From: danaf@bray1b.its.rpi.edu (Frank R. Dana Jr.)
Subject: Re: A4000 pictures
Reply-To: danaf@rpi.edu
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 04:30:05 GMT

In article <1992Nov14.204436.324@ra.msstate.edu>, skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls) writes:
|> I have taken my A4000 apart and photographed it, but the shots of the various
|> chips are too fuzzy due to my camera.  The shots that were clear include

That's OK... I don't think we'll find any of them in K-Mart anyway... 8)

|> rear, side, and top views of the machine in various states of disassembly.  I
|> removed everything but the Z3 daughterboard with very little trouble, the only
|> exception being that the faceplate is not as easy to remove as the manual 
|> suggests.

Oh, well... can't be worse than ripping apart an A2000.

|> There are only two tiny screws on the rear of the case, which lifts off instead
|> of sliding forward as on the A2000 and A3000.  The Ethernet board I am using

Hey! My A2000 case lifts off! (See previous discussion... 8)   )

|> slid in with no trouble and there seems to be as much room for Zorro boards as
|> there is in the A3000, contrary to rumors.  The motherboard does not extend 
|> the width of the case and is in fact smaller than the A3000's.  Due to the
|> surface mounting, the motherboard appears much cleaner than the A3000's and
|> looks more like something from Apple.  Some of the custom chips and gate
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I'll take that as a compliment.... 

|> The front drive assembly is easy to remove once the blasted faeplate is off.
|> It has plenty of room for a second 3.5" drive, but the opening on the front of
|> the machine is very small.  Speaking of the floppy, the keyboard blocks it 
|> unless pulled back, creating problems on shallow desks.  The rear drive 
|> assembly is also easily removed and has enough space for another 3.5" drive.

SIGH. The blocked-keycoard thing is true? 

What about that nasty undersized-bay rumour? No truth?

|> The power supply is a monster and the fan is louder than the one in the A3000,
|> but not quite as bad as the one in the A2000.  There is a passthru on the
|> power supply, something sorely lacking on previous Amigas.

YES! FINALLY!

(Of course, it will take Commodore 3 years to realize that they should now 
include a free passthru-type cable with the 1960... and another 2 years for
them to realize that removing the STANDARD cable will piss the A3000/2000 
owners off no end...)

|> The ports are changed quite a bit from the A3000.  The mouse ports are on the
|> left side, which seems odd until you see how narrow the motherboard is.  The
|> keyboard port is a mini-DIN, possibly the same as the CDTV.  All the others 
|> are the same except for their configuration.

I've always liked having ports on the sides. I'm left-handed, so I would have
preferred the right side, but c'est la vie...

|> The mouse is a strange little thing resembling a bar of soap.  It is not bad,
|> but it doesn't feel as nice as the pregnant mouse does.  The keyboard is the
|> same as on the A3000, but it is the same refrigerator white as the A4000.

COOL! Finally...

I bought a bar-o-soap mouse as a replacement for my old A2000 mouse about a 
year ago. It was called a Jin mouse or something like that. I absolutely LOVED
the thing... unfortunately, it was only a $20 mouse and it broke after about
a month of use... replaced it with the Commodore (version 2) mouse...

So, has Commodore finally discovered the concept of the recessed mouse button?
I can't stand those damn bulgey buttons...

|> Needless to say, the machine is very quick.  Overall, it feels faster than
|> the A3000, but the jump is not as much as it was going from the A1000 to the
|> A3000 was.  The 256 color modes feel about as quick as the 16 color mode on

Well, going from an A1000 to an A3000 was a major, 5-year jump. This is a 
smaller, 2-year jump....

|> the A3000 and the 16 color modes feel faster than the 4 color mode on the
|> A3000.  The hires sprite is a welcome change and gives the Workbench a much
|> more professional look.  

Great. If I ever get one, I can delete LacePointer!   8)

|> Overall, I am very pleased with the machine and believe that Commodore did
|> a great job with it.  Some have speculated that it was "rushed out the door",
|> but I don't believe that to be the case.  Everything is well assembled, the
|> manuals are first rate, and it feels complete. Even the labels for the disks
|> are no longer the gaudy ones from the 2.04 distribution.

That's great. However, I still feel it was "rushed out the door" not in the 
sense that it's not well-done or not a good machine for what it does, but in 
the fact that Commodore is promising us all these features "Real Soon Now" that
should have been built into the next machine. It seems that it was pushed out
to stave off the Commodore-is-dead horrors, and doesn't do everything the
engineers really wanted it to do.

Still, I'm glad you're happy. Have fun with your new toy - but try to remember
those little people that bother you every once in a while... if you have any.

(The kids, man!!! Ok, test... say all their names, in order of age, right now..)

|> I have uploaded the file a4kpics.lha to the following sites:

Thankyouthanhyouthankyou!

|> The pictures are in JPEG format, as per recommendations by others on the
|> net.  However, I also have them in PCX 24 bit format and HAM8 format if
|> anyone would like those.  I have a few more pics that I will scan, convert,
|> and upload at a later date.  Also, I plan to borrow a better camera for the
|> close-ups of the various chips.

JPEG is fine. What resolutions/color-counts can we look forward to?

|> Skip Sauls
|> skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu

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