I've considered picking up a A3640 to slap in my A3000 as a "tide me over" accelerator until I get something better (they're so cheap used).  Things I know about using the 3640 in my 3000:

* Heat could be an issue
* Some possible issues with DMA on Zorro II cards
* Need Kickstart 3.1 ROMS

Is there anything else I need to know?

And probably a very generic A3640. At that. If I may add so.

(No, I'm this other guy.)

:-)

560SL wrote:
I threw in a 3640 in my A3000 a while ago. I can tell you, it's hardly worth the effort. Increase in speed is minimal.

I also had an A3640 card in my A3k-25mhz and it didn't
make any real noticable difference.
But I bought an A3k-16 mhz for my wife and installed
the A3640 card and it made quite a difference there.
So I guess if you have a 16 mhz machine ... YES its
worth it, but if yours is a 25 mhz then it probably
isn't worth the money or effort.

Like others have said, if the A3640 is worth it or not depends on what you're going to be doing. I haven't been doing anything special with my A3000, but I definitely notice when I removed the A3640 for a bit. Things just felt slightly faster with the A3640. You can also try playing with tools such as Blizkick or MMULib to optimize your system even more.

Rev 3.1 of the A3640 solved most of the DMA problems, and rev 3.2 cured the remaining few quirks. It is recommended to use it with KS 3.1. You can't use the rev 3.0 A3640 unless it's been modified into a 3.1 or 3.2. Also, make sure it has a good-sized flat heatsink on the 68040. It tends to run hot in the confined space of the A3000D. You might even want to consider attaching a little CPU cooling fan to it.

-David

The bottom line is this:  A 25MHz 68040 is faster than a 25MHz 68030.  Like 4 times faster depending on what you are doing!

Sure, if you have a spare 3640 lying around, yes why not throw it in. But I think it's kinda waste of money to buy one and think it's gonna to give you four times the speed of 25Mhz 030. I'd save my bucks for a CSMK-II or something instead. They do pop up for sale now and then.

Hi,

I have an A3640 in my A3000T and it is compiling code 3 times faster now than with the original 68030/25MHz. So I would say it is worth the work.

> On adding a CPU fan, what size is the CPU? Roughly a 486?
Yes, a 486 CPU-fan would fit, but you will have problems to add the fan to the heatsink in an A3000 desktop: There is no space below the drive bay :-(

Noster

The way I solved the heat problem of the A3640 card is ..
I added a heatsinc on the CPU then I took a 486 CPU fan
and mounted it on an 'L' bracket that drops down thru the
slot behind the floppy drive and pointed it toward the
68040 & heatsinc. The floppy drive holds the bracket in
place. I ran it in my A3k this way for about a year until
I got my WarpEngine. Now its in my wife's A3k/16mhz and
still working fine. (No case hacking required)