If you've got an A500(+), and you feel it's about time to upgrade or replace your machine, read this quick guide on what's available.
(Please note that speed ratings are very approximate, and based on nothing in particular...)
<B>A500 68020ec (#À99.95) - </B>An internal accelerator with a 68020 (no MMU) @28MHz. Includes FPU slot (PGA/PLCC), and a 72pin SIMM slot for up to 4MB. Speed increase of approximately 8 times, and 3 to 4 times faster than a standard A1200 (though graphics would be slower still). The only accelerator for the A500 still in production, I think. (Power, 01234 273 000.)
<B>A500+ 2MB Upgrade (#À19.95) - </B>A cheap upgrade possibility, maybe not so worth it if you're buying SIMMs. (Analogic, 0181 546 9575.)
<B>FPUs - </B>All 68882s; 28MHz for #À20, 33MHz for #À33, 50MHz for #À69. A useful addition (especially at #À20). (Gasteiner, 0181 345 6000).
<B>SIMMs - </B>All 32bit 72pin; Currently 4MB for #À30-#À40, 8MB for #À60-#À70. Depends on where you buy it, when you buy it, and at what speed. A must if you've got a socket. Note that an '000 to '020 based machine is capable of 10MB maximum.
<B>M-TEC HD (#À99) - </B>A 3.5" IDE based extenal hard drive casing. Also allows up to 4MB of RAM, but via 30pin SIMMs (much more expensive!). (Power, 01234 273 000.)
<B>A500 HD Interface (#À79.99) - </B>Unfortunately, I don't know the interface type, or RAM expansion possibilities. Cheaper, anyway. (Siren, 0500 340 548.)
<B>Also </B> bear in mind that it <I>may </I> be possible to connect SCSI or IDE CD-ROM drives to the A500 via the relevant HD interface, but I don't know for sure!
Also worth bearing in mind are the following, which are not available anymore, but maybe found second hand (at bargain prices?).
<B>GVP HD8+ - </B>A SCSI hard drive interface, complete with two SIMM sockets (type unknown), giving up to 8MB (or maybe more?). SCSI hard drives are faster than IDE, but more expensive, (and don't forget the Syquest EZs and ZIPs...).
<B>GVP A530 - </B>A stonking piece of hardware to attach to the side of your machine, if you can find it. The same features as the HD8, together with a 68030ec @ 40MHz, and an FPU socket also. Approximately anything up to 15 times faster than a standard A500.
<B>040-500 (Progressive Peripherals) - </B>As the name suggests, this is a whipping 68040 accelerator, clocked at 33MHz. Unfortunately, although it can take 4 or 8MB, these are in the form of ZIPs already soldered to the board, so you'll have to accept what it comes with! Also, it is likely to be very rare, and still pretty expensive. And remember that the 040 is likely to be held back by the A500's 16-bit architecture.
<B>A570 - </B>This is the official A500 CD ROM drive, and although you might be able to get it fairly cheap (certainly under #À50), it's only single speed, and so not that good value at all.
But why should you get a hard drive or an accelerator? Here are the advantages of each...
<H2><B>Hard Drive:</B>
<H3>
<B>Speed. </B>Never have to wait around for disk access again. Well, not for long anyway.
<B>Large storage. </B>No more disk swapping, no more searching around for a particular floppy, or looking for a blank one.
<B>Workbench </B>usage becomes much more easier and flexible.
<B>A hard drive </B>is considered the transition from a 'toy' to a 'serious' computer.
<B>No more </B>1 minute boot times for Workbench.
<B>If it's second hand, </B>the previous user might have left some programs lying around on it!
<H2><B>Accelerator:</B>
<H3>
<B>Processing power </B>is dramatically improved. Allows use of some 'Doom-clones', such as Gloom, and makes applications such as raytracing worthwhile.
<B>Room for an FPU, </B>to make things even faster.
<B>Workbench usage </B>becomes faster generally.
<B>Hard drives </B>become faster too.
Of course, it may be time to ditch your machine altogether, and move onto something else. Firstly, I'll consider the A1200. Although the 'Magic Pack' costs #À400, you should be able to get it as low as #À350, and two companies (First Computer Centre, 0113 231 9444 and Dart Computer Services, 0116 247 0059) are now offering it at just #À300, although I've no idea how permanent this is. Also note that Escom were offering them for #À250 if you traded in your A500.
<B>Reasons for Upgrading, as Opposed to Remaining With Your A500?...</B>
<B>2 to 3 times faster </B>than a standard A500.
<B>There is an internal IDE i/face, </B>so you can add a hard drive without spending the extra #À80 or so for an external HD i/face, as you would with the A500.
<B>2MB RAM, </B>but there are no SIMM sockets. <B>Aaargh! </B>Luckily ALL accelerator boards include at least one, and there are dedicated RAM boards for around #À40 (with FPU socket).
<B>More future expandibilty. </B>None of this 020 28MHz nonsense. '030s, '040s and '060s are available. Soon, 603 and 604 PowerPC accelerator boards will be available (due end of the Summer). You can also have up to 258MB of RAM, if you really desired. Then there's CD-ROMs, SCSI devices (ZIPs, etc), digitisers, samplers, and so on, which are much much more common than on the A500.
<B>AGA chipset. </B>Offers <I>much </I>better graphics (256 colours out of 16.8million in screen modes up to 1280x512 or 800x600, and all that), and they're faster too. Some games and programs may not work without AGA even if you've got an '040, hard disk and 10MB of RAM...
<B>32 bit architecture, </B>rather than 16 bit. This means that an A1200 will be faster than an equivalent specced A500, even when taking the faster AGA graphics into account.
<B>Workbench 3.1 </B>is much better than Workbench 2.04. You get datatypes, AGA scrolling Workbench screens, support for silly backdrops, locale, AmigaGuide, CD-ROM support, built in PC disk reading, and more! As for Workbench 1.3, there's no camparison. Similar to AGA, some programs will require 3.0/3.1.
<B>Included #À500 worth of software: </B>Wordworth 4SE, Wordworth Print Manager, Organiser, Datastore, Photogenics 1.2, Personal Paint 6.4, TurboCalc 3.5, along with a couple of games.
<B>2MB Chip Ram. </B>A small point maybe, but you might like the extra display space, and again, there are a few programs which will require more than 1MB of Chip Ram, and 512k can be very limiting.
<B>It's New! Bought new, </B>that is. Think about it, your well used A500 could be reaching the end of its happy life. A new computer would be, er, new, and so would have a longer life ahead of it. It would also have some sort of warranty, to keep nasty repair bills at bay!
In conclusion, I would say that the 1200 certainly comes out top if you intend spending more in the future. If you don't, maybe it's better just upgrading your A500.
But that's not all! What about a CD32? No joke, a CD32 can easily be transformed into an A1200, for low cost, bearing in mind it includes a CD-ROM drive. You can get a CD32 for #À120 (Special Reserve, 01279 600204). Add a 'CD32 Pro Module' for #À250 (includes i/faces, keyboard and floppy drive; the price is RRP, so you may be able to get it for less). That's #À370. Note that there's also the SX-1 and SX-32 which are similar devices.
<B>Includes dual speed CD-ROM. </B>With applications, PD, clip art, fonts, samples/mods, on CD, as well as magazine coverCDs, there's a lot to be had!
<B>Includes a SIMM socket, </B>so you can add 4 or 8MB immediately.
<B>After you've added that RAM </B>(which will double the speed), it will be around four times the speed of a standard A500.
<B>Includes a PLCC FPU </B>socket.
<B>IDE i/face </B>to add a hard drive.
<B>All the advantages of the A1200 </B>such as AGA, Workbench 3.1, 2MB Chip Ram, being new, etc, are present.
<B>None of the 'Magic Pack' software, </B>but you may get around 9 CD32 games.
<B>Currently, you cannot accelerate </B>the machine, though this may change in the future. Even so, there won't be as much expansion possibilities as on the A1200.
It all really depends on whether you want a CD-ROM drive, or whether you want to sell your A500 at all.
The last option would be to wait, and see what happens in the way of new Amigas; here are some points of wisdom to note...
<B>The high #À400 price </B>was decided by Escom, and Viscorp may have more reasonable prices in mind when they finally buy Amiga Technologies.
<B>The 'Walker' </B>will probably not be released, though Viscorp say that this was because it was not that good technically, considering the amount that would be required to develop it. But does this mean that they have more powerful Amigas in mind?
<B>Viscorp may not produce Amigas </B>themselves, but leave it to licensed companies (such as Phase 5 and PIOS?).
<B>Lastly, Phase 5's PowerAmiga clone </B>will be out sometime in the first half of 1997, at around #À1400... Start saving!
<B>Whatever </B>you decide to do, make sure you <I>do </I>upgrade in some way, making your life much more pleasant, and making life easier for developers too...
