🚀 go-pugleaf

These days the case for the A1200 is getting weaker and weaker.  Mostly 
due to its lack of a Z2 expansion.

AGA is nice for AGA games, but it isn't even that great for things like 
Shapeshifter or PCTask emulations.  And God knows that emulation is 
becoming more important than ever as the Amiga flounders.

Losing AGA is a blow, but overall getting an A2000 _can_ be the best bang 
for the buck.  A4000 prices are still outlandishly high, and A3000 prices 
are also way too high.  Buying into an A2000 gives you Zorro 2 which is 
enough to let you one day run anything good, from the Toaster to Emplant 
and there will probably be 060 solutions for it as well.  And then you 
can solve your video problems with a GFX card down the road (although I 
am not as fond of the way PC-ish video cards work as I am for ECS/AGA).

Although the original A2000 is 16-bit throughout, with an 030 or 040 
expansion, local memory is usually provided which gives you full 32-bit 
access to fastram resulting in performance equal to A3000 or A4000s.

If there were only an affordable Zorro2 solution for the A1200, it would 
become THE most popular Amy, but right now the 2000 is the best value.


The problem with the A2000 is that it is almost an empty shell when you 
buy into a stock model.  There is SO much that has to be done to it to 
bring it up to specs.  These days OS 3.1, Megachip for 2 megs CHIP, and 
ECS are pretty much mandatory for getting the most out of an A2000.  So 
it's a pain if you buy a basic one for $200, you want to get one with the 
best OS possible, the most chipram possible, and maybe even an 
accellerator already on board.

I am waiting on a good deal (I hope) to come in the mail.  It's an ECS
2000 with a Zeus 040/28 in it.  OS 2.1 in ROM.  4 megs 80ns ram (okay, so
it has wait states).  No HD.  That's a nice 2000 to start out with.  The
Zeus has SCSI2 with fast enough data capacity for running DCTVs from disk
which will allow me to actually make USE of lightwave instead of just
running of stills (try that on an A1200 which has NO DMA SCSI solutions). 
All for $673.  I'll add more memory, OS 3.1, a SCSI 2 drive, and then 
shop for a GFX card.  After that's done, I will have paid far less than 
a basic A4000 _EC_040/25 is going for these days.

So, if you don't forsee ever wanting a GFX card or Zorro expansion device,
and you don't mind being limited to nothing faster than an 030/50/50, the
A1200 is fine.  Otherwise shop around for an A2000 bargain. 

These days Amigas are useful only as shells.  You will do nothing but dump
money into them to bring them up to spec--forsaking their original
processor and maybe also their GFX or sound system.  Therefore paying the
$500 or $1200 ransom people want for stock 3000s and 40000s is
unreasonable compared to the $200 overhead of the basic A2000 frame from 
which to build your dream-system.