So why do people persist with their outdated Amigas? Designed in 1992, the A1200 which forms the basis of my computer has serious shortcomings. The basic A1200 had 2 Mb RAM, a 14 MHz processor, and no hard drive, booting from Double Density floppies. It does not cut the mustard!
My first step in the expansion of this machine was to install a (for then) large Hard Drive, an 830 Mb Quantum, and a faster processor, this time 40 MHz, with 8Mb of RAM. Remember, at the time, Windows machines were 486 processor based.
Over time, more RAM was added, bringing it to 32 Mb. It is one of the joys of Amigas that they are not at all fussy about the type of RAM, and I have successfully used both non-parity and EDO 72 pin RAM chips.
However, the growth in use of CD ROMs meant that I had a choice. There are two methods to use a CD ROM drive with an Amiga - either to find a Drive that conforms exactly to ATAPI protocols, and install this as slave on the IDE interface, or to use a SCSI device. I chose the latter, since at this date, my A1200 was still a desktop console. Therefore, the Drive needed to be an external device, connecting via the Amigas PCMCIA slot via a SCSI card called a Surf Squirrel. This Surf Squirrel has been arguably my best ever purchase for the Amiga, since it is not only a SCSI interface, but also a fast serial port (115,000 Kb/s). The Amiga has its own serial port, but this is woefully slow in comparison.
The next expansion was the purchase of a Tower from those helpful people at Eyetech. This offered more expansion possibilities, and tidied my desktop. I also purchased a ScanDoubler with flicker fixer. Up until this I had used a TV as a monitor, but the ScanDoubler enabled me to use an SVGA monitor for all programmes (many Amiga programmes assume the use of PAL screenmodes, especially games). I also purchased a 56K modem at this time, opening the Web to me.
The next purchase was a Elbox Flyer. This enhanced the Amigas rather puny IDE interface, providing two modern IDE interfaces, to which four devices may be attached. I recommend this as an upgrade.
The next upgrade was even more major - I installed a Power PC card, with 64 Mb RAM, and a BVision graphics card (8Mb graphics RAM). This meant that a lot of programmes had to be reinstalled, to make use of these enhanced capabilities.
