I am seriously torn between running a Blizzard 1220 card, a Blizzard 030 and an 060 board. The modest board shows the Amiga off with just 4MB fast mem. The 030 with 64MB is both compatible and powerful but it can't run the latest big demoscene productions and the 060 is expensive and impressive but least compatible for classic games. Only room for 1 Amiga. Which should I stick with?
Torn between accelerators
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Sell everything and get an Atari ST, you'll never have a dilemma there let alone a trilemma 
On a more serious note and subjectively judging by what you mention, you should go the 060 way.
You obviously care enough about those AGA+060 later demos to reference them.
With a 060 you definitely won't stick to a floppy-only system, so I expect you'd use WHDLOAD for your gaming, where things mostly work with the 060, might need some option fiddling here and there at times but generally that's about it.
Still, for the occasional no-go, you can disable the 1260 altogether at boot-up by pressing the non-numpad "2" key and floppy-boot the misbehaving game natively.
The lack of a full FPU on the 060 is vastly a "non-issue". I'm not a demoscene expert but I'd think few if any FPU-oriented demos would rely specifically on the 68881/2.
The only nuisance is you need to properly install the 060 libs beforehand.
And maybe some extra heat produced, though a fully-fledged 1230 + FPU @ 50 Mhz isn't exactly ice-cold either. But that's addressable, too.
PS verify your A1200 is in top-shape (caps) and the PSU is adequate (e.g. the older A500 PSU with 4.5A on the +5V line is enough for a 1260). The 1260 doesn't generally require any timing fixes on the A1200 motherboard regardless of revision so instabilities are usually capacitors/PSU related.
On a more serious note and subjectively judging by what you mention, you should go the 060 way.
You obviously care enough about those AGA+060 later demos to reference them.
With a 060 you definitely won't stick to a floppy-only system, so I expect you'd use WHDLOAD for your gaming, where things mostly work with the 060, might need some option fiddling here and there at times but generally that's about it.
Still, for the occasional no-go, you can disable the 1260 altogether at boot-up by pressing the non-numpad "2" key and floppy-boot the misbehaving game natively.
The lack of a full FPU on the 060 is vastly a "non-issue". I'm not a demoscene expert but I'd think few if any FPU-oriented demos would rely specifically on the 68881/2.
The only nuisance is you need to properly install the 060 libs beforehand.
And maybe some extra heat produced, though a fully-fledged 1230 + FPU @ 50 Mhz isn't exactly ice-cold either. But that's addressable, too.
PS verify your A1200 is in top-shape (caps) and the PSU is adequate (e.g. the older A500 PSU with 4.5A on the +5V line is enough for a 1260). The 1260 doesn't generally require any timing fixes on the A1200 motherboard regardless of revision so instabilities are usually capacitors/PSU related.
Ok after considering what's possible with the 030 /68882 50MHz you only need to look at something like TBl's Tint demo. The 060 is going to cost me at least twice as much but up to three times as much. My Blizzard's 030 chip is a revision C so the whole thing runs with a moderate temperature. If I got another 060 (had one years ago) it would run more stuff but the it would be like what about PPC/Picasso/audio card etc. So going to stick with the B1230/50MHz/64MB/FPU. Thanks to all who put opinion across on here and the other forums I posed this question.
Revolution13
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Back in the day, I had 060, 040 and 030. Maybe it is poor memory but I remember enjoying 030 more than the others. Maybe it was because I was into games (AGA) more than anything else.
Revolution13
New member
I also still have my A530. that was something interesting. I don't know what happened to my A500 though
I may have given it to someone.I also still have my A530. that was something interesting. I don't know what happened to my A500 though
Very nice, always dreamed about the A530! You bought it new?
If you want accelerator to cover everything, then the 060 is probably the way to go, although I think there is something special about using a 020/030 machine. It is very classic but still quite a bit faster than the plain 68000 so more practical. During my summer vacation this year, I spent some time learning 68k assembly with Asm-One and I found that running it on my A500 with ACA500plus+ACA1221ec was a very nice configuration, although I also have an A1200 with ACA1232 and also a 500+ with a Vampire which is obviously much faster.. But the 020 was fast enough so I did not feel like I had to wait at any times.
I really like the Vampire as well and some programs work very well with RTG but Asm-One is not one of them if you ask me, which is why I keep several machines with different configs around. Both the 020, 030 and the Vampire have their places (and I also keep some plain 68000 machines for some stuff).
I really like the Vampire as well and some programs work very well with RTG but Asm-One is not one of them if you ask me, which is why I keep several machines with different configs around. Both the 020, 030 and the Vampire have their places (and I also keep some plain 68000 machines for some stuff).
Revolution13
New member
I also still have my A530. that was something interesting. I don't know what happened to my A500 though
Very nice, always dreamed about the A530! You bought it new?
No, I bought it used. But it was complete with box and manual etc. Felt like new, and it was new for me
Back when I had an A1200 I had the best luck with the DKB Cobra '030 with 64Mb RAM. It was most compatible setup I tried. Today I use an A2000 with an old GVP '040 that work well too. You should usually go for the largest, fastest CPU, and most RAM you afford, no matter which model you're using.
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