CPU upgrade options and recommendations

Over the years a lot of CPU upgrades have been released for the classic range of Amiga models. Eventually the main site will add a hardware directory that will include a list of known accelerators for each Amiga model.

To begin with please post the accelerators you know of for each Amiga model here with details and any links to other sites with information about them. This will help others looking for details on the options available to them for the model of Amiga they own, as well as giving classicamiga a starting point once we begin the hardware directory.

Please also post recommendations for any accelerators and CPU upgrades that you think are the must have upgrades for specific Amiga models.

:thumbs:

Blizzard 1230 for Amiga 1200

The A1200 can have it's speed doubled just by adding memory in the trapdoor slot.
Much better and practically essential to do this by adding an accelerator.
The Blizzard 1230-IV is generally considered to be the best option of the none PPC range.
http://amigahardware.mariomisic.de/c...cgi?HARDID=151
Fast and reliable, the ratio of cost per speed gained is considered to the best with this model.
040 accelerators run hot and usually need to be cooled down in some way.
Either by fitting a fan or having it a case with cooling fans.
So these are not suitable for a 1200 in it's original case.
The 060 range are more expensive and not considered to be as compatible with all software as the 030.
They do run cooler than the 040 and are suitable for machines in the original case.
I use a 1260 myself and to be honest, I have never noticed any difference in compatibilty with the 030 I used previously.

Is the 060 much faster though?

You can tell the difference.
Doom clones and mp3 playing is a lot easier.
These things are possible on an 030 but you need to play around with the settings, smaller screens lesser quality sound etc.

Hey guys,

(just posting through dont mind me)

there is an absdolute toffee load of Accelerators for the Amiga.. so lets just assume the A1200 and then the BIG 2 companys.... Apollo and Blizzard :D

now first and formost, I have owned Blizzards before, and now i own, 3 Apollos and 1 cycberstom Mk2

so from my experience let me see if any info can help.

for me the Definiative 030 A1200 accelerator is the Blizzard Mk4 030@50, it truly is a great card ( i had a Mk 2 that had timming issues with the motherboard so had to sell it on)

However saying that, although its SCSI implementation is total crap, the Apollo 030@40/50 Mk 3 is a fantastic card for its price (i have one of these)

on another note here, it has been reported that Apollo Cards are slightly faster when moving stuff into Chip ram.

soo given the choice of the two, unless you need SCSI either would be a great choice.

now the big two...

the 040, on for both really will leave you wondering why you bothered paying so much for the upgrade... its only twice as fast as the 030@50 (this is an 040@33) although its better from a productivity stand point its price really has you wondering...

I have an Apollo 040, a nice card but i will be upgrading it to an 060 as soon as funds permit!

now the 060's... well what can i say.... I have two of them.... a Cyberstorm 060 Mk2 (using a miconik busboard that allows for A3000 / A4000 acclerators on an A1200) and an Apollo 060.

As mentioned they play beautifly Doom in 640x356x8 or on my graphics card at 640x480x16 without any slowdown. the 060@50 will output over 86Mips where as an 040 would be under 40. (it has been theoried that if the libraries were re-engineered for them to use the 060 it would achieve well over 100Mips)

Still mine stuggles with Quake, even with my Cybervsion 64/3D Mk2..... pity.... but hey... Hexen / Doom 1/2 and Heratic are awesome! and decent too...although that game makes me nausious!

I've owned a Blizzard 1230 mkiv, 1240, 1260 and PPC. It all depends on what you want to do as to what board is better. The standard for any A1200 is the Blizzard1230 mkiv. It boosts the 1200 to the speed that it should have been at from the factory and is great for everyday use. The 1240 and 1260 are great if you are using more intensive programmes such as 3D rendering, art packages and FPS. Of these the 1240 is the most troublesome purely due to it's overheating problem so in a standard desktop 1200 if there is no ventilation for the processor you can expect a lot of crashes. The 1260 runs a lot cooler so is much less troublesome. Now we get onto PPC boards. If you are not running OS4.0 then these are the most frustating pieces of kit in the world. As before os4.0 there was no OS for PPC's the usefullness depends on the 68000 processor and finding programmes that work either in PowerUP or WarpOS mode. WarpOs is a misnomer as it makes you think it's a complete OS for PPC boards. It is not. It is meerly a more efficiant way of using a PPC board. As most software for the Amiga was written for the 68000 series of processors the PPC is basically useless unless you run things like QuakeWOS (which runs at a good frame rate but still depends on what graphics you use(AGA slow,CV64/3d is good at lower res). Some of the more recent games were written with PPC's in mind but the speed then depends on graphics. So in conclusion. The standard processor to use on a 1200 should be a 68030. When you go for a higher processor you should also be looking at graphics cards as well.

Hi folks,

I'm interested in seeing if it's possible to either reverse-engineer either the Apollo 1230 or the blizzard 1230, with a few changes to make it slightly more compatible with modern RAM.

My biggest problem has been finding any source at all for the female card-edge connectors which the A1200 uses. If anyone here has any suggestions as to where one might be able to acquire these (I could probably harvest one or two from dead acceleration/RAM cards, but I don't have any...if anyone does, I'd be interested in buying them for a reasonable fee) I'd be all ears. 60830's are relatively easy to come by these days as standalone items, and the prices are quite reasonable. I have a handful here on my desk.

There are some really good SDRAM controller verilog and VHDL implementations out there for free these days, and implementing one within an FPGA is a very accomplishable goal for me. This would allow such a card to use PC100/PC133 DIMMs or SODIMMs, of which there are plenty in the world. I have a couple of bags of around 200 tested 64MB PC100 DIMMS with accompanying new DIMM sockets in my posession.

Any thoughts?

Regarding the female card-edge connectors for the A1200, your best bet would be to get them fabricated.

Our esteemed hardware expert Zetr0 recommended a company called www.futurlec.com for another project, which he said can do this. Zetr0 would also be worth getting in touch with to discuss anything relating to your idea as he knows his hardware and electronics.

Take a look at this:

http://www.lojamiga.com/
He is a Portuguese.

http://www.familiapastel.com/lojamig...ront_mem64.jpg