#A3000
27 messages in this thread
I'm seeing some really good markdown prices on A3000s. Since I have a
2000with DOS 1.3 I'm wondering if there'll be any problems using my
older software-esp Shanghai. Are there any additional comments on the
3000? Also, will I be able to use either an Emplant or AMAX with it
and is it as expandable as the 2000?
Shanghai is still running on my turbo 2000 under 2.1, so I don't see
why it wouldn't run on a 3000. Either an Emplant or AMAX should work
fine, the only thing to watch out for is the dreaded Buster revision
bug if you use any DMA cards. Comments on the 3000? I think it is
one heck of a nice computer for the money they're asking these days.
Many thanks for the info. I'm thinking of selling my 2000(Have no idea what I
can get for it) and upgrading to the 3000.
With A2500s going for around $600 new and A3000s going for $699 new,
I'd think the market for used A2000s is very weak and used A2500
equivalents is pretty weak.
Expect that used computer equipment is usually worth about half of
what current new price is or less. They depreciate *fast* (like, as
soon as you open the box 🙂
Ooh, but what to do with this unit that i've spent about 2300 for in
the past. Diane-with less and less $ on her hands.
Hmmm… I don't remember what the thread was here and can't find a parent.
But it sounds like I recomended a 3000 to you for some reason or
other rather than continuing to expand your existing system.
If you need new capabilities that are as cheap to get (or close) by
buying a $699 A3000, then whether you've spent $.05 or $5000 on the
exisiting system isn't relevant to which route you should take. It
is only (possibly) relevant to whether you can afford the new
capabilities.
Dale Larson
– An Amiga Software Engineer with less and less time on his hands.
Sorry, I don't know what you should do with it. What do I do with a car I
paid $15,000 for that is only worth $7000 a few years later? I either
drive it, or I sell it and fork out a lot more for a new car…
Dale Larson
– An Amiga Software Engineer with less and less time on his hands.
Diane; with less and less $ (like most of the rest of us)
Well one question that I have is what did you spend money on that you can
not use with an A3000? Most stuff will work with either machine. Drives
might be a problem in terms of size (ie: no 5.25 inch bay) but the
hardware itself will work with the A3000.
Moving from an A2000 or A2500 to an A3000 is an impressive experience.
-bill
Bill,
I guess I can feel "lucky" that I dumped my 2000 last December
and got $1,200 for it with an 85 meg HD, 8meg RAM, 3001 accelerator,
scsi controller, and 1084 monitor. I couldn't get that today! Of
course I bought a 3000 for $999 (today at $799 for 25 mhz-4meg RAM)
and a 3000T at $1,199 (I think they go at $999 today if you find
one.) Of course, I'd hate to dump my two 3000s. As the prices fall
they aren't worth much anymore. This is worse than used cars! The
technology changes in cars aren't nearly as dramatic and don't occur
over such short periods of time. Furthermore, it doesn't seem that
cars get cheaper as the years go by (for new ones), but computers
seem to get less expensive and more powerful. It's a double whammy!
Absolutely. In essence you "sold high" and "bought low" as far as
used machines go. That should worry you! 🙂
I think it was Fry that once said that if the automobile industry had
kept up with the semi-conductor industry we could buy a car that
would get 100,000 miles per gallon of fuel, have a top speed of
150,000 miles/hr, have a MTTF of 100 years and cost a nickle.
I have an 040 machine here but still generally prefer working on an
030 A3000. C= really did a good job with the A3000. I would not
mind an A3000T040 (had one for a few months) but never could get it
to work reliably. I would consider an 040 board for this machine but
I was under the impression that they are just not to be had.
I thought the car analogy was that you'd get several hundred miles to
the gallon, could travel at supersonic speeds, cost $100, but that
the vehicle would explode killing all passengers at random intervals.
I used an A3000T040 at Commodore as my main machine for about a year.
It was quite reliable. Of course, I had all the latest hardware and
software "fixes" applied, and no, I don't know what they all were 🙂
Dale;
That was someone else… and was much later than John's. (Possibly more
accurate than his too)
I don't doubt it. When it worked, it was a "Dream Machine."
-bill
Bill,
Indeed, I was lucky. But I will have to content myself with the 3000s
as the limit to my technology/budget constraint. I was confused when you said
you have an 040 machine and "would consider an 040 board for this machine …"
I'm sure I missed something, but not sure what. Can you straighten me out. If
you have an 040 machine, why would you need an 040 board for it?
Maybe he wants a 'faster' 040… I know I do!
-Jonathan
// Amiga online via Autopilot
\\// MAC Quadra 700 & 486 emulation via Amiga!
Jonathan;
speed, Speed, SPEED, I WANT MORE SPEED! <chuckle>
No actually, this machine is a reasonably plain A3000 and I prefer it to
the '040 machine for anything but graphics work. I would be willing to
put an '040 in here but with the present financial situation I really
can't justify the expense (besides… ARE there any decent '040 cards
available for the A3000?).
-bill
Steven;
Sorry, did not mean to be confusing. This machine is the machine on which
I do the vast majority of my work and it is an Amiga A3000, stock
processor with lots of disk and 20 meg of memory.
The '040 that I was talking about is a different machine. It is an Amiga
2000 with a GVP G-Force 040 board.
-bill
Will there be any problem with software cojpatibility? How much memory
can a 3000 be pushed to and what version of DOS does it usually come
with? Can I still use my old Amiga monitor? Thanks
The A3000 will work with any Amiga monitor. It won't deinterlace or
display Super72 (800×600 interlaced) or Productivity (640×480?)
without a multisync.
The A3000 can use two types of memory chips (though all must be the
same). I think that you can have 4 or 8 megs of fast (plus 2 megs
chip) on the motherboard. Zorro-III cards for at least 128megs are
out there. A3000s produced in the last two years usually come with 4
meg, and I think they usually comes with the higher density RAM.
AmigaDOS 2.04 should be the OS version.
There will be some software compatibility problems if you run games
or particularly old and awful applications. Most productivity
applications work with minor cosmetic problems at most under 2.04 and
better.
" I think that you can have 4 or 8 megs of fast (plus 2 megs chip) on the
motherboard."
With the 3000 using ZIP's you can have 16MB on the motherboard in addition
to your 2MB of Chip memory.
// John – (Flying via AutoPilot)
\X/
Thanks for the correction, I couldn't remember off the top of my head.
I just checked an A3000 manual — you can have 4 megs of fast, max,
with 256kx4 DRAMs or 16 megs of fast, max, with 1mx4 DRAMs. Some
early A3000s shipped with 256x4s that you had to replace in order to
upgrade to 16megs, but I think recent A3000s used the 1m parts.
>>I think that you can have 4 or 8 megs of fast (plus 2 megs chip)
on the motherboard.<<
Dale,
The 3000 can have either 8 or 16 meg of fast ram (plus 2 meg of chip) on
the motherboard.
According to my manual, 4 is the maximum fast RAM with 256kx4 ZIPs.
Dale Larson – An Amiga Software Engineer with less and less time on
his hands.
You can also use 1M X 4's
(p. 4-17 of the 'Introducing the Amiga 3000' manual.
"The standard A3000 is shipped with 1 megabyte of Fast RAM. (Other models
may provide more RAM.) The organization of the RAM chips is 256K X 4. A
total of 32 RAM chips can be installed in the Fast RAM section. Using 256K
X 4 DRAMS, this results in a total of 4 megabytes of Fast RAM. The A3000
also supports the use of DRAMS organized as 1 megabit X 4 (1M X 4). If all
32 of the RAM locations are populated with 1M X 4 DRAMS, the total amount
of Fast RAM is 16 megabytes."
(p, 4-14 of the 'Introducing the Amiga 3000' manual.
This means that my A3000 (now populated with 8 meg FAST/2 meg CHIP) can
have a toal of 18 meg ram on the motherboard, as I still have 16 free
sockets for DRAMs.
Is this contrary to your understanding?
Thank you very much for the info on the 3000. Sounds like I'll try to get one
if possible. It can use up to 128 meg?-then I can easily use a Mac emulator
with it-any opinions on emulators are appreciated.
I'd say expand it to 16megs on the motherboard and leave it at that.
Everyone I know with an Emplant is real happy — I'd go that direction.
Dale Larson
– An Amiga Software Engineer with less and less time on his hands.
Diane;
Well Dale admits to being a software engineer and not a hardware engineer
so I guess the error is ok 🙂
The A3000 holds up to two meg of chip RAM on the MB (some machines
only had one meg installed). There are sockets for up to 16 meg of
FAST RAM on the MB.
The Zorro-II memory space is available so if you have any good
Zorro-II memory boards (such as used in the A2000/2500) you can plug
in up to 8 meg there and as Dale mentioned, you can plug in a couple
of Zorro-III 128 meg memory cards. Thus, I suspect that you are not
too likely to exceed the A3000 memory capability in the near future.
The A3000's came with version 2.x of the OS. The more recent ones
had 2.04 or 2.05. I believe that a software upgrade to 2.1 is
available. There were actually some programs that "broke" under 1.3
that run under 2.x OS. For the most part, anything that won't run
under 2.x is something that you probably should not try to use on any
machine.
You can use a 1084 monitor but will definately want to consider
getting a VGA monitor for use with an A3000. Typically, the A3000
will give you a 690×480 flicker free WorkBench display if you have a
VGA or better monitor.
The info on the DOS applications is extremely valuable. Guess I'll try to find
a very good price on a 3000.