My A600 With ACA620 =D

[fitzsteve]

Howdy folks

Time to share another project update with you! (Makes a change from the sales threads lol)

I got my ACA620 back today with the memory fix from Amigakit and also my A600 back from mjnurney re-capped so done the re-build today.

First of all, big thanks to MJ for the work, the board looks perfect and runs like a dream, crisp clean sound and picture

Here's the A600 with the ACA620 installed, it's also got an A604, Indivision ECS and I'm using Kippers first CF adapter which give access to the CF card by filing a slot above the PCMCIA slot.

I've got a 1.3/3.1 Rom switch which uses a toggle switch. Annoyingly the disable jumper is on the opposite side to my old ACA630 so I'm going to need to rewire the jumper cable as I did have it set to disable the ACA on selecting 1.3 Rom (for old floppy based games)

MJ also desoldered the RF unit so I can mount the VGA adapter from the Indivision at the back, I used a round file to make space for the hex nuts, the VGA adapter is mounted to the RF shield.

Here she is with 1.3Rom selected

And booting Classic Workbench Full in 800x600 (SuperPlus) from the Indivision ECS (mfilos gets the credit for the workbench setup since I stole it from him )

And the SysInfo shot's as it'd be rude not to!

3.47Mips and 1.7mb/sec from the IDE, not bad for an A600!!!

And best of all the fix to the ACA620 seems to have solved the crashing issues and I'm sure the re-cap will help with overall stability too

That's all for now

 

[wmsteele]

Looking good, was wondering what was at the post office for collection...

mjnurney sorted out my 600 as well, just need to get my hands my fixed aca620 now.

 

[mjnurney]

nice steve , pleased the 600 is running like new ...well better x6 now

 

[demolition]

Great that you got it back and it's running well.
Took a while though.

 

[Firthy2002]

Lookin' great!

 

[fitzsteve]

Thanks guys & thanks again Mike

 

[Rakeim132]

Sweet, the little ACA620... and love your WB too.

 

[ami_junki]

That is a very tidy looking setup Steve, it`s amazing what you can pack into the A600 nowadays. Well done on a nice job! How do find the 020 improves performance, is it quite noticeable?

 

[fitzsteve]

Sweet, the little ACA620... and love your WB too.

Thanks for the kind words

That is a very tidy looking setup Steve, it`s amazing what you can pack into the A600 nowadays. Well done on a nice job! How do find the 020 improves performance, is it quite noticeable?

It makes enough to take the A600 to the next level, workbench is a lot snappier, you can use SFS and other programs that need an 020 as well as some of the awesome features of the ACA like custom Rom in maprom.

For me this is enough pimping for an A600, the ACA630 is an awesome card but for me wasted on the A600, you just don't need that speed, it can't be used to it's full potential with the ECS bottleneck.

 

[ami_junki]

Sounds like the perfect card, I always thought that the ACA630 might be over kill as the ECS will still slow things down, if I ever get an A600 again might have to look into investing in one of the 020 cards, I was amazed at the quality of the picture through the Indivision, really makes the A600 feel like a new computer

 

[Geraldine]

Beautiful little miggy Steve, you have my envy
When I get some cash together I am going to upgrade mine. I take it revision 1 mobos are a no no Steve for the ACA630?

 

[fitzsteve]

Beautiful little miggy Steve, you have my envy
When I get some cash together I am going to upgrade mine. I take it revision 1 mobos are a no no Steve for the ACA630?

Thanks Geraldine

Rev1.5 is the best option for the ACA630, the trouble is finding one these days!

The fix to the ACA620EC makes it compatible with all revisions I believe. All new stock of the ACA620EC has the fix already

It's a good option if you can't find a 630

 

[Geraldine]

Ooooh, so it would work with a revision 1, brilliant! Thanks for that Steve
Once my bank account recovers from the Elite kickstarter I will have to look into this, still waiting for news about the Zeus over on EAB for the A500 too

EDIT: oh: Meant to say ACA620 not ACA630 in my last post, sorry about that .

Was looking at the speed rating you were getting there Steve, now I know you used to have an ACA630, how does the 020 version compare with it? It looks pretty close to me

 

[doraemonppc]

Wow, I have the same setup.
I'm really in love with it, a nice setup for amiga partys and easy carry

 

[fitzsteve]

Ooooh, so it would work with a revision 1, brilliant! Thanks for that Steve
Once my bank account recovers from the Elite kickstarter I will have to look into this, still waiting for news about the Zeus over on EAB for the A500 too

EDIT: oh: Meant to say ACA620 not ACA630 in my last post, sorry about that .

Was looking at the speed rating you were getting there Steve, now I know you used to have an ACA630, how does the 020 version compare with it? It looks pretty close to me

Yeah the Zeus looks awesome, I'm interested in that and the ACA500 if that ever happens!

IIRC the ACA630 @25mhz was about 6.5MIPS so in processing power much faster, I always found the workbench experience held back by the ECS chipset though, for example a 16 colour workbench was unbearable!

Wow, I have the same setup.
I'm really in love with it, a nice setup for amiga partys and easy carry

That's the only thing, with these new expansions everyone's A600 is the same

 

[Geraldine]

IIRC the ACA630 @25mhz was about 6.5MIPS so in processing power much faster, I always found the workbench experience held back by the ECS chipset though, for example a 16 colour workbench was unbearable!

Thanks for that info Steve

 

[sanjyuubi]

Do you have 1.7MB/s disk transfer with maprom enabled or disabled?

 

[fitzsteve]

Do you have 1.7MB/s disk transfer with maprom enabled or disabled?

Maprom is enabled

 

[netagra]

I love it, well done!

 

[fitzsteve]

Hey guys!

Small update

I've been waiting ages for an ACA630/64mb to come on to the used market, as you may know only a handful of this special upgraded 30mhz/64mb version were released, my old 32mb ACA always felt a little inadequate

The good news is I now have one

And here she is, in all her glory!

After waiting for the ACA to warm up to room temperature (she was very cold from the trip) it was time to install in my A600

Yay, booted first time

Some benchmarks:

I made a short Video I'll upload later of Doom 1.4 running in the Indivision ECS Chunky 256Colour mode and also to show how slick the 8 colour 800x600 (SuperPlus) workbench runs

In the mean time, I'm off to do some gaming