Most Stable Amiga 600 Accelerator

[scu98rkr]

Hi All,

As far as I'm aware Amiga 600 accelerators clip on to the CPU.
Has anyone actually got any of them to be stable ?
Does anyone know which is most stable ?

ie
ACA630
ACA620
Vampire
Furia
A6095 (8MB ram)

I realise the stability issues are down to seating issues ie non clean contacts / not full contact etc etc

But can these issues be completely overcome ?
Does anyone have a stable Amiga accelerator ?

If you wanted to get a stable Amiga 600 for WHDLoad would you be better trying to source a rare (expensive) flash ram PCMCIA card ?

Thanks

[Marle]

I know it's not on your list, but just in case you see an Apollo/Viper 630 pop up, do not buy them, in my experience (albeit about 20 years ago) it was utter junk and my A600 crashed constantly with it.

However, I now use my A600 (the same machine I had the Apollo in back - I've had this Amiga since new in 1993) on a near daily basis, sometimes running all day as I work in Deluxe Paint with a 2MB Chip + 2MB PCMCIA SRAM combo and it is solid as a rock.

It depends what you want but I find this combo is just great for WHDLoad, as well as doing DPaint and animation on.

[scu98rkr]

"However, I now use my A600 (the same machine I had the Apollo in back - I've had this Amiga since new in 1993) on a near daily basis, sometimes running all day as I work in Deluxe Paint with a 2MB Chip + 2MB PCMCIA SRAM combo and it is solid as a rock.

It depends what you want but I find this combo is just great for WHDLoad, as well as doing DPaint and animation on."

yes I am beginning to think this might actually be the best setup for the 600 in the case of stability.

Its a shame these aren't more readily available.

https://github.com/Sakura-IT/ppa-pcmcia-sram

or even a 8MB version

[roondar]

It's difficult to know this for sure. I mean, I could add that my ACA630 had always been solid as rock. But that doesn't mean that all of them are.

Without testing a bunch on different machines it's difficult to know for sure and I'd wager most A600 owners don't actually switch accelerators on a frequent schedule.

[scu98rkr]

"I could add that my ACA630 had always been solid as rock. "

I probably didnt phrase the question properly.

I did want to know that too. Has any one got any A600 CPU accelerator stable.

And it sounds like you do, so that good to know.

[scu98rkr]

Of course the only problem with that is the ACA630 is nt readily available.

I did actually have one but I sold it to buy a vampire (wanted AGA still not available ! )

Not sure that was a good idea as Im struggling to get my Vampire stable.

I cant remember many problems with the ACA630 to be honest but Im not sure now.

[Superman]

No issues at all with my Furia except I had to switch to an SD card instead of a Compact Flash as it wouldn’t boot with those.

[Mark sealey]

Originally Posted by Superman

No issues at all with my Furia except I had to switch to an SD card instead of a Compact Flash as it wouldn’t boot with those.

As above.....my Furia is not 100% stable.....but near as......Awesome all in one card....better with os3.1.4...less stable with os3.1 in my case.

SD cards are the way to go....ive made a custom os3.1.4 rom without pmica device and with 3.1 expansion.library instead of the os3.1.4 library as it chokes the furia at startup....(more testing needed here btw)

[project23]

Originally Posted by roondar

It's difficult to know this for sure. I mean, I could add that my ACA630 had always been solid as rock. But that doesn't mean that all of them are.

Without testing a bunch on different machines it's difficult to know for sure and I'd wager most A600 owners don't actually switch accelerators on a frequent schedule.

Exactly...

My Furia has been a nightmare, but it is now stable, and I know some people have been very happy from the get go with theirs.

I would simply suggest that you become comfortable with the idea that your new accelerator will not be stable, may have to be sent back, and may require some tinkering on your end to get fully stable.

Expecting it to just work on arrival is, unfortunately with the 600, only going to lead to disappointment.

[scu98rkr]

Good to hear all the comments. Glad some people had luck.

Im actually on my 2nd recapped A600 motherboard which seems very stable without the vampire. (1st was also recaped)

I haven't tested this motherboard with any other accelerator.

"My Furia has been a nightmare, but it is now stable"

Yes with my vampire

1. I've had the capacitor mod done
2. I've ordered a 3d printed mount for my vampire which is on its way.
3. I've also seen this
https://www.amigapassion.co.uk/portf...e-plcc-socket/

I'm thinking of it. But that will be 3 mods !

[scu98rkr]

"A600 owners don't actually switch accelerators on a frequent schedule."

I've actually owned 3 accelerators now.
very early ACA620 - This was terribly unstable
ACA630 this may have been ok, but I think the motherboard undernath was shaky.

Vampire tried on both motherboards. Issues on both.

[project23]

Physically bolting the card down over the 68k is sometimes a must for stability. It really depends on the state of the socket, and also the state of the solder on the 68k.

Do remember that repeated mounting and removal of an accelerator over the 68k will probably result in the solder connecting the 68k pins to the motherboard cracking. I had this problem with my 600 and had to reflow the solder around the chip (twice, actually).

Prior to reflowing the 68k i had to bolt my Furia down. I actually (very VERY carefully) rounded out the square holes in the 600 motheboard so that I could fit very small width screws through for this purpose. (This is not something I recommend. There are some traces on the back side of the board dangerously close to these holes. I took my time with a hand-drill. Also, sadly, my 600 is now no longer 'pristine').

Interestingly after reflowing the 68k i found i no longer needed to bolt the thing down. Seems I added just enough solder to the pins on the 68k to allow the PLCC socket to 'snap on' more.

Ground can be an issue with 600 accelerators, too. I have an earth strap that I take from one of the rear serial/parallel sockets and strap to the mounting hole on the 'bottom right' of the Furia.

PSU's can be a problem too. I had bad ram initially, so it was never going to be stable anyway, but I did find that with one particular PSU i could get an extra 20 mins or so before it crashed. Never really figured out why (all my PSU's have pretty clean rails).

[scu98rkr]

"Do remember that repeated mounting and removal of an accelerator over the 68k will probably result in the solder connecting the 68k pins to the motherboard cracking. I had this problem with my 600 and had to reflow the solder around the chip (twice, actually)."

This is the sort of thing that makes me wish I'd kept the 1200 I laid my hands on back in the day.

I wanted to keep the 600 because its small.
But without an any sort of accelerator / fast ram it is quite under powered.

[sneckburger]

Go for Furia. Best value for money.
Mines perfectly stable.

[Puggsy]

ACA620, but good luck finding one.

[roondar]

One thing that might help with stability is cleaning the 68000 legs/contacts. Most A600 accelerators seem to clip on top of the 68000 so if the legs are oxidized or make poor contact then the accelerator will be unstable as well.

[Puggsy]

I think the main thing is to bolt it to the motherboard. That connection will never be stable, you need to screw the accelerator down.

[amiman99]

I have ACA630 25Mhz, very stable. I got it new when it got released.
I did have a problem with my A600 MB, leaking caps causing crashes, sound issues. I was able to recap the MB and it's fine now.
The ACA630 did die on me once, because the oscillator died on it, but I was able to find the problem, replace the oscillator, and now it's back to normal.

[lord of time]

In my own experiances - my Vampire was very stable until the caps started to leak, then id get the odd hang and crash... then i descovered the Vamps socket wasnt staying conected well even with the mounting screws - it would pop off if the desk was knocked or if i moved the computer and this happend so much the socket would no longer grip (a common issue apparently) so I sent my Vamp and sent a decent A600 board to Steve at Amiga passion for both a new socket on the Vamp and a full recap of the board - and much to my delight he has sent me pictures of everything running and stable before posting back to me... so yea those are some things to consider!!!

[demolition]

Originally Posted by scu98rkr

As far as I'm aware Amiga 600 accelerators clip on to the CPU.
Has anyone actually got any of them to be stable ?
Does anyone know which is most stable ?

Either it is stable or it isn't. If it is not 100%, then it is a failure in my opinion.
My A600 runs well with an ACA620 and it was later upgraded to a Vampire which also runs well (and after I did the cap fix, I could move to the fastest core).

Initially I had stability problems with the ACA620 (Rev 1), but Jens found the problem with it and fixed it in Rev 2 (and all buyers were offered free replacements so you should not find Rev 1s out there).

I think it is important to get your A600 recapped if not done already and also make sure that your power supply is working well. Cleaning the CPU pins prior to installation is also mandatory.