Hello!

I was an avid Amiga user back in the 90’s, starting out with an used A500 in 1992, then upgrading to an A1200 in 1994 and finally a an A4000T in 1997. I used them mostly for word processing and desktop publishing and ventured into web publishing, so maybe it doesn’t come as a surprise that I switched to another platform in 2001.

The A4000T was the last one to go, as I sold it to a theatre company that I believe used it to control lights and “magic” in their shows. The sale was the culmination of years of tinkering to get the Amiga up-to-speed with “new” technologies like the Internet. Most of the time the tinkering took a lot more time than the actual work itself. Getting onto another platform where everything “just worked” felt like a relief at the time.

Fast forward almost two decades and I’m on the opposite side of that statement. Computing today is so effortless that it’s making us (me, at least) dumb; I mean, just swipe down to refresh, relax and consume the content...

No, I’m in the mood for some tinkering again and I wonder where to start? Should I try to get hold of a classic system, or buy/build a next generation Amiga? If the latter choice; should I go for a used SAM460 or the more up-to-date X5000? Or should I wait for the Tabor?

I’d say all alternatives are both out-of-budget or within budget, depending on if you ask my children’s mother or not. I’m more concerned with finding the sweet spot between getting a system that won’t disappoint and the risk of overspending. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

@Mgwl

If you are in any way budget conscious, wait for the Tabor. It's the first affordable computer in the entire AmigaOne line of next-generation computers with the possible exception of the SAM440 (which I include only by sheer virtue of the fact that it was a precursor to the AmigaOne 500). Since the Tabor replaces the traditional FPU with a stream processing element (SPE), it will reward fiddling with more than average performance.

If you want to get really fiddly and be able to run AGA software natively, get an FPGA-based Amiga running AmigaOS 3.1 through 3.9. The stand-alone Vampire compromises backward compatibility for 100 MHz clock speeds and a software blitter that runs on a second thread of the AC68080 CPU. For more compatibility than the Vampire, get a MiSTer board running the MiniMig AGA core.

@Mgwl

I think the best course of action to get the feel again for Amiga OS is via emulation. The Amiga Forever Plus Edition which includes the 3.x ROM costs €29.95. For a more fully featured Workbench setup it is worth getting Amikit which costs another €29.95 . You can even run the classic edition of Amiga OS4.1. There should be guides on how to install it or you can buy Flower Pot from the Amikit store which takes care of the install for you and costs another €10.

So for just under €100 you can have all versions of the OS from the first versions right up to the latest version of 4.1.

https://www.amigaforever.com/shop/
https://www.amikit.amiga.sk/store
http://hyperion-entertainment.com/index.php/where-to-buy/direct-downloads/174-amigaos-41-final-edition-for-classic

4.1 on UAE will have some limitations compared to running it on real PPC hardware but it certainly serves as good introduction.

Getting hold of a decent classic system can be very expensive undertaking especially if you want something a decent amount of CPU power.

I'm not sure if you are aware of the Vampire FPGA accelerator cards that are faster than a 68060. There is a standalone version in the works and will probably have a similar price tag to the Tabor.

@Mgwl

As others wrote, start with emulation and (if you have space for another computer and like using "real" hardware) get some cheap A1200. As of NG, I would wait for Tabor, but if you find SAM460 for a really good price, it may serve you well (performance difference to Tabor is not that big and will run some applications even faster than Tabor with its FPU crippled by design).


And of course...

Welcome!

@Mgwl

Quote:

I’d say all alternatives are both out-of-budget or within budget, depending on if you ask my children’s mother or not.

I'd say that depends on what you define as "alternatives" and what you plan to use it for

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@Mgwl

I bought an AmigaOne 500 back when they first came out. It is based on the SAM 460 ex. It was before the AmigaOne X1000 and the subsequent crop. I've had some problems with it, but in hindsight, they were most likely caused by hard drive incompatibility. I now have a nice 280 GB SanDisk SSD drive and it's worked flawlessly. The most important upgrade was a Radeon R9 270 video card. The improved speed and capability make it act like a more modern computer. I think the SAM 460 does everything a newer AmigaOne can do. It's just slower. I don't think I would upgrade until there is multicore support. Anyway, I would recommend a SAM 460 if you can find one.

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