Greetings!

I am an Amiga fan from way back and have lurked on this site and others for some time and have decided to take the Morph plunge... My background is heavy Windows (Pls don't hold it against me as it pays my bills) and some MAC and Linux. I am a hardware and software support guy and also perform server builds and support... With that in mind, I have a lot of experience with hardware and software, but since I haven't used my wondrous Amiga in decades, I must be considered an Amiga newbie due to forgetting just about everything!...

I am currently looking at an Efika board from Directron... ($99)! I am also looking at what I hope is a suitable video card as well..

http://www.directron.com/h925h128e1top.html (Link to exact card) Click to enlargepad


HIS H925H128E1TOP Radeon 9250 128MB DDR PCI Video Card. Retail Box.

Will this card give me good performance with the Efika? Also, are there any gotchas I should be aware of when building one of these puppies? (My plan is to take an old Mac Cube case and mount the Efika in that, remove the apple logo and replace with the Morph butterfly... I am also going to attempt to use the slot load super drive utilizing a USB adaptor... Not sure if this will fly, but that is the plan.)

Anyway, I am excited at the prospect and look forward to any wisdom you gurus can provide!

I have a 9250 with 256MB of ram and I am very happy with the performance. If you haven't checked it out I would look at the Efika book at efika.org. I found that site to be very helpful.
As for connecting a drive to the USB, keep in mind the Efika is using USB 1 so the performace will not be the fastest.

Thanks for the link... Very nice! Checking it out now..

As for the drive running slow in USB, there really aren't any other options since you can't connect more than one device to the ide controller so I will jus have to live with slow performance. (Hell I don't even know if superdrives will work through usb...)

Thanks again for the info..

The Efika should come with an angled AGP-adapters, allowing you to place a !half!-height AGP-card parallel to the mobo. It's probraly easier to place into any case this way.

Welcome aboard,

If you need a case for your Efika, I have built a batch of machined case fitting perfectly. Details in my signature.

Cheers,

Czk

@Beamish2040

MorphOS can only "see" 128MB of your 256MB video ram. Hopefully with MorphOS 2.3 they will fix that.

Great info thx guys...

I am just waiting for the board and graphics card to arrive and I will let you know how it goes...

@outlawal2

Efika can only use 128MB of non expandable ram (well, some megabytes less since MorphOS, Ambient, screens and textures also require ram) and this could be a problem to open big web pages with OWB.

You should use a low profile card with Efika and Efika can only use 128MB of gfx memory so don't buy gfx cards with 256MB because you will only use 128MB. The most common and easy to find gfx card is Radeon 9250. Try to get a model that uses 128bit memory access and avoid 64bit ones. 128MB or 256MB doesn't matter as your Efika will only see 128MB.

There are also low profile Radeon9100 gfx boards with 128MB but these are damn hard to find and since Efika lacks ram and cpu power I don't think it worths the hassle.

All in all: Efika is very nice and silent but Mac Mini has more computing muscle (1.5Ghz G4, 1GB of ram, USB2...). You could get both and turn your Efika into a linux server or linux mldonkey client. If you bought a Mac Mini choose the rarest 1.5Ghz "silent upgrade" model because it has a 64MB Radeon gfx card. Other models have 32MB ones and could be problematic if you use big monitors (a 1920x1200 32bit screen requires around 9MB of ram just to be shown with no double buffer, and if you add stuff like backgrounds and textures you could run out of gfx ram soon). 64MB models will allow you to use a 3D desktop too

[ Edited by Crumb on 2009/5/8 20:15 ]

@Crumb
There's no dramatically speed decrease if you choose the 64bit version of the Radeon 9250, since MorphOS doesn't use its full power anyway. But the 64bit version takes a little less power than the bigger one, which could make a differences in a low-power system like the Efika.

Great info.. Thx

I fully intend on picking up a Mac Mini in the future, but I am going to wait until the port has been completed as I am painfully aware of Amiga-type promises that don't materialize! No offense to the folks that are taking the time to do the work, I am just a bit cautious in jumping in until I know that things are ready...

Anyway, just waiting on the Efika to arrive as well as the 9250 video card I picked up from Ebay.. Also have a slot load cdrom coming and will let everyone know if I am able to get it to work using USB...

Thanks again...

@analogkid

if you use 32bit high resolution screenmodes 64bit version may be a bottleneck, specially using layers 3D or 3D games. I don't think there's an important measurable difference between the consumption of 64bit and 128bit versions, even the smallest PicoPSU could supply power for another full Efika without problems. Given that most of times a 64bit and a 128bit version cost almost the same I would simply look for the card in various shops.

MorphOS is fast regardless of the gfx card, but if the user can choose it's better to go for the full 128bit version.

[ Edited by Crumb on 2009/5/11 18:25 ]

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Very sensible idea and often recommended by others here. If you don't have an interest in MacOSX on the MacMini, or don't have another use for it while waiting for MorphOS3.0 to be finished & released, it is smart to wait. The prices for MacMini's should continue to go down, but be ready for a temporary spike in prices for the 1.5GHz G4/64mb VRAM model immediately after the completion and release of MorphOS3.0, or even an announcement of its pending release will likely send a few Morphers into a buying frenzy on eBay.

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If I forgot to welcome you before, consider yourself "Welcomed" by me and please stick around and let us know how your build of your Efika computer goes. Pictures are always appreciated of any project that is being built by a member, so please upload a few during the different stages of your project.

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I think there is a risk that at some point in a not too distant future, that the Mac people that still happens to own G4 hardware will consider it obsolete and unsellable, and put it away in some box in the attic and forget about it, or simply throw it in the trash. The Mac has been x86 for a long time now (in "computer years")...

@outlawal2

Welcome to the zone.

@takemehomegrandma

Why do you say the 1.5GHz Mac mini is obsolete?

@Wolfe

I was speaking in a Mac context, not MorphOS. I'm sure that MorphOS users will be very happy with a 1.5GHz G4, but on the Mac market it's backwards technology, an architecture that they have left behind and moved on from. If Mac users come to the conclusion that their old G4 hardware will be difficult to sell on the Mac market due to lack of demand from Mac users (something that undoubtedly is bound to happen, the question isn't *if* but *when*), then this could possibly have impact on the "supply" side...

Last time I checked my Mini G4 it was not obsolete, but did all the work that is common (web, multimedia, office) just fine. Why do you think ppl will throw away theri g4 only because it is not the latest and fastetst? They still do work.

Plus, I don't know how it is in Sweden, but since it is also EU I guess the WEEE order is valid there, too. In fact it is often easier to sell electronic goods off on ebay than to throw them to the bin (because it is forbidden and usually the way to the local recycling station is not a 5 minute walk).

I don't think that the G4 Mini supply on ebay and the likes will significantly drop within the next 2-3 years.

@ takemehomegrandma

I guess I just have a problem with the term Obsolete, as a Mac 512k, Atari ST, C64, a 486 PC etc. are classic but also obsolete. To me obsolete is something that cannot be used to perform tasks used today in every day use. E-Mail, Web, Music, Video, Productivity etc . . . Mine is also used with my Elgato to crunch H.264's. Now it will probably fly like a banshee when MorphOS is running on it . . .

On the supply side, I don't see to many people putting them in the attic because they are not the latest powerhouse computer, years ago maybe but with eBay etc . . . its easy to find a new owner for the hardware and recoup a little coin at the same time . . .

I don't think Mac owners have quite the same attitude as say PC owners for example. I think they place more value on their machines and expect to be able to get a bit of cash for them purely because they are Mac's.
Prices on ebay for G4 mini's seem to be holding at anything between 200 and 260 pounds depeding on spec.

On topic:
Welcome to outlawal2! Hope your Efika build goes well. I cheated and got ausPPC to send me a complete system HDD and all! Just as well I did as none of my USB sticks will boot the install image to install MorphOS on it

> If Mac users come to the conclusion that their old G4 hardware will
> be difficult to sell on the Mac market due to lack of demand from
> Mac users [...], then this could possibly have impact on the
> "supply" side...

Neither would these people have the ability to see if the buyers are MacOS or MorphOS users, nor would they care.

Wow, what a great forum! I am a member of many different forums for everything from MX and streetbike riding to several different computer related forums and I have to say this is the warmest welcome I believe I have ever received. Very cool! And just for the record, I will be sure to post any pics of this little project.. Assuming I have any luck with it! Thx folks...

Wow, this was a sensitive subject.

Well, to those who never noticed, there has been a second paradigm shift in the modern mac evolution; the first one was the shift from the 68k world to PPC, and then it was PPC that was left behind in favor of x86. OK, some time after the 68k to PPC shift, the second hand market for 68k macs kind of died. Is anyone really denying this? Is anyone seriously considering the 68k mac market to be booming today? No? Why?

Well, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the x86 shift *won't affect* the second hand mac market. Maybe the G4 macs will forever be the preferred option to second hand mac buyers instead of the ever growing amounts of second hand *dual core x86* macs. *Maybe* the mac users will *never* come to a point where PPC hardware is considered obsolete, despite the OS evolution as well as applications evolution, media coverage, *everything* is x86 only, and all future generations of macs (that later will come to the second hand market) will always be better, faster and more modern than the PPC macs, heck, even better in every single way than the previous generations (in plural) of *x86* macs, that are all competing in the same, limited second hand market (that can only be that big)? Well, I guess we will see...

Never did I say that G4/e600 chips are useless, especially not in a MorphOS context. I know perfectly well that they aren't. What I said was that PPC Macs are bound to be considered obsolete by second hand mac buyers that *will* compare them to the ever growing supply of x86 macs. They will be pushed out from the market at some point. And I think that it can happen really fast when it does happen...

And BTW, thanks for the cute "my C64 isn't obsolete" comments. Really cheered me up!

And BTW 2, 99.9999% of all C64:s ever made are *not* on e-bay, but either scrapped or stuffed away in attics, garages, etc...

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Yeah, I forgot to say welcome, didn't I?

Looking forward to your pictures!

Quote:
How did you know I was stashing away my C64? Actual my 64 is in a storage closet under my stairs and not in the attic or garage.

The 64 is dead, long live the 64.

@takemehomegrandma

Sure, what you say is going to happen in the end, it's logical. However as long as there is the "i'll just stick all my old junk on ebay" mentallity there will be a chance to get a G4 Mac. Hopefully by the time (or a lot sooner) that G4 hardware becomes hard to source MorphOS will have found new hardware to run on. If I win the euromillions to finance my netbook idea it could be a lot sooner than everyone thinks

OK I am quite frustrated with this thing now.. Received the Video card and installed it with no issues and tried using a thumbdrive to load the Efika install and of course it failed. (Read so much about this from others that I figured it would fail.) So I tried using a CF card to load the install from and it worked! I was able to get into the installation screens and after a lot of fiddling (DHCP did not provide correct IP info) I was able to start the download. This took so long that the crippleware built into the unregistered version of software popped up and interrupted the download at around 40% stopping all progress. Had to shutdown and start the entire process again only to have it interrupt again at about the same point.. Now I try to load from the CF card and it hangs at Quark/Open Firmware and refuses to continue. This has happened repeatedly more than 5 times...

WTF? I have spent several hours and have thus far accomplished nothing...