Apollo 1240

With Phase V going PPC, the only decent expansions for the 68K range are the Apollo 1240 and A1260 from ACT.

The model in review was purchased as an 040 rated at 33Mhz and then overclocked to 40Mhz and then a Pentium 233 heatsink and fan were added to keep it cool.

The Apollo was first purchased for my keyboard based A1200. After a while, the minature fan died. In my experience, this is quite common. I know of three Apollo's and only one has it's original fan still working. Anyway, contrary to what the magazines say. The board was happy to run at 33Mhz without a fan and only a piddly litte heatsink. sure, I would burn my hand if I touched the chip, but it worked!

Later on, feeling the need for speed, I clocked it upto 40Mhz using an OnSpec osscilator rated at 80Mhz. However, this proved too much for the fan-less chip and locks up were quite regular (I lost a 300mb partition whilst re-organising)

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So, I popped down to a local PC dealer, and purchased the biggest heatsink and fan that he had. The diameter of these is slightly larger than the 040 itself, but It worked eventually. I had to use superglue to make the thing stay on the chip (and my fingers stuck to the chip a couple of times too :-)

Missing Instructions?

The 040 is a big chip and some stuff had to be left out. The standard workbench uses the 68040.library, to patch some stuff, but If you really want to fly - buy OxyPatcher. It'll really make a difference to all you maths intensive software, even TFX speeds up!

Incompatable software.

Some older software doesn't like copyback cache. I won't go into it here, but type in - CPU nocache noburst , to turn off all caches then try the offending software again.

Should 030 owners upgrade?

Well... Yes and No. In my opinion, don't buy the 25Mhz one. Motherboard access of these boards are slower than my old 030/50. The 040/33 was about the same and the 040/40 runs rings around the 030/50 at everything.

Don't get me wrong, most stuff was faster on the 040/25, but not everything. The access to my IDE drive dropped by about 500K/s and ROM access slowed down too. Off course ROM can be remapped, but I'm not sure how a power flyer would cope with this speed loss

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Another thing to watch out for with these things is how they sit in the trapdoor. My old Blizzard was a tuff as nails, but these Apollos Argghhh! You may have to fiddle with them to make them work!!!

Never mind Incompatable software, Will my A1200 be incompatable ?

Maybe. I say this because some A1200's have a timing fault that shows up with cheep but fast accelerators. I say "cheap" because phase5 use extra circuitry on there board to get around these problems, but ACT opted for the cheap route. I'm afraid that there's no way to tell if your machine has this fault other than trying it.

I've heard that only the 2B and 1D.4 motherboards have this trouble, but I've never seen any other revision. Also, I heard that it's only the Escom machines that suffer this. This is total crap! I had an early 1d.4 revision which suffered the fault and a later one (both Commodore) which didn't. I also have access to a Escom 1D.4 but haven't tested it yet.

Conclusion.

I hope I haven't painted too dark a picture. The Apollo's are fast boards, if a little cheap looking. Your best bet is to get a 33Mhz one clocked upto 40Mhz by Eyetech. If your machine doesn't like it, They can fix it for £20 + P&P. Or you can fix it yourself with a soldering iron. Phone Power Computing for instructions.

89% : Falls just short of an Award, but it's still a great accelerator
Supplier : Eyetech
Price : 164.95 - 33 clocked to 40


Frank Mathieson Any comments? - frank@massin.freeserve.co.uk