Author: Dark Willow (host81-156-22-92.range81-156.btcentralplus.com)
Date: 12-17-2004 18:27
I have a kind of half hearted "ultimate STe" project with my system at hte moment actually, though been distracted by my TT of late. Here's some of the things I've come accross you can consider, butg it's not a paticularly cheap option. if you want power, your probbaly starting off with a later machine like TT or Falcon, but as an end in itsaelf it can be quite interesting.
* Currently in development by ST Labds (http://stlabds.free.fr) is an all-in-one IDE host adapter, TOS 2.06 upgrade and 14mb RAM expansion. It aims eventually to be a CPU accelrator too, eventual aimis to get a 68000 @ 32Mhz. No prices yet and not finished. The firstversion is for hte Mega STe but an STe one should be available soon also. It also has aparently a compact flash adapter as well, silent hard drive possibilites???
This is the only device around at the moment (or soon will be, we hope!) that will take a stock STe to 14mb.
* Panther. Fits over the CPU and gives an ISA slot expansion that can take an ET4000 graphics card (yes, THAT one...), giving 16-bit colour (640x480)and upto 1024x768 resolutions on a standard SVGA monitor. If you look out you should find some are still kicking around. Needs power, draws from a 3.5" device connector. As such if your going to get this, seriously think about recasing your system.
* PAK 030. The ultimate CPU upgrade bascially makes your STe into a TT. Gives a 68030 processor at around 40Mhz, I think 50Mhz version may have been made??? Either way, very quick, also gives a TOS 3.06 upgrade and lots of memory. Quite a few were made but I doubt many people will want to part with them. It can work alongside the Panther quite happily, at least theoretically! Expect to be parted with large sums of money.
* Ethernec board. Nothing fancy, plugs in to the cartridge slot and gives you an ethernet card...very useful and not expensive!
* There is also a hardware upgrade for the serial port allowing it to support speeds beyond 19,200.
* The Eiffel card allows you to use an external PS2 keyboard and mouse, it's useful if you want to recase the system, which if you get a lot of upgrades begins to make a lot of sence. Plug n Play.
* AdSpeed 16 and T28 are both CPU accelerators, giving 16mhz and 28mhz respectivly. A lot cheaper and in the case of the AdSpeed a lot easier to find - and in both cases a lot cheaper - than the PAK 030. Not as impressive but unless you wan tot go nuclear are a good option.
* 1.44mb Floppy. A couple of options for this. Before you rush off to buy them check the FD controller chip. Some STe's were fitted with the 16Mhz version that oculd support 1.44mb drives even though they were fitted with DS/DD drives. If so its just a cas eof getting a software patch for TOS and putting in a 1.44m drive and setting hte jumpers on it. If not and you have the 8Mhz chip there are several boards you can get that upgrade the FD controller allowing you to add 1.44mb disks. It's a fairly cehap upgrade and worth doing.
* Host Adapters. Allow you to use standard SCSI or IDE devices. The ST labds board does this but can be overkill. Simple board like AdSCSI just allow you to use SCSI devices, hard drives, CD-ROM, CD-RW's etc. Simple but worthwhile upgrade. The ICD Link97 device give suppor tot external SCSI devices, rare and hard to get but worth it if you don't want to recase.
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