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[SysAdmin]

News from debaser

www.efikafoundation.com

Poor Efika 5200b.. In the Amiga world of things, you sometimes gain such little respect. So misunderstood. Hehe

Well I like the little thing and I thought it would be fun to create a little space for him/her. I figure I am about 4 years too late with something like this and there are already a few places one could visit related to this board - but I thought something light and fun (like the Efika itself) to show off owner's case ideas and designs, OS used/screenshots, etc. would be interesting..so what the hell - here it is.

Please let me know if you'd like to share your Efika case pics on the site. Please feel free to contribute, look around, and have fun.

[spihunter]

It's shame that the Efika didn't have at least 256mb of ram. I think that was the big show stopper. The processor was fine for a lot of things....

Originally Posted by Transition

News from debaser

www.efikafoundation.com

Poor Efika 5200b.. In the Amiga world of things, you sometimes gain such little respect. So misunderstood. Hehe

Well I like the little thing and I thought it would be fun to create a little space for him/her. I figure I am about 4 years too late with something like this and there are already a few places one could visit related to this board - but I thought something light and fun (like the Efika itself) to show off owner's case ideas and designs, OS used/screenshots, etc. would be interesting..so what the hell - here it is.

Please let me know if you'd like to share your Efika case pics on the site. Please feel free to contribute, look around, and have fun.

[Lando]

I wish it had at least one DIMM slot. I mean, $99 for one of these things that run Amiga apps several times faster than any Amiga ever made including a $700 CSPPC

[zylesea]

Originally Posted by Lando

I wish it had at least one DIMM slot. I mean, $99 for one of these things that run Amiga apps several times faster than any Amiga ever made including a $700 CSPPC

Don't underestimate the 128 MB. A lot of stuff easiy useable. The most important app that is easily consuming all the 128 MB is OWB. But you can use it with 1-3 tabs, just watch the RAM usage and quit before you get out of RAM. Also there is Sputnik, which shares a bit of Efika's fate. Good approach, but literally eaten by the successor (Sputnik - OWB , Efika - Mac mini).
Most other apps are really fine with 128 MB.
It is a tiny fun computer, pretty nice for tinkering around and surprisingly useable for many things.

[tone007]

It's a cute little thing, but with MacMinis and eMacs available now to run the MorphOS at costs that rival the Efika, I'd wager it's becoming even more of a red-headed step child. I felt a bit silly buying mine the day eMac support was announced, having 2 eMacs in the house.

[Darrin]

I've got one and even bought a bloody big case for it, but it always got pushed aside for other Amiga projects like my A4000 tower-up, my Minimig or C-One.

Bang for buck, it is a great machine to at least try MorphOS and decide whether to upgrade to a bigger, more powerful motherboard & CPU. The RAM is definately a problem.

I have to ask, my Miniming v1.1 got a RAM upgrade by soldering RAM chips onto the existing chips and then a big more buggering around with some wires. Is "anything" similar possible with the Efika?

How about the Amiga trick of nicking RAM from a graphics card and allocating that as extra "SLOW" RAM? OK, performance might take a hit when it is used, but anything that increases the rather sad 128MB might prove useful.

[mongo]

Originally Posted by Darrin

I've got one and even bought a bloody big case for it, but it always got pushed aside for other Amiga projects like my A4000 tower-up, my Minimig or C-One.

Bang for buck, it is a great machine to at least try MorphOS and decide whether to upgrade to a bigger, more powerful motherboard & CPU. The RAM is definately a problem.

I have to ask, my Miniming v1.1 got a RAM upgrade by soldering RAM chips onto the existing chips and then a big more buggering around with some wires. Is "anything" similar possible with the Efika?

How about the Amiga trick of nicking RAM from a graphics card and allocating that as extra "SLOW" RAM? OK, performance might take a hit when it is used, but anything that increases the rather sad 128MB might prove useful.

On the bottom of the Efika there are solder pads for another 128K of RAM. I don't know if anyone has attempted to do the upgrade or if the firmware would recognize the extra memory, but in theory it should be possible to do.

[Darrin]

Originally Posted by mongo

On the bottom of the Efika there are solder pads for another 128K of RAM. I don't know if anyone has attempted to do the upgrade or if the firmware would recognize the extra memory, but in theory it should be possible to do.

Interesting. Amigakit in the UK did my Minimig RAM upgrade only because their prices seemed reasonable as opposed to risking the total destruction of the board if I attempted it.

There could be an opportunity for someone with some good soldering skills to make some cash.

[Debaser]

Originally Posted by zylesea

Don't underestimate the 128 MB. A lot of stuff easiy useable. The most important app that is easily consuming all the 128 MB is OWB. But you can use it with 1-3 tabs, just watch the RAM usage and quit before you get out of RAM. Also there is Sputnik, which shares a bit of Efika's fate. Good approach, but literally eaten by the successor (Sputnik - OWB , Efika - Mac mini).
Most other apps are really fine with 128 MB.
It is a tiny fun computer, pretty nice for tinkering around and surprisingly useable for many things.

I couldn't agree more Zylesea - the 128MB is not as tough to deal with as one might think. I enjoyed my trial version so much with my little Efika that I was 100% sold on MorphOS in all honesty. Little did I know that when the time came to register that my mac mini would be ready to be put back to use

I am going to take advantage of the discounted registration price and give my Efika some registered love..and finally integrate into my home theatre thanks to AmiNetRadio.

Like many, my Efika gathered a thick layer of dust - but only until just recently when tone007 did his Atari 5200 case/forum post, it made me stop and really take a second look and feel somewhat..well....guilty. I really don't think I gave it much of a chance. That is why I thought I'd start this little site to maybe have us all give it a second look and stop selling them on the used market for a loss.

Thanks to everyone's kind words about the site. I hope you all can click into the site's little 'forum' too and share stories, and contribute a bit. Oh, and please drop me some photos of your Efika too!

Before I make it into a shoutcast/mp3 player..(which I will document eventually on the site) I plan on giving a blow by blow as I try out some Linux implementations and finally a MorphOS on Efika revisit to the best of my ability.

Bottom line - Steven/ClusterUK need to be around during the Efika launch I think. hehe Maybe it would be in a slightly better place.


Please continue to check on the site as time passes if you are curious.

Regards,

Sean (debaser)
www.efikafoundation.com

[Darrin]

Thanks for including the Efika Book on your site. I've never seen that (didn't come with my card). Very handy.

[Debaser]

Originally Posted by Darrin

Thanks for including the Efika Book on your site. I've never seen that (didn't come with my card). Very handy.

Yes, quite handy indeed!

All of the thanks for EfikaBook need to go to all those behind it and efika.org for their work back in the day.

[zylesea]

Originally Posted by Darrin

I have to ask, my Miniming v1.1 got a RAM upgrade by soldering RAM chips onto the existing chips and then a big more buggering around with some wires. Is "anything" similar possible with the Efika?

Adding some mem on the solder pads doesn't work OOTB. The OF doesn't config it correctly. *Maybe* there is a chance we'll get an optional firmware that will configure 256 MB. But I wouldn't count on that (depends on how busy or bored the bplan guys are).

How about the Amiga trick of nicking RAM from a graphics card and allocating that as extra "SLOW" RAM? OK, performance might take a hit when it is used, but anything that increases the rather sad 128MB might prove useful.

Might work in theory, but copying RAM to VRAM is rather slow. The MorphOS-Team seemed to not like that idea too much (was suggested many times already). With 2.5 the amount of free RAM increased a bit, since gfx data can be stored at VRAM exclusively now.

[Darrin]

Cheers for that info. I figures someone else must have asked about the VRAM by now, but you never know...

[yakumo9275]

the ram expansion underneath has issues. see powerdeveloper for some threads on it.

Yeah if the efika had came with 256mb I think they would have sold a lot more than they did. I love my little efika, but its three deficiencies are

1 - Non standard port layout / screw layout, so does not fit mini-itx size etc. must have custom case
2 - 128mb ram, really needed minimum of 256mb.
3 - broken dma for hard disk / networking. The BestComm chip is a piece of ****.

I still love my little efika but nothing runs on it. linux uses too much ram to be useful, the IDE is so broken and no cheap case

[recidivist]

Haven't run linux on my efika but MorphOS is ok,although the mac mini is now the preferred Morph machine.

It is hard to understand why 128 mb ram is so limiting ,considering most people had 16 mb or less ram on non-accelerated Amigas;even most with accelerated Amigas had 8-32 mb ram ,with some lucky few installing 64 or 128.