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Which upgrade should I go for now?


bfollowell

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I'm trying to decide what I want my next upgrade to be. I have three more that I'd like to do before I say I'm done. I want to buy one of Lotharek's new Sio2sd BIGGUS DICKUS devices, one of his Ultimate 1Mb Upgrades, and one of Simius's Sophia rev.C DVI boards. I want to buy something now, then I'm going to put off anymore upgrades until the fall, but I can't decide which one to buy now.

I have my AtariMax SIO2PC-USB, so I can really get by without the SIO2SD right now, so I'm really leaning away from that one. That leaves the Ultimate 1Mb and the Sophia. What do you guys think? Which should I go for?

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two completely different things.. do you have a high end newer monitor you wanted to use with it?? so you can make your games look cool??

 

Or do you want to run Spartados etc.. with lots of storage, and organize all your floppies into ATRs .. or do you need to be able to switch between different OSs and configurations often.

 

I have the U1mb .. several .. Fantastic.. with Alt Rom Flashcat flashed to it. But I also own monitors that will scan down to 15k and the UAV mod upgrades on all my systems.. so I am happy with the video output.

 

James

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Yes, I have at least one NEC LCD monitor that I use with my STf that I could use with Sophia if 15kHz is required. I'm not 100% certain that is a requirement with the Sophia DVI mod though. I was fairly certain that the Sophia mod outputs a completely digital signal, so the 15kHz requirement would be out the window. Either that, or I've completely misunderstood the details, which is also completely possible.

 

As far as needing to run different OSes or needing over 64kb, no I don't need that either. Heck, I may never "need" to do that. But, then again, I don't need any of this. These are all just wants. How many of us need any of this stuff?

 

Actually, if I can get in touch with Simius, I'm really leaning towards the DVI upgrade. It looks like I need to research it a little more first though.

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As far as needing to run different OSes or needing over 64kb, no I don't need that either. Heck, I may never "need" to do that. But, then again, I don't need any of this. These are all just wants. How many of us need any of this stuff?

 

 

Spot on! ;)

 

I'd go for the Sophia if you are not happy about your current display setup, the Ultimate if you want to try new OSes or want to configure the hell out of your system on the built-in menu (or want to run old software without a translator), and the SIO2SD if you want to use the Atari away from a PC. If you are used to SIO2PC you'll probably find SIO2SD less intuitive to use as its interface is more limited by having two lines and 5 buttons only.

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If you are used to SIO2PC you'll probably find SIO2SD less intuitive to use as its interface is more limited by having two lines and 5 buttons only.

 

 

True, but I'd planned to use it with the menu software from the Atari side, rather than select from the device, most of the time anyway. Unless there's a reason not to do it that way. The SIO2SD was definitely the last my planned upgrades though.

 

Yes, assuming I get my research done, and can get in touch with Simius, and he has any Sophias available at the moment, I think I'm leaning really strongly towards that upgrade for now. Then maybe the Ultimate 1Mb Upgrade later, then the SIO2SD this fall or winter. Then I'll be done.

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I will say that if you get a U1MB, you really should add a SIDE2 cart to your list if you don't already have one. Together they are much better than either device by itself.

 

I already have an Ultimate Cart, and I feel it is the best of the Multi SD Carts available. The only thing I see that the Side2 offers if HD access to a CF card, but I have no desire to have that.

 

I'll look into it to see what else it offers that may interest me, but I really can't think of any need I have for it.

 

Also, there seems to be some wasted redundancy between the Ultimate 1Mb and the Side2 if you have them both. For example, they both have the real time clock feature.

 

If I have no desire for HD access, and I already have a great multicart, help me to understand why I would want the Side2. What does it offer?

 

Thanks.

Edited by bfollowell
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Also, there seems to be some wasted redundancy between the Ultimate 1Mb and the Side2 if you have them both. For example, they both have the real time clock feature.

The redundancy might be problematic if one objects to the expense of a duplicate DS1305 chip, but IMO it's better for the multicart to have an RTC which becomes redundant in the presence of U1MB than not to have one at all and therefore lack any kind of NVRAM or timekeeping ability when used stand-alone.

 

If you have no interest in using a hard disk, however (or in mounting R/W ATRs straight off FAT partitions on the CF card, or in having a high-speed SIO driver built into the firmware which works with any of the operating systems you decide to use, or being able to run SDX in anything but the most constrained environment, etc), then no: U1MB/SIDE probably makes no sense.

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If I have no desire for HD access, and I already have a great multicart, help me to understand why I would want the Side2. What does it offer?

 

Thanks.

It would pretty much eliminate the need for the BIGGUS DICKUS if none of the other features mentioned are of use to you. As mentioned you can mount ATRs from a partition on the SD card and boot from them just like SIO2SD....except they are MUCH faster from SIDE2.

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It would pretty much eliminate the need for the BIGGUS DICKUS if none of the other features mentioned are of use to you. As mentioned you can mount ATRs from a partition on the SD card and boot from them just like SIO2SD....except they are MUCH faster from SIDE2.

 

Well, that may be something to consider then. The only issue then would be that I wouldn't be able to use my Ultimate Care and my Side2 at the same time. Does the Side2 emulate other cartridges like my Ultimate Cart does? For example, can I use it to emulate Basic XE or Action! and still have access to all the other atrs on the card? How large capacity CF card can the Side2 take? I don't see that the Side2 accepts an SD card, so I assume you meant CF.

Edited by bfollowell
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Does the Side2 emulate other cartridges like my Ultimate Cart does? For example, can I use it to emulate Basic XE or Action! and still have access to all the other atrs on the card? How large capacity CF card can the Side2 take? I don't see that the Side2 accepts an SD card, so I assume you meant CF.

 

SIDE2 doesn't emulate diverse cartridge banking schemes, but thanks to ebiguy's patched ROMs, I will be offering the complete set of OSS productivity carts (including Action! and BASIC XE) for use with SIDE/SIDE2, either stand-alone or in conjunction with U1MB. The OSS carts may be used alongside mounted ATRs and HDD partitions on a SIDE/U1MB system.

 

There is no arbitrary limit on the capacity of media used with SIDE/SIDE2. The only limitation is that imposed by the 28-bit LBA addressing scheme, which is 128GB.

 

SD/CF adapters may also be used with SIDE2. One adapter commonly available on eBay is shown in this post.

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Well, that may be something to consider then. The only issue then would be that I wouldn't be able to use my Ultimate Care and my Side2 at the same time. Does the Side2 emulate other cartridges like my Ultimate Cart does? For example, can I use it to emulate Basic XE or Action! and still have access to all the other atrs on the card? How large capacity CF card can the Side2 take? I don't see that the Side2 accepts an SD card, so I assume you meant CF.

 

Why not have an IDE+ 2.0, it connects to the PBI port, so cartridge port won't be blocked. Megabytes or Gigabytes of space, depending on used CF card (up to 128 partitions 16/32 MB/each + FAT partition)

 

 

 

To add to the above:

Yeah, you need a hard drive. You won't be able to live without it after you had one. :)

 

Affirmative! So true!

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