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Category Archives: Hardware

X500 Plus Case: Pricing & Availability

Hi everyone,

While browsing Amigaworld.net today, I noticed that a news item had been posted about the X500 Plus case. Seems like it is now possible to order one! :)

If you wonder what the X500 Plus is, please have a look here: Amiga 500 Replica Case: Introducing the X500 Plus (it’s a post I wrote a while ago).

Loriano Pagni, also known as TheDaddy, has put a lot of effort into this project. It’s good to see that he has now reached his goal and that the case will go into production. If you read this, then I must congratulate you on your terrific work! :)

Here’s the news that was posted at Amigaworld.net:

Interested parties suggested prices, ranging from £70 to £520. A decision has been made to price it somewhere in the middle. Only 50 units will be made, and orders will be filled on a “first come, first served” basis.

The X500 Plus will be priced at £259 (GBP) + packaging and postage. and will be shipped in a plain, brown, double wall cardboard box.

What’s included:

The case will be available in black or white with black or white USB keyboard
rubber feet
on/off switch
LEDs
all the screws, nuts, washers & spacers
custom-made steel DVD and 3.5″ USB card reader brackets
expansion card cover
keyboard holders
one 40mm silent fan
slim SATA DVD-RW drive with SATA cable
silicone fan mounts on the right side (in case you want to add extra fans)
3.5″ USB card reader (52in1)
powder coated aluminium base and rear (inside and out) in black or white with a matt finish
custom-made LED window
Fully assembled.

Once all the payments are received, the factories will buy the materials and machine the plastic, the aluminium and the steel. They’ll want to be paid in advance. The cases are hand assembled one at a time so please be patient.

Ordering options are:

1) X500 Plus colour (white or black)
2) Colour combination of the LEDs (white, blue, red, green or amber, they are interchangeable)
3) Your full home address (for the delivery)
4) Your PayPal email address
5) Would you like two free ACube’s “A” keys adhesives?
6) Please confirm keyboard layout preference (U.K. layout is second best option if first is not available)

Contact:

amigarulez@hotmail.com

Registered people should have received an email already. If you have not received it please email the address above.

Delivery: 2-4 weeks.

PS: This project has sucked a lot of energy, free time and money, my entire classic, NG Amiga and Commodore collection, plus my car (twice!) and a few other items which ended up on ebay during seven years. You probably already know but I’ll be making these at a loss for a while but I love it and I hope you’re going to love it too. Add sad music here.

Thank you to everyone who’s been supporting this project, you know who you are.

Videos:
video 1
video 2
video 3

For your mini-itx or flex-atx x86, SAM, FPGAArcade Replay, Efika boards, etc.

TheDaddy has made some videos about the X500 Plus. I’ve embedded one for you below, so that you can get an impression of the product. :) Hope you’ll enjoy it!

I’m thinking that this case would be perfect for my AROS setup. I currently got a mini-ITX box for it, but it would be awesome to move all the hardware into the X500 Plus instead.

Anyone considering getting one?

Have a good evening and thanks for reading! :)

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AresOne 2012: New AROS Compatible Computer

Hi folks,

I’ve written quite a bit AROS lately and the reason is that there is so much happening in relation to that OS these days.

The AROS Research Operating System is a lightweight, efficient and flexible desktop operating system, designed to help you make the most of your computer. It’s an independent, portable and free project, aiming at being compatible with Amiga OS at the API level, while improving on it in many areas.

The hottest news is that a brand new AROS compatible computer has been released. It is called the AresOne 2012 and it looks awesome. Please have a look for yourself:

AresOne 2012 - new AROS compatible computer with sexy exterior (photo taken from http://www.vesalia.de/e_aresone2012.htm)

AresOne 2012, a new AROS compatible computer with a sexy and saucy exterior (photo taken from http://www.vesalia.de/e_aresone2012.htm)

Looks neat doesn’t it? :)

It’s worth mentioning that this computer has been specifically assembled to be used with AROS. According to Vesalia, the hardware components were selected to get the most out of the current version of AROS, as well as making it ready for future improvements. They say that the AresOne 2012 is suitable for Amiga enthusiasts, friends of light HTPC systems and experienced users in general. They point out the fact that AROS is still in development.

Before we take a quick look at the hardware specifications, here’s a video about the AresOne 2012 with the AEROS r3 distribution installed.. have fun!

OK, here’s the specs of the base version:

  • µATX AM3+ board w/ 2 memory sockets, Radeon HD3000 graphics and high-definition audio onboard
  • AMD Athlon II X2 3.2 GHz
  • 2 GB RAM (DDR3 1333)
  • 500 GB SATA HDD
  • MS-TECH LC-10 case incl. 430W power supply

There is a lot of configuration options available at Vesalia.de, so that you can upgrade certain components. These basic specs will make AROS fly anyway, since it is a very efficient OS.

In addition to AROS, the AresOne comes with a special OEM version of Amiga Forever, the Amiga emulator system. This package is helpful for UAE, as it contains the required Kickstart and Workbench images, as well as 50 games and 50 demos. You’ll also get the AMC software package, which is a powerful media center, Cinnamon Writer and Frying Pan. Vesalia also states that you can get the machine with Debian GNU/Linux and/or Windows pre-installed if you want.

A portion of the price you pay for the computer will go back to fund the future development of AROS. Thumbs up for that!

So, what does this AROS machine cost? One bundle I saw at Vesalia would set you back 309.89 EUR (including German VAT).

Personally I’m still looking to buy a suitable motherboard for my AROS mini-ITX project. That reminds me that I should post a “want to buy” advertisement at AmiBay. :)

Have a good weekend everyone and thanks for reading!

Individual Computers: New Products for the Commodore 64 and the Amiga

The new ACA 1220 with 128MB of RAM

The new ACA1220 with 128MB of RAM (photo taken from http://www.jschoenfeld.de/news/news143_e.htm)

Hi guys,

Yesterday, Individual Computers announced several new products. Whether your into old-school Amiga computers or the legendary Commodore 64, I’m sure you’ll find something of interest. I must admit I’m quite surprised about the amount of new stuff for the Amiga these days.. it’s like Christmas came early!

Please read on for the full press release.. :)

 

New Products for the Commodore 64 and the Amiga

Due to popular demand, we’ve put a product for the C64 back into production that was previously only available from selected resellers. The PLA chip replacement SuperPLA will be back in stock starting september of this year. The revised edition will be available for 18,90 EUR (*) from all our retail partners.

SuperPLA V3 is meant for repair jobs and can be used in the following computers:

Commodore C64 (old model)
C16, C116, plus/4
Floppy-Cartridge 1551
Commodore 610
Commodore 710
Commodore PET (socket UE5)

The target computer is set by jumpers. The new, much more compact design has the jumpers moved to the back of the board.

Our new accelerator for the Amiga 500 has already been discussed in user forums, but will be released with some changes, so customer demand is met in both price and features. The ACA500 is powered by a 14MHz CMOS-68000 processor with 2MBytes RAM and a mass-storage controller for CF-cards and CD drives. Autoboot from CF-card is possible from Kickstart V1.3 and higher. Thanks to our TrueIDE technology, any CF card can be used, even if the card identifies as “removable device”. A CD-ROM drive can be connected to the easily reachable IDE port on the side of the A500.

The relatively moderate increase in speed is enough to run WHDload. For those who want more CPU power, the ACA500 has a CPU-slot compatible with our accelerators for A1200 computers. This makes even our top model ACA1231 available to the A500 computer. The ACA500 will be available from all resellers for 79,90 EUR. We’re currently negotiating about including Kickstart licenses into the ACA500, so the built-in flashrom can be pre-loaded with different Kickstart licenses.

Our new ACA1220 is powered by a full 16,67MHz 68020. For the A1200, this card can be considered a 128MByte-RAM expansion, but for the A500 with ACA500, this board is a turbo-tidbit that provides more memory than has ever been offered at this price: The ACA1220 will be available starting from 89,90 EUR.

The ACA1220 can be expanded with a realtime clock. In an A500 setup, the RTC is already located on the trapdoor expansion, so it’s not required there. If you’re going to use the ACA1220 in an A1200, you can add an RTC for 19,90 EUR (*). Battery is not included.

The RTC-module can also be used with other accelerators or even without an accelerator in an A1200. For example, if you own an ACA1230 and haven’t yet equipped it with the hard-to-find RTC chip, this module will solve your problem.

The ACA 620 (photo taken from http://www.jschoenfeld.de/news/news143_e.htm)

The ACA620 (photo taken from http://www.jschoenfeld.de/news/news143_e.htm)

As a replacement for the sold-out ACA630, we’ll have a new budget-accelerator for the A600, available in Q4/2012. It will be powered by a 16.67MHz 68EC020 processor and provides the popular maprom function, just like all our ACA cards do: Maprom allows executing Kickstart ROM from fast 32-bit memory, increasing execution speed considerably. The ACA620provides 9+1MBytes of RAM (1MByte reserved for maprom-function). The target price is 99,90 EUR.

The “big” Amiga models don’t have to stand back: We’ll have big memory for a small budget soon. The new BigRamPlus offers 256MBytes of memory for A3000(T) and A4000(T). The full-size Zorro-3 card will be available from all Individual Computers resellers at 99,90 EUR (*).

(*)recommended retail price including 19% VAT. Price may differ in your country. Shipping cost may be added.

 

 

Thanks to Individual Computers for keeping the flame burning. I’m sure there are quite a lot of retro enthusiasts getting really excited about this announcement. :)

Have a nice day everyone!

Zeus68k: New Accelerator for Amiga 500/2000/CDTV

Hi everyone,

Today I stumbled upon some interesting news concerning a brand new accelerator for the Amiga 500, Amiga 2000 and the CDTV. The card is called Zeus68k and it the specifications looks very cool to say the least.

First of all, this is not a standard turbo-card that only provides you with a heftier CPU and more RAM. The Zeus68k will give you an IDE-controller and a Kickstart ROM-switcher to boot! This is something I believe many Amiga 500 and CDTV users will be happy to hear. As an additional bonus, an Action Replay replacement might be included as well, but time will show if that happens. Now, let’s have a quick look at the current specifications:

  • 68SECooo-CPU clocked at 7 or 50 MHz
  • 8 MB of RAM
  • Boot menu
  • 6x Kickstart ROM-switcher
  • IDE-controller (Gayle Logic A600)
  • Clock port

Looks very good in my opinion. The clock port will give room for more expansions and the IDE-controller will make it a breeze to install a decent hard drive. If my trusty old Amiga 500 was still alive, I would have gone for this upgrade as soon as it hits the streets.

The card is only available as a prototype at the moment, but the final version might be released some time during the upcoming winter.

Here’s a few pictures for you to enjoy:

Information about the performance of the board in Sysinfo (photo taken from http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?s=6fb4c1b8fc9be72f01d09272a5fac78d&t=65047))

Information about the performance of the board in Sysinfo (photo taken from http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?s=6fb4c1b8fc9be72f01d09272a5fac78d&t=65047))

Any Amiga 500, Amiga 2000 or CDTV owners interested in this upcoming piece of hardware? :) Would love to hear your thoughts on this board.

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