Inside my Amiga 500 I have installed a HC533 turbo card and DOM (Disk on Module). Initially I had used a Cloanto AmigaForever branded compact flash card preinstalled with Workbench 3.1, however I found it became corrupted with errors after swapping back and forth multiple times between the Amiga and a PC to copy files over in WinUAE.
The HC533 fits neatly in the A500 without any riser or relocator needed, although I did need to gently push down a couple of protruding capacitors slightly to ensure no contact with the board. The board sits just clear of the ROM so if you want to use any kind of kickstart switcher you will need a CPU riser or relocator. Before installing the HC533 I removed the original Kickstart ROM and replaced it with a Cloanto AmigaForever 3.X ROM (more on that in a future post).
Installing the turbo board is really just 'plug and play' with the Amiga seeing the extra RAM immediately, there was no software to configure or drivers required. The only configuration that is needed relates to the IDE interface, more on this later. I decided to use a 4GB Hyperdisk IDE DOM in the end rather than compact flash, it just seems a tidier solution. After watching 10MARC's video where he compares these to compact flash I was sold. He found an IDE DOM had faster read times. Once everything is set up in the faster reading will be more beneficial when loading games, MODs, etc. In the long run there will be much more reading of the disk than writing.
There is a configuration jumper on the HC533 for switching between two modes for the IDE, one is for booting a HDD with the Kickstart 1.3 ROM while the other is for later ROMs where the necessary scsi.device for booting from HDD is already included on the Kickstart ROM. I had already updated from the original Kickstart 1.3 so this is not needed here but I think it is a nice option to have if you want a Workbench 1.3 hard disk install.
SysInfo reports the card runs 2.4 times faster than a stock Amiga 1200. This is achieved by the addition of Fast RAM and a 68000 running at 33MHz compared to the stock A1200's 14MHz 68020 with no fast RAM. The extra speed and memory helps with WHDLoad as often the images of games disks are decompressed into RAM when the game loads. Also the speed helps speed up day to day tasks on Workbench, such as copying files, unarchivign, loading MODs, etc. Some games, such as Frontier, will also run at a higher frame rate.
Having had the HC533 a for a number of years now I have run in to some limitations of the 68000, there is a certain amount of software out there that demands at least an 68020 and is written with that CPU in mind, also for some WHDLoad games the quit key does not work. Another example is Picasso96, an RTG system for graphics cards that can be used on Amigas without video cards with a native driver to save precious chip RAM. This said being 68000 based the HC533 enjoys good compatibility with games and older software.
In conclusion the HC533 offers a great balance between power and compatibility for running earlier Amiga software and looks to be a superb solution for those wanting a turbo charged Workbench 1.3 experience without having lots of add-ons hanging off the side of the A500.
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