ACA1234 Speed Options and Pricing

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    After much research I'm approaching the point where I'm planning to purchase an ACA1234 for my ACA500plus, which has me looking into the detail of such a purchase. Of course, questions arise. :)


    I see the ACA1234 has an option of speeds ranging from 25Mhz-50Mhz, and 20 trials to determine whether any given speed is stable for one's Amiga setup. I see also that should one license a higher speed (say, from 25Mhz to 40Mhz) and have a previously unrealised issue at the higher speed within the revocation period, it's possible to refund and deactivate the higher speed licence permanently. This all seems clear enough to me.


    I'm wondering how that all works if one purchases the ACA1234 with the 50Mhz option initially?



    The other thing I'm curious about is the pricing of the speed upgrades. There's a note on the upgrade entry in the shop that "price will vary at checkout, depending on your location and the VAT rate in your country", but without a Warranty ID (which I obviously don't have yet) I can't check that, so I just have to go on the pricing available on the site.


    At just the list pricing on the site (after I've logged in) and disregarding extra taxes/fees etc, the price of buying an ACA1234 @ 50Mhz is €334.99; the cost of buying an ACA1234 @ 33Mhz then upgrading it to 50Mhz is €305.25; and the cost of buying an ACA1234 @ 25Mhz and upgrading it to 50Mhz is €290.00. After converting in to my own currency (AUD) the difference between the highest and lowest is more than $70, which is not insignificant. Have I missed something obvious?

    Quote from LineOf7s

    I'm wondering how that all works if one purchases the ACA1234 with the 50Mhz option initially?

    The 50MHz card has 50MHz CPUs, so you won't have any issues that may come from overclocking. The whole design is a 50MHz design, and all parts are operated within spec on the 50MHz cards.


    On slower cards, the CPUs are rated slower, so at a higher speed, they may have trouble and crash on heavy use. Note that only the CPU is then operated out of spec - all other parts are well within their capabilities.


    Quote from LineOf7s

    The other thing I'm curious about is the pricing of the speed upgrades. There's a note on the upgrade entry in the shop that "price will vary at checkout, depending on your location and the VAT rate in your country", but without a Warranty ID (which I obviously don't have yet) I can't check that, so I just have to go on the pricing available on the site.

    If you just want to see your local price, you can enter any 5-digit number for the warranty ID. The other option would be to deduct the 19% VAT of the German price (which is advertised by default), or to create a member account and log in, then your local price will be advertised. No other taxes will be added from our side, because you're outside Europe. I believe importing electronics to Australia is only subject to import VAT, but I don't exactly know how UPS handles this. We do have Australian customers, and I never heard any complaints about surprise invoices.

    Quote from LineOf7s

    Have I missed something obvious?

    You didn't. The slower CPUs are significantly cheaper, and on top of that, you're paying for less development. The ACA1234 is eight timing models in one (four speeds and two target computers, A1200 and ACA500plus), so the development work was 8-fold for a single accelerator. On the 25MHz card, you're only paying a quarter of that, and on the 50MHz card, you have all the development cost, plus the most expensive 68030 CPU you can buy.


    The upgrade codes only charge you for the development difference, not the CPU price difference, as that's the "slow" one. However, Motorola/Freescale CPUs of the 1990s are known to be very overclocking-friendly.


    Our prices are really calculated at cost - they don't look like "nice round numbers" for a reason: They drop out of a spreadsheet and are passed on without added cosmetics :-)



    Jens

    Aaah, excellent. So if I want the best ACA1234 I can buy (which I do), buy the 50Mhz version from the start. This is reassuring.


    That I can do. *rubs hands together excitedly*



    Further:

    • The ACA1234 has a fast CF slot. Can I use it in addition to the two on the ACA500plus? Is it "better"/faster than either of those?
    • I have an RTC module plugged in to the clockport on the ACA500plus. I'm pretty sure I can use the clockport on the ACA1234 at the same time as long as it's not another RTC module (duh) but is there any advantage to me moving my current RTC to the ACA1234 clockport?
    Quote from LineOf7s

    The ACA1234 has a fast CF slot. Can I use it in addition to the two on the ACA500plus?

    Yes, you'll have a 3-CF-slot system with the ACA1234. Please mind that only the AUX slot of the ACA500plus supports hot-plugging. The Boot slot and the ACA1234 CF slot may only be swapped when power is off.


    Quote from LineOf7s

    Is it "better"/faster than either of those?

    The ACA500plus CF card slots will be accelerated by the ACA1234 by a good amount - you will immediately see a performance improvement on those. However, they will never beat the local ACA1234 CF slot, as that is on an even faster bus. However, you should keep in mind that if you select the "cloaking device", the ACA1234's CPU, RAM and CF slot will be hidden, and the 68k of the ACA500plus won't have access to the CF slot on the ACA1234.

    Quote from LineOf7s

    I have an RTC module plugged in to the clockport on the ACA500plus. I'm pretty sure I can use the clockport on the ACA1234 at the same time as long as it's not another RTC module (duh) but is there any advantage to me moving my current RTC to the ACA1234 clockport?

    It does not make a difference if the RTC is located on the ACA500plus or on the ACA1234. Even if you're in cloaking device mode with the 68k on the ACA500plus active, it still has access to the clock port of the ACA1234, so you can go by looks only :-)


    Jens

    Quote from Jens

    Please mind that only the AUX slot of the ACA500plus supports hot-plugging. The Boot slot and the ACA1234 CF slot may only be swapped when power is off.

    It's that second sentence that has me just assume nothing's hot-pluggable, just in case (with no ill-effect), so that's no issue. Great to hear they'll all be even faster. That's a nice bonus, and I can make plans now to determine what bulk files can rest on the ACA1234's card (a WHDLoad collection, for instance).

    Quote from Jens

    However, you should keep in mind that if you select the "cloaking device", the ACA1234's CPU, RAM and CF slot will be hidden, and the 68k of the ACA500plus won't have access to the CF slot on the ACA1234.

    In the nearly three years of having my ACA500plus I think I've used the cloaking device once just to see what it did, so that shouldn't be a concern either. :)

    Quote from Jens

    Even if you're in cloaking device mode with the 68k on the ACA500plus active, it still has access to the clock port of the ACA1234, so you can go by looks only

    Adding the RTC module to the ACA500plus meant I had to remove the front plate of my Plexilaser case to fit, so it'll be nice to move the RTC and replace the plate. For looks. :)



    I don't think so, but anything I should be aware of when I add an X-Surf-500? The shop page for it mentions I need to perform "two updates to the flash", which is no big deal but I don't know if that's still the case.

    Quote from LineOf7s

    anything I should be aware of when I add an X-Surf-500? The shop page for it mentions I need to perform "two updates to the flash", which is no big deal but I don't know if that's still the case.

    The X-Surf-500 was released well over five years ago, so if your ACA500plus is younger than that, it probably has the network install disk already in the flash, and of course a menu system that knows about that network install disk. A quick look at your installer menu will give the answer.


    Jens

    LineOf7s I understand money is not a big issue in your decision but, just to make your life a bit harder, have you considered the ACA1221lc as well? Depending on your planned usage, it might be a very good alternative.


    My experience (but please bear in mind that I also own an A1200 with an ACA1234@50MHz): I'm very happy with my ACA500plus as it is, it works very very fast at 42 MHz and has a great features set. Since the 1221lc I had previously bought for my A1200 was not installed anymore, I gave it a try on the ACA500plus. And what a surprise it was! Not only the 68020@40MHz and RAM are faster, even the on-board CF-Controller of the ACA500plus was sped up significantly.


    Of course you will "only" have 11MB of RAM, cannot switch the 1221lc off via Software, and no on-board CF-controller. But then again, you already have two CF slots on the ACA500plus...


    Whatever your decision, have fun! :-)

    Please do note that overclocking success of the ACA1221lc for 40MHz is not guaranteed. You do need a very good power supply - please have a look at the CA-PSU (which I claim to be the only one on the market that complies with all of Commodore's specifications) and our PSU FAQ.


    Jens

    Quote from lucadip

    LineOf7s I understand money is not a big issue in your decision but, just to make your life a bit harder, have you considered the ACA1221lc as well? Depending on your planned usage, it might be a very good alternative.

    Money is a huge issue in my decision and I normally can't justify this sort of expenditure at all but for once a year. Given that, I've given a great deal of thought to the alternatives, especially since the ACA1234 isn't the cheapest or the fastest Amiga accelerated experience available to me easily these days (and aren't we happy to have the choice!).


    In the end though: I don't need the benefits of a PiStorm (I have emulation for that); I don't want to usurp the abilities of my ACA500plus of which I am very fond; my ACA500plus can happily do 42Mhz, supplies me with 1MB of Chip RAM, 7MB of Fast RAM and stores my 3.2 Kickstart flash memory, so any accelerator I add to that needs to bring something significant to the party; and because of the money I'm not going to do this more than once, so I might as well go for the flagship and know there's nowhere I could sensibly wish to go from here (whilst an 020+ is is desirable, there's nothing I'm ever going to do that could possibly justify the expense of an 060) as far as upgrading goes. All that's left after this for my humble little A500 is 2MB of Chip RAM (eg ACE2B) but similar to an 060 it's just too expensive for me to justify it for the things I'm likely to do.


    So with all that said, I think the ACA1234 running an 030 @ 50Mhz, attached to my ACA500plus with an X-Surf-500 and nestled in my smokey grey Plexilaser case will give me the best ultimate "classic Amiga" experience I could ever hope for. :love:

    One day I'll get my other A500 up and running again, and that one can be for experimenting with Pimigas and RTG and the like. :evil:

    Hey !


    Do iComp plan to sell any version with FPU ? For now, I understood customers had to make the modification itself those losing the warranty.


    Is the CPU soldered ? or is it possible to update the CPU to latest 68030/50 easily?


    Otherwise, the ACA1234 has very eye-catching features (bootable PCMCIA CF, IDE Speed up, etc...).


    Cheers

    Quote from NicoPPC

    Do iComp plan to sell any version with FPU ?

    No. The market for FPUs is full of fake chips, and I have given up finding proper stock at reasonsable prices. You can easily mess up fastmem timing with a slow FPU, as it's connected to the same data bus as the RAM, and I don't want to go to support hell for such cases. We've had this discussion a lot of times before in this forum.

    Quote from NicoPPC

    Is the CPU soldered ?

    Yes. A soldered CPU can dissipate heat into the circuit board itself, and the height of a socket would cause the trapdoor to be pushed out, or not even mounted in the first place.


    Jens