Now we are into June 2012 and much has happened since the last time i have written on my blog. Where to begin?
A lot of rework on my home has been done and there has been some problems with the net. This is solved during these days you read this blog. Ventelo in Norway was my internet-deliver and their service has been pretty bad. It has now been changed to Telenor, as i have both normal telephone and mobile with them. Having Telenor in Bergen City of Norway as internet-deliver helps save a lot of problems.
There has been a lot of confusions weither or not to buy the AmigaOne X1000. The conclusion i came up with was that it would still be too expensive, paying over 2200 Euro (nearly 26.000 NOK) to get it into Bergen City of Norway. A system with 1TB SATA2 harddrive, 4GB DDR2 RAM, AmigaOS 4.2-license, keyboard and mouse in addition. Far too expensive.
What does it mean to me? Well, the decision i have made instead is to buy the AmigaOne 500 - Black version from GGSData in Sweden. There i only need to pay under 15.000 NOK, and avoiding the expensive taxes, saving a lot of money! This will help a lot, and i already have a
good USB-keyboard and mouse, in black! But it doesn't stop here! I also found some useful
add-ons to buy for the machine! You might wonder: "What useful add-ons?" Let me explain.
These add-ons are a typical first-impression to have with the AmigaOne 500, but then again i did a couple of researchs and came up with the conclusion: You could have the PCI-riser card on the PCI-slot that is on the motherboard, but because all 3 PCI-slots on the riser card are 5v only, and the PCI-SATA2 controller is 3.3v compatible, it cannot be used on the riser card.
Then you are stuck into quite a messy, but not impossible situation. I realized here that i only have to be smart about it. "Then how do we solve this situation?", you might wonder. However, there is ONE solution that MIGHT actually work, which many of us probably did not think of. There is a Sillicon Image 3132 SATA2 PCI-E x1 based controller that would be most useful for the PCI-E x1 slot on the AmigaOne 500 motherboard.
That way, you could have the Chieftech NEC PCI riser card that Komplett Data in Norway has pretty cheap, giving 3 PCI-slots which are 5v only. The main connnection for the card is 3.3v, so it fits nicely into the only PCI-slot on the SAM460ex motherboard that is in the AmigaOne 500.
On this PCI riser card, you can have your favoritte PCI audio card. Mine is TerraTec Aureon 7.1 Space, which i actually have, and which is 5v only. I realized also i don't need a USB card with extra ports. Total 4 USB 2 ports are enough in most cases. 2 in front for keyboard and mouse, 2 rear for my multi-printer and possible an external HDD. The one for the printer doesn't need to be used all the time, and can sometimes be used for my Logitech Webcam instead.
Of course, i will also need to find a PCI-E x16 based ATI Radeon HD 4650 LP 1GB GPU-card,
which ACube Systems actually are selling from their own store. I can pick one from them.
I think these decisions are the smartest one could do i you want to be able to use all the things you want to use with such a small system like the AmigaOne 500. I hope you agree with me.
Later in summer, you should see me writing about my new AmigaOne on my new AmigaOne 500 Blog, along with some YouTube-videos showing up my setup and what i use it for. You'll love it!
That completes this blog for now on. I should be able to have the new AmigaOne 500 and the add-on cards by early July 2012. More on that soon! Stay tuned!
Written by
Helge Kvalheim, Norway
