Subject: REVIEW: Microbotics MBX1230 accelerator card for the Amiga 1200
From: [email-masked] (Corinna Cohn)
Date: 19 May 1994 17:54:38 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	Microbotics MBX1230 accelerator card for the Amiga 1200

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	The MBX1230 card is an accelerator card for the Amiga 1200.  It
provides a 68030 CPU and room for a math co-processor and up to 128
megabytes of RAM.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Microbotics
	Address:	Paravision, Inc.
			500 E. Arapaho, Suite 104
			Richardson, TX 75081
			USA

	Telephone:	(214) 644-0043	(9:00am to 5:30pm Central time)

	E-mail:		[email-masked]

LIST PRICE

	I purchased this card from Memory World as configured for about $700.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		Amiga 1200.

	SOFTWARE

		None.

COPY PROTECTION

	None.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 1200.
	Commodore 1942 Monitor.
	Microbotics MBX1230 with
		68030 CPU running at 33 MHz
		68882 FPU running at 33 MHz
		8 MB RAM

REVIEW

	I bought this card at the World Of Commodore show in Pasadena, CA in
1993.  At the time, there were two other 68030 cards for the A1200 which I
was aware of.  The GVP card seemed rather expensive, and the price of GVP RAM
is far too expensive.  The other card (which I believe to be the RCS card)
had many attractive features (such as a future SCSI-II add-on); however, I
didn't couldn't justify spending extra money on features which I couldn't see
myself using.  Therefore I ended up with the MBX1230 card.

	I had used a MicroBotics product before in my Amiga 500 -- a VXL*30
card with 68030 CPU and 2 MB RAM -- and I was rather displeased with it.  I
was a bit skeptical of my new purchase, and shortly after I had it in my
hands, I thought that I was a fool for purchasing it.  It turns out that
these thoughts were completely unfounded.

	Once I got the card home, I began to install it in my A1200.  I
installed the software, and the installation was flawless.  Then I tried to
install the hardware which turned out to be quite a trial.  The directions
say to slide the card gently into place, but it took almost more force than
I had to get it into place.  Finally, just as I was about to give up, I
thought to use a lever to get it in.  When I used the lever, the card slid
in very easily.

	I then rebooted the computer and...  IT WORKED!  YEAH!!!  My
computer was now a LOT faster, and it had 10 megabytes of RAM too!  That was
the last time that I saw the card.  It has been running in my A1200 ever
since.  As of this date (May 18, 1994), the computer has been turned off for
a total of about four days.  The bottom of my A1200 is quite warm, but I have
had no problems with the heat as of yet.

DOCUMENTATION

	The documentation for this card is sparse but adequate to get up and
running.

LIKES

	+ I like the SPEED!  Of course you would get the speed with any other
	  accelerator, but it's nice anyway. :)

	+ The card was relatively easy to install.  There aren't hundreds of
	  screws to deal with (and lose).  I would recommend a lever to get
	  the card in though.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

	- The card requires a patch at the beginning of the startup-sequence
	  in order to add the "Auto-Config" RAM.  They say that AmigaDOS 3.1
	  should fix the problem; however, this doesn't seem to be a problem
	  with the other boards.

	- The card "supports" up to 128 megabytes of RAM; however, it has
	  only one SIMM socket.  Where do you find a 128M SIMM???  I have
	  trouble finding 16M SIMMs!  If there were two sockets, then I could
	  just pop in another 8M SIMM, but I'm kind of stuck with 8M until I
	  can find a 16M SIMM.  I'm not even going to bother looking for 32M
	  SIMMs.

COMPARISON TO OTHER PRODUCTS

	I can't compare this product as I have never owned another
accelerator card for the Amiga 1200.  Compared to the VXL*30 card though,
this is a MUCH better product.

BUGS

	I haven't run into any bugs at all!

SUPPORT

	I have not required support for my MBX1230 card; however, I did
require support for my VXL*30 card and the support people were very friendly
and responsive towards my needs.  I don't think this will have changed much.

WARRANTY

	I can't seem to find my warranty information, or else I would tell
you about it.

CONCLUSIONS

	I would definitely recommend this product to any Amiga 1200 owner who
doesn't have a need for SCSI support.  I would also recommend that any low to
midrange users who want to save a couple of dollars should omit the purchase
of the 68882, as it doesn't help much with day to day use.  If you are using
math-intensive applications, it is important; however, that is a rare case
for me (and I imagine for most people).  I would also recommend that anyone
purchasing an Amiga 1200 buy at least SOME kind of 32-bit RAM, at least 2M's.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	I created this review, but anyone can do anything they want with it.

Corinna Cohn
[email-masked]

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