PCI cards

[trixster]

Originally Posted by spudje

Awesome machine, similar to what I am aiming for, when my repaired mediator is back. I'm still in doubt whether to use a soundblaster or not. What type of show is that, it's nicely compact. Smart mod of the fan mount too, I may steal that idea.

BTW what exact sonnet memory did you order in the end and where?

The fan holder on the zorro side is this:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:437678

I found it would not fit in the position shown on thingiverse with both sonnet and voodoo in place. So I sawed off the arm and mounted it further back. A slim 10mm fan is recommended.

The ram I ordered is this
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182527862320
Until it arrives I do not know if it is 2k refresh, but someone who ordered it before said that it was and the seller had said the batch was 2k. But it might not be. Caveat emptor.
Same goes for this
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350479061155

[spudje]

Great, thanks, I'll await your results then before ordering.

Yes I already have the fan mount lying around, but cutting it and positioning it elsewhere is a very good idea. Maybe I even put 2 in there, since so far for my config the mount fitted. I guess you already (or was it someone else here) pointed out the fan is suck air from the back over the cards and not blowing towards the cards, correct?

What exact (small sized) soundcard are you using?

[trixster]

I'm not convinced about the idea of sucking air from the PCI cards, round the daughter board, over the cpu and then out through the psu. Instead I have a fan over the Cyberstorm ram to blow air over the cpu and then out the psu and the expansion slot. And then a fan to blow air over the cards and out the back (both sonnet and voodoo PCI brackets now have holes drilled).

[trixster]

This is the sound card, a soundblaster 128 CT5808

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391254841261

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by trixster

I'm not convinced about the idea of sucking air from the PCI cards, round the daughter board, over the cpu and then out through the psu. Instead I have a fan over the Cyberstorm ram to blow air over the cpu and then out the psu and the expansion slot. And then a fan to blow air over the cards and out the back (both sonnet and voodoo PCI brackets now have holes drilled).

A mistake I fear. If you have two fans sucking in either direction, where is the fresh air coming from?

[trixster]

As always, you make a good point! I will experiment with some different fan set ups. It is not ideal at all and the A4000 doesn't seem to lend itself to efficient cooling. I'll try swapping the zorro fan over so it draws a bit of air from the back over the cards. It's a shame the front of the machine would have to be modified to get air in from there. I just don't like the idea of hot air from the two hot pci cards getting moved around to the cpu area but I guess there's not much alternative without modding the case, and I'm not about to do that!

[spudje]

This is how I am considering to do it.

I have a 5.25 slimdrive CD + floppy drive bay like this http://www.chenbro.com.tw/en-global/...losure/SK41202 and will cover both 3,5" bays with these grills: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:168309
I have a spare drive mount which I will mod and put a fan, sucking air from the front through the grills via the fan through an opning I'll cut in there towards the CPU board.
And I planned the fan mount that trixster modded, either in its original form and position sucking air, or maybe modded in a similar way as trixster but than still sucking air.



My biggest challenge is enough air openings at the PCI brackets. I don't like the idea drill holes in them.

[grelbfarlk]

That's using your noggin Spudje, that looks like a good setup. I had something very similar with a removable SCSI drive cage that pushed air out the 5 1/4" bay. But I switched to a larger SSD and included a DVD-ROM, and I figured all other things being equal, not having a 10,000 RPM SCSI drive it would end up being cooler.

Just be careful when you do part [4] don't you mangle the face of that A4000. I assume you're going to do like MFilos where he cut a slot in the indentation so it's very subtle?

[trixster]

I've made a change. I've trimmed down the mount and moved the fan forwards. It now pulls air away from the cards towards the front of the machine

[spudje]

My Mediator arrived and it now fully works!!! Yay!

Got everything (apart from Sonnet) back in the A4000 and it all works fine. But my god that voodoo3 3000 get sooo hot :/ Open case, no fans yet.

And I discovered I have to mod my fan mount to. Not enough room

[spudje]

BTW, still puzzling for the best PCI & zorro card config with the Sonnet. My Sonnet is still in its NOS sealed package and awaiting RAM so I cannot judge myself yet. Do you reckon an X-Surf 100 fits on top of the Sonnet? Or will they be too close or will that capacitor on the Sonnet be in the way?

[trixster]

I don't think that capacitor is there on other sonnets. I think the guy who modded my sonnet added it.

[trixster]

A quick update: I've added a Prisma Megamix now. Paula audio goes into the Megamix, the Megamix then goes to the SB128 Line-in, the SB128 Line-Out then goes to the speakers. This way Paula audio, CDDA, Prisma and AHI audio are all mixed through the soundblaster.

The sonnet in the photos is off for repairs, the replacement is a 400/1mb version which is unmodified.

[ElectroBlaster]

I want something like this at some point!

So far I have:

A4000D
Cyberstorm MK1 060
Prometheus PCI
Voodoo 3 PCI

I really want a Mediator and much the same sound and memory setup as yourself! I need to put aside plenty of time to get things running. Big box Amiga's are new to me even though I have been around this stuff since way back, 1988 onwards.

You mention the PSU recap, did you get a kit for that? I have a capacitor kit for a liteon psu for an dead 4000 that needs some serious work, but the 4000 I recently acquired has the same psu as yours, all working 100% but I want to re-fresh it.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by trixster

A quick update: I've added a Prisma Megamix now. Paula audio goes into the Megamix, the Megamix then goes to the SB128 Line-in, the SB128 Line-Out then goes to the speakers. This way Paula audio, CDDA, Prisma and AHI audio are all mixed through the soundblaster.

How is the prisma working out for you?