Finding more Amigans

@ChrisH--Thanks! That is a wealth of good information, and it may make it worth my while to go the extra and get one of the SAM460ex systems with the 1 or 1.15Ghz.

@Mikey_C--Agreed. I would pounce on the Netbook as soon as it is available. I just hope it will see light of day.

@ CommodreaRock

Welcome aboard

@CommodoreRock
While I don't have a Sam460 or AmigaOne 500 (same motherboard), I believe they have a lot more CPU oomph (faster than GHz would lead you to believe, because it has an L2 cache while the Sam440 does not), and *should* (he says without owning one!) certainly be fast enough for pretty much everything. (I mainly went for the X1000 to be "future proof", and to avoid uncertainty about whether or not it would handle the more demanding videos, among other reasons.)

Those machines do have one (well two) downside though: They have limited expansion options; one PCI-e x16 (usually for a Radeon HD 4650 card), one PCI-e x1 (or a single SATA port that cannot be used at the same time), and one standard PCI. Typically the PCI slot is used for a SATA card, so that you have enough SATA ports for both a HD *and* a CD/DVD drive.

That limited expansion wouldn't be a problem, except that 3D is not yet supported by Radeon HD cards (it is expected with AmigaOS4.2). So if you are a gamer (or want to use Blender), you might want to install a Radeon 92x0 card (which DOES support 3D)... but that means you can't have a SATA card in the PCI slot, so you can't have the CD/DVD drive connected! (Getting hold of a Radeon 92x0 card may mean going on E-Bay.) Also, I haven't kept track of the Sam460, so I'm not sure if there are still some drivers issues with it's built-in SATA & sound.

SUMMARY: If you don't mind waiting for 3D, then they should be pretty good. But if you do want 3D right now, then it may require some compromises. I guess AmigaKit should be able to answer your questions & suggest the best system configuration.

@CommodoreRock

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It's never too late

Maybe you can find an Amigan in your area where you could see OS4 running (your profile is empty so we don't know where in the world you are).
A Flex 733 is a good machine to start with. The current ACube offer is pretty interesting. Of course a Sam460/AmigaOne 500 would bring more power. Difficult to say which one is the best for your need.

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He seemed very keen on using Timberwolf, which probably rules out the Sam440 (Flex or not). I don't know how well Timberwolf runs on a Sam460, but in principle it shouldn't be too much slower than the X1000 (and of course Timberwolf has not been optimised *at all* yet).

@ChrisH

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Timberwolf is just about usable on SAM460 but nowhere as fast as MUIOWB hence that is my default browser, but when the speed is optimised it will be very good indeed.