Thankyou very much! I'm pleased that the balance seems to be right, as I was very interested as to how
it would be perceived.
"
The 'Problems...' subject line above (which must have raised
an eyebrow) concerns exactly this:
Being an Amigan who is now an employed Amigan with disposable income, I
want to beef up my recently-acquired A1200(030 4meg blah blah) to something
better. I've put 3.5Gb of HD in it, an 8x CD, an IDE Zip drive, and all
this in Eyetech's tower with a keyboard adapter, etc. etc. I have a VGA
monitor hanging off the back and have Eyetech's A1200 scandoubler on order
but... my machine just doesn't perform. MPEG layer III??? 22Khz mono! Naff.
So I thought,
"Let's (both of my personalities) get an accelerator, or
graphics card (let's not forget that I'm running DBLNTSC/DBLPAL/Multiscan
therefore that slows things down too). What do I do?"
I've checked out a whole host of options
- a faster 030 board with room for
more ram (would be cheap since I have a 32meg simm just sitting here),
- an
040 board of the same (dearer but faster, but I'd have to review the
situation again in six months),
- a juicy 060 board with SCSI (bloody fast,
but pretty dear for something that's already being called obsolete),
- a PPC
603 or 603+ board : really dear, really desirable, but
- a) what's the
point in having the 060 version if someone comes out with a 680x0
emulator/library/gubbins that runs as fast or faster on the PPC?
and
- b) what if Amiga Inc. don't go with PPC support?
In
- a), the expensive 060 is
wasted if the emulation comes along, which I believe it will (sooner rather
than later),
but in -
b) the expensive PPC is also wasted)
What do you do?
Graphics card?
Let's see:
-
Eyetech 1-slot Zorro 2 plus GFX card: 300 quid (near enough).
Blimey! Very dear indeed.
-
Phase 5 gfx card add-on for PPC?
Sounds tempting...but see above. And it's
not even out yet.
The problem is that six months ago I would have gone straight for the 060.
But now, everything is in flux and I'm paralysed into inactivity (is that
an oxymoron?).
I'm running 3.0, but do I go to 3.1? Look at all these questions...
Incidentally, your escapades with Wizard caused great feelings of sympathy.
Keep up the great mag, and I look forward to your reply/next issue.
Regards,
A: Well, apart from Mario having that old chestnut of the "
multiple personality disorder" problem, he sees to have that " problem " of money
burning a hole in his pocket. Dear Dear.
If I could just take that extremely lengthy message point by point, I would. Anyway, is this an
accelerator-or-graphics-card thing or maybe at a stretch both?
A graphics card would definitely speed things like screen drawing, and with a scandoubler on order,
then it would make the base Cybergraphics 64 a very attractive proposition at £149
I'll come back to gfx card versus accelerator later, but now down to the hard stuff - accelerators.
To be brutally honest, I don't see the point in buying a faster 030 - you already have one, and
it's even more obsolete than the 060. An 040 - well, no, because they seem to have the least
bang per buck factor
If you have a full 50 Mhz 030 board, like the Blizzards, then you could get your hands on a 603 without
680x0 CPU and no memory for roughly £300, and with a 50 Mhz 68030 for about 50 pounds more.
Looking at something in that same price range, a 50 Mhz 68060 (without SCSI, as are the PPC accels)
will set you back between 300 and 350 pounds. If you look at the long term, then you have a machine
which will be faster than any 060, and I, for one, firmly believe that Amiga International must go the
PPC way. I know Motorola are making nasty noises, but so much has gone into it that I can't imagine any
other chip.
Although the question about emulation might be invalid now I've steered you away from an 060, that
was a point I raised a while ago. Although I might have worked for Apple, well kinda worked, I'm not so
sure it would work so well with the Amiga. For a start, when was the last time you heard of an assembly
coded game on the Mac? Obviously, emulation would be a neat solution, but as Mac users saw, emulation
of 680x0 code was naggingly slow, even on such a well coded emulator as Apple's. IMHO, I think all
future Amigas will probably have a 680x0 CPU co-existing until the need for such a companion CPU is
not there.
So, it seems I've led you down to a toss up between a Cybergraphics and a PowerPC. Phase 5 should thank
me for this, y'know!
Option One |
Eyetech single slot Zorro | £99.95 |
Cybervision 64/3D | £149.95 |
Total | £249.90 |
Option Two |
Eyetech seven slot Zorro | £179.95 |
Cybervision 64/3D | £149.95 |
Total | £329.90 |
Option Two |
Blizzard 603 w/out 680x0, no memory | £305 |
I don't think I can narrow it down any further. Whatever you choose, it will make your machine a lot
nicer. And with a tower, your expansion abilities seem limitless. One thing I would warn you about:
you'd better not be wanting any other Zorro expansions if you buy a single slot adapter.
Trouble(d) Form
Your problem will be mailed to me, and then I will display the problem and
possible answer on the next issue of The Lair! If I can`t solve the problem, I will
ask the readers for their input.