Hi,

A word of personal opinion on the "high end" board : I like the approach of "zero legacy onboard". A couple of USB ports to be able to boot with keyboard and mouse, and thats all.

Make it a 6 PCI + 1 AGP solution and everybody will be happy on the long run. Why is that ? Putting anything on board and reducing the number of slots is just making choices in place of the user, and there will always be some complaining that this is not in line with their wishes, while favoring expansion slots allows for 100% matching (but then, 3 PCI ain't enough).

Regards,
--
Stéphane

Last edited by sg2 on 19-May-2006 at 07:24 AM.

@sg2

Yes, and you can take everything with you to the next board that may come out. I have about 15 soundcards, so I'd prefer to see a 6 PCI version as well...

I'd rather see 2 more USB ports and dropping one of the two GB ethernet ports though, as one is likely not to be used.

_________________
Audio Evolution
http://www.audio-evolution.com

Quote:

Yes, and you can take everything with you to the next board that may come out. I have about 15 soundcards, so I'd prefer to see a 6 PCI version as well...I'd rather see 2 more USB ports and dropping one of the two GB ethernet ports though, as one is likely not to be used.

2 ethernet ports is a feature of the northbridge they're using I think. (the comments from the irc log match a particular tundra chip).

I agree that 4+ PCI slots and 3+ USB ports is needed. Also I dont think the price is good enough. :(

@all who are complaining about the price:

don't forget the price of the 7448@1.7 GHZ

look here:
http://www.hardmac.com/news/2006-04-24/#5401

Regards,
Paolo

P.S. there is also a note on the PPC970

@pvanni

I don't think anyone is suggesting that Adam is out to rip anyone off, the problem is the actual price of the CPU. I mean, when a Mac website says that it's too expensive, that tells you something.

Still, I don't think the target market for these modules are new "converts", but rather hardcore existing owners who want the fastest they can afford.

hehe

I become a journalist...
who is the next?





Anyway, we forgot an important thing: thank you, Adam (ack) for the time you granted us.

Good work ssolie :)

Last edited by AmigaBlitter on 19-May-2006 at 09:33 AM.

_________________
retired

@jahc

Quote:

2 ethernet ports is a feature of the northbridge they're using I think.

Fair enough, but the circuitry that's needed to connect the second ethernet port to the ourside world, plus the ethernet socket itself, cost money. Since this cost is going to get passed on to me as a buyer, I would personally rather see it go towards something I would use, like more USB ports (seriously, who uses 2 ethernet ports on a desktop computer?)

And if you consider that a lot of keyboards/mice packs come wireless with a single connection to
the computer you only use 1 usb port for both the mouse and the keyboard

Personally I think with this style its essential to have the 6 PCI slots, and then it will be a fine machine

I have always preferred adding cards rather than on-board gear,
its more reliable that way (if something goes wrong you have to replace the whole motherboard or buy a card anyway)

Mark

_________________
IceStar Media Ltd.

@ack
I see three problems with the board (if we don't take into account the price... keep in mind Genesi isn't sleeping and they are going to release a QuadG5 for the same price):

-3 pcis are not enough if you plan to avoid including stuff onboard. The 2 usb onboard ports will probably be semi-useless (just usb1), so you'll have to add a USB PCI card, a PATA/SATA PCI card, a PCI soundcard and an AGP gfx card... wow! we've ran out of PCIs! and we haven't put a TV card, an additional network card, a firewire card, etc... 3 PCIs are clearly not enough.

-If you put just everything in the pci bus we'll have a big bottleneck. IDE+USB can eat a lot of bandwitch and the computer will probably suffer that :-/ I would put Sound, Network and SATA onboard on different PCI busses.

-AGP cards are getting harder to find. Talk with Ole-Egil about the PCI-Express bridge chip he uses. You won't have driver problems with Radeon cards (the driver is kinda generic, p96 team simply have to add the card ID to make it work). I think that releasing a board in the year 2006 without PCI-Express lacks any sense.


With the PowerVixxen I think that it's better to put the chip onboard. That way you can be sure it will fit on standard cases and extra-minipci cards won't be hard to find. The downside is that if that rises the prices more than 50¤ it will mean less customers.

Any news about PowerVixxen for A4000? There will be any version for it?

Last edited by Crumb on 19-May-2006 at 08:39 AM.
Last edited by Crumb on 19-May-2006 at 08:38 AM.

_________________
The only spanish amiga news web page/club: CUAZ

Thank you Adam!!!

hmm i am very interested in the mATX Mobo... maybe you can make 6 PCI Slots.
I like the design you choose... make it simple and let the user deceide what he wants to use.. im gonna use my U160 SCSI Card with the mobo - hell yeah that will be my own speed daemon!!!

_________________
Ei gude wie!
I love my AMIGA Collection...
2x A500 (1x 1MB) OS1.3
1x A600 (40MB HDD) OS2.05 (broken joyport)
1x A1200 (68030/50, 32 MB Fast RAM) OS3.1
1x A4000D 040/40 (48 MB Fast), OS3.9, Fastlane Z3, CV64, Deneb, Indi AGA
1x CD³²
1x µAOn

Quote:

With the PowerVixxen I think that it's better to put the chip onboard. That way you can be sure it will fit on standard cases and extra-minipci cards won't be hard to find.

Totally agree on this. Plus you will have 100% known hardware on an A1200+PV, so things like demos can push the envelope safely.

Quote:

The downside is that if that rises the prices more than 50¤ it will mean less customers.

Not so sure about this. Sure, it's 50¤ more, but you don't have to buy the mini-PCI card which will probably be more than that.

Sounds good for me. I would be pleased to upgrade to SATA and removing of PS2 etc is what i like also. USB here we go. But we REALLY need more USB ports.
4-6 would be fine. And 2.0 is a must. 1 agp (too bad no express) is ok.
4 pci is ok too if not one is gone if its too near the agp like on
A1. On A1 i cant put anything near the agp as the gfx card and its fan is taking the space.

I already have A1 but ill check how it goes for this highend card.
DDR2 sounds just fine and the 200mhz.... 1.7ghz and ill be yours :)

@crumb

I agree 3 pci slots are not enough, however he does state in there that he is considering 6.
Your calculations are a bit off though, as this card: Here
gives you both USB and PATA on one card (and as a bonus firewire). Ack also mentions a bridge chip for the extra 3 PCI slots, I'm no expert, but presumably this is for a second bus?

Any of this discussion is fruitless though as until its demoed Im not sure Im gonna believe in it (and that includes the genesi Quad G5) ;)

Mark

Last edited by Mark on 19-May-2006 at 09:23 AM.

_________________
IceStar Media Ltd.

@ACK

If your reading.

I'd favour a 6 PCI ATX version which can be a direct swap for XE owners.

If only 2 USB ports are present at least put a standard USB header for more on the board, not like the back to front one on the micro.

I like the sound of this and I think it was Ikir who mentioned we can sell old XE's.
Those who are on a budget can get on the OS4 wagon buy picking up second user XE's.

May be a post your old XE mobo+cpu trade in deal could be started by dealers or yourself.

I like the idea that every thing is moved over to PCI cards. So users can pick and choose and gets the product out quicker. Its very fresh, bit old school the use of expansion cards, but there is something very Amiga about it.

Plus this will give the Amiga dealers other products to sell along side the motherboards helping there margins slightly.

About the PV is there going to be a version for big box amigas like the A4K / A3K ?

Will the highend board be shipped with a bootable CD OS4pre4CD containing any modified / required kickstart modules ? Reason I ask is so migrating users who are moving from XE to a new mobo can boot from the CD first then make any required changes to there existing hardisc ie kicklayout / slb before booting from that.

I assume the existing model of board and OS4 bundle is going to be used. Does the estimated prices include OS4 ?

_________________
A1200T 603e 330Mhz - Mediator TX OS4.1 F.E.
CDTV 8MB Fast, OS3.1, SCSI, MicroSD SCSI & CD32 FMV
X5000, X1000, A1XE with OS4.1F.E.

@CodeSmith

but we are talking about an high-end Amiga, we (ack) must use a 7448.
Shure this board probabily is for hardcore but I don't think only existing,
there are many potentially users that want an Amiga but they can't buy it
because actually it doesn't exist.

Adam is giving us 2 products, an entry level board (PV) that
can run standalone and an high-end one, maybe then we lack a middle
one, but now we have none.

Regards,
Paolo

Quote:

I know I don't feel like waiting...

There are other options for PCI Express than direct support in the northbridge.

_________________
Seriously, if you want to contact me do not bother sending me a PM here. Write me a mail

For me 3 pci slots are fine but i understand what are you saying.

_________________
ikir

Davy : I totally agree, more than 1 ethernet port is useless for most users (who would use that machine as a router when a DLink or Netgear or everyone's DSL modem or any recycled PC can do that...

Furthermore, I'd go for Eth100 if that can lower the cost. Who is in need of GbE with OS4... Can be added afterwards in a slot :)

Regards,
--
Stéphane

@ brotheris
Quote:

Add gfx board, SATA/PATA board, soundcard to that 1000+$. What about case, hdd, etc ? :) Looks like it's gonna cost a fortune. Maybe it'll recoup it by beying a speed daemon

My A1 system from Eyetech cost £1,400 (Pounds Sterling not US$), so it is comparable to an A1 with lot's more power.

_________________
Peter Swallow.
A1XEG3-800 [IBM 750FX PowerPC], running OS4.1FE, using ac97 onboard sound.

"There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't."

@Crumb

Quote:

-AGP cards are getting harder to find. Talk with Ole-Egil about the PCI-Express bridge chip he uses. You won't have driver problems with Radeon cards (the driver is kinda generic, p96 team simply have to add the card ID to make it work). I think that releasing a board in the year 2006 without PCI-Express lacks any sense.

I was thinking the same. If you are having to implement AGP via PCI mode, why not talk with Olegil, since he is doing the same (and has PCI-e running on an A1 via PCI). That would make this more in line with a "high end" board. In fact it would be almost perfect for my liking. Take that with the fact that you can get some good PCI-e cards in the ATI family for under $100 USD. I really hope this is a concideration over AGP.

One thing nobody else has mentioned is that the $1000 estimated price is for the 1.7GHz version, right. But shouldn't this board also be able to be fitted with the 800MHz version? (think middle-lower end version).