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%% Amiga 600 In Use                                   by Keith Foldesi %% 
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The Amiga 600 In Use
 
I owned an Amiga 500 for about a year.  I had decided to make some 
changes to my system by adding some ram and a hard drive.  I had to 
consider future upgrade ability & cost.  This all had to fit with my needs: 
home business, newsletter production, telecommunications, and 'a little' 
entertainment.
 
I looked at several hard ware items that offered ram and hard drive 
capabilities.  I was also planning to find a 'clones' power supply to rob.  
With these options I was looking at about $200 to get my 500 ready for the 
upgrade.
 
I was thinking more along the lines of SCSI because of external future 
hard ware (CD ROM ect).  However, IDE hard ware is lower cost.  RAM 
was going to be the first thing I did.  I only had 1M on the 500.  So, I 
started saving and watching the BBS's for a deal.
 
When considering an upgrade, its important to keep in mind what you use 
the computer for. My wife uses a spreadsheet on the Amy to keep track of 
income with her day care.  I use her to produce a news letter for a local 
users group (Commodore Users Richmond Va E).  I keep up with the 
latest news in the Amiga community by calling the local BBS's.  Finally, I 
play a little on the system too. :)
 
I was in the process of buying some ram from some one in NY over the 
WWIV net when I read an article on the 600.  It had IDE built in, RAM with 
PCMCIA, and two things I hadn't really considered! WB 2.0 and 2 meg 
Angus!  All this for $200, yea that's what I was going to pay out to get the 
500 in the position the 600 was made for.  I cancelled the order I placed to 
the seller on the WWIV net.
 
I sold the 500 2 weeks later for $150 and bought a 600 for $200.  Since 
then I've gotten the 1M/clock card for the bottom slot and use 2M chip all 
the time!
 
Happy as a Lark!
Hvy Mtl