Well after modding the hell out of my A1200, I'm thinking it might be time to sell up and purchase an NG.

Getting all the hardware/software mods to work together was and still is enjoyable, yet frustrating task.

With the slow updates on mediator drivers for both the Voodoo 5 and Radeon 9200 it's really holding AmigaOS 3.9 back. Rattes updated Radeon driver was looking like the answer but Elbox trampled that.

Also getting any information/response from Elbox is impossible. Which adds to my frustration when spending quite a bit on their products.

Reliability is another factor, with all those different hacks/patches running it feels unstable now and then. The most annoying part is getting RTG/AGA switching working with WHDLoad, which wouldn't really be a problem with an NG. I've given up on this and run in AGA most of the time, although I don't get the pretty 1920x1080 with AFA OS/Zune desktop.

I have Quake/Quake 2 running great using Warp3D/MiniGL at 640x480. However Quake2 can be flaky and I get the odd software fault and it wont load. Another frustration.

Duke Nukem is fairly smooth except for a slight pause when some sounds load, but this would be resolved with using a FastATA, however it doesn't fit with the Indivision AGA MK2 and Mediator. :-/

Browsing is very useable, Ibrowse is fantastic. Although due to it's out dated browser engine a few websites don't display correctly. NetSurf is fantastic though, can feel slower than Ibrowse though but I think this is because it loads the entire page in one hit instead of loading parts of the page.

Flash, even with the Ibrowse plugin is a no go. Java stuff seems to timeout most of the time so I turned this off.  

iGame/WHDLoad works really well (once you are running an AGA workbench) and the speed at what games load at is amazing. Forget floppy disks! :-)

99% of the demo's work great, no issues.

PPC stuff, I maybe tempted to purchase a PPC card for the A1200 but price wise I'd be better off buying an NG. The amount of money would buy me a nice setup, unless I can find someone throwing a card out (yeah right).

As a day to day machine, almost possible. The A1200 does an okay job :-)

Anyway I think I've accomplished (95% anyway) what I set out to do, I'll probably regret selling it. You always get that doubt with Amiga hardware, especially putting so much time into it. You become attached.

I'll go back to pondering it :-)

Reliability is another factor, with all those different hacks/patches running it feels unstable now and then. The most annoying part is getting RTG/AGA switching working with WHDLoad, which wouldn't really be a problem with an NG.

On NG you have to maintain alternate AmigaOS setup in UAE to run AGA games. It can be floppy based if you prefer or use WHDLoad/RTG like on your old Amiga.

@wawrzon

flash will stay no go anyway also on ng, same for java i guess and javascript may today be too heavy fro whatever amigalike except maybe aros x86

PPC is certainly fast enough to run most Javascript sites.

Dual boot AROS. Classic could not handle internet anything. NG must be great as a hobby, but as a primary OS it could not do much.

If you want to use your Amiga for a day-to-day desktop replacement, then go NG.  If you just want to tinker and play old software, than keep what you've got.  I expect this post to devolve into a flame war in 3... 2... 1...

I'd be very cautious and recommend you weigh your use case before taking anyones advice that any NG Amiga can be a day to day, desktop replacement for a more mainstream machine like a Windows, Linux or Mac box.

I love my NG systems, but the idea that I could use them to do my day to day business on them is laughable.  They are great machines for what they are, but the truth is I couldn't even get my daily work tickets off GDocs on either MOS or my OS4 machine.  The browsers puke too much.

Honestly, and I know how much people hate the emulation route - it's hard to go wrong with an Amithlon or even dedicated UAE box if you are intent on running older software.  I've got both an Amithlon box and a dedicated UAE machine (XP base, boots right into WB 3.1, never even see Windows) and most people would be hard pressed to even recognize they are emulated machines if they were parked in front of them if an old Miggy KB and mouse were there.

I'd be very cautious and recommend you weigh your use case before taking anyones advice that any NG Amiga can be a day to day, desktop replacement for a more mainstream machine like a Windows, Linux or Mac box.

I completely agree. However if your usage is fulfilled by the software, hardware and horsepower available then it can be a very enjoyable route to go.

I love my NG systems, but the idea that I could use them to do my day to day business on them is laughable.  They are great machines for what they are, but the truth is I couldn't even get my daily work tickets off GDocs on either MOS or my OS4 machine.  The browsers puke too much.

I do have occasional problems with GDocs, but I've been more impressed by the availability and stability of MS Web apps (aside from the occasional menu bar malfunction when it first loads).

Honestly, and I know how much people hate the emulation route - it's hard to go wrong with an Amithlon or even dedicated UAE box if you are intent on running older software.  I've got both an Amithlon box and a dedicated UAE machine (XP base, boots right into WB 3.1, never even see Windows) and most people would be hard pressed to even recognize they are emulated machines if they were parked in front of them if an old Miggy KB and mouse were there.

I personally don't hate emulation, in fact I enjoy emulation for old games - I just wouldn't want to go back to setting up and maintaining an OS3.9 setup again, even under emulation.
I've got way too comfortable with the things NG (MorphOS in my case) provides out of the box, or with a simple one-click installation with no missing dependencies.
A multi-booting MorphOS/OSX/Linux powerbook/macmini covers all my likely software needs, although I can't remember the last time I booted OSX or Linux - probably some time in January when I was doing my accounts looking for old spreadsheets and invoices.

Having said that, if you enjoy tinkering with the older hardware (and setting up your 'dream amiga' system that you longed for as a teen but could never afford), then keep onto your classic, or upgrade to something more stable (A4KT).
You might also find that you feel like you don't have much left to do with a stable, powerful system that's already got pci, rtg, usb, tcp/ip built-in.

Regarding Amiga always going up in value... so far it has quite steadily increased in value over the last decade or so (unless/until that day when you press the switch and nothing happens. )

So I had a look for a mac mini locally but can only find a 32MB version. I'm guessing the 64MB is rare?

@itix - Possible to copy over an existing setup from my current A1200 and run it I guess? That would mean I wouldn't have to make too many changes.

You still have same issues maintaining dual AGA/RTG setup when trying to run old games and demos with WHDLoad. So in the end you ave nothing.

For gaming purposes and watching old demos it could be better idea strip down Amiga from RTG and make it AGA only setup. NG is better reserved to RTG stuff if you want that.

So I had a look for a mac mini locally but can only find a 32MB version. I'm guessing the 64MB is rare?

It is very rare. Only 500,000 units were built which is not many, really.