Subject: REVIEW: AmiFAST Zip-to-SIMM adapter
From: [email-masked] (Gregory Roberts II)
Date: 27 Nov 1996 02:34:10 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

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: 	[email-masked]

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 <[email-masked]>

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