User avatar
leighb2282

Posted Wed Jan 03, 2018 12:39 am

Howdy folks, new user signing in, I recently Acquired an Amiga 2000 in base specs with a Rev.6.3 Motherboard (ECS chipset) and set about building my 'dream' big-box setup which is below.
  • Amiga A2000 (rev 6.3 motherboard - ECS Chipset)
    Kickstart 2.0 ROM (37.175)
    1MiB Chip RAM
    Commodore A2052 2MiB 'Fast' RAM Card (Zorro II)
    GVP A2000-030 (Rev4) Accelerator board 'A3001'
    • 68030 CPU @28Mhz
      68882 FPU @28Mhz (Floating Point Unit)
      RAM32 (Rev3) Fast-RAM Daughter-board (4MiB populated, max 32MiB)
    Commodore A2091 SCSI Controller
    • 2MiB 'Fast' RAM
      v7.0 SCSI ROMS
      rev8 SCSI Chip
      1.08GiB Conner CFP-1080S SCSI Hard drive (Workbench 2.05)
      32x Toshiba SCSI CD-Rom Drive
    Original Amiga 2000 Keyboard
    Original Amiga Tank Mouse
    Commodore A520 Video Adapter
    Original 880k Amiga Floppy drive (DF0)
I actually have 2 A2052 boards but they seem to not work correctly when installed in conjunction with the A2091 SCSI controller (ShowConfig shows that there is an additional A2052 on board but doesn't allocate it to a memory member space) So i'm not sure if this is a limitation with A2000s (8Mb of RAM) or if its an issue with having 2 of them on board?

I cut my teeth with Amiga's over 20 years ago when my uncle passed down an A500+ back in the United Kingdom, I used that machine up for all my school work (with Wordsworth 1.0!) until mid 2000 when it gave up the ghost and I sadly threw all my Amiga stuff away (I regret 16 year old me's actions deeply)
sysinfo.JPG
A2000_chasis.JPG
Looking forward to learning more and sharing anything I know!

~Leigh

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Wed Jan 03, 2018 9:34 am

Welcome, Leigh! What a kick ass rig you've put together there. I LOVE the 2000 and all of the tinkering options it provided by default. My main machine is also a 2000. I'm at work, so I can't give you as detailed a breakdown as you have above, but I can give you some of the highlights from memory. (If only I could add a few GVP RAM boards to my brain. Hah!)
  • 2MB Chip
  • ECS Agnus
  • GeForce 030 clocked at 40Mhz, with 8 MB RAM. Easily one of my most prized cards. It's awesome.
  • Another RAM board (I forget which) with another 8 MB RAM
  • SCSI Controller hooked to a 40MB HDD (mechanical, gasp!). This is my boot drive and is mostly Workbench and system utilities and tools.
  • KS/WB 1.3 (my preferred environment)
  • SCSI2SD controller with 4GB SD card, partitioned into 2 drives. I put most of my games and software on this. It took me days to figure out how to get it working but once I did I really love it.
  • Dual Floppies
  • 44MB Syquest Drive
  • Tank laser mouse
So many good times had and yet to come.

I have so many machines... I am going to thin the herd later this month. Add a machine? Got to let one go. I am in the process of putting together a Phoenix 1000 which has been a lot of fun. It's the only PAL machine I own. All my others (500, 1000, , 2000, 1200) are NTSC. I have learned that, if you don't have a KS switcher, having a stock machine is great for testing just to see what's going on. Software not working? In NTSC-land, it usually means 1) you should be running 1.3 or, 2) you've got a PAL game there that never considered the NTSC market, and it hangs.

Case in point: I've owned a boxed copy of Speedball 2 for over a year. I've never once gotten it to work on any of my machines. I assumed it was trash and was considering selling it this month for pocket change (I can't throw this stuff away). Now that the Phoenix is finally working, I put the disk in last night. I figured, "Why not?"

Holy crap. It works just fine! But only if you have a PAL machine. And I'm sorry, the whole hold-mouse-buttons-down on the 1200 to change from PAL/NTSC just never really seems to do jack for me, personally. Not really.

In any case, welcome to AmigaLove.com! So glad to have you here. You'll have to post a pic of your setup.

<3

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Wed Jan 03, 2018 9:52 am

Oh - I forgot to ask. Why part of California are you in?

I was born in San Pedro (Los Angeles) and have lived in both southern and northern for many years. My last stint was the Bay Area (all over) from 2000-2011. Before moving away we owned a small home in El Cerrito, right next to Berkeley, CA. It's still in the family and may become a winter-retirement home for us in 20 years or so if we're lucky. Summers in Seattle, winters in El Cerrito. That would be sweet. Loved it down there immensely. Always feels good to go to SF or LA and hit all our favorites spots.

But I do love Seattle, too. It's home. Think we'll be staying here.

User avatar
leighb2282

Posted Wed Jan 03, 2018 8:26 pm

I am envious of your collection of Amiga systems! I'm guessing its easier to actually use a PAL system when you have
the Commodore RGB monitor versus using just a TV? I'm currently stuck using the A520 modulator to a samsung TV that can handle composite and such but also on the lookout for either one of the COmmodore monitors or a monitor that can actually accept individual R+G+B + external sync to replace it.

As for what part of California, right now I'm in the Bay Area although we are going to be moving further inland soon (simply being priced out of the bay area), but once we move we will finally have our own house so its a move for the better (plus I end up with an attached garage to fill up with more vintage hardware :P )

Here is a picture of the rig as it currently stands, the drive in the thing right now has 1.3 & 3.1 on the HD but they seem to not be that happy (no applications on the 3.1 partition seem to actually want to open up) so I'll be replacing the 4GiB drive in there currently with the 1.08 GiB drive and even that to me is going to feel HUGE!
rig.JPG
Finally, the new drive when it arrives will have 2.05 installed on it, I grew up with 2.04 on the A500+ and I personally see no need for 3.0/3.1.

intric8 wrote:Oh - I forgot to ask. Why part of California are you in?

I was born in San Pedro (Los Angeles) and have lived in both southern and northern for many years. My last stint was the Bay Area (all over) from 2000-2011. Before moving away we owned a small home in El Cerrito, right next to Berkeley, CA. It's still in the family and may become a winter-retirement home for us in 20 years or so if we're lucky. Summers in Seattle, winters in El Cerrito. That would be sweet. Loved it down there immensely. Always feels good to go to SF or LA and hit all our favorites spots.

But I do love Seattle, too. It's home. Think we'll be staying here.

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Fri Jan 05, 2018 10:36 pm

Welcome from another Bay Area Amiga user.

Thanks for sharing your story and system info. I think most of us have thrown things out at one time or another and then regretted it later. I know I chucked a few things I wish I hadn't a number of years ago. Heh.

I hope you find an RGB monitor or get a converter of some type because naturally it makes a big difference, especially on the eyes with 80 column text. I see 1084's, Philips RGB monitors and Sony PVMs come up from time to time. Keep a look out in Berkeley as there seems to be some Amiga stuff there still. I bought a Sony PVM for next to nothing from a guy that actually was on the team that made the Amiga 1000. He still had his original 1000 pre-release in his basement and wasn't selling it. Bummer because I would have bought it from him.

You could also look for certain model Dell Flat Panels, 2001FP, IIRC they are the model monitors that also have S-Video and Composite inputs. They support the Amiga refresh rates for NTSC and PAL. Pretty cool.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:09 am

Another flat panel to have on your radar if CRTs are too expensive or take up too much space is the extremely versatile NEC 1970NX.

These monitors sync to 15khz. You can hook them straight to an Amiga, and to a C128 for 80 column mode using an CGA2RGB adapter, or even an Atari ST (low/mid/high modes and probably a heck of a lot more).

19", 16.7 million colors, 1280 x 1024 max resolution, 60 Hz.

Damned fine option and you can usually find them for under $40, too.

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Sat Jan 06, 2018 1:33 pm

+1 on the 1970NX. I totally forgot about that one. I don't know how I forgot about it considering I have one sitting on my desk. LOL. Ugh 2017! Glad it is over. Now maybe I can get my memory back. ;-)

User avatar
TenLeftFingers

Posted Sat Jan 06, 2018 4:38 pm

The Californians travelling around Ireland that I've met have possibly been the most fun people I have met. Nice to know you.

User avatar
leighb2282

Posted Sun Jan 07, 2018 12:53 am

I was actually looking at the PVMs! I wasn't sure if the 8 inch version was to small and if I find one for cheap I hope for the 13inch version, I already have the plans to make an Amiga RGB to RGB BNC + External sync cable to fit into a PVM.
Zippy Zapp wrote:Welcome from another Bay Area Amiga user.

Thanks for sharing your story and system info. I think most of us have thrown things out at one time or another and then regretted it later. I know I chucked a few things I wish I hadn't a number of years ago. Heh.

I hope you find an RGB monitor or get a converter of some type because naturally it makes a big difference, especially on the eyes with 80 column text. I see 1084's, Philips RGB monitors and Sony PVMs come up from time to time. Keep a look out in Berkeley as there seems to be some Amiga stuff there still. I bought a Sony PVM for next to nothing from a guy that actually was on the team that made the Amiga 1000. He still had his original 1000 pre-release in his basement and wasn't selling it. Bummer because I would have bought it from him.

You could also look for certain model Dell Flat Panels, 2001FP, IIRC they are the model monitors that also have S-Video and Composite inputs. They support the Amiga refresh rates for NTSC and PAL. Pretty cool.
Thanks for the information on the NEC monitor! I will have to keep my eye out for that particular model!
intric8 wrote:Another flat panel to have on your radar if CRTs are too expensive or take up too much space is the extremely versatile NEC 1970NX.

These monitors sync to 15khz. You can hook them straight to an Amiga, and to a C128 for 80 column mode using an CGA2RGB adapter, or even an Atari ST (low/mid/high modes and probably a heck of a lot more).

19", 16.7 million colors, 1280 x 1024 max resolution, 60 Hz.

Damned fine option and you can usually find them for under $40, too.

Thanks for all the welcomes guys (and gals)!

User avatar
leighb2282

Posted Sun Jan 07, 2018 1:26 am

Can I confirm that the 1970NX does the 15khz? I don't see that range listed in the manual for the model in particular model on monitor?
Also, will I need one of those 9pin RGB to 15pin (VGA) adapters along with the 23pin > 9pin cables?

Those monitor are a STEAL compared to the Sony PVMs i've been looking at but I don't want to pull the trigger until I know that the NEC monitor will 100% work.

Zippy Zapp wrote:+1 on the 1970NX. I totally forgot about that one. I don't know how I forgot about it considering I have one sitting on my desk. LOL. Ugh 2017! Glad it is over. Now maybe I can get my memory back. ;-)





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