A3000 upgrade advice?

[klokwirk]

Hi,

I've been fortunate enough to finally get my hands on an Amiga 3000/25 desktop. It's stock standard and only has the 2 mb ram - no cd rom etc.
I've started the upgrade process by buying the 3.1 roms and BigRamPlus Memory Expansion with 256 MB and I have an 80gb hard drive so whats next?
Since I have the 256mb ram, is there any point in populating the 16 meg on board chips?
Is there an inexpensive way to get Ethernet internet access / networked?
How about usb?
Is there anything else you recommend as essential in an upgrade?
It seems the UltimatePPC is the way to go and I'm tempted to wait but that's been in the pipeline for years now and who knows when that will be available and at what cost.
Thanks for any advice/opinions you can offer.
klowirk

[hooverphonique]

yes, the onboard ram will be faster than zorro ram..

[Noth]

Get a nice RTG card like a Picasso II, an ethernet card like the A2065, Ariadne I or II, some CPU upgrade to a 68040 with onboard ram, and you're good to go. Depends what you want to do with it really... Could dualboot AMIX/Linux/OpenBSD/NetBSD as well as do the productivity/graphics on AmigaOS 3.1/3.5/3.9 . That way you have a convenient and solid way to access the Net.

[Locutus]

That poor 030 is being handicapped by sloooooow Zorro3 memory access, i honestly have no idea what the point of those 256MB Z3 cards is except being able to point at your free memory counter.

UltimatePPC is still vaporware, remember in Amiga land: dont believe it until you can actually buy the board and its *actually* shipping already. and even then triple check :>

As for AMIX dualbooting, AMIX wont boot with a 040/060 card installed.

[jack-3d]

#1
A3640, 16 MB onboard (can be done by SIMM adapter), PicassoII, XSurf 100, RapidRoad, Buddha Flash IDE

#2
Cyberstorm 060 MK2, 128 MB, Cybervision 64 Z3, XSurf 100, RapidRoad, FastATA 4000 VI

[alexh]

16mb fast ram zips + SCSI -> CF adaptor (or Buddha IDE) + whdload registration

I wouldn't bother with a network card, a gfx card or even a Zorro RAM card. Neither would I fit an A3640 (they can have bad compatibility with A3000). You will spend hundreds of €$£ and have a very slow / unworkable experience.

The A3000 base, maxed out is a good retro gaming platform. The AMBER scamdoubler will work with most monitors in NTSC mode. With a CF or SD for the hard drive you'll be able to transfer files much faster than networking by transferring the card to your PC card reader!

Remember to use a zorro III Ram card you may need a new Buster chip.

[gulliver]

I would go the cheap way:

1.Populate you motherboard ram (there are some simm to zip adapters out there that may help)
2.Get a Gotek floppy drive emulator.

It doesnt make sense to make it a high-end Amiga, as alexh mentioned, you will be having lots of compatibility issues and end spending big bucks.

[alexh]

i don't think you even need a gotek floppy emulator as you can't boot most games from floppy on the A3000 because of it's 68030.

A SCSI or Zorro to IDE bridge plus an IDE to CF or SD adapter is the best thing you can do for your A3k

Something like an Acard AEC-7720U or a Buddha IDE. Both are no longer made, going to be looking at around £100+ for either of them :-(

[jack-3d]

Simply this depends on your needs. If you want gaming machine maybe A3000 is not the perfect machine for it. Perfect oldschool gaming machine could be A600 with some of the current accelerators (ACA or Fúria).

A3000 has Zorro3 and it would be pity not using it ;o)

As essencial upgrade of your A3000 must be onboard 16 MB Fast RAM. A3640 in rev 3.1 or 3.2 has no problem with A3000 and brings you 3 times faster CPU then stock 030/25.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by jack-3d

A3640 in rev 3.1 or 3.2 has no problem with A3000

They physically don't fit if you have the standard cooler. You need to change the stock heat sink for a slimline one.

The A3640 is known to have thermal issues in the A3000 case. This is because the first generation 68040 runs incredibly hot. There is very limited space under the metal floppy drive bay plus there is poor airflow through the stock A3000 case.

Onboard SCSI can stop working with an A3640 if you have a DMAC -02. The later DMAC -04 which fixes this issue are impossible to source.

If you cut vents in the floor of the floppy drive metal bracket, add a case fan, perhaps get an MC68040RC40A L88M (the last 68040 which runs very cool) you will get it to run well.

[klokwirk]

Hey guys, thank you SO much for your advice, it is so helpful. As usual EAB comes through and I have a heap of ideas to think on. Buying the A3000 is obviously the cheap part, getting the add ons not so much, especially in Oz! So I've considered your suggestions and my first purchase has been the 32 zip chips. I have an Amiga 1200 fully expanded plus an A600 which is getting there so that takes care of the big gaming problems. However I judge all computers on their ability to run one unique game 'Archon' which got me into this fix in 1986 in the first place. If I can get Archon running on my A3000 all else is a bonus. Still keen on getting A3000 online, ethernet and usb but the prices are horrific so I will look at these expansion cards when my wife starts talking to me again!
cheers
Graham

[alexh]

Make your own for $20 AUD?

http://lallafa.de/blog/amiga-projects/plipbox/

[jack-3d]

Originally Posted by alexh

They physically don't fit if you have the standard cooler. You need to change the stock heat sink for a slimline one.

The A3640 is known to have thermal issues in the A3000 case. This is because the first generation 68040 runs incredibly hot. There is very limited space under the metal floppy drive bay plus there is poor airflow through the stock A3000 case.

Onboard SCSI can stop working with an A3640 if you have a DMAC -02. The later DMAC -04 which fixes this issue are impossible to source.

If you cut vents in the floor of the floppy drive metal bracket, add a case fan, perhaps get an MC68040RC40A L88M (the last 68040 which runs very cool) you will get it to run well.

Yes he should check what is the DMAC version if he wants to use internal SCSI and Buster version rather too. Before I used A3640 I knew about heating problems, so I simply changed passive cooling by some low-profile active. It fitted well and it was stable and fast comparing to stock 030. But after some time I moved to CS060MK2 anyway.

[kamelito]

Originally Posted by alexh

i don't think you even need a gotek floppy emulator as you can't boot most games from floppy on the A3000 because of it's 68030.

A SCSI or Zorro to IDE bridge plus an IDE to CF or SD adapter is the best thing you can do for your A3k

Something like an Acard AEC-7720U or a Buddha IDE. Both are no longer made, going to be looking at around £100+ for either of them :-(

There also SCSI2SD which is available and is cheaper.
http://imall.iteadstudio.com/scsi2sd.html

Kamelito

[alexh]

SCSI2SD is pretty rubbish in terms of performance because it supports "asynchronous transfers only".

The default for the A3000 SCSI controller is "async" mode but with a bit of software you can get a nice 2x speed up (2.5Mbyte/s -> 5Mbyte/s) if your device supports Sync mode. (All scsi hard drives support sync mode AFAIK)

Two other SCSI->IDE bridges which support Sync mode and also work with the A3000 are : Yahama v769970 & IODATA IDSC21E. Neither are available new any more.

But SCSI2SD is an option and unlike other bridges it is available to buy new today.

[jack-3d]

I personally tested Aztecmonster CF in Amiga and it worked perfectly: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CF-AztecMons...-/300787382935

Not sure if they are available anywhere now.

[alexh]

Aztec monster is an Acard AEC-7720U and an IDE->CF card combined. They work somewhat with the A3000 but they are known to have problems with some firmware versions and are not ideal just from a physical point of view because it has no 5.25" drive bay.

What is better is a regular AEC-7720U and a back-panel IDE->CF adapter.

[klokwirk]

OK so I've bought the zip ram and it's on its way now. Next I'm having a hard look at the hard drive! I plan to install OS3.9. My A3000 is fitted with a quantum prodrive which talks in mbs whilst I'm after gbs. I have an 80gb drive in my A1200 which is nice and I would like to keep near that size if possible. I've had a look online and it seems these 50 pin scsi drives are rare, low capacity and relatively expensive. Anyone have any recommendations as to a good drive upgrade that wont break the bank? or is it possible to use an 80 pin with an adapter? Will all scsi 50 pin HDDs work?
cheers

[NMI]

Yes, it is possible to use an 80-pin (SCA) drive and a cheap adapter from China (ebay), and that is probably the cheapest alternative since small SCA-drives can be found almost for free if you shop around.
And a small SCA-drive, 18-36GB, is really large by Amiga standards.

All 50-pin HDDs will work. The only drives that will definitely not work are HVD (High Voltage Differential) drives, but those are quite rare (and 68-pin).
However, whether or not a LVD 68-pin or 80-pin drive will work is depending on the firmware on the drive, of the about a dozen 68- and 80-pin drives I've tested all but one worked without any issues. The exception, a 68-pin drive, simply refused to work in 8-bit mode, just giving a lot of error messages when the A3000 tried to access it.

[klokwirk]

Great, some good new$ at last. Now I wont have to take on a second job to upgrade a3000. Thanks for the help.
cheers