Efika and MOS 2.x performance and compatibility
  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Acill
    Posts: 1931 from 2003/10/19
    From: Port Hueneme, Ca.
    Hi everyone, its been a long time. I've been thinking about getting an Efika and MOS 2.x to give the latest MOS a chance again. How is it on the Efika? Since its so small I can put it any place and have no trouble with it being in the way.

    Does all the hardware work under MOS?

    Is the low RAM an issue with MOS? How about the slow CPU speeds?

    Any info would be great from real Efika users.
    Powermac Dual 2.0 GHZ G5 PCI-X (Registration #1894)
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    Need Repairs, upgrades or a recap in the USA? Visit my website at http://www.acill.com
  • »21.03.09 - 00:52
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    ausPPC
    Posts: 543 from 2007/8/6
    From: Pending...
    I've just been trying out a few demos - mainly to check out graphics and sound output.

    The low memory is just something to bear in mind - other than Quake 3 it hasn't really stopped me from doing anything.
    PPC assembly ain't so bad... ;)
  • »21.03.09 - 01:27
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  • Butterfly
    Butterfly
    metalmac
    Posts: 87 from 2007/5/26
    Hi!

    I am also intrested in Efika!
    Is it posible to connect a slim DVD to it?
    Would be a nice mediacenter under my tv :-)
    I have also looked at the sam motherboard, but
    it is a bit expencive.
    PowerBook G4@1.5Ghz, 1Gb ram, MorphOS 3.12
    Amiga 1200, Blizzard 1220/4@28Mhz, 500Mb HD, 6mb RAM, Workbench 3.1
    AspireOne, 1Gb RAM, 160Gb HD, Icaros Desktop
    AmigaOne 500, 2Gb ram, AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition
  • »21.03.09 - 06:29
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  • Acolyte of the Butterfly
    Acolyte of the Butterfly
    Sprocki
    Posts: 130 from 2005/2/23
    From: Berlin - Germany
    Serial output and sound work. Expect graphics card that work in a Peg to also work in an Efika. Those that work with my Peg II also work inside the Efika. Internal harddisks also work flawlessly. For USB devices this changes. I tried 11 USB devices with only 2 of them working in just one special combination. All the other failed to work as stand-alone or in combination with others. It is said to be changed for MOS 2.3 but until then be careful.
    Regarding speed, Efika is a lot slower than Pegasos. You will see this especially with every graphics related thing such as Ambient, MUI, Shell output ... For example, just scrolling around inside of this text box by cursor keys to write the comment to your questions takes a lot more time than on my Peg II with the same environment (even the same graphics card). This is also the case for mouse scrolling or typing text messages inside any string gadget, Shell or whatever.
    Hardisk is also slower which will be visible especially in Ambient when you open list browsers, icon browsers and change view. It takes a lot more time to initially load the directories' contents and later to display them.
    The low RAM is not an issue for MOS itself but for running applications. Small ones do not make any problems as most of the Amiga apps are not that consuming, but e.g. AmiGG takes 13MB of RAM, OWB takes 35MB just for loading the applcation. Every webpage will take more RAM (5-10MB is usual) and just making the window size some pixels bigger eats up another 3MB of RAM. That's why I still use IBrowse - for RAM usage and speed gains on Amiga sites.
  • »21.03.09 - 09:30
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Simon
    Posts: 809 from 2008/7/6
    From: Antwerp, Belgium
    serailport works on Efika? ... that's not what I heard, but I didn't test it.

    My Efika has a USB dvdwriter connected to it ... reading is ok, writing: I didn't test it, but don't expect it to work.
    Proud member of the Belgian Amiga Club since 2003

  • »21.03.09 - 15:47
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Acill
    Posts: 1931 from 2003/10/19
    From: Port Hueneme, Ca.
    ah, I am not getting this thing, even though I am sure it would be a lot of fun to have. The RAM is just to low for me, and it looks like to much work if you can even do it to get more on it.

    [ Edited by Acill on 2009/3/21 10:13 ]
    Powermac Dual 2.0 GHZ G5 PCI-X (Registration #1894)
    Powerbook 1.67GHZ
    Powermac Dual 2.0 GHZ G5 PCIE (Registration #6130)
    A4000T CSPPC, Mediator
    Need Repairs, upgrades or a recap in the USA? Visit my website at http://www.acill.com
  • »21.03.09 - 16:12
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  • Moderator
    Golem
    Posts: 766 from 2003/2/28
    From: Denmark
    @Oepabakkes

    That's serial output as in debug. For your usb dvd writer you should try to disable simple scsi in usb settings, it's more likely to work that way.
  • »21.03.09 - 16:13
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    amigadave
    Posts: 2795 from 2006/3/21
    From: Northern Calif...
    Quote:


    Acill wrote:
    ah, I am not getting this thing, even though I am sure it would be a lot of fun to have. The RAM is just to low for me, and it looks like to much work if you can even do it to get more on it.

    [ Edited by Acill on 2009/3/21 10:13 ]


    If you want to try the EFIKA out to see what MorphOS2.x looks like on it, I'll let you borrow mine for a few weeks to see if you like it. I am not using it much at the moment and can do without it for 3 to 4 weeks if you want to play with it.

    I also see that you posted in the "Who has bought a MacMini" thread, so if you are the patient type, it might be better to wait for MorphOS3.0 to be released for the G4 Mini's, instead of buying the low power, low RAM EFIKA.

    I am spending most of my time in Riverside lately, which is closer to you than Big Bear Lake. Let me know if you want to borrow my EFIKA.
    MorphOS - The best Next Gen Amiga choice.
  • »21.03.09 - 22:45
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