Welcome to AmigaLove, Rob!
I, too, am in Seattle. Dude - so cool to find somebody local into the same crazy (fun) hobby! I've got 2 A2000s, one I use daily and one I'm building up from scratch and trying to beef up -
long story.
I'm on the opposite spectrum of upgrades, personally - mentally anyway. I'm more into the software to be honest, and most (if not all) of the software I
really dig is catered for KS/WB 1.3. I also have 2 1200s, both which run 3.1, but I haven't been using them as much these days. Also have a pure stock 500 for testing purposes (if it doesn't work there, then it's probably something I won't be dealing with much). The a2000 is my personal favorite. It's got all of the software the 500 could take, but it also has incredible upgrades from BITD (back in the day) that allowed it to do simply remarkable things, and with a bit more pep. Many of which you own and run! I just love that. And I do geek out on upgrading my 2000 - but mostly with tech from the late 80s and early 90s, with the exception of the
SCSI2SD and
Wifi. Those two modern advances were a no-brainer for me and very affordable. Figuring out how to get the SCSI2SD to work in 1.3 was
tough, but once I got it humming its been fantastic.
GVP Series-2 SCSI controller with a Guru ROM
I've got a Series 1... Curious what does the Guru ROM provide? I've seen that mentioned before.
18 gb SCSI drive
My god! How long does that take to boot? My 2GB SCSI2SD micro SD takes an extra 14 seconds to boot. You must be sitting there looking at a gray screen for a while, I'd think.
I've thought about the Vampire a few times, but I've come to realize that's just not my thing; I've seen a 1000 running one recently and it was very cool to witness.
I feel like there comes this odd inflection point where you can jack the hardware to where - at least financially - you're almost better off getting a modern PC and running emulation. But I totally get it. I used to restore air-cooled VWs. My pride and joy was a 1963 Bug that I dropped a racing motor into. I could pull a scratch in 2nd gear and nearly go airborne with it . The old bugs were shaped like an airfoil and the "big boys" actually do need wheelie bars to stay on the ground while going 100 mph on the quarter mile track. I once beat a 1969 Mustang in my '63 when I was young and dumb - and my car was only running on 3 cylinders that night. So I totally understand that thrill of souping something up well beyond what it ever could do when it was conceived. From a hardware perspective that can be a huge thrill just seeing it work the first time.
But then... what do you do with it after the fact? For me, most of my focus is pre-1992 software, and I find even on the 1200 trying to get some of the early-days stuff to work can often be a PITA. But... I digress.
Rob - thanks for taking the plunge on AmigaLove! I really look forward to seeing what projects you decide to dive into and share here.
Amiga