Amiga models most reliable and worst

[Vars191]

Hi All
Of all the Amiga models made which one do you think is the most reliable and worst
Vars

[coze]

A500 'Rock Lobster' is the most reliable and A4000 is the least reliable (breaking RAM clips, oozing battery, leaking caps, flaky accelerator connector, etc. ...)

[gklinger]

I don't know how anyone can say a model is the most, or least for that matter, reliable. I've had a 1000 running for 23 years now without skipping a beat so I'd say it's pretty darn reliable.

[chiark]

Personal experience:
I'd say the 1000 and 500 are most reliable, possibly because they don't have a battery. The 600 is rock solid too, arguably more reliable then the 500.

The 2000 and 3000 seem to die largely because of battery, or leaking caps.

1200 seems fairly reliable. Again no battery, but leaking caps.

4000 seems worst. leaking battery, leaking caps...

The transition to SMT should have delivered reliability benefits. Evidence suggests otherwise

Back in the 80s I had a saturday job working in a computer shop (LHC in Leamington Spa, which changed into Diamond Computers) and we'd frequently see 500s come in with green screens... There was a bench out the back that the machines would get dropped onto from about 1 or 2 feet. instant cure.

[tonyyeb]

The AmigaOne is by far the worst isn't it?

[Marcuz]

the only problems i had with the A500 and A1200 hardware (but i don't use it since some year, so who knows what's broken now) is the psu. they went dead on me 3 times on A500, never on A1200

[alewis]

A1000, 500, 2000 (all pre-1990) reliable as heck. A600 - horrible. A1200 slightly less so. IMHO the A4000 is 'average', but has the very obvious battery problem.

OTOH, Atrai VCS, Video Genie, TRS-80, C64, C= PET/CBM... rock solid even at 30 year point.

[AmigaFriend]

Originally Posted by coze

A500 'Rock Lobster' is the most reliable and A4000 is the least reliable (breaking RAM clips, oozing battery, leaking caps, flaky accelerator connector, etc. ...)

My A4000D is 14 years old and still have to say that it had any problem so far. And believe me that from 94 to 99 I used it almost every day with very stressing applications, MIDI + Sampling to disk at 16bit 44.1khz four track + multichannel Soundstudio tracking.

It has a CV64 + Tocatta 16 + Fastlane Z3 since '95 and never had a problem with those either. It has been on the road for more than 8 months during two periods when I was gigging with a band. Plug it, unplug it twice a day, moving it to studios in several occasions. On for a average 10-12 hours a day.

Man talk about reliability!

[Enverex]

My A4000 had issues with connectors and then started dying due to leaking caps. No issues with my A1200/600/500+.

[Paul_s]

From a quality POV,

500
1000
500+ (if you take out the battery early enough of course)
1000
2000 (see 500+)
3000 (see 500+)
CDTV

Lowest quality;

600
1200
4000
CD32

The latter being produced when Commodore was pretty much on the final lap of its existance - so the quality output of both design/QC/parts would've been restricted to money constraints. Saying that though they do still chug on... says a lot about the Xbox 360

[Muzkat]

My A500 has been running since 1991.

[alexh]

@PaulS, I dunno where you lot are coming from.

A600 and CD32 are as solid as a rock! I've got two of each and I've never had an issue with either type, electrically or mechanically.

Whereas A500's (and probably A2000's) are seriously prone to rust, far more than A600 or CD32, due to the metals they used in the packaging of the early chips & sockets.

[s2325]

A600 looks like old PC keyboard or some kind of toy :/ http://newton.net.pl/files/amiga600.jpg. Also I don't like design of floppy drive, it looks like something is missing. A500 is perfect to me.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by s2325

A600 looks like some kind of toy :/

That's cos it is.

IMO, the styling of the A600 is great. If they had included a hardware keypad emulator in the keyboard (via a modifier key) and it had been released 2 years earlier, it would have been perfect alternative to A500.

As an owner, once you lower the weight (remove the RF shielding), add a NedoPC 8Mbyte RAM expansion and an internal IDE->CF adapter it becomes the best ECS Amiga rivaled only by the CDTV.

Originally Posted by s2325

Also I don't like design of floppy drive, it looks like something is missing.

??? A disk?

[TheCorfiot]

I know of 3 A1200 Mobo's that have died in the last couple of weeks, My poor friends were quite traumatised....
Revs 2x1D4 & 1x2B
TC

[Paul_s]

Originally Posted by alexh

@PaulS, I dunno where you lot are coming from.

A600 and CD32 are as solid as a rock! I've got two of each and I've never had an issue with either type, electrically or mechanically.

Whereas A500's (and probably A2000's) are seriously prone to rust, far more than A600 or CD32, due to the metals they used in the packaging of the early chips & sockets.

I agree with you that a lot of AGA stuff is solid as a rock - my own CD32's have had no issues either. For some reason though I always felt the earlier stuff had more of a quality to it...

Also, the issues with some of the onboard components/quality issues that come up from time to time with the later AGA stuff.

Saying that though I guess most classic Amiga hardware will need TLC over the next few years to keep them going.

[Gordon]

Thanks for the reassurance guys. Mine just gets hot and has a little burning smell but i wont worry about it now.