Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!bagate!cbmvax!daveh From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Re: Is the A3000 Really Worth Buying? An honest question. Message-ID: <21600@cbmvax.commodore.com> Date: 15 May 91 16:25:31 GMT References: Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA Lines: 54 In article jkh@MEEPMEEP.PCS.COM (Jordan K. Hubbard) writes: >1. The A3000 comes (typically) with a 25Mhz 68030, 2MB Agnus (+PAL/NTSC), ... >2. The A2000 comes with a 7Mhz 68000, 1MB Agnus (newer models) and normal >Now if we look at the cost of a 68030 upgrade (which have become much more >aggressively priced, thanks to the A3000) + Enhanced Denise + 2.0 ROMS >(which will probably be installed on a switcher board with the original 1.3 >ROMS, by most folks) + SCSI Controller + Flicker fixer, you're probably >looking at another DM3000, at conservative estimate. Depending on how you add all that stuff, there's a good chance the A2000 will no longer have more slots, other than the PC Bus slots. With a SCSI controller, flickerFixer, and accelerator board, you can easily occupy one Zorro II slot, the video slot, and the Coprocessor slot. That leaves four Amiga slots and four PC slots (with an overlap of two) free. The A3000 with have its Coprocessor slot, four Amiga slots with two PC and one video in-lines free. You might be able to get an all-in-one accelerator/SCSI board and bring up the A2000 to five free slots, though I don't if that's the cheapest route. >competitive, considering that the only feature you're really missing >out on is the special memory controller. You're also missing out on 32 bit expansion slots, the 32 bit Coprocessor slot, 32 bit Chip memory, 32 bit SCSI, and 18MB total expansion. Actually, the memory controller is the least of what you're missing. Some accelerator boards have burst mode memory too. I think the new GVP board will allow up to 16MB of 32 bit wide memory to be plugged in (not sure), most stop at 4MB-8MB. No accelerator board can give you 32 bit wide Chip RAM. No accelerator board can give you 32 bit wide SCSI, which basically gives you most of your 68030 free during hard disk transfers (other SCSI devices can eat from 1/2 to all of your 68030 time, even at moderate transfer rates). Though 32 bit RAM cards are not out yet, they can expansion the A3000 to hundreds of megabytes of RAM, if that's something of interest to you. Or fast 32 bit peripherals, another thing you can't get on your A2000. The question is really one each person has to answer for him or herself. You need to think of what you're going to put into your "free" slots. An empty slot buys you nothing if it never gets filled. A fully expanded A2000 may have lots of empty slots if done carefully, but an A3000 comes pretty close, and the slots that are free are far more useful on the A3000 if you're looking to the future. The main advantage of an enhanced A2000 system is that you can buy it in pieces: A2000 today, then the hard drive, then an accelerator, then the flickerFixer, etc. The A3000 comes complete, but if you can't afford that, you'll have to wait with no computer while you save, rather than gradually easing into the computer system you want. -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.