Amiga 4000 vs 1200

[Arnuphis]

Just thought I'd bump this because I finally did get that 3000. Man this thing is so much nicer than my 2000. It's quieter, faster, has a built in scanline doubler with a super nice picture, and can support an internal HD and up to 16MB on the motherboard (no wonky cards needed). I still have the 2000, but I was getting tired of random memory errors on soft reboots (I think the RAM card might have had issues) and I never could get the CD-ROM drive working.

 

My 3000 came with 2MB Chip RAM and 8MB Fast RAM. I already found enough ZIP RAM to upgrade to 16MB (it was super cheap so why not?). Now I just need to find another hard drive for the second bay (although it has the cover so that's not a huge deal at the moment) and possibly a RTG card, although those tend to be super expensive and not really all that useful since I have a large number of DOS PCs also setup. Thankfully I already have an external CD drive that I can borrow from my Mac when I need one.

The 3000 was probably the most pleasing one in terms of look and quality. The built in doubler was an added bonus. Never understood why that trend didn't continue on future models. I think it's only draw back was the lack of a 5.25" bay to throw in a CD-Rom drive. I know the 4000 is superior and commands a higher price but it felt like a cheap PC clone build wise.

 

As for A1200 v A4000. Depends on how much$$$ you have to spend. Getting a base 4000 can be costly compared to an A1200.

Edited June 23, 2016 by Arnuphis

[Tempest]

Yeah the lack of a bay for the CD-Rom is a bit surprising, especially since the 2000 and 4000 had them. I'm guessing that either the Amber chip had problems with the AGA chipset or it was a cost cutting move to remove it from the 4000. Of course the 4000 was never meant to be, it was a stripped down 3000+ that was produced as an emergency stopgap to try and keep Commodore afloat. Didn't work...

 

The build quality is really nice on the 3000. The 2000 always felt a bit like a homemade project box with a computer crammed in it. I agree with you that the 4000 looks and feels like a cheap PC clone. Everything is a bit off and not quite matched up right.

[+OLD CS1]

I really like my 4000D. I do not love it, but I like it. It is small and compact, which is great on the one hand, but it is near impossible to work inside. God forbid I need to make changes inside, I have to contort my hand to get the power cable to the floppy drive, there is hardly any room for cabling, my hard drive is mounted upside-down otherwise its power connector would push into the SCSI CD-RW (although I have replaced that now with an IDE DVD-RW,) I have had to work up ways to mitigate the heat.

 

But it works and works well, and that is pretty much all I can ask of a 22 year-old computer.

[Mark Wolfe]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned in this long thread, I'm just now getting to it because I have spent the last two weeks playing with my Amiga ACA500 expansion and then digging out all my other Amiga stuff and I am currently convinced that an Amiga 1200 with the upcoming Vampire II from kipper is the cost effective and efficient way to go for all your basic Amiga needs

 

The board is going to be well under $200usd

 

Check the kipper 2k website for links to YouTube videos and the forums that you can get connected to the latest news

 

It's astounding !! I'm selling or trading all my stuff to get an a600 or a1200

 

See my comments with detailed description of what I have in other recent Amiga threads here if anyone wants to trade

 

Edit: haha just saw you got one

 

Sell it!! Seriously. The clincher for me was seeing an A600 flawlessly emulate Power Mac OS7 !!!

 

I mean damn! It is incredible. I won't spoil the surprise when you watch it for yourself .. Go check it man

 

http://kipper2k.com/accel600.html

Edited August 5, 2016 by Mark Wolfe

[Tonyvdb]

The big plus to the 4000 was the ability to run the Video Toaster Flyer that is somewhat mute at this point but if you wanted to use the full video editing capabilities of the Amiga the 4000 was it. The 2000 and the 3000 also had toaster capabilities but lacked the AGA support and thus lost a fair bit of the functionality of the Toaster in the 4000

[FastRobPlus]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned in this long thread, I'm just now getting to it because I have spent the last two weeks playing with my Amiga ACA500 expansion and then digging out all my other Amiga stuff and I am currently convinced that an Amiga 1200 with the upcoming Vampire II from kipper is the cost effective and efficient way to go for all your basic Amiga needs

 

The board is going to be well under $200usd

 

Check the kipper 2k website for links to YouTube videos and the forums that you can get connected to the latest news

 

It's astounding !! I'm selling or trading all my stuff to get an a600 or a1200

 

See my comments with detailed description of what I have in other recent Amiga threads here if anyone wants to trade

 

Edit: haha just saw you got one

 

Sell it!! Seriously. The clincher for me was seeing an A600 flawlessly emulate Power Mac OS7 !!!

 

I mean damn! It is incredible. I won't spoil the surprise when you watch it for yourself .. Go check it man

 

http://kipper2k.com/accel600.html

 

I'm pretty sure Vampire is coming to the 500/2000 at some point. Almost certainly not soon, but I remember hearing it will happen.

 

A word of warning about the 600/1200 - like the 4000, they are well known for having cap issues. They also have poorer membrane keyboards. Replacement keyboards - particularly 600/1200 keyboards or even just the Mylar circuit sheet are probably the most direly needed Amiga spare part that hasn't been produced yet.

 

I'll be selling my upgraded A600 for $350 soon because I don't trust the build quality of wedge Amigas.

[ToddUGA]

Actually you can get new replacement 600 membranes for £20.00 at sellmyretro.com. I plan on ordering a couple as spares.

Edited August 14, 2016 by ToddUGA

[FastRobPlus]

Thanks! I'd never seen that site. I'll check it out and likely order one.

[Mark Wolfe]

I think the next few years are going to bring us more retro computing products than ever before.

 

Companies like Kipper, Individual Computers, ByteBusters, & GGLabs are just a few that put out cool add-ons and parts

 

 

Commodore & Atari conputers will be at the top of the heap I'm sure.

 

I've also seen at least three different eBay sellers who offer capacitor replacement kits for Amiga and others as well as full fledged services that will do it for you.

 

According to what I've read and seen about the Vanpire II it will indeed be available for the 500 and 2000. Might be a couple years but it's coming. I wouldn't be surprised if others beat it to market.

 

I was just using Jookie's CosmosEx on my AtariST this weekend and that thing is amazing. If people start creating devices that use off the shelf products like the raspberry Pi like this does, we should see a whole host of new toys on the market soon. I was able to boot the ST, have it wired to my network and share a drive folder that I filled with apps, disk images and what have you ... They all launched pretty well except those that needed more ram than I currently have installed but the future is here for retro computing and I think we've only scratched the surface

Edited August 15, 2016 by Mark Wolfe

[Nebulon]

For just pure game playing, which is the best Amiga? I assume it's the 1200 since it has AGA.

 

Tempest

I'm pretty old-skool. Personally, I like the OCS games the best.

 

For that reason, a stock Amiga 500 is my favorite machine for gaming.

 

Adding 512K to it and dropping in a 1MB Agnus/blitter is an option (but not a requirement).

 

It's possible to change the U.S. factory Amiga 500 from NTSC to PAL by covering one of the PLCC pins on the Agnus chip. That is, if you find that most of the games you like are in PAL format.