A4000TX Mainboard owners. Are there any pitfalls with these? Issues that need to be aware of?

[Boing-ball]

Hi All,

As per the title.

I am still looking out for a A4000 Tower solution.
At the moment I have a wanted ad out for a Elbox Tower case due to having a couple of spare A4000D boards. After over a years of searching, these seem to be Unobtainable these days.

So now looking at a different solution using a A4000TX mainboard and finding a suitable sized ATX Tower case to place it in.

After reading about certain issues about the A4000TX which I can only guess relate to version 1.0 boards? I take it version 1.1 boards are now okay? Or are there still gotchas to look out for?

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers

 

[samaron]

It is pretty much an Amiga 4000 Dcr (cost reduced) with some various hacks added on-board. I built a v1.1 board just after the last Amiga Ireland event. One was set up there and looked like an interesting project.

Good building instructions. Closest documentation is the official Dcr schematics and user manual. All the jumpers and components are labeled the same as an official mainboard.

Fitment is good in ATX cases. A backing plate for the connectors is available in the thread that can be 3D printed. The Zorro slots is what makes it an extended ATX, and can cause some problems in certain cases. Might collide with drive cages or other structure. I personally went with a Chieftec case as they still have some traditional construction, like a 3,5" drive slot in the front along with 5,25" slots. It fits well in the case I chose (forgot the model), but had to drill out some rivets and remove the lower hard drive cage for full length cards to clear.

As far as I can tell it shouldn't have more problems than any other 4000. Anything working in an official computer should work in this one too.

I have personally struggled with an intermittent issue for over a year now. Will put up an ad here soon to solicit help from someone more knowledgeable about this computer platform. I don't have the impression that this is normal. Just bad luck on my part.

 

[Boing-ball]

It is pretty much an Amiga 4000 Dcr (cost reduced) with some various hacks added on-board. I built a v1.1 board just after the last Amiga Ireland event. One was set up there and looked like an interesting project.

Good building instructions. Closest documentation is the official Dcr schematics and user manual. All the jumpers and components are labeled the same as an official mainboard.

Fitment is good in ATX cases. A backing plate for the connectors is available in the thread that can be 3D printed. The Zorro slots is what makes it an extended ATX, and can cause some problems in certain cases. Might collide with drive cages or other structure. I personally went with a Chieftec case as they still have some traditional construction, like a 3,5" drive slot in the front along with 5,25" slots. It fits well in the case I chose (forgot the model), but had to drill out some rivets and remove the lower hard drive cage for full length cards to clear.

As far as I can tell it shouldn't have more problems than any other 4000. Anything working in an official computer should work in this one too.

I have personally struggled with an intermittent issue for over a year now. Will put up an ad here soon to solicit help from someone more knowledgeable about this computer platform. I don't have the impression that this is normal. Just bad luck on my part.

Thanks

At the moment, I am looking to install a Cyberstorm 060/PPC accelerator with either a Picasso IV or a Cybervision 3D/64 plus some other newer Z3 cards such as NIC, USB etc.
So making sure that If I go this route that I am not going to regret it.

 

[samaron]

I unfortunately can't share any experience with those cards. Maybe someone else will chime in.

My A4000TX has the following cards:
TF4060
ZZ9000
X-Surf 100
Prelude
A4091

I recall the TF4060 did not like the PIO2 hack available for the mainboard. And prior to getting the A4091, I used a FastLane Z3 card. It for some reason liked to corrupt the file system on my drive. Were told it could be a bit temperamental.

 

[Boing-ball]

I unfortunately can't share any experience with those cards. Maybe someone else will chime in.

My A4000TX has the following cards:
TF4060
ZZ9000
X-Surf 100
Prelude
A4091

I recall the TF4060 did not like the PIO2 hack available for the mainboard. And prior to getting the A4091, I used a FastLane Z3 card. It for some reason liked to corrupt the file system on my drive. Were told it could be a bit temperamental.

Thanks for the info…