Here's my A4000D, another project Amiga I'm working on. This one was initially going to be my Amiga.....with Video Toaster and Flyer, WarpEngine and whatever else would fit. I actually picked this one up of eBay while I was working on my Amithlon setup. The Amiga 30th anniversary hit which flooded the internet with news articles and stories so I searched for a few Amiga sites and that in turn had me downloading and installing WinUAE. It had been years since I had used an Amiga and it was a bit of a challenge with all the options in WinUAE and then remembering how to use AmigaOS. Reading on emulating the Amiga I kept hearing about Amithlon and I went on the search for that.......but that's another story.
Playing with Amithlon, I was using real hardware....and this made me want to put my hands on real Amiga hardware. My initial desire was to rebuild the system I had let go years ago...an A4000 with WarpEngine4040, a Toaster 4000 card, an Emplant card, a GVP Spectrum RTG card....a walk down memory lane so-to-speak.
I started watching Amibay but was always too late to post interest or the systems were too complete and pricey. Watching eBay I saw an A4000 pop up that looked okay...though it would need some work. The ROMs were 3.0, the Buster was version 9, the memory socket clips were broken. It was a "Buy it Now" item and wasn't too expensive but more than I wanted to spend. I watched it and watched it until I watched it end "unsold". A few days later it was re-listed for a lesser price, still a buy-it-now item. I again watched it for the entire two weeks it was listed until it ended "unsold". A few days later it appeared again, a little less than last time, not quite the same drop as the previous time. I had told myself, if it shows up again I'm buying it. So I watched...and was actually considering seeing if it would end again unsold and perhaps relist at a lower price. I had been watching a few other listings but those all seemed to end very quickly (buy-it-now) or go for high numbers (auction). Another day of thinking and my mind was made up, click "Buy it Now". Now I waited for it to arrive.... I went through all my friends/family in search of a monitor that would work. I knew it was AGA and could do DoubleNTSC if needed but I wanted a quick and easy test booting. I had read a number of Dell monitors would sync to 15k modes even if they didn't list syncing down that low, I had an old Dell monitor...maybe I would be lucky. Nope....no such luck. However my dad had an old Commodore 1950-B monitor which worked, not well, but well enough. The system booted, and all 18 MB memory checked in (2mb chip plus 16mb fast). The monitor had seen much better days, but the system worked! I had already ordered 3.1 Roms so those were changed out immediately. I also ordered an Indivision AGA MkII for an A4000/CD32 which allowed me to use a standard monitor for the Amiga modes. Downside, I was used to using high resolution, high color modes in WinUAE and Amithlon. 256 colors on 1024x768 (HighGFX Monitor driver) was just too slow....so a 32 color Screenmode was used.
The A4000D only had a standard DD Amiga drive and it was on its last legs as well. A 3.5" floppy drive from AmigaKit was soon on order as well as a Buster 11 and Cocolino USB mouse interface. I knew the Toaster/Flyer combo was going to be a pain with the cramped A4000D so I held off installing those for the moment. WarpEngine in, Picasso II in and the X-Surf (jumpered ZII) + RapidRoadUSB (all later transplanted to the A4000T).
I was using a standard 5.25" DVD-RW drive and a 3.5" HD along with the 3.5" floppy drive. The A4000D as purchased didn't have the rear drive mounting plates included and I also had a 4-way adapter for the IDE interface and an IDE CF-Card reader (a back slot mount bracket type). The had me searching for a 5.25" bracket that can hold a 3.5" drive and a Slim optical drive, I believe I had seen someone post a picture of the Amiga with one of those slim drives and I thought it looked sweet. I also didn't like the idea of my IDE CF-card sticking out the rear of the computer so I found a Startech 3.5" mounting IDE CF-Card reader that works well. Here's a picture of the front of the A4000D (at the time) with the Slim optical drive and IDE CF-Card reader in the 5.25" slot, then a 3.5" multi-usb card reader and 3.5" floppy below that.
As the A4000T showed up, a lot of what I had started on the A4000D moved over to it. With the Toaster/Flyer no longer a concern in the A4000D I have removed the Zorro daughter board and have installed the Mediator PCI/Zorro daughter board along with the mediator bridge board. I haven't had much time to configure it, initial results for adding a PCI card have been met with failures. I hope to get back to working on this setup soon.
Currently the A4000D as sits:
A4000/040 @ 25 Mhz, 2 MB Chip, 16 MB Fast
Mediator 4000di, Picasso II
Slot loading Slim DVD-RW drive with 2.5" 80 GB IDE drive.
On hand and waiting to be installed:
ROMY 1 MB Kickstart, PIO2 Mode gals, Buster 11 and new Simm sockets.
I have another Starteck 3.5" IDE CF-Card reader I may install along with the 4-Way IDE adapter.
I have for the Mediator a Radeon ATI 5v Graphics card and a Realtek 8139 ethernet adapter.
I haven't spent a lot of time with this one as it really needs to be recapped and I need that Buster upgraded. The Simm sockets hold the memory in for the most part but moving the system can make a few no longer register. I'm waiting on finances to improve and then sending both the A4000D and A4000T motherboards off for recapping and upgrading. Until then, I tinker around with it from time to time. My primary focus has bounced between my Video Toaster/Flyer system and my Amithlon system......I just need to take a break from those two and dedicate some to the A4000D.