A few A4000-related questions

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amienslaver

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I've embarked on the journey of building A4000D system, and so far it slowly goes on. I have a few, perhaps easy, questions:
  • Storage. What is the easiest/best way to connect CF as a permanent storage? I was looking for a vertical CF adapter, but I also saw some fancy Zorro solutions like Buddha. I'm not looking into I/O benchmarking, need something reliable and easy to set up. I do not have daughter board yet, but have all the components to solder it (not sure when I would have time for that). I can push the daughter board if really needed, but if a non-Zorro solution provides decent speed then I would go for it.
  • Floppy. As I understand it, a regular PC floppy drive still would not work with A4000 without hardware mods. I have a working floppy drive from A1200 (Panasonic, probably PC modified), though. Is it compatible with A4000? I have an SFX PSU, and I have a feeling that a custom cable from Molex to Berg is required for such a floppy drive and PSU.
  • Gotek. In case it is too much hassle with a floppy drive, I'm fine to go with a Gotek emulator. Would any of them fit? I guess I need an external one, which should fit standard 3.5'' slot. Do I need special IDE and power cables in that case?
  • CD-ROM. Are there any compatibility issues or I need some specific model to work? Any specific cables to connect it?
Would be happy for any advice/help 😀
 
Floppy/Gotek: Gotek is a floppy device and connects to the floppy connector. I still have the original internal floppy drive in my Amiga 4000 but use an external Gotek from time to time. You can connect the external Gotek on the external floppy port on your Amiga 4000.

Storage the Buddha is a Zorro II device and is a bit faster than the onboard IDE of the Amiga 4000. I used it for a while but it had its glitches with accelerators like the BFG9060. I had an older revision of the Buddha. It's possible that newer revisions don't have any issues.
If you want to go fast with IDE, the FastATA 400 is the fastest possible. I have a Zorro III SCSI-card + ZuluSCSI, which is faster, but also less of a CPU hog like IDE is. I have an internal DVD-ROM and ZIP-drive connected on the Amiga's internal IDE port.

CD-ROM I have an internal LG DVD-rom connected to the IDE port, which works fine (...but is hardly used). I think you can use any IDE DVD/CD-ROM drive, as long as you set the master/slave correct on the DVD-rom drive.
 
You can connect any CF adapter you want to the 3,5 IDE header of the A4000.
However, the A4000 is not a mere A600. Why don't you use a SATA SSD with IDE to SATA adapter like me? They are cheaper than CF by now.
Only my A600 has a CF. To the noble computer the noble parts.

Floppy you can use a regular PC drive as HD with an adapter sold by @darefail amongts others. An A1200 drive would work as DD. The original A4000 used to have an Amiga HD drive.

CD/DVD are fine as slave of your master harddrive.
 
Xanxi said:
Floppy you can use a regular PC drive as HD with an adapter sold by @darefail amongts others. An A1200 drive would work as DD. The original A4000 used to have an Amiga HD drive.
Click to expand...
It is not a regular PC drive but a modified one along with the HD adapter.
Gotek seems an "easy" solution and maybe more convenient.
But if you want either a DD or HD drive let me know.
 
Yes i stand corrected. Anyway it works perfectly here (y)
 
HomeLate said:
Storage the Buddha is a Zorro II device and is a bit faster than the onboard IDE of the Amiga 4000. I used it for a while but it had its glitches with accelerators like the BFG9060. I had an older revision of the Buddha. It's possible that newer revisions don't have any issues.
If you want to go fast with IDE, the FastATA 400 is the fastest possible. I have a Zorro III SCSI-card + ZuluSCSI, which is faster, but also less of a CPU hog like IDE is. I have an internal DVD-ROM and ZIP-drive connected on the Amiga's internal IDE port.
Click to expand...

I have BFG9060 for now. SCSI could be an option later, though.

Okay, seems floppy from A1200 should work then as DD :). My biggest question here are the cables then. Do I need a special power cable for such floppy drive? I'm not sure the Berg connector from modern PSU has the same pin-out as the one from 1200 motherboard. And for IDE port on A4000: can I take a PC cable with master and slave, plug to MB, and then put both a floppy drive and CD-ROM?

Xanxi said:
However, the A4000 is not a mere A600. Why don't you use a SATA SSD with IDE to SATA adapter like me? They are cheaper than CF by now.
Click to expand...

I'm considering any options. Would it work with two IDE devices, like SSD and CD-ROM as a slave? I just don't know what is a typical way to connect all that periphery in desktop Amigas. If I'm asking for something stupid like having IDE CF/SSD and CD-ROM on the same IDE bus - please tell me :)
 
SSD and CDROM/burner works together as master and slave in my setup.
I think some CF might not want a slave device.
 
Xanxi said:
SSD and CDROM/burner works together as master and slave in my setup.
I think some CF might not want a slave device.
Click to expand...
Do you put them on separate SATA ports? I saw that you can buy IDE to SATA adapter and it has like two SATA ports.
 
No i have an IDE cable from the mobo and it goes to an IDE SATA adapter on the back of the 2,5' SSD and to the back of my slimline IDE CDROM burner (with another adapter to have slimIDE converted to 40 pins IDE).
I would like to have an IDE to SATA adapter plugged into the IDE port of the mobo and then run SATA cable because it would save the bulk, but there is no such thing as 1 IDE to 2 SATA ports.
 
Xanxi said:
No i have an IDE cable from the mobo and it goes to an IDE SATA adapter on the back of the 2,5' SSD and to the back of my slimline IDE CDROM burner (with another adapter to have slimIDE converted to 40 pins IDE).
I would like to have an IDE to SATA adapter plugged into the IDE port of the mobo and then run SATA cable because it would save the bulk, but there is no such thing as 1 IDE to 2 SATA ports.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. Now I see the way to handle it 😊 I also checked schematics and Berg power connector should be compatible with what was used for A1200, I just need make sure for correct orientation of 5V and 12V rails.

Regarding 2-port IDE to SATA, I was looking into this device: https://www.delock.com/produkt/61635/merkmale.html?g=1059
 
No that thing is 1 sata to 1 ide or 1 ide to 1 sata. Works both way but you can’t use both sata ports. Others have been mistaken and disappointed before.
 
You need a buffered adapter if you want to use up to 4 IDE devices on the IDE bus.
Something like the fast ATA for A4000.
 
Why not? This adapter plugs on the 40pin IDE of your motherboard and through IDEfix software you can have 4 devices connected.
But as you can have a HDD and CD-rom without it, you don't need it.
If you want to use sata HDDs, buy the red converter and you just have to use only 1 HDD.
 
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