Ram for A1200... amikit.com dont have.

[Tiago]

I went to amikit.com... they dont have A1200 ram expansions... only for 500 and 600.

I was expecting th 600, but i bought the 1200, so i dont know many things about the 1200....

How can i expand memory, do i need to by a board to (put on a bay port?) so can i put the memory modules? What kind of modules?

Can i use the pcmcia port to put memory cards? Will they word the same way as a module ram?
What memory should i buy and were since amikit dont have modules?

Thanks

[Harrison]

The A1200 trap door slot is a full system expansion slot, not just a ram expansion slow in the case of the A500 and A600. It allows you to connect expansion cards for many purposes including full cpu accelerator cards.

You can get 4 and 8MB ram expansions for the A1200 trap door slot, but they are not really worth it compared to buying an accelerator card. Only consider these if you are on a tight budget because if you later want to upgrade to a faster cpu you won't be able to continue using the ram only expansions.

The most common way to add more ram to an A1200 is via an accelerator card as most have 1 or 2 SIMM ram sockets built in. The best accelerator card for the price is the Blizzard 1230 mkIV. This contains a full 68030 CPU running at 50MHz, plus the ability to add ram. Most people add between 32MB and 128MB of ram to accelerator cards.

[Tiago]

SIMM ram sockets ... like pc ones?

What about the pcmcia, can i put memory thru there?

[Harrison]

You can use 16bit PCMCIA memory cards of 4MB and 8MB in the A1200's PCMCIA slot but I don't recommend it. It will slow the Amiga down as it is only 16-bit ram, and so the A1200's CPU cannot address it at full speed. Always stick with the trap door expansion slot for ram upgrades.

And yes, most A1200 accelerators use the older PC style 72pin SIMM ram.

[Tiago]

And for running OS3.9 if i use pcmcia memory will it be full funcional ? Slow, ok, but will it work?

and it has to be any kind of special memory pcmcia? Or a vulgar one does the job?

[Harrison]

Don't use pcmcia memory. That is my recommendation. As well as the memory slowing down the system there is also a conflict with 4MB or more memory in the PCMCIA slot with other parts of the system.

For OS3.9 you will need a proper accelerator card with at least 32MB of ram to run it properly, plus a decent sized harddrive (1GB+) installed. I wouldn't try to run OS3.9 on an unexpanded A1200.

[Tiago]

Ok then,
i will try OS3.9 with amikit in PC.

The expansion board maybe later. I think i have at least 64Mb of ram in SIMM.
But the expansion Board will be expensive.... around what? 40£?

The board (Blizzard 1230 mkIV) looks very big, does it fit inside the A1200? Or if stays outside the A1200?

[Harrison]

It fits inside the expansion slot under the A1200 with the cover in place (although many leave the cover off to let excess heat out. The trap door expansion slot is quite large.

[toomanymikes]

Hi
We have talked about the benefits of expanding the A1200 with a hard drive on other posts but maybe it is worthwhile to explain the benefits of installing an accelerator such as the Blizzard 1230 mkIV, for me just as much Tiago (in case you havent noticed I'm pretty green when it comes to tech talk).

[Bloodwych]

Really is some top advice on this board. :)

My take is storage first, RAM second. Very few games (except those run through WHDload) demand more than 2MB so the expansion can wait. A hard drive or good storage however is essential for transferring over files and writing out ADF's back to disk.

Therefore first I'd get a hard drive sorted if you haven't got one. This will make your A1200 10x more usable and allow you to enjoy all the hard drive installable games straight away. Many people run A1200's without expansions/extra ram - they are perfectly usable without so I'd say that's of secondary importance as you're finding your feet. Wait to check that your A1200 has the necessary cradle inside to hold the hard drive first however. If not (they sometimes go missing), you may have to think how to mount it.

Some people use compact flash cards for storage - that's something I've never looked into. You may want to.

Now onto memory. Extra (or fast) memory will mainly allow you to have unrestricted access to the best thing ever on the Amiga - WHDload. Check out the links here for a path to all the game packs done by Killer Gorilla:

http://wiki.abime.net/

You can run some WHDload games without extra ram, but usually only those that originally required 512MB and one disk on the A500.

As already mentioned, PCMCIA memory expansions are not the way to go. The limited address space and 16bit access limitation means it will not speed your A1200 up like a trapdoor expansion - in fact it may slow it down.

The trapdoor expansions connect via a fast 32bit interface and can have a dramatic effect. Just by adding a fastram board with no CPU upgrade, the A1200 gets TWICE as fast!

My Amiga has one fitted with a 8MB (max that can be added to most of these memory expansions) old PC simm I had lying around. I find that it's fast enough for 90% of everything I do on the A1200 - the only thing that slows it down are demanding 3D demos or the occasional rare game.

Best of all are the 68030 accelerators mentioned above, especially Blizzard's models. They are a luxury however, one I've never felt I required. Higher CPU's than 68030 (68040/PPC) are more trouble than they're worth on A1200's as compatibility issues can surface.

[Harrison]

Now onto memory. Extra (or fast) memory will mainly allow you to have unrestricted access to the best thing ever on the Amiga - WHDload. Check out the links here for a path to all the game packs done by Killer Gorilla:

A direct link to Killa Gorillas packs is: http://www.guildserver.co.uk/kgwhd/whdload.php

If you do get some extra ram and an HD for the A1200 I highly recommend you try these out.


Higher CPU's than 68030 (68040/PPC) are more trouble than they're worth on A1200's as compatibility issues can surface.

Unless you have money to afford a 68060. These are nearly as compatible as the 68030 (unlike the 040 which caused a lot of problems) and the 060 is a lot faster! You can even get a Blizzard card that comes with both a PPC and 68060 CPU on the same card so you have the best of both worlds. These are however rare and very expensive. I still want one though. ;)

[FOL]

I have to say, Compact Flash is awesome. Got my 4GB running nice now, without IDEFIX installed (compatability issues, dont know why, as it worked fine before). I just partitioned using OS3.9 Fastfile system, then used the atapi.device from idefix for my CDROM, works great.

I have to agree on the trapdoor upgrades, I found a great improvment, with just an 8MB simm. I now have an FPU, but I havent noticed much of a speed increase with it. Fastmem is the key, i think.

[Harrison]

With the FPU you have to be running software that has been written to take advantage of it. So more productivity software than games will see an improvement.

[Bloodwych]

Yes, those expensive 060/PPC cards make the A1200 into a beast! I think they're better left for towered machines or box Amiga's though as they must suck power (too much for the default PSU?) and produce a lot of heat for that tiny trapdoor.

Even with the 060, some WHDgames have small issues like speed/timing problems. Special tool types might have to be added in order to get a game to run reasonably well. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the revision of A1200 motherboard plays a factor too - on some expansions beyond 68030 timing issues/bugs come into play on certain motherboard revisions.

I'd still stick with an 030 or the standard 020 for simplicity - everything works without any messing around and they're very well supported in WHDload.

As for FPU's, as Harrision says software has to have dedicated support. In the entertainment area, there are a few rare 3D games (like doom?) that make use of it and should be some impressive demos that use one too.

[Tiago]

Thanks to everyone for the info!!