Need Accelerator Advice

[stevej]

Hey guys - I've just joined and was hoping to pick your brains


I had an Amiga 500 as a kid and over the years have bought and sold systems whenever the nostalgia grabbed me. I currently have an A500 and a new A1200, the later of which I'm setting up permanently - only for gaming.


I'd like to get hold of 4MB additional RAM (for AGA stuff WHDLoad), but it seems very hard to come by memory-only trapdoor cards, so I've been looking at accelerators instead - though they're more expensive and I probably don't really need them, they just seem easier to buy/more common.


This for example looks good:
https://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?83688-ACA-1220-Accelerator-with-128MB-RAM


BUT... I keep coming across comments about "timings" and "noMMU" and other things that I don't really have a handle on. Getting to my question, I'm wondering if it's "safe" for me to buy something like this (i.e. is it likely to work on my "presumably" stock A1200) or should I hold out and wait until I can get a simple memory expansion rather than an accelerator?

NOTE: apologies if this turns up on the forum twice - I posted it but it didn't appear anywhere, so I'm trying again.

 

[Sardine]

NOTE: apologies if this turns up on the forum twice - I posted it but it didn't appear anywhere, so I'm trying again.

Its because you're a new member with a low post count and a http link in your post "even though it's an Amibay link" the server "protects itself" from potential spam bots and auto moderates your post for us to look at and authorise even more so in the amioracle / general sections.

as for the A1200 and timing fixes, you have to be really unlucky for an accelerator not to work but your odds get worse with the new ACA range as these more so need the timing fix.

I would either get the A1200 recapped and timing fixes applied as a matter of future proofing / servicing the A1200

and / or

get an older blizzard / apollo 030 with 16mb ram or more this would cope with whdload easily,, 4mb is not enough and 8mb is JUST enough for the larger multi disk games.

 

[Jameson]

Don't get too hung up on incompatibilities - a few A1200 revisions require a simple timing fix to work with certain picky accelerator cards, but by and large it is simply plug and play.

Check your motherboard revision and post back. The main boards which may require a timing fix are ID4 and 2B.... I have one 2B and 3 x ID4 boards and none of them have ever required anything but the caps replaced.

Also, the more you use the A1200 the more you will find an accelerator board is almost a requirement as a lot of high end games need it and so do most of the best demos.

However, for best compatibility and value for money I would stick to an 030 based board such as a Blizzard 1230. A 50mhz 68030, with 32 bit ram of course, will typically run around 5 times the speed of your stock A1200.

This is plenty to play games like Gloom/Deluxe full screen and smooth, Doom, Breathless, Fears, Alien Breed 3D etc etc.

Your Workbench will be responsive in high res laced in 64+ colours (make sure you install the speed up patches - NewWPA8, BlazeWCP, FBlit, FText, Icon Library 46.x, Taglife, Fastrom, Fastexec etc etc).

You will wonder how you ever lived without it.

Stay away from 040 and 060s though - it sounds like you would never get much use from the extra power, they can have more incompatibilities and are considerably more expensive.

Hope this helps.

 

[stevej]

Thanks guys - much appreciated!

- - - Updated - - -

Its because you're a new member with a low post count and a http link in your post "even though it's an Amibay link" the server "protects itself" from potential spam bots and auto moderates your post for us to look at and authorise even more so in the amioracle / general sections.

Side-note, that's a LOT of security for a fairly niche forum Fair enough though.

 

[Sardine]

Thanks guys - much appreciated!

- - - Updated - - -

Its because you're a new member with a low post count and a http link in your post "even though it's an Amibay link" the server "protects itself" from potential spam bots and auto moderates your post for us to look at and authorise even more so in the amioracle / general sections.

Side-note, that's a LOT of security for a fairly niche forum Fair enough though.

you wanna see the amount of bots that sign up here each day then go look for a single advert on our site... i think we do ok with between 10 - 20 signups a day.

 

[CrazyC]

Stay away from 040 and 060s though - it sounds like you would never get much use from the extra power, they can have more incompatibilities and are considerably more expensive.

Definitely way more expensive and totally not worth it just for gaming etc. If I had one a1200 I would go for the classic Blizzard MkIV, best compromise solution I think. But see my Signature for what I actually have. (I have not had any compatibility issues with my B1260, and whilst I would not get one now if I did not have one, I cannot seem to force myself to trade down and part with it....)
I dont know what its like getting the a1200 recapped etc down your way, but its quite easy here and worth doing. I have never had timing issues with Blizzards but have with ACA cards. I am not sure even knowing your board revision is a guarantee as to whether timing fixes are required.
Good luck with it all though.

 

[stevej]

There's a couple of BLIZZARD 1230 IV cards that I'm looking at. One with 16MB and the optional FPU. The other with 64MB and no FPU. I'd be leaning towards the 16MB as I'm pretty sure the 64MB is overkill for just playing games?

And 4MB is definitely not worth going for? There's a 4MB RAM-only card on eBay at the moment, but I think the guy is asking too much for it anyway.

 

[CrazyC]

Depends what you want it for. Fpu is of limited use. Easy to change ram stick later on mkivs.
You could go with the ram card but remember you will almost immediately be looking jealously at accelerators....

Sent from my S7 Edge

 

[CrazyC]

When I started I got an 8mb ram card and upgraded again within weeks.
For me, the best all round value setup ( not cheapest) is a recapped a1200 with blizzard 1230 mkiv and a cf hard drive. (Mounted with the amiga kit adapter through the expansion socket). How are you displaying the screen, do you need an indy mk2? That complicates matters, and if only for gaming then a dedicated monitor would probably be better.

Sent from my S7 Edge

 

[stevej]

When I started I got an 8mb ram card and upgraded again within weeks.
For me, the best all round value setup ( not cheapest) is a recapped a1200 with blizzard 1230 mkiv and a cf hard drive. (Mounted with the amiga kit adapter through the expansion socket). How are you displaying the screen, do you need an indy mk2? That complicates matters, and if only for gaming then a dedicated monitor would probably be better.

Sent from my S7 Edge

Am I likely to need the A1200 recapped using a Blizzard 1230 IV?I was hoping to avoid it as I don't know of anywhere to get that done locally.

Does it all pretty much come down to the motherboard revision?

I'm using RGB --> SCART --> HDMI for display.

- - - Updated - - -

Check your motherboard revision and post back. The main boards which may require a timing fix are ID4 and 2B.

Sorry to sound like a dummy, but where do I check that? I'm assuming it is printed on the motherboard? Or can I view it via WB or some other software?

 

[CrazyC]

I don't believe you need timing fixes with the blizzard. I never did and had several b1230s with several a1200s.
Getting the machine recapped is different. It's a bit like getting the cam belt changed on your car. You could be lucky and it continues fine for years or they could leak at any point given their age.

Sent from my S7 Edge

 

[CrazyC]

Motherboard revision is printed on the board near the accelerator connector. Google a picture of a bare 1200 motherboard and you will see it.


Sent from my S7 Edge

 

[CrazyC]

If you are getting a good flicker free picture using your current method then happy days, no need to bother with the expense and hassle of an indy mk2 unless you want a higher resolution workbench screen.

Sent from my S7 Edge

 

[stevej]

Sweet - thanks for all the answers. I've purchased a Blizzard 1230 IV 68030 with FPU and 16MB. Will see how things go once it arrives...

 

[CrazyC]

Cool. That really is my favourite card. The cpu may run warm/hot but don't worry about that. Either run without the trapdoor cover or get one of those funky vented ones.


Sent from my S7 Edge

 

[stevej]

Cool. That really is my favourite card. The cpu may run warm/hot but don't worry about that. Either run without the trapdoor cover or get one of those funky vented ones.

Cool - I just searched and found those vented ones. Was just about to order it and realised it's probably just easier/better to run without a cover... or, go really nuts and drill some neat holes in the cover Though that might really offend the more discerning collectors!

 

[CrazyC]

You won't ever see it as it's underneath so it's not a big issue anyway. I just ran without one.

Sent from my S7 Edge

 

[RichyV]

Never needed to remove trap door or have vents for my 1230. A 1240 though, that's a different matter...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[CrazyC]

Mine used to get pretty toasty. Never had any any issues performance wise at all but it did feel very very warm.

Sent from my S7 Edge

 

[stevej]

Hey guys - so my BLIZZARD 1230 IV 68030 (16MB) finally arrived. Took a while to ship here from Italy. I only had about 5 minutes as I was leaving the house, but I installed it, plugged all the cables back into the A1200, turned it on, and......... nothing much happened. I got the green Power light which kind of blinked faintly and nothing on the screen. No HDD indicator - no activity.

I didn't have time to even recheck that it was seated properly etc, but it occurred to me that I'm not even sure that that is all that's required to install one as I've never done it before. Is it just plug and play? There's nothing on the motherboard that needs to be changed/jumpered off or anything like that?

Assuming (for the time being) that the card IS okay, I just wanted to clarify that there's nothing else that I need to do, other than plug it into the Amiga?