mfs@edison.GE.COM (Crispy @ Fried Brains and Snow Shoes) (02/10/88)
Yep, here it is again.... the same old questions from a new amiga convert and crispy hacker! Forgive me o' amiga.gods! So, I posted here about 3 months ago with the age old question of ST or AMIGA. Needless to say, I was swamped with mail telling me to BUY AMIGA! Well, I finally saved my pennies and found a mail order place that sells the A500 for $449. Yee Ha! So I picked up that old fashioned analog communicator sitting on my desk and told the guy at the other end to ship me one. Now as I wait those eternal hours until my Amy gets here, I have a few questions for all those willing to listen (read?). Anyhow, here dey is: 1) Monitors - I have decided to live with a monochrome monitor for a little while, but I eventually want to record stuff from my A500 to my VCR (in color). I seem to remember hearing about a device that will take the RGB output and convert it into composite video so I can go straight in the VCR. What is this device, who makes it and how much does it cost ? Also, I have heard of a GENLOCK thingie that has something to do with this process. What is it for, do I need one to record simple animation sequences and how much does it cost ? 2) Memory vs Disk - Many folks said the A500 is a dog without another disk drive. Just as many said it was a dog without at least 1Meg. Memory is cheaper (at least the 1/2 meg expansion ~$140) but not by much. (disk drive is ~$195) So which should come first ? (no I can't afford both at one time) Also, are there internal expansion RAMS with more than a 1/2 meg ? How much do these go for ? 3) Public Domain Software - I have heard of Fred Fish, yes. I know he is on the net. How do I get some of this great software ? Can I order it thru (gag!) US mail ? How much ? Mail address ? List of what is available ? Man from xanth offered to copy some for me (thanks Kent), but he is a 4 hrs away with a good tail wind. (maybe UPS, how about it Kent ?) 4) MIDI interface - Yep, I'm one of those nuts who wants to hook up some wierd sound boxes to my computer. I saw plans in Electronic Musician for an A1000 interface, but the levels and pinouts on the A500 are different aren't they ? Anybody know where plans (or cheap ready made version) for the A500 can be found ? 5) Wimpy power supply - Just what is the deal on the A500's power supply ? How much stuff can I cram into or on top of my new toy before the supply can't take it ? Are there other, beefier supplies around ? 6) Modems - Yes, I am a netnews addict. There I said it. At the risk of ruining my marriage and alienating my kid and the cats, what modems (1200 baud) and terminal software should I attempt to beg, borrow or steal so that I can feed my addiction at home ? 7) Just in case my grama suddenly kicks off and leaves me that big inheritance, how expanded can the A500 get ? 9meg ? Hard disk ? extra floppy drives ? 68030 ? Kitchen Sink ? All weather carpet ? Thanks for the help and/or flames ! -- Mar Tan
ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) (02/13/88)
In article <1326@edison.GE.COM> mfs@edison.GE.COM (Crispy @ Fried Brains and Snow Shoes) writes: >2) Memory vs Disk - Many folks said the A500 is a dog without another > disk drive. Just as many said it was a dog without at least 1Meg. > Memory is cheaper (at least the 1/2 meg expansion ~$140) but not by > much. (disk drive is ~$195) So which should come first? The disk drive. While you can survive just nicely with 512K of RAM, you *cannot* survive with a single drive. Some will claim that you can copy most of WorkBench into RAM disk with 1 meg, and have a useable system. They are wrong. (I love blanket statements, don't you? Let's see if I can justify it.) First off, in order to copy all of WorkBench into RAM, you'll need a minimum of 1.5 megs. The 500 can only be internally expanded to 1 meg. Second, if your machine crashes, you have to reload your RAM disk when re-booting. This is a major drag. Even with VD0: (which isn't guaranteed to work in the 500's expansion RAM), it's still a drag. The other side of the coin is that, if you have two drives, life immediately becomes much easier. Disk copying becomes easier. Re-boots will be more pleasant, since you won't need to reload a RAM disk. I survived with 512K and 2 drives for the longest time. A lot of my early stuff was developed on a 512K system. Much of the existing software base will work in 512K. Having extra memory is nice, but in my humble opinion, having the second drive is mandatory. > Also, are there internal expansion RAMS with more than a 1/2 meg? > How much do these go for ? > Yes, there are. I would stay away from them, as they make unreasonable demands on the 500's power supply. Memory that clips onto the side, or an expansion cage, is the way to go for memory expansion beyond 1 meg. There are beefier power supplies available for the 500, but you're still better off with external memory or an expansion cage. This is just me talking, remember.... _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape ihnp4!ptsfa -\ \_ -_ Recumbent Bikes: dual ---> !{well,unicom}!ewhac O----^o The Only Way To Fly. hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack") "Work FOR? I don't work FOR anybody! I'm just having fun." -- The Doctor
haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel) (02/15/88)
ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: >In article <1326@edison.GE.COM> mfs@edison.GE.COM (Crispy @ Fried Brains and Snow Shoes) writes: >>2) Memory vs Disk - Many folks said the A500 is a dog without another >> disk drive. Just as many said it was a dog without at least 1Meg. >> Memory is cheaper (at least the 1/2 meg expansion ~$140) but not by >> much. (disk drive is ~$195) So which should come first? > > The disk drive. While you can survive just nicely with 512K of RAM, >you *cannot* survive with a single drive. Some will claim that you can copy >most of WorkBench into RAM disk with 1 meg, and have a useable system. They >are wrong. (I love blanket statements, don't you? Let's see if I can >justify it.) > > First off, in order to copy all of WorkBench into RAM, you'll need a >minimum of 1.5 megs. The 500 can only be internally expanded to 1 meg. >Second, if your machine crashes, you have to reload your RAM disk when >re-booting. This is a major drag. Even with VD0: (which isn't guaranteed >to work in the 500's expansion RAM), it's still a drag. > > The other side of the coin is that, if you have two drives, life >immediately becomes much easier. Disk copying becomes easier. Re-boots >will be more pleasant, since you won't need to reload a RAM disk. > > I survived with 512K and 2 drives for the longest time. A lot of my >early stuff was developed on a 512K system. Much of the existing software >base will work in 512K. > > Having extra memory is nice, but in my humble opinion, having the >second drive is mandatory. I *still* only survive with only one floppy. I have two megs of expansion RAM installed. I would agree that if the choice is between 512k of added RAM or another floppy that you should go for the floppy, but I'd rather have an extra 2 megs. I figure I'll get a hard drive soon, and then will have no need for a second floppy! Also, there are programs that will not run well (or at all) with less than a meg so that is a consideration as well. Thats my $.02 Good Luck, Wade. UUCP: {cbosgd, hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, nosc}!crash!pnet01!haitex ARPA: crash!pnet01!haitex@nosc.mil INET: haitex@pnet01.CTS.COM
kudla@pawl18.pawl.rpi.edu (Robert J. Kudla) (02/15/88)
In article <5224@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: >you *cannot* survive with a single drive. Some will claim that you can copy >most of WorkBench into RAM disk with 1 meg, and have a useable system. They >are wrong. (I love blanket statements, don't you? Let's see if I can >justify it.) Let's see if I can blow it up. :) For the record, I have a shiny new Amy 500 with a meg of RAM and a second disk drive on back-order (Yuck!) from 47th street Photo. > > First off, in order to copy all of WorkBench into RAM, you'll need a >minimum of 1.5 megs. The 500 can only be internally expanded to 1 meg. >Second, if your machine crashes, you have to reload your RAM disk when >re-booting. This is a major drag. Even with VD0: (which isn't guaranteed >to work in the 500's expansion RAM), it's still a drag. But you don't need ALL of Workbench. i only load about half the commands into vd0:, and it eats maybe 250K (maybe less). And VD0 I have no problems with; in fact, once my entire CLI survived 21 warmboots intact. > > The other side of the coin is that, if you have two drives, life >immediately becomes much easier. Disk copying becomes easier. Re-boots >will be more pleasant, since you won't need to reload a RAM disk. > This much is true. But many, many programs dislike unexpanded Amys. I use DPAINT a lot, for instance, and I'd be in trouble without a meg. So what's the point? None whatsoever.... ------------Robert J. Kudla - Pseudo-Freshman Extraordinaire------------- Screw the disclaimers- flame at will!! Itt@RPITSMTS.BITNET And you may ask yourself- How do I work this? FU7Z%mts@itsgw.rpi.edu (I sure as hell do...) kudla@pawl.rpi.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------
bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger) (02/23/88)
I've got an A1000 which I've had for over a year. I still have one floppy
and no hard disk (although I'm working on that). After a couple of months
I got 2.5 meg (2 meg of expansion ram). Even the 512k-one floppy is quite
usable for things like C development (with Lattice). You have to work a
bit to get things configured, but it quite definately can be done. With
an entire meg, it should be a breeze (or quite usable anyway). Of course,
you have to give up things like line and spot demos and the Amiga talking,
but I doubt anybody uses those after the first week anyway.
With 2.5 meg, it is quite fine. Of course, power outages are a pain,
since it takes me about a half-hour to restore everything to its former
state if I had, say, TeX and vt100 and PreView (for TeX) and AEdit all
going when I crashed, but it can be done.
BTW, I've got a little program called `OneSwap' that copies floppies with a
single swap if you have sufficient ram. This makes life with one floppy a
lot more livable. I haven't seen any others floating around to do this. It
is purely CLI and not all that smart (it just says no-can-do if there is not
not sufficient memory left; that's what *I* wanted it to do, and *I* wrote
it). But please e-mail me if you are interested; if there is enough interest
I will look into posting it.
--
--Brian.
(Brian T. Schellenberger) ...!mcnc!rti!sas!bts
DISCLAIMER: Whereas Brian Schellenberger (hereinafter "the party of the first