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[Web] The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading pageANN.lu
Posted on 24-Jan-2003 18:52 GMT by Christian Krenner12 comments
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The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading page is an extensive web page about the Commodore Amiga 600 and how to upgrade this little machine. (In English only) This site tells the story of me and a friend of mine trying to upgrade an Amiga 600 to the max. Why would you want to do so? Well, hard to explain. It's a freak thing. So if you don't like the Amiga or even don't know what it is, if you've never experienced the wish to do something crazy, well then you better don't take a look at this site. This project was completely irrational -- and therefore one hell lot of fun!

I came up with the idea to purchase an Amiga 600 and get it upgraded early in 2002 when I felt like upgrading an old Amiga just for the fun of it. The Amiga 600, being the least easily upgradable Amiga, seemed to be the right choice :-)

The problem however was: I am an electronics illiterate. When it comes to upgrading an Amiga 600 you *SHOULD* know how to use a soldering iron and you *SHOULD* be quite familiar with electronics stuff, resistors, capacitors etc. Well, what can I say -- I do neither of that!

So what do you do in such a situation? Exactly, you talk a friend into helping you :-) I tend to do so with my very good friend of mine who's already had to help me with all sorts of "I have broken this electronic gadget, can you fix it?" type of problems over the last years -- this was surely the biggest and most annoying project he had to help me with so far...

The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading page : Comment 1 of 12ANN.lu
Posted by bbk on 24-Jan-2003 20:40 GMT
now if there was some way of getting a graphics card in there that'd be the ultimate :).
The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading page : Comment 2 of 12ANN.lu
Posted by takemehomegrandma on 24-Jan-2003 20:48 GMT
COOL! :-D
The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading page : Comment 3 of 12ANN.lu
Posted by Cass on 24-Jan-2003 21:05 GMT
Nice site, and very helpfull. Can't see the time for the new pics-tips-etc...
I've already upgraded my A600, pretty much this way. The propblems encoundered:
The IDE cable for 2.5" HD is not long enough to place the HD far from the accel-board. These cables is hard to find!!!
The Keyboard pushes the HD, the HD pushes the board, which in turn tends to lose grip on the socket (not very safe).
The A600 power unit burnt-out a few months later, I'm using a 1200 one now (the same).
I've added a 33MhZ FPU (from my A4000-030 board not in use), but got heated so now is removed (added more high temperature, and power consumption). I've ordered a 50Mhz one.
The HD got overheated, and now won't start (keeps spinning for minutes, before gets mounted). Now i've ordered a lower consumption/higher capacity hard-disk drive.
I'd like to see the experience of other users with the same configuration.
The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading page : Comment 4 of 12ANN.lu
Posted by Multiview on 26-Jan-2003 01:56 GMT
Heh... this is weird.

I've heard of a600's supposedly being able to handle 060 boards.. but only via a tower kit or some sort of funky upgrade bus.

Never really looked into it... so dunno if it were true.

But here's something you all probably never thought of...

When I read that that he used a graffeti box on the 600 project I couldn't help but to remember a friend of mine in Alabama who used one on an A1000.


Few years back.. er.. dang.. wait.. 7 or 8 years back.. heh. might be longer.. A friend successfully upgraded his A1000 to an 040 driven beast master with 3.1 ROMs.

Here's the stuff I can remember he had:

A Rejvenator II board. (This was an advanced version of the standard Rejuvenator Board made by the same company. It came with the ability to switch between old fashioned kickstart disks, and a set of ROM sockets (for which you could put anything from 1.3 ROMS to 3.1 - chipwise) It also contained a 2mb Agnus as opposed to the 1mb Agnus for the older version. By removing the daughter board on the 1000 and using this, you could switch between kickstart disks, (which also deactivated the extra chip RAM), or the OS chip of your choice)

This board did have a flicker fixer or video slot built in.. can't remember how it was arranged tho...

Anyways.. he put this baby in his 1000 and then dropped something called a "68000 socket extender" into the cpu socket. This basically raised and moved the cpu socket a bit so one could install a better cpu card in the 1000.

He first dropped in a CSA Derringer 030 @50mhz w/68882 @50mhz and 32mb simm. Then on a lucky break he got a broken 040 board at a swap meet and tried it. The board in question was a Progressive Periphreals (PP&S) 040 board. It was the 33mhz variety complete with oversized cooling unit. ;)

The board didn't work at first but he discovered the RAM ZIPS had gone bad. (BTW, for those that don't know, this old 040 board had the 68000 adapter so it could work in: A500, A2000, A2500, and you guessed it.. an A1000 (as long as that 1000 had a ROM upgrade.. 1.2 will not work with an 040 as I understand it))

He eventually fixed the RAM Zips, by removing all of them.. installing zip sockets in.. (heh.. this took the summer time) And to his incredible surprise when he finnaly got it all working (through the aid of testing on his 2000), he discovered he had 16mb of RAM instead of the 8mb that came with the board. (insert warped twilight zone music here)

Turns out he bought double the amount of memory zips from memory world back then and it worked.


This was uhh.. back in '94 or '95 I thinks... maybe it was '93 right when the 3.1 ROMs came out.. because I remember him first firing it up on an old 2.1 chip then he bought the new chip.

If someone has the Rejuvenator II board, tell me if it has two sockets for the ROMs.. coz I firmly remember him having both 1.3 and 3.1 chips...


He added a decent 56k (those were a bit expensive back then) and a vga monitor for the flicker fixer card.

I remember him having a graffeti board... but not sure how he used it since he had a vga monitor.

I want to think he made a hack and routed the signal from that into the flicker fixer.. then to the monitor. Which... might work.

Someone be sure to correct me if I'm dead wrong about that. ;)


And of course finnaly he managed to install a chip called: AdIDE (or something... ) this wasn't the one (I dont think) that installs in the cpu socket. It was a 44 pin 2.5 harddrive connector that I believed sandwiched itself between one of the CIA chips.. anyways. This is how he added a harddrive.

I suspect a rebuilding of the PSU happened as well. Those old A1000's psu's sucked bad. I've no clue how he solved the power problem.

Anyways... last I heard from him he was still on the internet in 2001 WITH that very machine.

Although it's possible he might have gone back to the Derrginer has he was complaining of "lack of RAM" on it. However, this is doubtful as anyone who has used an 040 cringes to go back down a cpu... even if it's for an additional 16mb. :)

I wished he would have at least dowe a web page on it... maybe show it off.. but alas he's like a lot of other old Amiga fossils out there I know, who are simply to lazy to care anymore.

Anyone else wants to try it, I'll recap the parts list again.


1-Rejuvenator II board (comes with the 2mb Agnus chip, rom sockets, extra chip ram, and something of a video slot) Essential for the 040 or 030 and a HD.

2-A 68000 socket extender. (Last sold by DeVine who had the monopoly on them)
3-Either a CSA Derringer 030 (any speed) or a PP&S 040 board.
4-A very rare ICD AdIDE board that adds an internal 2.5 inch HD to either an A500, 2000, 2500, or.. 1000) Hard to come by, I've seen *one* in my entire life. Guess where?

5-A know-how to rebuild PSU's and squish them into that long rectangle in the 1000. Using the same adapter for the mobo.. dont forget the floppy connector and harddrive connector.

6-Not needed but.. a High Density version of an Internal Amiga floppy wouldn't suck.

7-56k modem, graffeti board (extra if you don't have a flicker fixer..or.. know how to do a very odd-ball hack), and a lot of money trying to track down all this old crap.

8-A good therapist to visit in case you do try and track down all this old crap and do it. Heheh

Anyway this was just for everyone's amusement. With the exception of that PCMCIA slot on the 600.. this 1000 kicked it's butt in raw power. :P

Enjoy.
The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading page : Comment 5 of 12ANN.lu
Posted by cv643d on 26-Jan-2003 11:57 GMT
I dont think a maxed out A600 is such big news.
The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading page : Comment 6 of 12ANN.lu
Posted by Daniel Miller on 26-Jan-2003 13:12 GMT
In reply to Comment 5 (cv643d):
The article is in the "Web" section, not the "News" section. IMO it is a great topic to cover in "Web."

I am an A600 owner, and the A600 is really a remarkable machine, having the smallest footprint by far of an Amiga. It has exactly half the footprint of an A500, ie. you can put two 600s in the dusty spot left when you move your A500. Try it sometime. :)

Mine is upgraded w. Workbench 3.1, a hard-drive (of course), 2 megs chip RAM, 2 megs PCMCIA RAM. The processor is still the stock 68000. This was like the one flaw that kept the A600 from being a magnificent, stupendous machine instead of just a great one. The processor upgrade options are not that good, because they are known to overheat sometimes and burn up power adapters sometimes. So I didn't upgrade the processor. Maybe I'll find an MTEC 68020 accelerator and try that though, I think they have less problems than the Apollo 68030.

But amazingly the 68000 is enough to run a suite of Internet aplications. I ran aWeb, Mnews, BOMB (Best Offline Mail Browser), AmiFTP you name it. Of course you don't get great performance but it works. I think I might get better performance with the SilverSurfer serial port expansion; maybe I'll get that next!
The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading page : Comment 7 of 12ANN.lu
Posted by Michael Domoney on 26-Jan-2003 17:48 GMT
In reply to Comment 6 (Daniel Miller):
Hi,

My next project is to get a Version 1 A600 online.

I have the extra chip RAM expansion and Hard Drive so all I need now is an

acellerator and the Silversurfer.

By the way, where does the Silversurfer attach to ? the A600 has no Clockport.

I might even towerise it, I'm not sure yet :)

Regards Michael

aka rockape
The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading page : Comment 8 of 12ANN.lu
Posted by Kolbjørn Barmen on 26-Jan-2003 22:08 GMT
In reply to Comment 7 (Michael Domoney):
Actually the trapdor slot of the A600 has exactly that, a clock port :)

But, from what Jens told me, the silver surfer attach to a clock port adapter that is piggy-backed onto some of the chips of the motherboard, very much the same way the Apollo630 board is.

Personally I would like to get USB on my A600 :)
The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading page : Comment 9 of 12ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 26-Jan-2003 23:50 GMT
In reply to Comment 4 (Multiview):
For future reference: only post a message that long if you
have something interesting to say.
The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading page : Comment 10 of 12ANN.lu
Posted by Multiview on 27-Jan-2003 01:04 GMT
In reply to Comment 6 (Daniel Miller):
Hey I have an M-tec 020 card in my 500. It has a 4mb simm. I also have the stock 68020 cpu + an extra 16mhz one for backup

I also have a 25mhz 68020 which I did put in.. and was going to run a wire-hack to the clock pin to get it at the mobo speed of 28mhz but I got my a3000 around that time and never bothered...

I also have the 68881 that came with it (16mhz) and a 33mhz 68882 PLCC I bought. Also a 50mhz PGA 68882. THe board has both types of FPU sockets.. PGA and PLCC and a seperate osc socket for the FPU which I have the 33mhz in there atm.

I've been looking to sell the board and all the 020 stuff. This board would be perfect for an a600 I guess... well.. as long as your 68000 is socketed.. but I heard they were not. Do you know if it's socketed or not?

Also.. I remember when the A600's first came out.. there was a company that made an upgrade board that plugs inside the case that upgrades your chip ram so you could keep that trapdoor slot free. How come I've not heard anymore info on this from A600 users? Did they forget about it?

Yeah.. they screwed up big time with the 600.

You would think they would have at least made the 68000 run at exactly 16 mhz or even 14mhz . Around the time it came out.. (if you look on aminet in the hacks section) you'll notice there was already common knowledge on how to do the double speed hack for a500's and a1000's. this involves bending the clock pin (33 I think) on a 68000 and running it to a divided by 2 counter from a 74LS74 chip.. or something.. some signal that comes from the master clock that is already divivded by two (which is 14.3 mhz from 28.6 mhz OSC)

Anyways.. strange they didnt at least drop an 68010 or something.

They could have at least put an EC 020 (same as the 1200) in it.. and an EC 030 in the 1200.. boy that would have changed history eh?

But as I remember from the infamous stories about the demise of Commodore.. the butt-weeny they hired (the idiot who did the PCjr) decided to make the a600 NON expandable.. period. I think the sabotage was evident when more money went to develop the A600 than the 1200 or 4000. But that's another thread.. another debate and another topic. heheh.

I think it is kinda funny that people would expand the 600... since it was supposed to be "Non-expandable". So more power to ya's.

If your interested in the m-tec. I might throw it on ebay for a price. I'll include the stock CPU+ the extra 020.(both are fine)
The stock FPU.. the stock 1mb simm..
The extra's would be the 33mhz FPU, (+OSC) and the 4mb simm.

I might sell the 25mhz 020 seperately.. as it dont run on this board AT THAT SPEED without the hack being done. (The board is currently unhacked and in excellent condition)

Only thing I plan on doing nostaliga-wise is finding an Eagle tower case for my A500+ and there is a 1mb chip ram board I need for the trapdoor which takes it to a full 2.mb chip. Right now I got 1.5mb chip with an old A501.

I'll be looking for a Derringer 030 board for it too.

ANyways.. more later
The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading page : Comment 11 of 12ANN.lu
Posted by Multiview on 27-Jan-2003 01:07 GMT
In reply to Comment 9 (Anonymous):
Hey suck it.
The extreme Amiga 600 upgrading page : Comment 12 of 12ANN.lu
Posted by Iggy Drougge on 27-Jan-2003 18:23 GMT
In reply to Comment 9 (Anonymous):
Only post a message that short if you've got something nice to say.
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