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From: graham@venus.iucf.indiana.edu (JIM GRAHAM)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: EXPLAIN DIFFERENT AMIGA MODELS
Message-ID: <1991Jan13.220335.22408@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Date: 14 Jan 91 00:37:45 GMT
References: <1991Jan10.032717.21126@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov> <664@tnc.UUCP>
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In article <664@tnc.UUCP>, m0154@tnc.UUCP (GUY GARNETT) writes...
> 
>The Amiga 500 is at the bottom.  

Only in terms of what it can do "out of the box".

>In its base configuration, it has a
>68000, 512k RAM, and one floppy drive.  The good news is that the list
>price for this is $499 (street price should be lower).  Expansion
>options are limited (a hard drive and some memory are about the best
>you can do).

Nay, not so!  Again, if you mean "out of the box", you are correct.
But, I cannot think of an expansion option that you can't get for the
A500.

Most options are available as sidecars.  Additionally, it is now possible
to use ALL of the current plug-in boards made for the A2000 and up.

All it takes is an expansion unit called the "Bodega Bay".

It is true that one has to make an outlay of 350-400 dollars for this
doodad, but for those who can only afford their systems a little at a
time, it's perfect, and you end up with an A2000 equivalent.

>Like the 1000, lots of hardware hacking is possible
>(MegaMidgetRacer: 60830 w/ 4Mb RAM) but not worth the effort.  Good
>entry level machine (I would buy one for a kid in a minute) or as a
>game machine.

It's not clear what you mean by "entry level machine", unless again,
you are referring to the low cost.  All Amigas have essentially the
same level of complexity in terms of operating, maintaining, etc.

The possible exception would be the A3000, which has a somewhat different
operating system (AmigaDos 2.0).  But even here, the older op. systems
can be used.

They're ALL good for "game machines".  The A500 is no more qualified
as a "game machine" than an A3000, except in price.

>a hard drive (at least 40Mb, 80 is much better), 1Mb chip ram (Amiga
>500P, 2000, or 3000; the 3000 can have up to 2Mb chip ram), 

I currently have a memory board installed that can handle up to 6 
megabytes of ram.  With the addition of the "fatter agnus", my A500
can also support 2 megabytes of chip ram.  In fact, the newer A500's
already have the "fatter agnus".  I'm using a BaseBoard memory expansion.

There are memory expanders for the A500 that take it up to 8 megabytes.

Here's my system:

    Amiga 500 (revision 5 motherboard)
    Kickstart 1.2 Rom
    BaseBoard Memory expansion unit
    Internal 3.5" floppy drive
    2 Seagate ST-238 32Mbyte Harddrives interfaced by
    Pre'Spect Techniqs ALF-DG-RLL HD interface
    Supra 2400 external modem


-> ->Disclaimer: I'm not ashamed of what I say. <- <-
     Sorry if the above disclaimer is too long.
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