Review - ACA500 A500 Accelerator

Well, some inconvenience isn't worth sweating over. it is what flat out doesn't work that is. It is to have the majority of games working that is the goal. Not necessarily every. Could of course be a challenge to try get as many as possible.

I've understood that it doesn't work on the models that came with the 1.2 rom?

Very light workbench isn't a problem either.
 
100% agree with Vincentgr

Totally agree the aca500 is a great piece of kit.

I also would pay more for a 4mb or 8mb version.

I don't want it for little money. I would gladly pay more for more ram. Like many here who want whdload setup but don't want to add a a1220.

100% compatibility from 68000 and 8mb fast ram would have been perfect.
AmigKit know that's what we want. They want to sell aca1220 :(
 
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After checking a lot of memory boards on my Amiga 500 rev6a 1MB chip (the hack) a Greek Amiga guru gave it back to me with the SupraRam 500RX with 2 MB on bard with a pass through to connect the ACA 500.
I installed also a 3.1 rom on board and have on Workbench 3.1 : 1 MB chip ram and 3.7 MB other ram which run my Whdload setup pretty good and stable.
 
Got an answer to my question from Jens:

ACA500 RAM: Not as easy as you might think, because the memory map of the ACA500 is pretty full. Also, the bus for the A1200 accelerator is not meant to be used bi-directional as in the A1200, so the only way to add memory would be the 7MHz bus on the A500 side or the 68000 socket inside the A500.

If you come up with enough orders, I could design something for the 68000 socket. However, I don't really believe that people would spend 60,- EUR on 2MBytes if they can have 128MBytes and more CPU horsepower for 90,- EUR (let alone open the computer!).

Remember the ACA500 is a low-budget design. The only way to make it possible at this price was to make the assumption "the A500 is totally un-modded" - this takes a lot of logic, testing and other effort out of the equation. Look at all the options that the ACA500 offers, and ask someone educated enough to rate the amount of required logic. Or ask if he/she can fit it in 72 macrocells (as used on the ACA500). I bet that the standard answer will be "you'll need the next bigger chip with 144 Macrocells" - which would result in at least 10,- EUR higher sales price.
You can follow the thread here and this one too (y)

So has anyone tried a 4mb Kipper Ram?
 
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So has anyone tried a 4mb Kipper Ram?

That's excactly what I asked you in PM last week, we need an owner of the 4mb or 8mb kipper2k device to see if the aca500 does not conflict.

also I dont understand his 10euro increase for a larger chip being such an issue, I would pay 10euro more.

he says for a little more get more horse power etc... thats not the point, the point is to expand the A500, not turn it into an A1200.

booting a 100% compatible 68k with 8mb fast ram, 3.1 map rom and 2 CF slots is a dream. he keeps mentioning this is a budget card. WHY!! make a NONE budget card with more ram i'm betting there would be a que even if the price passed ACA1220 costs.

I've seen what members pay for GVP sidecar 030 or the internal 030 card or the sidecard scsi HDD and ram or the supra 28mhz or...or.. the list is endless. his solution ACA500 with 8mb ram would sell like,,,, well like hot cake for sure even if it reached double what it costs now.

I would be very surprised if we ran a POLL and asked would you pay double for an ACA500 with 8mb ram and the poll said no.
I would guess the poll would side on the "scrap the word "budget" and go for 8mb ram deluxe version", I would rather pay more for my A500 rather than settle for a budget card for sure.
 
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I would be very surprised if we ran a POLL and asked would you pay double for an ACA500 with 8mb ram and the poll said no.


The ACA1220 is only 10 euros more than the ACA500, and comes with 128MB RAM and a 16MHz 68020 processor. I'd rather get that than pay twice as much for an ACA500 with 8MB RAM and a 14MHz 68000.

I do agree that for an extra 10 euros, an 8MB ACA500 would be awesome. And I wouldn't bother buying with another accelerator.

From what Jens said on EAB I get the impression that the 80 euro price point was decided before he finalised the hardware design.

It sounds like there is little margin on the ACA500 and he's trying to use the ACA500 to drive sales of the ACA12xx's.
I can't really blame him for that, he's running a business and with no profit the business shuts down, and no more cool amiga hardware.
 
It sounds like there is little margin on the ACA500 and he's trying to use the ACA500 to drive sales of the ACA12xx's.
I can't really blame him for that, he's running a business and with no profit the business shuts down, and no more cool amiga hardware.

that's what I think but it was dismissed by other members here, Jens is a businessman and like i've said not really doing what the community wants.

if he was then it would be 28mhz 68k and 8mbram
he would also build 060 cards for a1200 also, plenty of chips around but that would put a nail in the coffin of his current ACA range if an ACA1260 was released.
 
@Sardine, the problem is these specs would rise the price and for those that want to use the ACA500 with a turbo board they already own would have to spent more on the ACA500 and they might not even bother so Jens could lose sales.

I'm all for an expansion that simply gives it more Ram but you can't ask a developer to sell a card at a loss just to please the community.

I don't understand why people hold a grudge against new items if they are not up to your spec don't buy them.

Don't forget there are other options if you just want 68k + Fast Ram and others on the horizon like the Zeus68k. These smaller projects will be more community driven as they don't have board of directors to please!
 
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im happy with mine to be honest.

if it was made with its own cpu and memory and no passthrough for other cards it wouldnt be upgradeable,just like cards of old,thats the way i look at it.

as it stands at the moment i see it as a cheap adaptor to allow most good cards to work from 020 to 060 with lots of memory,so i cant really complain..

the only down side that i can see is,it dont come in a case:D
and thats not really a problem for me..
 
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Well After reading this Thread im quiet suprised the diffrent Opinions from so many People, so ill say my salt.
I Thinks Jens has done his home work well on the Aca500, I dont think 8mb would make a big diffrence, The Aca1220 as addon is a much better Option plus its32bit ram, leaving more Local 24bit ram on the aca500 free for whdload games, the 89€ for the aca1220@16mhz can easliy be upgraded with a better 68020 with the right Equipment if needed, ive done it FritzSteve has done it. But the Aca500 is a fantastic starting platform to build on for future Upgrades.and the Aca1220 is more the enough for whdload games.

If you have a good restored A500+ the Aca500 is enough and you dont Need a clock on the ACA500 waste of Money, Extra 1mb for chip you can "order Dont know if im allowed to say Website" for 15€ and build it yourself. Then you have a perfect whdload machine.

If you wont Os3.9 then Honestly your using the wrong Amiga, I think Aca 1232 personelly Overkill. The Housing for the Aca500 you can make yourself if it bothers you for under 10€ using plexi Glass. I Think its a Great Entry product for Older and Newer User. :)
 
Well After reading this Thread im quiet suprised the diffrent Opinions from so many People, so ill say my salt.
I Thinks Jens has done his home work well on the Aca500, I dont think 8mb would make a big diffrence, The Aca1220 as addon is a much better Option plus its32bit ram, leaving more Local 24bit ram on the aca500 free for whdload games, the 89€ for the aca1220@16mhz can easliy be upgraded with a better 68020 with the right Equipment if needed, ive done it FritzSteve has done it. But the Aca500 is a fantastic starting platform to build on for future Upgrades.and the Aca1220 is more the enough for whdload games.

If you have a good restored A500+ the Aca500 is enough and you dont Need a clock on the ACA500 waste of Money, Extra 1mb for chip you can "order Dont know if im allowed to say Website" for 15€ and build it yourself. Then you have a perfect whdload machine.

If you wont Os3.9 then Honestly your using the wrong Amiga, I think Aca 1232 personelly Overkill. The Housing for the Aca500 you can make yourself if it bothers you for under 10€ using plexi Glass. I Think its a Great Entry product for Older and Newer User. :)

Im really sorry all, I couldn't help myself.......is this FritzSteve fitzsteve's German cousin? :)

I think the ACA500 is a good entry level product.....just to be back ontopic...and thanks to the Steve's for reviewing!
 
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Very late to the party, but just wanted to say thank you for a wonderful review!

What an awesome piece of hardware as well. I love the fact that ROMs for 1.3 and 3.1 are included.

Thank you :)
 
Just wanted to add these 2 cards to Steve's thread.

The MicroDia card pictured works as a boot card "82X CompactFlash Xtra Plus 4GB"
ACA500 CF Cards.jpg
The "Memory Technology Company 4GB CompactFlash card" pictured does not work as a boot card. The system just shows a blank screen and nothing else.

I didnt try either as the "AUX" card
 
A strange thing! just to mention it, no prob from me.
Sometime ago I bought a Mega fast ram. It is a board that sits on 68k socket and gives you 2MB of ram. You can keep your existing 68k or swap it with a 010.
I kept mine and I type the command to enable the ram.
As a result I got 2MB chip (1 from my A500+ and another on trap) 2MB fast from the mega board and another 2 from aca.

What is the strange thing?
68K falls from 14MHz to 7 :D
CF cards both work fine on aca though.

Now this is true compatibility for old games.
 
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I do not know, it mentioned before but using rapidroad USB with ACA500 is possible.
I have used with several USB sticks, mouses, HDDs & even tried with usb ethernet adapter (with posedion stack)
 
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