Blizzard 1230 IV Timing Fix Required?

[manic23]

Just curious to know, does the Blizzard 1230 Mk IV Accelerator Board require the A1200 timing fixes to work, or is that board immune from that?

What about the PCMCIA issues with more than 4MB of ram, does is suffer from that also?

[fitzsteve]

You shouldn't have any issues with a Blizzard 1230, timing, PCMCIA, etc.

Of course if you PSU is shot or Caps are failing you can have issues still even with the robust Blizzy 1230 MkIV!

[manic23]

Thanks Steve, I'm considering cancelling my order of the ACA 1232 in favour of the Blizzard, what do you think?

[Zak]

My knowledge is, you can´t use the PCMCIA port on Blizzard 1230 IV with more than 4mb. If you have the SCSI controller card with it, you will maybe not need PCMCIA, it can handle a SCSI-CD-ROM and other peripherals. I don´t know what that timing problem is about. The Blizzard is quick and won´t get much temperature with the correct processors installed on it and would still be a good choice. It can be shut off by pressing a key most easily.

[hese]

PCMCIA works fine with Blizzard 1230 regardless the memory size.

[Zak]

Originally Posted by hese

PCMCIA works fine with Blizzard 1230 regardless the memory size.

I did have such card and it didn´t. Blizzard 1230 68RC030 50 mhz.

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by manic23

Thanks Steve, I'm considering cancelling my order of the ACA 1232 in favour of the Blizzard, what do you think?

They both have Pro's & cons, ACA has faster memory access & very nice Maprom feature as well as giving onboard IDE a boost to over 2mb/sec. It's a brand new card with 12 months warranty. ACATune opens up new features like PCMCIA reset fix.

Blizzard can have FPU and is faster for CPU intensive tasks due to 50mhz CPU (more MIPS) + you can add SCSI kit (faster than IDE and less CPU overhead) + another 128mb Ram. It's a used card, might be heavily used/abused, you don't know unless you can trust the seller

I think the Blizzard has a Kickrom feature but you'll have to read into it, not as straight forward as ACATune on the ACA1232

Toss a coin maybe?

[Leffmann]

I have a B1230-IV myself, and it does have the MAPROM feature and is also PCMCIA friendly. No timing "fixes", fans or heat sinks needed. It's been solid and stable for over 15 years, definitely the highest quality 030-accelerator you can find for Amiga.

[manic23]

Many thanks for your comments, I'm sold, I have cancelled my order with Amikit and got a B1230 IV from eBay

[amiman99]

I have the Blizzard IV 50Mhz with 64MB RAM. This card is solid, works fine with PCMCIA and 4GB CF card.
Runs cool and great almost everyday since 1996 or so.
You wont be disappointed.

[fitzsteve]

You wont be disappointed the Blizzy 1230, MkIV it is indeed a solid card and of the classic accelerators I'd rate it the highest for sure.

I'm personally enjoying my ACA1232, but having owned everything else for me it's about exploring the capabilities of each card. I like how with the ACA1232 I can easily Map any ROM into it, i.e I was able to load in the A600 37.300 Rom and test support for a CF HDD I'd sold

With OS3.9 I can put all BB2+ modules inside a custom Kickstart and load OS3.9 without the slow soft reset.

[Zak]

But I did have problems over 4mb back then. By Google, I found out that there are even others that had that problem, too. It´s maybe not common but obviously can occur with the Blizzard. Funny that there is no reaction here to this point of mine.

[Fingerlickin_B]

Originally Posted by Zak

But I did have problems over 4mb back then. By Google, I found out that there are even others that had that problem, too. It´s maybe not common but obviously can occur with the Blizzard. Funny that there is no reaction here to this point of mine.

I never had a problem with 32 or 64mb in mine (I had 2 of these).

Maybe yours was not the same card everyone is talking about, or with some difference to most?

PZ.

[manic23]

Originally Posted by Zak

But I did have problems over 4mb back then. By Google, I found out that there are even others that had that problem, too. It´s maybe not common but obviously can occur with the Blizzard. Funny that there is no reaction here to this point of mine.

After doing some reading, It seems that you have to have the Kickstart remap jumper set to on for the Blizzard to play nicely with PCMCIA, interesting. I'm pleased I read that before getting it, otherwise I may have been head scratching for a while

[Turran]

The Blizzard only does 512kb roms in maprom though I think? ACA cards have support for 1MB roms which is much better if you plan to make your own roms..

I might be wrong about the Blizzard though.

[Scyphe]

With BlizKick you have the EXTRESBUF setting which allows you to add another 512KB (or whatever) for MapRom-usage (with BlizKick).

[Loedown]

Pray the card you get doesn't fail because if one of the GALs on board dies then you have a very expensive paperweight. I would take the ACA because it's new hardware with warranty and Jens will keep the coding for the programmed chips on the ACA meaning that a new batch can be made in the future.