I have recently acquired a Amiga A500 and I'm planning to upgrade the Workbench to 3.1 however I would also like to install an internal ide hard drive. After a quick search in the web it appears that the A500 does not support ide. Is there a way I can make this happen?
A500 Internal HD?
- Thread starter PropBlast
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Unfortunately you don't have the luxury of an A600/A1200 with the built-in IDE controller. Check A590 for example: https://bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=534
You can check also the latest ACA500Plus at http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/ACA500plus.
Could this be a good option?
https://sordan.ie/product/1264/8mb-ram-ide-68000-cpu-slot-amiga-500-1000-2000-cdtv-card/
https://sordan.ie/product/1264/8mb-ram-ide-68000-cpu-slot-amiga-500-1000-2000-cdtv-card/
If you have more budget, the ide will be quicker with an 030, relocater included.
amigastore.eu
Terrible Fire 534 - AMIGAstore.eu
errible Fire 534 accelerator has been designed to be installed inside Amiga 500/500+. It provides a Motorola 68030 CPU and a 68882 math coprocessor clocked at 33, 40, or 50 Mhz, 4MB of RAM, and a 3,5" IDE connector for hard drives and CF adapters.
amigastore.eu
I must say, TF536 is the way to go in my view. Really makes the 500 the 500 of our dreams.
Spifire is probably your cheapest option , 14mhz and 8mb ram + IDE . I built mine and can say that it works very well . It even works with the A590 sidecar hdd .
Minimum requirement to my understanding is 2.05 Kickstart.
Ok so dragging this trhead back up, I've got a TF536 on the way and I've also got my hands on a 2.5" 4GB ide hard drive. My next question is where is the best place to put the hd inside the amiga so it doesn't short anything out or get in the way too much? It's a shame no one had designed a hd caddy for the A500 as featured on the A600 and A1200
Well, you do have some space in-between here on the motherboard, so if you insist on an HDD, you should be able to come up with something out of plastic to safely find a spot for it in this relatively large gap of space.
When i was using a real 2,5’ hd inside my a500 plus it was with the Viper 520cd which has onboard room to fit a 2,5’ HD.
In your case, to avoid damages from a wandering drive I would look if I can secure it on top of the floppy drive or somewhere in the trapdoor if there is no big expansion.
That would make a long ide cable though, maybe too long.
Instead I prefer to use a msata ssd on a 2,5’ ide adapter and fit it on the board with some right angle ide adapter. But then it can conflict with the keyboard that’s why I had to use a relocator even with a flat vampire 500 v2 and add a lot of sockets because of the rgb2hdmi. The more sandwiched sockets and relocator, the more power problems.
Or there are still compact flash. I don’t like them but after all my A600 seems ok with a 32 GB CF.
Note that the TF536 seems rather finicky about CF cards. Don’t know about other ide devices.
In your case, to avoid damages from a wandering drive I would look if I can secure it on top of the floppy drive or somewhere in the trapdoor if there is no big expansion.
That would make a long ide cable though, maybe too long.
Instead I prefer to use a msata ssd on a 2,5’ ide adapter and fit it on the board with some right angle ide adapter. But then it can conflict with the keyboard that’s why I had to use a relocator even with a flat vampire 500 v2 and add a lot of sockets because of the rgb2hdmi. The more sandwiched sockets and relocator, the more power problems.
Or there are still compact flash. I don’t like them but after all my A600 seems ok with a 32 GB CF.
Note that the TF536 seems rather finicky about CF cards. Don’t know about other ide devices.
