This evening I received my ACA500 from AmigaKit.  I did have an evening's hard work planned but that went straight out of the window once I realised there were Amiga goodies waiting for me!

Initially, before receipt of the ACA500, I thought it was a shame that the card wasn't designed to fit inside the machine.  However, having fitted the card onto the side of the A500 I've changed my mind; it's actually quite nice having the card ports available for playing around with.  The clock port is exposed which is very convenient for me - the card is a hardware hacker's dream in that respect.  The card isn't cumbersome either - it sits very snug on the side port and it doesn't look out of place.

The fact that the card has Compact Flash ports is a real God send.  No more booting up from floppies - I've got Workbench 3.1 installed on it.  Fantastic!

The manual states that you can add Individual Computers A1200 accelerator cards onto it, which is interesting.  It also says that cards from other manufacturers may also work.  Perhaps I can try my Blizzard card on there this weekend and see what happens.

I guess my A500 3.1 ROMs are redundant now.  I wonder if the 3.1 ROMs will work in my CDTV...

BJH.

BPPC modified for 400mhz + Bvision + A500 = PURE AWESOME (hehe...be a bit like putting nitro and a blower on a model-T; fun to do but WHYYYYYYY )

Okay, somebody needs to try it with a Bvision.  

BPPC modified for 400mhz + Bvision + A500 = PURE AWESOME (hehe...be a bit like putting nitro and a blower on a model-T; fun to do but WHYYYYYYY )

400Mhz Blizzard is almost here.

390Mhz is up and running thanks to a all new copper shims for CPU and chipset. Currently all work has moved to focus on AGP speed for Bvision.

AGP speed is now more important than CPU speed as 366Mhz+ Cyberstorm users have found out. No matter how fast the CPU went they still had slow graphics performance at high resolution due-to limited bus speed.

AGP speed has moved to top of the list and has the highest priority for the year 2014 for modification.

FYI.
The left CF connector (Aux) accept CF cards formatted PC or AMIGA.
The right CF connector (Boot) accept CF cards formatted AMIGA only.

I Totally agree, the ACA500 is a godsend for the A500

I wrote a review for my Blog here:

http://www.fitzstevesamigaworld.co.uk/?p=119

Your Blizzard might well work with it, mine (1230mkiv) doesn't sadly but many others have success with theirs, even 1240's and 1260's!  It seems to depend on the A500.  (1240/1260 need a special firmware on the ACA500 & 060 needs a hacked 060 library)

Which Blizzard do you have?

That's a good review - very comprehensive.  I'll keep an eye on your blog for the future

I have a Blizzard '030 card.  I'll try it this weekend and let you know if it works or not!
Even if it does work it'll be going back into my A1200 but I want to try it on the A500 out of interest.

Can't wait for the ACA1000!

Thanks Fitzsteve!

Well I bought a compatible CF 4GB and runs 3.1 perfect.
With SFS I get a ramlib gury :-(

Question: If I buy a 3.1 rom chip will it work so I can gain more free ram from maprom? (It uses 3.1 softkick as I saw)

Thanks again.

I'm pretty sure SFS requires a 68020, hence the guru.