Path: kernighan.cs.umass.edu!barrett From: gregr@en.com (Gregory Roberts II) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: AmiFAST Zip-to-SIMM adapter Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Date: 27 Nov 1996 02:34:10 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 180 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <57g9b2$arm@kernighan.cs.umass.edu> Reply-To: gregr@en.com (Gregory Roberts II) NNTP-Posting-Host: knots.cs.umass.edu Keywords: hardware, memory, RAM, SIMM, Zip, commercial X-Review-Number: Volume 1996 Number 34 Originator: barrett@knots.cs.umass.edu PRODUCT NAME AmiFAST 3000 BRIEF DESCRIPTION ZIP to SIMM adapter for Amiga 3000 series. Replaces ZIP chips with a board that lets you plug in 4 or 8MB SIMM chips. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: ProvTech Address: RR4 Box 72, Washington, IN 47501 Telephone: (812) 254-1721 (evenings) FAX: (812) 257-0902 E-mail: 75507.3170@compuserve.com LIST PRICE List price is $89 (US). I paid about $84 (US), including shipping and COD. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE Amiga 3000 SIMMs to install. :) You'll need either: 4MB - 1Mx30 (8 chip) or 8MB - 2Mx32 (16 chip) Parity SIMMs will work, but they don't use the extra parity chip. SOFTWARE NONE MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 3000/25, now with 16 MB Fast RAM, 2 MB Chip RAM. INSTALLATION Once you've got your computer apart, installation involves removing any ZIPs you have and lining up the board. Taking the drive platform out is always a pain, so it's a little hard in that respect, but you have to do that anyway to get at the ZIP sockets. Lining up the board is a little tricky, but I didn't have too much trouble with it. There's a hole in the AmiFAST board to help you see where the pins are. REVIEW AmiFAST 3000 will allow Amiga 3000 owners to install SIMMs in their machine instead of the rare ZIP chips. You can use a combination of 4MB or 8MB SIMM chips to add up to 16MB of Fast RAM to your Amiga. You cannot combine SIMM chips with existing ZIPs. However, if you have the DIP chips installed in bank 0, you can leave them in if you don't install a SIMM there. The product includes a printed circuit board with pins to plug into your ZIP sockets, and your choice of SIMM sockets on the top. Because the SIMM sockets are at a small angle to each other, 8MB SIMMs could have trouble fitting if all the SIMM sockets are installed. Personally, I just went with two 8MB sockets, and have no problems at all. It would only be a potential problem if you want to mix 4MB and 8MB SIMMs, but you can easily work around it by ordering the board with the correct configuration. After I got my machine apart, installing the board was relatively painless. Once the pins were lined up with the proper holes in the ZIP sockets, I just had to press down (gently!) on the board to connect it. The board seemed a little flimsy while I was pressing on it, but if you are careful, I don't think there's any reason to worry. Once the board is in your Amiga, you just pop in some SIMMs and off you go. The sales brochure I got mentions potential problems with ROM towers, but I don't have one so I can't comment on this. Once my Amiga was reassembled, I spent some time running a couple of different memory testers on it, and had absolutely no problems. Suddenly, I had an 18MB Amiga 3000, and I was a very happy person. DOCUMENTATION The board comes with two pages of printed installation instructions. The pictures aren't very helpful, but I didn't have any trouble figuring out where to install the board. The documentation could be a little more explicit in describing the type of SIMMs you need. I was able to get this information directly from ProvTech, so this wasn't a problem. The documentation is fairly easy to follow, but if you have never had your Amiga apart, you might want to get some expert advise. Reading the description of where the board is installed is a little confusing, but once you've seen it, it all makes sense. LIKES I have had absolutely no problems with this board, and I like that. It made it very easy to upgrade my Amiga from a mere 6MB to a whopping 18MB! Of course, SIMMs are much cheaper than ZIP chips, so that's a big plus. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS The board itself could be a little sturdier, but it didn't break, so I can't complain. BUGS It works and passes all memory tests I've thrown at it, so I would have to say there are no bugs. VENDOR SUPPORT I've had several contacts with the vendor, both on the phone and by e-mail. He's been very responsive to my questions and was particularly helpful before the sale describing the technical details for me. WARRANTY The assembled board has a warranty against defects in materials and workmanship for 30 days. CONCLUSIONS I am extremely pleased with this product. It does exactly what it claims to and I've had absolutely zero problems with it. COPYRIGHT NOTICE This review has been written by: Gregory Roberts II -- gregr@en.com | Finger me for PGP Public Key KC8BGC | Amiga Enthusiast :) | Web page under construction @ IBM programmer :( | http://www.en.com/users/gregr --- Accepted and posted by Daniel Barrett, comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews Web site: ftp://math.uh.edu/pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews/index.html