Eyetech EZ-Tower

For those of you looking for big-time expansion of your A1200 only really have one choice when it comes to towers, the Eyetech EZ-Tower.

At the time I ordered mine, only the fully-built (and more expensive) version was available, but I reluctantly saved the extra money and purchased the full tower. Being forced into paying extra for the "fully built" tower, I expected the fitting of my A1200 to be easy.

But it was not to be! For starters, one has to drill a hole in the back of the 1200's case, and cut a few bits out of the case, as well.

Normally, I would be more than happy to perform these tasks, but the manual was terrible. It consisted of a few pieces of badly photocopied A4 sheets, which were folded, but not even stapled together. Neither were they numbered, so I had to piece together the manual.

What's more, the manual had been written for a different version of the Tower. It was quite obvious that it was telling me to cut holes in the A1200 case that weren't needed. On top of that, a few of the blanking plates provided simply didn't fit the tower.

However, this may not be so troublesome anymore. At the time I bought mine, the design of the Tower had just been changed, so manuals shipped with the towers today could be correctly updated. I still don't think that they should have released my Tower with out-of-date manuals.

Yeah, Yeah... What about the Tower?

Oh yeah... the Tower...
It consists of a Full Tower with 6 5.25" drive bays, 2 3.5" bays and one internal 3.5" bay useful for a hard drive.

It also comes with bits and bobs for the LEDs etc., and a 250 Watt PSU which strangely enough, connects to the disk drive power socket on the A1200 motherboard.

I also purchased the keyboard interface and A4000 keyboard with it. If you do get these, do NOT get the EZ-Key SE. this is the interface that comes with the Tower as an option. The Eyetech advert clearly states "Amiga version & k/b detects all multi-key combinations". This is a total lie!

I am not afraid to say this. There is at least on combination that doesn't work. Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga, sound familiar? Yes that's right, with this keyboard adapter, one can't reboot the Amiga from the keyboard. And get this: Eyetech has known about the problem, because I phoned them about it, their response was: "Yes, it's a known problem with the interface." What a great help!

Any other troubles?

Well.. one... two... maybe three.

1. I wasn't supplied with a disk drive data cable. The first time I phoned, I was told that they were cheap and could be bought from anywhere! I thought about this for a few days and decided to phone again. This time I spoke to someone who was much more understanding (Gary), who sent out the cable with no hassle at all. It arrived the next day!

2. The CD-ROM that I got with it isn't very compatible. I can lock up the IDE bus when doing CD-DA activities. It also locks up (only for audio tracks) with CD-ROM software that tries to change the volume level for the CD tracks. This means software like ACDPlay and others can't change the volume of the audio tracks, but it also means that Napalm can't play the audio tracks!

3. If a 2.5" hard drive is connected the wrong way round, the EZ-CD Mk4 buffered interface will burn out! This is mentioned nowhere in the manual. I learned the hard way, but managed to solder the burnt track on the PCB.

Is it a good tower?

===================

Oh yes! It's the best for the A1200, if you just watch out for the problems I mentioned earlier. But I still wouldn't recommend getting the keyboard interface.

Eyetech Tower

Suplier: Eyetech
Price: From £79.95
Verdict: 91%

A very good Tower. Let down by bad documentation and optionals.
by Frank Mathieson

Editor's Note: Frank is apparently very handy with cutting holes, soldering, and making the best of inaccurate documentation. We strongly recommend looking into these shortcomings with Eyetech before you make your purchase, if you are not inclined to make these modifications yourself.

WOA text logo