What kit can I buy? A500+ accelerator

[terriblefire]

There does not seem to be much options below £150 TBH. TF boards are decent spec but are 150. Some other cards like the Wicher 508i are plain 68000 with 11Mb of ram. But still 150. So 150 is what you're gonna pay give or take £10.

[Cypher0l7]

Thanks all.

Yes think I will sell my spare 030 and buy a complete card.

As to if my 030 can run at 50mhz, yes it ran at 50mhz in he blizzard mkiii I bought in about 1994 It’s also marked as 50mhz.

[Cypher0l7]

Just looking at the £150 one on eBay. It says it uses a 33mhz chip. Hmm.

[Maximilian]

This is the one AlenPPC sells:
http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?11 ... r-the-A500
It has a 33B cpu but better prices.
He has almost no backlog the last time i looked, so your board will ship pretty quickly.

If your CPU is ceramic and/or 33c or higher I would probably swap it out and test it, you can always sell the 33B.
Please do not swap the cpu if you are not comfortable doing it.

[alenppc]

I’ve had really bad luck with CPUs with a RP33B print - I literally have about 65 of those now that are no good.

Now, it’s really important to stress test them. Most will in fact boot and run a few games but sooner or later they crash. The TF330 was a lot more forgiving, but the 536 is an entirely different beast. I am now testing CPUs from different suppliers and different chip print to find which one works best.

So I have a bit of a backlog while I figure this stuff out.

[go0se]

Just looking at the £150 one on eBay. It says it uses a 33mhz chip. Hmm.

I have known that eBay seller for many years and he is an individual of the upmost integrity, a gentleman, humble and modest to boot! He scours the earth to locate only the finest genuine Motorola products for use in his accelerators. Each card is lovingly tested for countless hours in his state of the art clean room facility located deep beneath a mystical mountain somewhere in the north of England.

From inception, the accelerators he builds are treated as one would treat his own child, only better... When it comes time to send the creations to their new homes he often sheds a tear, overwhelmed by conflicting emotions of pride at what he has achieved and sadness at seeing them go.

[terriblefire]

Just looking at the £150 one on eBay. It says it uses a 33mhz chip. Hmm.

I run all mine using 33RP Chips. Never had an issue personally.

[terriblefire]

...The TF330 was a lot more forgiving, but the 536 is an entirely different beast. ....

Thats really odd as its the same code copied and pasted ... except for the 6800 bus stuff.

[go0se]

Thanks all.

Yes think I will sell my spare 030 and buy a complete card.

As to if my 030 can run at 50mhz, yes it ran at 50mhz in he blizzard mkiii I bought in about 1994 It’s also marked as 50mhz.

If you have a genuine MC68030RC50 that you bought in 1994 do not sell it under any circumstances. As has been discussed here on the forum previously, there is now a sea of reprints out there of unknown provenance which could be anything from a RC16 that has had a hard life to a new RC50C, ironically reprinted back to RC50C. That chip you have is as good as it gets and you know where it came from, hang onto it and get yourself a tested, socketed 68030 TerribleFire card without a CPU and put your RC50 in there.

I am as confident as I can possibly be that the current batch of ceramic MC68030RC33C chips I have are completely original, untouched non-reprints, work well in the TF536 and can handle being overclocked @50MHz. I, like Alenppc have a large pile of duds, reprints and shaky chips from other sources sitting here that have been tested and and found wanting, so can't be used.

Sourcing genuine CPUs for accelerators in 2020 is depressing as even buying from the same seller you got good chips from last time, he could send rubbish the next. If you have a genuine chip that you've owned since the 90s, keep hold of it!

[alenppc]

I run all mine using 33RP Chips. Never had an issue personally.

Well to be fair Steve, you stumbled upon a few good RP33s that you use for testing, but you don't buy them by the 100s like I do.

Last time I ordered 30 chips, only 5 turned out OK for the 536 and another 5 that work ok on the 330 but on the 536.