Amiga 3000 buyers guide, myth buster, and Refit

matt3k

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I hope this guide will be informative, occasionally humorous, and contain my experience and thoughts for the 3k and all supporting hardware with useful tidbits here and there.

Thoughts concerning the 3000 Computer series:

My favorite Amiga has always been the 3000D. I bought one new back in about 91 and it is still used today. I have owned or used every Amiga since the middle 80's (except the 600) and still think the 3000D/T got it just right. It came out at a magical time for me, even with Thomas Rattigan getting railroaded out of Commodore,() the engineers were still at the helm. There was still hope that it would gain market and evolve. The 3000D/T looks great, and that is what most people comment on. It was really so much more than that. Sure it does look great, the keyboard, mouse, thick metal, nice touches like color matching thumb screws made it look the part. It also delivered in key areas such as moving the Amiga to 32 bit, offering a built in flicker fixer to use a wide range of monitors, Zorro 3 (Thanks Dave H.!), built in SCSI, and fast performing memory. It performed very well and was much faster than the predecessors. In the backroom they were working on AAA and 3000 variants. The 3000D/T was better on many fronts over the old guard Amigas they replaced. This was the high point for Amiga imho, there was interest by SUN to resell the 3000 and a real opportunity to expand. Sadly the poison that removed Rattigan could not be undone and with Ali running Amiga into oblivion, it was only a matter of time. Seems like the AGA machines had more of a hey day in Europe that the US.

I think the Amiga era in America was different that the UK/Europe and that is why perception is different sometimes. It's funny some people say the 3000 should be bought by collectors and infer they aren't usable, my experience certainly turns that on it's head. We had a very active Amiga user group from the mid 80's to the 90. Most of the user group members here all eventually owned 3000s and it was the preferred model. We didn't do any gaming at user groups only productivity etc. We would review Pagestream and scanning documents and we had many business owners in the user group that used Amigas. When the 4000/1200 came out the group began to loose interest and kept what they had for their uses. In time half the group went eventually to the pc or mac and left the Amiga. I finally bought a PC with a voodoo card when all my friends were all playing Quake 2 and I kept my 3000D and used it when possible. Seems like the 1200 had a big hit in the UK/Europe and it was a focus on gaming. Amiga Mags in the 80's I followed were all productivity based with very little in the gaming area. I noticed that in the 90's magazines were mainly focused on gaming. That represented two different generations on two different continents.

My family occasionally uses one AA3000+, (Big thanks to Hese!), two 3000D's and one 3000T all networked together (still trying to get battleduel working via tcp/ip!). They are all used daily, my kids really enjoy the games. They also use if for school with Final Writer (with PDF save!), Mavis Beacon Typing Tutor, Simplemail, Proper Grammar, and the little ones use a ton of educational games. All of their papers are saved to the NAS and Ami-Back runs scheduled backup's to it. I tried many months to get a 3000 to a daily driver status with using dual monitors (via the p96 addon), had a ragnarok radeon and a zz9000, and an warp engine 060 at 80MHz. Even with all that hardware, it never got it really usable, the software is very lacking and even with all that grunt from hardware it wasn't fast enough. It was a fun adventure and it showed me where using it made sense. I did commit fully back then to MorphOS as my daily driver and I can tell you that is the best experience for modern productivity (Tested other Amiga flavors at the time), if you never tried it you really should as it is relatively inexpensive. I used wayfarer to update this guide. The developers are a great bunch and has also been fun adventure...

The AA3000+ has had so much interest and development by Wrangler and Hedeon, and many others we may soon have the DSP working on the AA3000. Hedeon already has PPC working on the AA, thanks man you really deliver!

Buyers Guide:

The goal of this guide is to select a really nice 3000D and equip it nicely for some use. I'm assuming that the user wants a system for productivity and entertainment.

1. Try to stay away 3000D's that had any motherboard damage. I wouldn't buy a 3000D unless I can see the battery, sometimes people replace coin types that mount directly to the motherboard. These are cosmetically nice but hide what I want to see. My experience is that once damage has occurred it will have problems related to that damage.
2. Buy a 3000D that is still used occasionally. Machines that sit in storage for 5 years or more without being used tend to fail at a higher rate.
3. Look for damage at the powers supply connector on the motherboard. Notice if there is a black mark on the white power supply connector or the motherboard connector it plugs into. Black means power supply issues..
4. Know your chipsets in advance. In a perfect world the 3000D would have the proto 8 scsi chip, Buster 11, DMAC 4, Ramsey 7, 3.1 ROMS, GAL replacement of the 4 PAL chip (by chip ram), and new caps. Since this guide is going on 10 years now, the chips are much less available and more expensive. You should buy a parts 3000 for spares.
a. Officially Ramsey 7 needs DMAC 4, but some DMAC 2s have the ability to work with a Ramsey 7.
b. GALS are a very cheap way to reduce heat and should always be done because it's dirt cheap and may prolong the hardware by reducing heat.
c. The SCSI chip is also a cheap update to correct some issues with reselect and sync (if memory serves me) .
d. DMAC's 4 are usually impossible to find (see the wanted section). Ramsey 7s are easier to come buy.
e. Buster Rev 11 is definitely worth it and easy to find. If you ever plan to use the zorro bus upgrade to the rev 11. They are socket on the 3k, so they are an easy upgrade.
5. If you want to add an accelerator the Ramsey and DMAC versions may come into play. Read that a PPS Mercury user had to try a different DMAC 02 chip to get it to run.
6. If the board was hacked I would stay away from it. Hacks I have seen: the 50MHz FPU, jumpers on the board to make the 3640 work, adding a composite out, and a cigarette ligher plug (my first stab at humor).
7. Buy from a trusted source. I have seen so many train wrecks on ebay. Honesty is very important, on determining the risk.
8. Have them pull the Denise and Paula especially if you can't see the motherboard (see number one), many times there will be green corrosion in the socket or on the resisters around the battery. This means a battery leaked at somepoint and to be cautious if they aren't honest about it. Green is bad, like drugs are bad emkay?
9. Look closely at the back for sheared off screw mounts. This is very common and will indicate if the mb was taken out.
10. I have only worked with MB Rev 9/03 and DB Rev 7/01. These are the latest combinations and seem to be the most plentiful. Go with the latest.
11. The 3000D was made in USA, Hong Kong, and Germany. I have never seen a German built model, so I don't know where they were sold. The West Chester PA builds were typically sold to the dedicated amiga computer stores. The Hong Kong units generally went to the mail order houses like MicroPace. I prefer the West Chester builds as they seem to hold up better. At least with my experience.
12. The 3000T was made in USA and Germany and both seem well built. I do find that the onboard 030 versions to be more reliable than the cpu removed versions in my travels.
13. Send it out for a good once over to someone who really knows the Amiga and get it recapped and replace what makes sense (GALS, upgrade chips, etc.) as it may have issues that will create instability.
14. The 3000T power supply connector looks identical to a standard atx connector but, they ARE WIRED DIFFERENTLY and you will likely destroy you T if you use one.

Mythbuster:

Seems like the 3000D/T has a mysterious nature where lots of urban myths have come about. Here I hope to clear some of that up.

1. The 3000Ds power supply is too small to have a fully populated system. This is not true. I have fully maxed out systems with every card slot full with out any issues for over 15 years. The T power supply has a lot more watts and does fine but see above on the connector.
2. The 3000D runs like an oven, compared to other Amigas. This isn't true at all for a stockish system. Replace the PALS and all is good. In fact the 3000D has a great chassis design and moves a decent amount of air. The PALS run the hot, and if you feel the bottom of the case feel around the chip memory to see. I find elevating the case slightly helps keep the bottom cooler. Please note if you use a mediator 3000Di and add PPC, you will need to add an additional fan to the case. I put in a 80mm fan to blow move air through the box and blow over the zorro cards and the accelerator.
3. The 3000T runs very cools and moves a lot of air, so no issues with heat.
4. As I mentioned above Ramsey 7 and DMAC 2 can work together if the DMAC 2 is decent enough.
5. The 3000D is slower than the 4000D. This depends on an enormous amount of details but it certainly isn't the case. My friend bought a 4000-030 when they first came out and ran it side by side with a stock 3000-25 and for most items the poor 4000 was struggling to keep up. I'm not here to bash other system, but the 3000D with 60 SC ZIPS and a fast SCSI drive was faster that a stock 4000-030 and IDE. ECS is not as nice as AGA, but AGA was way long in the tooth when it finally came out and worked on a select range of monitors. AGA on a 1942 vs ECS on a 17 Viewsonic didn't help the comparison. The seagate ata drives were very noisy and thumpy and the quantom scsi was faster and quieter. Not only was the 3000 faster it felt so much more rich and higher end, I think only one of the 3000D owners bought a 4000D, everyone else said what is the point especially when members already had RTG in their 3000's. The 3000D in my mind is the highpoint in Commodores life, they built a nice system with nice components. Maxed out with graphic cards and similar cpu and they are equal. The 4000D does have the option for the Grex which would make it the fastest classic desktop, but with Ragnarok in the box I'm not even sure a Grex would be faster. Honestly when I first saw the 4000D back in the early 90's I was very disappointed, when we were teased with the AAA3000+ with DSP and AAA that would have made for an significant improvement. The 4000 was going backwards for the sake of cost, it looked and sounded cheap. I remember being sad that all the bad management had caught up to Commodore and now they were broke and rudderless.
5. You cannot use SC MB memory with an 040 card, especially the 3640. This isn't true. I have a Rev 2 3640 with Ramsey 7 and DMAC 4 with SC memory on the MB. Note even though the ramsey software states burst mode, it is not active. The memory speed still is decent but without the benefit of burst mode. (Thanks to speedgeek for pointing that out).
6. The 3000D is a quirky and picky system - This has more to do with the chipset versions or residual battery damage than the system itself. The only weird behavior I have had to deal with is placing cards in a different order to make the system work.
7. The 3000D isn't a good game system - In my experience this is a true statement if you are looking for hardware hitting games, if you want ppc based games the 3000 is terrific. I have games (labrynth of time and shadow of the third moon for example) that run perfect on the 4000D with an 040 and have trashed graphics on the 3000D with the 060. Maybe I tweek my 3000's more than my other Amiga boxes over the years, but I would rate the 3000D dead last for gaming from my experience. WHDload is a great way to make the 3k more game friendly. If you want just OCS, ECS, AGA games go with the 500 or 1200 they will be the best. If you want RTG and PPC based games the 3000 works just fine.


Options Guide: Thanks to AndyLandy for the great idea to add accelerators, I will add sound and video cards also...

Accelerators that I have experience with (if others want to add, reply to the add so I can add):

BFG - Not just for Quake fans anymore! This card seems like a decent and available solution. Lots being sold on this website.

TF4060 - The card looks almost done as the creator is fixing the last items. As with all the newly created 060 cards it looks very promising.

Kraken - This looked to be a great vampire solution for big box Amigas but it has been discontinued due to parts shortages.

CS Labs Warp - I can't wait to see it in action. Putting video on the cpu card is the only way to break the Z3 bus limitations. I think these cards are still delayed.

Warp Engine 3040 - This a best accelerator ever built for the 3000D hands down that I have come across. They work with any chipset, have the int2 clasp, mounts nicely, and just work like a tank. It took Phase 5 3 versions to beat Macrosystems Rev 1. I have 2 of them (one in my 4k and the other is going to be in my kids 3k). I bought one in the mid nineties and just bought one the other day. Every detail to make it run well in a 3000 was considered and it was engineered well with great RAM access speeds and the Fast SCSI are excellent and really transform the system. There is one issue with the WE, the SCSI II controller will not work at all with the Acard SCSI to SATA bridge. Please note that the Warp Engine 4040 was the 4000 version of the card and it will not fit in a stock 3000D without hacking the drive tray. This card is a beast with over clocking, mine is at 80MHz, but with faster memory would hit 100MHz. This card is still my favorite.

Cyberstorm MKIII - This card is the one and it is the fastest solution for the 3000D before you have to hack the case. It does require the int2 hack to the MB. Ram and IO speeds are real sweet. I get 27MB/s with my SSD on the SCSI. It does have a fragile socket and you will have to remove a bank of memory to seat the board. This is my work horse and is nice. I still prefer the WE because how perfect is really is for the 3k. These cards are very fragile, so I don't recommend over clocking them. I did and the card died. You will likely have to get the socket reballed at some point.

Progressive Peripherals Mercury - This card does look very interesting and according to Mac is a real barnstromer! "Have to say the snappiest accelerator and my personal favorite back in the day with my A3000D was the PP&S Mercury. Had fully populated 32MB 50ns RAM with the CPU running at a full 40MHz. I swear the working burst function to motherboard RAM was the key. It just flew... Mac

CyberStorm MKII - Works decently. Crazy that you cannot add the SCSI option to the card. Ram access speeds are slower than the WE. It is a fine card and will run just fine on the 3000 SCSI. I ran it side by side against the WE. Even though the WE had only an 040@40MHz and the MKII had an 060@50MHz, the WE was overall a faster card except for heavy math. For bootup and general application stuff the WE tended to be faster. This is amazing if you think about the technology difference between the 040 and 060. Put an 060 on the WE 3040 and now you would be talking. :).

Progressive Peripherals 3000/40 - Great little card that seems to be put together better than the Commodore 3640. Runs with SC zip memory like the 3640 without burst mode. Has a cpu fan with a pass through for power and used all 4 mounts for the 3000, nice touches.

A3640 Rev1+Rev2 - One really nice feature of the 3000 is that is really had a fast bus for its day. I used to laugh my butt off (technically around) watching Macs cope with IO and Bus. My gf had a mac with similar specs to my 3000 at the time and the speed differential was a factor of 10. I say this because I recently pushed and tested an 3640 and by golly the 3000 works well. Their are many documented issues out there for 3640 Rev and amiga chipsets. I can tell you that Static Column Memory works with the 3640 just fine. I have also seen the 3640 Rev 1 run just fine with Dmac2 and Ramsey 4. The biggest issue is going to be your DMAC chip and what it can tolerate. I have even seen a Rev 1 run perfectly fine with DMAC 2 and OS 2.0. Nice feature of this card is that they are plentiful and easy to find, and considering the fast bus of the Amiga 3000 it isn't a bad combo depending on usage needs. Thanks to Boboche for pointing out that the A3640 Rev 1 and earlier have a mask error printed on the boards. The caps polarity is backward on the boards, so if you recap it you will need to reverse the polarity.


Video Cards:

Radeon 9200 (via Mediator) - This card is truly on another level speed wise. The other big reason for this card it DVI out, Analog is so hard on the eyes compared to digital. For Amiga users that wish to use workbench and productivity apps (not a gamer myself but would be nice there also) it is the only way to go. Running 1280 x 1080 and it screams, sadly the CPU and the Z3 bus are the biggest bottlenecks. Once you use this card, everything will be slow in comparison. Purests may not like PCI on the Amiga, but no other video card on the Amiga has close to the performance.

Voodoo 3000 (via AA3000+ Daughterboard) - I never got the 3d drivers to work in my setup and the video switching on the AA3000+ was painfully slow to switch back and forth. The last issue for me was only analog out exists on the card. If I was a gamer and the 3d worked for me, I'm sure I would have enjoyed the card a lot more. The ZZ9000 replaced the Voodoo and I haven't looked back. These run very hot, so be careful that you have good cooling.

ZZ9000 - Magnificent card for the 3000! Hats off to Lukas who has the swiss army knifes of Zorro cards. The video is faster than the VA2000. The extra memory is plug at play with the newer firmware. He is constantly improving the card and it is a real stable solution. This is very likely the fastest zorro video card out there for the Amiga, I will have to test it against the CV64 to confirm it. The audio solution AX add on is really nice all around, one of the best audio solution for the Amiga. The NIC is pretty slow and the USB is limited and after so many years should have been corrected imho. Please note if you own the AA3000+ you will need to have at least one other zorro card for it to work.

VA2000/CX - I really like the idea of home brew Amiga Hardware, this card works very well and I like supporting Amiga developers. Love the HDMI output and auto-switching out the same HDMI port for native Amiga screens. Great job Lukas! My only complaint of the card is the speed, it is a bit slow card in 1080p resolution. Using in a 3000T with an overclocked warp engine 060 compared to a 3000D at a slower clock on the MKIII with the Radeon really illustrated the speed difference.

Cybervision 64 - Awesome card - Fast and has the roxxler chip for enhanced performance. Where Macrosystems made the right accelerator, Phase 5 made a great card for the 3000D. It has the pass through and fits the part just fine. Plug it in and it runs without tweaking, very solid choice. If you ever get weird banding or mouse artifacts reseat the memory chips.

Picasso IV - This should be the cadillac zorro card for the 3k. Sadly have never owned one and have no experience.

Retina BLT Z3 - This was my first video card I bought new in the 90's. Real nice card in general and took advantage of the Zorro 3 Bus. You will need a monitor switch since it doesn't come with a passthrough option. It is slower than the Picasso IV and Cybervision 64, but is faster than all the other cards. I would recommend that you put a heat sink on the Ramdac chip she runs hot and I just fried mine:)... This is a zorro 3 only card and will not work in zorro 2 systems.

GVP Spectrum - I owned a picky card that needed a wire jumper on the vga connector portion of the circuit board. The spectrum has issues with WHDLoad and you must remove the monitor to play games. Seemed faster than the Picasso II. Thanks to Xanxi for the fix for WHDLoad "It is related to an interrupt which is used a the latest Spectrum P96 driver. I have solved the problem by using Spectrum driver files from an earlier P96 which did not used an interrupt and it is all good. The difference can be showed by SnoopDos."

Picasso II - Works fine, nothing that special really other than the passthrough and the ability to use WHDLoad unlike the Spectrum. Seemed really slow to me on a 3000D when compared to the above cards.

Retina Z2 - Great card for the 2000 with an 040 imho, in the 3000 she is way outclassed by the other cards. P96 recently added the ZII card so it will be much more usable.


Audio Cards:

Delfina Plus - A monster 16 bit card with optimized bus access, under very heavy multitasking and bus activity it doesn't even burp. (I might after a good Guiness, but not this card!). Better audio cables will reduce the background noise. There are defective cards in the wild, so make sure that you have proof that it works before you pull trigger on this one. Thank to Willy for such an insane card... My only complaints would be that the best version of the delfina.library has a very small buzz in playback and the the card itself is a crazy angle and hard to remove and insert. Why doesn't anyone make FULL SIZE and LENGTH Cards anymore, they would make life so much easier... Has AHI. My card recently died, I would recommend to users that have a working version of this card to put heat sinks on everything. I'm going to see if replacing the memory fixes the issue. See https://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?46663-The-Delfina-Plus-and-Lite-Setup-Guide

Prisima Megamix - This is a great music decoder with great sound quality. To my ear this is now the defacto Audiophile card. Simple to install with a great floppy install. Recommend AmigaAmp 2.2x not 3.x, 3.x doesn't allow you to uses iff skins yet, so I'm sticking with 2.2x for now. Performance is similar to the prelude concerning multitasking and bus performance. I can get it to hick-up if I push the system a bit. That aside, the card is great for listening to music and the quality is unmatched in Amiga zorro cards. I also need to apologize to the group, I once condemned cards that were odd shape and sizes, thanks to EON making this fit the zorro slot and having a ribbon to the endplate allowed me to get 4 cards in my Mediator 3000Di. I have the PCI video card on the same row as the Prisima.

Prelude with MpegIt - Nice sounding card for the Amiga and a must for any audiophile. Hooked up to a hifi system and enjoy the sound. Not nearly the same capability for shear performance as the Plus, but playback is simply beautiful and is the audiophile card of choice on the Amiga. Thanks to Marmes for the real nice card. Other bonus is that it is a full size/length card. YAH.... Has AHI. ***Damion noticed that the Prelude with MpegIt play a good deal slower (30 to 40 seconds per song), I didn't have the ear for it. Thanks Damion.

Delfina Lite - A real nice card similar to a Plus but only 8 bit, you will need to overclock the card to get it to perform. See my Delfina setup guides hiding someone on this site... Has AHI. See https://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?46663-The-Delfina-Plus-and-Lite-Setup-Guide

Melody ZII - A real nice card that can decode mpeg level 2 and has AHI support. Level 3 mp3's lose a bit of quality. Thanks to Damion for the real nice card...


Refit, help items, and issues to consider:

This will deal with keeping your 3000D/T running smoothly, like the wind... ()

The problem as for 2019 is that these systems were never engineered to last this long and certain issues can be solved with the great opportunities from the community.

1. If your system is at all flaky via battery damage or mods, consider a replacement board either from Chucky or Hese. Frankly, I would do it anyways. Capacitor failure on a 3000 motherboard is very rare, but getting as many new parts and starting fresh will help long term. I only have one system, used by a group of my kids that is an original clean motherboard that never took damage and still runs. My other systems used by me and other kids all failed from bad cpu/fpu on MB (do to fpu overclocking), battery damage, bad pots, and lost of bad power supplies. Thank you to both Chucky and Hese for giving the 3000D's a future.
2. Power supplies are failing much quicker these days, I had a few go bad this year alone (we use our Amiga 3000's daily in this house :) ). You can find someone to recondition them with new parts or pick up one of the conversion options for an atx power supply. You will have to move the guts to the 3000 power supply and hook the switch in.
3. Replace your fans for nice quite running. I really like Noctua NF-R8 REDUX 80mm fans, they are pricey but they run quitely.
4. When placing cards in the 3000D Zorro slots, you should always place the 3000D on it's side so the card slots are facing upwards.
5. ***LED's for the front panel - These are the same as the 500's, so find a donor 500 board and your good to go. (Big thanks to Chris Edwards and his youtube for pointing that out!)
6. The screws (Tan ones fitted in the plastic shroud) on the side of the 3000D or the front/back of the T are Thumb Screws. You should only use your hands to tighten and remove them. The paint chips easily if you use a screw driver and frequently remove the case.

PPC related:

Mediator based PPC:
I picked up a k1 and it works ok. They finally fixed the warp-dt issues so backdrops are quick. As I mentioned below, the lack of PPC software is disappointing. I'm not a gamer and wish workbench apps would really use it. Simplemail would be the best candidate for me. 7000 plus emails with big attachments is just such a pig you can't use it for email anymore... For 50 bucks faster pictures was worth it for me.

CS PPC:
I did sell my PPC, I needed the money to pay bills and tbh I was a bit disappointed with the lack of PPC software to make it really shine.

Installation of the PPC You can technically add a PPC card to the 3000D without any modification. The key is how low the fan/heatsink is. If you can get a low profile fan and heatsink, all the heat buildup that hits the top of the tray will be sucked out via the lower half of the fan that sits below the tray in back. Heat will also escape through the squares where the floppy tray locks into.

I went the route of cutting a big square so both the 060 and the PPC fit through. This moves all the heat to the top of the tray, with most of the heat being collected into the hard disk. I went with an Acard 2000SUP with and SATA SSD, and the 2000SUP does get quite toasty.

I put heat sinks on all chips around the GALS as they were the hottest. I also put heat sinks on the 3000Di, since the terminators got screaming hot.

The most important thing I did was replace the power supply fan with a Noctua NF-R8 REDUX 1800RPM 80mm. Don't use the 1200, although it is absolutely silent it does not move enough air and the heat gets critically high. The 1800 is still almost silent but it moves a good amount of air.

Lastly I put bigger feet on the case, to move air below the case.

As you can see I have a Radeon PCI, X-Surf 100, Prisima Megamix, and Phonepak. The Prisima fits on the same row as the Radeon, which is real cool!

HeatsinksMB.jpgMediator.jpgtop.jpg
Stay tuned for more...
 
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Great write-up! I too am an A3000 fan (as you well know!) and it's nice to see some thorough coverage of the model. I've always felt it's the best-looking of all the Amiga models. Such a slick design and looks good even today!

5. You cannot use SC MB memory with an 040 card, espcially the 3640. This isn't true. I have a Rev 2 3640 with Ramsey 7 and DMAC 4 with SC memory on the MB. I ran ramsey to confirm the burst mode.

That's interesting to know! You're right about there being lots of weird rumours about the A3000, mostly pertaining to accelerator cards (especially the A3640.) I'd love to find out what combinations genuinely don't work, and why not.

(y)
 
Thanks Andy for the kind words. I hope I provide some value to uses out there...

I added a section to discuss accelerators based on your recommendation. Thanks...
 
Great guide, i also love the 3000D/T :)

The 3000T is a great box. It is by far the HEAVIEST computer I have ever owned by a longshot.

Great design and a more standard power supply.
 
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I'll second that, I just carried mine out to the workbench in the garage to remove the Barrel battery, it was coming up on 5 years so it was time for it to go.

Where does one get GALs to replace the PALs, does someone offer a service?

I have both a 3000T and a 3000D

Chuck E.

Great guide, i also love the 3000D/T :)

The 3000T is a great box. It is by far the HEAVIEST computer I have ever owned by a longshot.

Great design and a more standard power supply.
 
As discussed before, the main problem is the Ramsey4 version when trying a A3640 card in conjunction with pre-2.0 ROM (1.4, I'm looking at you).

I have my A3000/16 with 3.1 ROM, A3640 rev 3.1, latest SCSI chip (AMD-16) and static column mixed with FPM (set as FPM, of course!) and all works perfectly!

Did I mentioned I got a 145Gb HD (used just 108Gb, sigh...) inside this bad boy? ;-)
 
5. You cannot use SC MB memory with an 040 card, espcially the 3640. This isn't true. I have a Rev 2 3640 with Ramsey 7 and DMAC 4 with SC memory on the MB. I ran ramsey to confirm the burst mode.

The A3640 Does NOT support burst (and probably never will). So even if you have SC RAM and Ramsey burst mode enabled there is no performance benefit for A3640 users.
 
5. You cannot use SC MB memory with an 040 card, espcially the 3640. This isn't true. I have a Rev 2 3640 with Ramsey 7 and DMAC 4 with SC memory on the MB. I ran ramsey to confirm the burst mode.

The A3640 Does NOT support burst (and probably never will). So even if you have SC RAM and Ramsey burst mode enabled there is no performance benefit for A3640 users.


Thanks Speed! I was lasy and didn't run speed tests. Your right memory speed certainly doesn't reflect burst mode. Strange that ramsey say burst mode is enabled. I will correct the guide to state SC ram works with no burst benefit.

Again thanks for pointing that out!
 
Updated

Updated

Updated the Warp Engine, cybervision 64, and Delfina Plus areas.
 
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About that issue between the Spectrum and WHDLOAD, i have solved that one a couple years ago (in my A2000) and there is an old thread about it on Amibay.

It is related to an interrupt which is used a the latest Spectrum P96 driver.
I have solved the problem by using Spectrum driver files from an earlier P96 which did not used an interrupt and it is all good.
The difference can be showed by SnoopDos.

Some other boards (Retina Z2 i i remember well) have exactly the same problem.

The only drawback was that this older driver was a bit unstable in Shapeshifter direct graphic mode.



The GVP Spectrum should be nice with an A3000 in Z3 mode.
 
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A3K and A1k both represent the glory of Commodore! I regret that I have sold my A3k, was the best amiga I ever had.
 
@Marmes

Agreed. The 1000D was the first and had some nice features, like hiding the keyboard under the case... Why don't all computers do that?

The 3000D was the fulfillment of the golden age. She isn't perfect, but her build quality, look, feel, and technology was the highlight (imho) of the best computer Commodore ever built, management changes and the scrapping of the future did them in.

I particularly like the fact that the 3000D case was a possible target with the AA chipset and the dsp... The 3000+ would have set the world on fire.... :) DSP on the motherboard and sweet graphics... I digress...
 
Okay Matt3k - you sold me!!!!

When I upgrade my A3000 UX - its getting a Warp Engine!

Now, please post more A3000 pictures in this thread!



here let me help -

a3000ux_main.jpg

Thank you BBOAH!

Vistafrontale-concaseSCSI.jpg

Thank you Amiga.org!
 
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You busted me Zetr0... :).

I'm wayyyyy overdo for the refit section. I will post pics and get it going this week.

Now that you can upgrade the WE to an 060, I see little reason to select any other accelerator option. You will love how easy it is to install and get up and going. Keep me posted.

Matt
 
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Love the 3000, by far the sexiest amiga. The Ferrari of amiga along with the exotic 3000t. Never owned one due to cost back in 90's, still don't have one due lack of the space.
 
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