040/Toaster Compatible?
24 messages in this thread
I am going to buy an 040 accelerator for my
A3000.
I am looking at either:
GVP G-Force 040/28MHz w/ram, or
PP&S 040/25MHz w/o RAM (and put 8MB RAM on my MB).
Has anyone had problems with either of these boards
in any (or all) of the following:
A3000?
AMAXII+ card? (system 7.0.1 compaitibility?)
NewTek Video Toaster?
I am going to throw down around $1200, and would
like to know which of the two companies/cards
is the most compatible.
Thanks for any input,
Erik Flom
Haven't got a 040 for my 3000 yet but I did see the PP&S one for lik e$829
at my local Dealer in NYC(Digital Dimensions,formerly Amigination)
on 27th St and 6th Ave
Yeah, I was looking at that, but now CC is closing out the GVP 040/28MHz
board w/2MB 40ns RAM for $999.
Much as I distrust GVP, I am probably going to go with that one (I like
the option of adding another 6MB of 0wait state RAM to my system once I
max out the motherboard (cheaper) RAM.)
Thanks for the info tho'
Erik Flom
Eric, I have the Progressive Mercury board with 16megs on board it (no fast
ram in the 3000) and it screams (using 60 ns ram runnign at 28mhz) No
problems with the toaster at all (also installed inside the 3000. In fact
I have a firecracker in the same box and it only starts to get flakey when
I put a third board in like a sunrize or doubletalk. I guess some people
have had trouble with any extra load on their power supplies, but no
problem here. Mercury is a little pricey, but ther is a big advantage in
speed to using accellerator ram vs. 3000 ram. However, I think you'll get
a big performance boost even with just and 040.
Thanks very much for the feedback!
I am glad to hear from a 'happy' PP&S customer (not that I've heard from
any unhappy customers :^).
The Mercury board is appealing, but WAY too much for right now.
I can get the GVP 040/28MHz w/2MB RAM A3000 accelerator from a vendor for
$999.
I think I will be biuying this one, as they have a 30 day money back
guarantee, and I can just replace it with the bare-bones PP&S 040/25MHz
w/o RAM. That way if the GVP proves to be totally incompatible with either
my Toaster or AMAXII+, I will stilll get what I originally was
considering.
The GVP board dropped $300 in the last month, as they have now
discontinued their 3000 specific accelerator.
(To think, the 3000 is ALREADY becoming an orphan, only weeks after C=
chose to drop it from their line. :^(
Am looking forward to the increase in speed, here's hoping it's quick &
painless. :^)
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom
Erik:
GVP has dropped their 3000 040 card probably more because it was a source
of lots of problems more than because the A3000 was discontinued.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
Ack, I don't want to hear those kinds of rumours!
Have you actually heard of people having problems with this card?
If so, I NEED to know BEFORE I spend weeks trying to get my system up &
running!
The GVP 040/28MHz exp. card for the A3000 apparently REQUIRES a 2.04 ROM,
whihc I currently DON'T have, so I'd like to know about ANY other
requirements for this beast before I gut my system.
Thanks for the info, tho'
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom
Erik:
Not only do I know of people that have had problems with those cards, I'm
one of them! Originally I installed a GVP 040 in my machine, but after
doing so I couldn't get my machine to stay running more than 15 minutes at
a time without it locking up horribly. So we sent off the card to GVP, got
a replacement, and it had the same problems. I eventually went with the
PP&S card, and I havn't regretted it yet. It seems that the GVP cards are
in fact overdriving the 040, and that created LOTS of heat inside the
machine, and with the A3000 the DMAC chip (one of the custom chips) is
very sensative to heat. There is a newer version of the DMAC chip, but I'm
not sure how to go about getting it.
It seems that many of the GVP products seem to cut corners, and I think
their 040 card was their worst example.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
Not only do some GVP products cut corners, some of them cut traces! The
Hard drive rails for the combo accellerators were known at one time to
cause damage to the combo card if you were unlucky.
Brian — Cruising on AutoPilot…..
Great!
And I had finally overcome my qualms and decided to go with this card!
(No, the money isn't spent yet.)
I did notice the conspicuous absence of a fan on the GVP 040, where PP&S
has fans on all their boards.
How many expansion cards do you have? What size hard drive, and do you
have more than one?
I've got a Toaster and AMAXII+ cards. I also have 2 floppy drives (one HD,
one LoD), and a 50MB internal drive. How does this compare to to your
system? Do you think my power supply can handle it? Maybe I should get a
little CPU fan and install it on the chip?
At $999, it would be a good deal IF I can get it to work w/o problems.
Thanks for your help, &
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom
Erik:
All the GVP cards I've seen have also had fans on the CPU, sounds like the
card you got has some problems before you even use it! I'd take it back to
the dealer? that you got it from, as it's supposed to have a fan on it.
Keep in mind that all of these fans can't do an awfull lot on a 3000 as
they're SO close to the drive holder that most of them are partially
blocked most of the time. I was able to get slightly better air flow by
removing the second drive bay drive holder as that made a few more places
where air could get to the fan/board.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
I don't have the card yet, just looking at the glossy color pictures! :^)
10:1 the PR guys removed the fan for the photograph. I'll ask when I order
it.
Yeah, I figgered there wouldn't be much room for airflow, but any is
better than just relying on convection alone.
Unfortunately, I can't remove the 2nd drive holder, as I have a 2nd
floppy, and sold my external drive after installing the HD floppy in my
machine. :^(
Oh well, here's hoping it is burned-in BEFORE I give it my 30-day non-stop
render-thon. (They offer a 30 day money back guarantee, and I am going to
be POSITIVE that it won't fail on me after the time runs out.)
BTW, I assume the fan blows air DOWN onto the chip, right? If it blew up
(the air that is, not the CPU [sssss..BOOM] :^), I wouldn't want to open
any holes below my 2nd floppy drive for fear of cooking it.
Thanks for your help,
Erik Flom
Erik:
My A3000's slots are all full. I have an IV24 graphics card, an A2410
graphics card (or an A2065 C= ethernet card), an AmaxII+ card, and an
A2232 card installed in my machine. Right now I only have a 210meg Quantum
drive installed in the machine, but I used to also have a Quantum 170meg
drive before it took a vacation :(, so you should have plenty of power for
what you want to do. That reminds me, the GVP card also draws much more
power than the PP&S card, with the GVP installed I sometimes couldn't get
my machine to powerup because the powersupply was maxed out.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
Yeesh, I am not surprised the GVP draws more power, the chip count is
about three time the Mercury board from PP&S.
I used to have both the stock 50MB and a 210 drive in my machine, but I
didn't like how tightly packed things were – it got real hot in there, and
the air coming out of the fan was noticably warmer. Now, I've got 2 drives
in an external case, and everyone is noticably cooler. :^)
Oh well, here's hoping I have the right 'balance' of cards to get away
with using the GVP accelerator.
(If I can get it working, it'll be worth MUCH more than the $170
difference in price from the bare-bones PP&S 040/25MHz.)
BTW, do you have any idea how much extra power it would draw if I pumped
it up to 33MHZ? (The board claims compatibility with the 33MHz CPU speed,
but is not sold in that configuration.)
Thanks again, &
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom
Eril just noticed you have a Amax II+…..Do use Photoshop with it at
all?I ask cuz at the moment There's no support for Kodaks Photo CD on the
Amiga and it's something I REALLY want.Photo CD's Hi Rez mode is ALOT
higher Rez than my DCTV/Canon Xapshot Stil Video Camera is capable of
capturing.
Yes, I use PhotoShop fairly regularly (when using my AMAX, that is).
I currently don't have a CD-ROM, so I haven't tried the Kodak PhotoCD
stuff on the AMAX. I DO have a friend who has all the stuff, and a few
PhotCD-ROMs, that would be cool to try.
(Yes, 2Kx2K is MUCH better than a XapSHOT!)
If it works, I'll probably bring it up in the AmigaUser AMAX section.
Thanks for the lead,
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom
Thanx for the info.Please let me know the outcome when you try loading
PhotoCD images into Photoshop using AmaxII+….I'm VERY interested in
doing this.
Before going with the GVP,take a look at the Pro64 board for the 3000,it
allows you to add another 64 megs of Ram on a Card in yer
3000.Unfortunately no one at the place I shop(Digital Dimensions) knew
exactly what TYPE of memory chips this Card uses.I don;t distrust GVP,I
have a GVP Series II+ram card that has given me no problems except that
when it was in my Bodega bay equipped 500 I had to run a patch prg to be
able to use the ICD Adspeed Accelerator I had in the 500.The Card is now
in my 3000 providing me an extra 8 megs of RAM,tho it's 16 bit ram I
haven't experienced any problems.
Thanks for the input.
At $999 for 040/28MHz & 2MB (upto 8MB) 40ns RAM, the GVP is looking like
the card of choice – even if it IS being discontinued.
Who makes this Pro64 card? And is it just a RAM card, or an 040 also?
Thanks, &
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom
Proram64 is just a ramcard capable of adding 64 megs of Ram.Costs about
$300 and will go in any Zorro III slot I believe.
The Pro64 card (if that is the name) is just a Ram card and I am sure it
is made by Progressive.
That is about all I know right now.