Advice on Amiga 600 base config and upgrades

[ugrnm]

Hello,


I'm learning about the Amiga at the moment, essentially to use OctaMED and a couple other audio/MIDI related applications (no games). I'm learning from fs-uae to get to know the system while doing my homework for the hardware that I would eventually like to acquire. I know that the 1200 is commonly discussed and seems to be a better deal than the 600, but I really love the 600 form factor, and to be honest, I would not have the room for anything bigger Oh and I'm also not interested in the Vampire, it's super impressive hardware, but I'm happy using a mix/match of already existing mods.



So far this is my plan:

• Regular Amiga 600 (or 600HD if there's a good opportunity)
• Flash the new Kickstart ROM for AmigaOS 3.1.4.1
• Add a CF adapter (in case it's a regular 600 and not a 600HD)
• Add a Furia accelerator
• Add a 1MB chip memory expansion

Things I'd like to have some help with are:

• Does this make sense? I mean no incompatible parts or am I overlooking something?
• What's the point of having an RTC? Some memory expansion have it, some don't
• For the video output, I plan to use a small LCD screen with VGA (no room for CRT), what are my options? I have the feeling that my only option is a RGB to VGA adapter and an LCD screen with 15kHz support? I'm asking because I saw there was also an internal scandoubler (indivision ECS) but it reads like I would need to remove the floppy drive and/or use a specific chip memory expansion, and that would only work with their now sold out accelerator (meaning no furia possible)

Thanks for your time!

[lesta_smsc]

RTC relevant if you're working with Workbench and want the correct time and not resetting back to original date and time of manufacture lol.

You use RGB to SCART and this looks great. I'm using RGB to VGA at present on an LCD monitor and haven't found it looks nice as a CRT. Newer TVs still have RCA/SCART input.

Otherwise your set up makes sense. I have an A600 with 1MB expansion and PCMCIA ethernet card and IDE-CF adaptor. You need more RAM for WHDLoad and Furia is a great choice.

[MrClump]

For the display you could consider a BenQ BL702a, they’re pretty easy to get hold of, not expensive and work really well with native 15khz support.

[aeberbach]

Don't stress about the difference between 600 and 600 HD too much. The only difference is drive, bracket and cable (and badge!). You won't be using an original drive anyway, so look at a PATA SSD drive or a PATA adapter for a SSD in m.2 or mSATA. I use an adapter because early mSATA SSDs are now quite reasonably priced. A big fast drive inside the machine is much nicer than just a CF and you can always use a CF for transferring files.

Actually the bracket might harder to get than the drive - but 3D printed brackets are actually better than the original, non-conductive and can have drive holes in the right place. Finding a cable is not too hard, $2 on eBay.

Need a 1MB expansion? I have the AmigaKit one including the RTC board still sealed in bag, never used. I ended up buying the Indivision complete kit for my A600 instead.

[wazza]

If you are just planning to use Octamed and other music applications, a 600 is a good choice. I've been using one as my tracking set up for the last few years and it's great for the job. The 1200 wouldn't really offer you any advantage for the software you want to use (edit - I've just remembered that you lose the numeric keypad which does serve as a shortcut for switching the channels on and off in Octamed, but personally I can live with using the mouse for that instead).

I also use a Furia which gives the 600 a decent speed boost. If you configure it to use the IDE speed boost, it is really snappy - mine boots to workbench in about 5 seconds which is the fastest I have seen from any Amiga. It will also load up huge folders full of samples in Octamed almost instantaneously which is a far cry from my original days of swapping over piles of floppy discs.

One thing I would recommend is to go for an SD card adapter rather than a Compact Flash, if you are using the Furia. It is known to be fussy with CF cards. I did get mine working with a Sandisk CF card but I found it to be faster and more reliable with an SD to IDE adapter like the following:

https://retroready.one/collections/a...iga-a600-a1200

I would also recommend a little adapter like the following which solves a problem when using the above SD adapter which means that the HD access light is always switched on:

https://retroready.one/collections/a...600-amiga-1200

It also allows safe mounting of the adapter inside the case to avoid it flapping around on an IDE cable and potentially causing a short.

[wazza]

Originally Posted by ugrnm

[*]For the video output, I plan to use a small LCD screen with VGA (no room for CRT), what are my options? I have the feeling that my only option is a RGB to VGA adapter and an LCD screen with 15kHz support? I'm asking because I saw there was also an internal scandoubler (indivision ECS) but it reads like I would need to remove the floppy drive and/or use a specific chip memory expansion, and that would only work with their now sold out accelerator (meaning no furia possible)

I am using an Indivision ECS in mine. This does require the Individual Computers 1mb chip RAM expansion as it sits on top of that. You don't need to remove the floppy drive, though. And for me, this set up works fine with the Furia.

The only thing I would say is that, with several expansions fitted, the 5V supply can get a bit low which can lead to instability. I'm using a replacement power supply with mine (Meanwell) which allows the 5V supply to be tweaked with a pot, so no problem. But if you are using an original Commodore power supply that has not been recapped it might not be up the job. The indivision seems to pull the 5V line down a bit.

[Vypr]

I owuld recommend replacing the floppy drive with a Gotek, it's a lot easier to install software and can be used as a way to get files from a PC or Mac to the Amiga.

[Jolabandola]

Lotharec is selling a 1mb chipmem for the A600 that both fits the indivision and has a built in RTC.
That makes it better than the a604n wich wont let you fit the RTC without bulging out the trapdoor or risking shorting out the whole computer.

[ugrnm]

WOW! So many useful replies!!! Thanks everyone!

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

RTC relevant if you're working with Workbench and want the correct time and not resetting back to original date and time of manufacture lol.

Cool, mystery solved

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

You use RGB to SCART and this looks great. I'm using RGB to VGA at present on an LCD monitor and haven't found it looks nice as a CRT. Newer TVs still have RCA/SCART input.

I was thinking to re-purpose an old LCD VGA screen of mine, and it does not have SCART unfortunately. But it seems indeed that VGA output is a bit hit or miss depending on the screen, weird pixel timing sometimes it seems?

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

Otherwise your set up makes sense. I have an A600 with 1MB expansion and PCMCIA ethernet card and IDE-CF adaptor. You need more RAM for WHDLoad and Furia is a great choice.

Right, I need to look into PCMCIA ethernet cards. I have an old Sitecom somewhere, not sure if compatible, but probably cheap these days. Would be great to share files via FTP or NFS instead of swapping floppies of CF cards.

Originally Posted by MrClump

For the display you could consider a BenQ BL702a, they’re pretty easy to get hold of, not expensive and work really well with native 15khz support.

Thanks for the tip! I'm still secretly hoping that my old Hercules LCD will work out, but I guess I have to test it...

Originally Posted by aeberbach

Don't stress about the difference between 600 and 600 HD too much. The only difference is drive, bracket and cable (and badge!). You won't be using an original drive anyway, so look at a PATA SSD drive or a PATA adapter for a SSD in m.2 or mSATA. I use an adapter because early mSATA SSDs are now quite reasonably priced. A big fast drive inside the machine is much nicer than just a CF and you can always use a CF for transferring files.

Actually the bracket might harder to get than the drive - but 3D printed brackets are actually better than the original, non-conductive and can have drive holes in the right place. Finding a cable is not too hard, $2 on eBay.

Thanks for the info! Good to know that there are no significant difference between the two models. I was worried I was overlooking something at first. As for the drive, I though the only option was CF, but wow, mSATA SSD in an Amiga? That's cool
I need to read more about the options then.

Originally Posted by aeberbach

Need a 1MB expansion? I have the AmigaKit one including the RTC board still sealed in bag, never used. I ended up buying the Indivision complete kit for my A600 instead.

Thanks for the offer, I'm still checking what's the best combination of parts (specially reading the comment from Jolabandola below!

Originally Posted by wazza

If you are just planning to use Octamed and other music applications, a 600 is a good choice. I've been using one as my tracking set up for the last few years and it's great for the job. The 1200 wouldn't really offer you any advantage for the software you want to use (edit - I've just remembered that you lose the numeric keypad which does serve as a shortcut for switching the channels on and off in Octamed, but personally I can live with using the mouse for that instead).

Yes, I thought it would not be a big loss indeed And it could be remapped to less used keyboard shortcuts anyway. By the way, I'm keeping track of my OctaMED findings there https://moddingfridays.bleu255.com/OctaMED_SoundStudio So far I only messed around with MIDI stuff (https://post.lurk.org/@320x200/105114078922209343). Next step is to try samples. I'm still unclear about how to deal with 14bits samples though, I need to read more about this.

Originally Posted by wazza

I also use a Furia which gives the 600 a decent speed boost. If you configure it to use the IDE speed boost, it is really snappy - mine boots to workbench in about 5 seconds which is the fastest I have seen from any Amiga. It will also load up huge folders full of samples in Octamed almost instantaneously which is a far cry from my original days of swapping over piles of floppy discs.

One thing I would recommend is to go for an SD card adapter rather than a Compact Flash, if you are using the Furia. It is known to be fussy with CF cards. I did get mine working with a Sandisk CF card but I found it to be faster and more reliable with an SD to IDE adapter like the following:

https://retroready.one/collections/a...iga-a600-a1200

I would also recommend a little adapter like the following which solves a problem when using the above SD adapter which means that the HD access light is always switched on:

https://retroready.one/collections/a...600-amiga-1200

It also allows safe mounting of the adapter inside the case to avoid it flapping around on an IDE cable and potentially causing a short.

Oh I see, that looks like a good setup. I was wondering about that when I saw photos of ribbon cables inside Amigas with CF adapters. SD would also allow me to recycle some SD cards lying around. My CF are already in use.

Originally Posted by wazza

I am using an Indivision ECS in mine. This does require the Individual Computers 1mb chip RAM expansion as it sits on top of that. You don't need to remove the floppy drive, though. And for me, this set up works fine with the Furia.

Can I ask you which RAM expansion you have? There have been 3 manufactured and only the last one is available these days. And also, do you suffer from the issue that Jolabandola mentions below?

Originally Posted by wazza

The only thing I would say is that, with several expansions fitted, the 5V supply can get a bit low which can lead to instability. I'm using a replacement power supply with mine (Meanwell) which allows the 5V supply to be tweaked with a pot, so no problem. But if you are using an original Commodore power supply that has not been recapped it might not be up the job. The indivision seems to pull the 5V line down a bit.

Good to know, thanks.

Originally Posted by Vypr

I owuld recommend replacing the floppy drive with a Gotek, it's a lot easier to install software and can be used as a way to get files from a PC or Mac to the Amiga.

I have seen these indeed, but... I think I have a bit of a thing for floppies though
I would probably try to get an Amiga with a working floppy drive, and use a PCMCIA network card for file transfers.

Originally Posted by Jolabandola

Lotharec is selling a 1mb chipmem for the A600 that both fits the indivision and has a built in RTC.
That makes it better than the a604n wich wont let you fit the RTC without bulging out the trapdoor or risking shorting out the whole computer.

You mean this one? https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=281


So I could have this RAM expansion + RTC + furia + Indivision ECS working/fitting nicely together?

[wazza]

I am using the A604n RAM expansion but admittedly without the realtime clock add on as I'm not really bothered about having the correct time/date on an Amiga, so I haven't really had an issue.

[ugrnm]

OK, so I managed to get all these things together, A600 + sd adapter + Furia + A604n + RTC module + Indivision ECS v2. Looks amazing, still tuning things, learning, messing around. Had fun flashing a diagrom EPROM too

Thanks again for all the feedback that was super helpful.

[ubermick]

Originally Posted by MrClump

For the display you could consider a BenQ BL702a, they’re pretty easy to get hold of, not expensive and work really well with native 15khz support.

They are!?!? I've been looking for one for ages (granted America) and have yet to find one. Ended up settling for a Dell 2001FP...