Amiga 3000 Tower: The Most Expensive Amiga in History

[@Phar2Rekliss]

My Dad had both a 3000T and a 4000T. He got brand new back in 91 and 94. My dad was so into Amigas he got to meet The creator Jay Miner and has a pixture with him.

[@mahocias]

The Amiga/Commodore story is a sad story. But as well the SGI story is. The once great company faded. I have 2 SGI machines, an Indy and an Indigo2. The Amiga was the SGI for the poor people. But nowadays an Amiga is more expensive than a SGI.

[@warci]

what a massive board! Thanks for describing and showing it in detail

[@ForgottenComputer]

Thank you for watching!

[@32Bits]

Great video! The A3000T is a stunning machine.

[@DanteJayJay]

What a treasure is the work you have accomplished with this video. Thank you!

[@ForgottenComputer]

Thank you for watching!

[@3DQuan]

Absolutely fantastic video. thank you for your dedication to the preservation of computer history.

[@ForgottenComputer]

Thank you for stopping by and watching :)

[@lawrencemanning]

Small fact about the A3000T: my brother worked at Sales Curve Interactive (SCi) on the abomination that was the game based on the Lawnmower Man film. That game, of the CDROM FMV genre that was popular for a couple of years, was mastered on an A3000T equipped with a single speed SCSI CD burner. I dread to think how much that setup cost back in 1992.

[@ForgottenComputer]

Very interesting! I had to look that game up.... oh wow. But it looks like it is a PC game, so pretty cool is even the fact that they made a PC game on an Amiga. And yes, a CD burner back then must have cost astronomical money.

[@lawrencemanning]

@@ForgottenComputer it was used for running off CD-ROMs for testing I think, and the final master. I dread to think how much the blanks cost then. My brother did some of the 3D stuff, all on PCs unfortunately.

[@lingred975]

hey old friend, it's been a while! Amiga Rulez!

[@ScoopexUs]

I'm pretty much a wedge computer 4 life kind of guy. :) But I think it's nice that they made official tower versions of A3/4000. Some towerized their A1200s, but it wasn't quite the same, and always a bit awkward.

[@ForgottenComputer]

I love the wedges too, and agree that towerized 1200 don't have the appeal. I am, however, working on a beefed up 1200 setup with no case and all kinds of extensions which I called the "Amiga Sandwich". I'm not planning to towarize it though, keeping it horizontal :D Thanks for visiting and commenting!

[@kyle8952]

@@ForgottenComputer Keeping it horizontal is a good idea. I had a 1200 tower and often I had to push all the boards together to make it boot. It was so often that I left the case open all the time. I think these days it'd be possible to build a reliable tower because everything can just be in the one card like Vampire or that Pi accelerator (don't remember name). But with BPPC and FastATA and everything it was a nightmare.

[@jasm817]

Excellent documentary and well done restoration. Looking forward to seeing future videos. 😎👍

[@ForgottenComputer]

Thank you so much for watching :)

[@boltingskyline5234]

Your knowledge with the Amiga legend and computers in general is impressive. Keep up the great content 😎✌

[@ForgottenComputer]

Thank you for visiting and for the kind words!

[@boydpukalo8980]

Fascinating detailed video of the T board.

[@thomaslubker6994]

Amazing Videos, just bought an A4000D and this was already breaking the bank. This must have cost a fortune! Super glad you did this in depth videos and additional kudos for mentioning IMP3 at the end of the Video!

[@ForgottenComputer]

Thank you Thomas for visiting and watching, and for the kind words. Congrats on your A4000D -- I love these machines! As for the IMP3 -- a video fully dedicated to IMP3 is coming very shortly, stay tuned :)

[@7828191]

Very nice. Do you have any idea who made the tower for Commodore??, perhaps Enlight?, this case use those same 5.25" attacement plates for example as well as some Enlight cases, which are quality ones from the start. One Enlight ATX case i have from the late 90's have them as well.

[@Momentvm]

A fantastic, very informative video of the computer of my childhood dreams :). Thank you!

[@ForgottenComputer]

Dzięki za odwiedziny!

[@ChrisEdwardsRestoration]

Great job. Thumbs up from me. And yes 8000 roughly were produced. How many sold. We don’t have those figures anymore

[@ForgottenComputer]

Thank you for visiting, as a big fan I really appreciate!!

[@davidwright9166]

An Amiga 4000 also? Somebody went and broke a few piggy banks.

[@tekk9995]

So nice to see such passion and commitment on this machine. Well done! AMiGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA :D

[@bartek.szuster]

Fascynująca (i dokładna) podróż w nieznane dla mnie terytorium. Swoją drogą dział marketingu Commodore nigdy chyba nie był najmocniejszą stroną tej korporacji. Dzięki za świetny materiał.

[@ForgottenComputer]

Dziękuję za odwiedziny i oglądanie!

[@timlocke3159]

I bought an Amiga 3000T in 1991 and ran my BBS on it. It was FidoNet node 1:255/42 and called The Heart of Gold. Around 1996 I sold it to someone in Quebec via USENET. Not only did it give more expansion slots as the video says, but also more hard drive bays. I had most of the slots and bays filled as I had an A2386, some ISA cards, A Zorro 56K serial card, and many drives in it. An A2000 or A3000 wouldn't have been sufficient.

[@agenda697]

Fantastic & fascinating video, Grüße aus schottland - UK 👍

[@ForgottenComputer]

Thank you for watching :)

[@lemagreengreen]

High end Amigas are fascinating, I never saw one in the wild when they were contemporary... they were just things that magazines sometimes mentioned, insanely out of reach mystery machines. Just look at it! in those days they had the decency to make expensive computers look expensive, you got a whole lot of steel for your money too!

[@ForgottenComputer]

Yeah, for me even the small all-in-one amigas were out of reach back in their time... :D But yes, I agree the build was very solid. I forgot to mention the weight in the video, but let me tell you: after assembling and with just 2 expansion boards it is VERY difficult to lift.

[@undergroundbass946fm]

A thoroughly enjoyable video, thank you. I overcooked my dinner as I was so engrossed 🤣

[@ForgottenComputer]

Thank you for visiting! Also, careful with your dinners :)

[@1337Shockwav3]

"Best" part is the placement of the battery. My friend had an A3000T with extensive damage from a leaking battery since the acid would run down the board due to gravity ending up as far down as the chip RAM sockets.

[@ForgottenComputer]

Agreed. In mine the damage was not so extensive (as shown in the video) but yes, it was progressing from top to the bottom. I'm happy I was able to stop it early enough.

[@boltingskyline5234]

28:20 Lolololol!!! Little mischievous monkey 🐵in the background 🤣🤣

[@ForgottenComputer]

Hahah, yeah, there's just no way to keep him away these days, he wants to do "hacky" stuff too.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

That machine was designed to run either AMIDOS or COMMODORES version of AT&T UNIX System V

[@ForgottenComputer]

Yes, you're correct and it is also mentioned in the video.

[@dyscotopia]

The size of that motherboard confirms that the Amiga 3kT was twice as powerful as the most powerful PCs :)

[@billymania11]

It would be nice for someone to bring the Amiga back using more modern board layouts with maybe a slightly higher level of integration regarding the specialized chips. It would still run the old software but could also run new stuff as well. So not an emulated machine but the real deal. I doubt that will ever happen though.

[@ForgottenComputer]

Well isn't the Apollo Vampire project close to this? There are also new A2000 and A4000 PCB designs.

[@a4000t]

there are ATX4000 board and a atx A2000 board out there you can build

[@jjdigitalvideosolutionsllc5343]

I love my A3000T. She's had some restoration work over the years and is still going strong. I might argue that while the A3000T might be the most expensive Commodore Amiga in history, the MacroSystem DraCo (Amiga clone) wins the "most expensive" non-Commodore vintage Amiga title. DraCo uses a licensed and modified A3000 ROM, it will run AmigaOS3/RTG friendly applications. There's no Amiga custom chipset clone or emulation, but RTG works well. You can even use many ZORRO-II cards. It shipped in Tower and Cube models, I have one of each. DraCo would set you back $15K USD. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zp-vknh5Zcmjp7c

[@MaPf818]

Related webside about A3000T: A3000T for sure is a 4-layer design (minimum), 8520s are specific designs for Amiga and got used in 1571/81, too and Paula could be called OCS while you call the board chips non-ECS but they are not related to OCS/ECS at all. ECS version of the chips are Agnus (2MB) and Denise (and Paula never changed).

[@stephenpalfy8226]

I had one for many years. Sold it to a collector in SF. The manual had compete schematics.

[@lingred975]

omfg, I got chills with the music! XDDD

[@jeffhyche9839]

I really love the amiga but I always thought this computer was a myth. I will admit that the thought of cleaning a power supply with a garden hose never occurred to me.

[@ForgottenComputer]

You need to take certain precautions when washing electronics this way, but it is safe and efficient otherwise.

[@mahocias]

I had the models A500, A600, A2000, A4000 and A4000T. Had friends were I was able to use the A1000 (1986 - could not belevie what I saw) and A1200 and A3000. On shows I saw the A500+ and the CDTV. I never saw a A3000T in real life. I think I saw a CD32 in a shop.

[@ferrellsl]

Actually the X5000 motherboard is the most expensive Amiga in history. A case, power supply, disk storage, keyboard, monitor and mouse have to be added separately so you'll be set back by around $5K USD in the end. That is of course if you can even consider the X5000 an Amiga at all since it wasn't produced by Commodore.

[@a4000t]

its not an amiga hence why its called x5000.

[@ferrellsl]

@@a4000t It runs AmigaOS4 so therefore it's an Amiga, just like the X1000, X5000, A1222, the CyberStorm, BlizzardPPC, and the AmigaOne XE.

[@ferrellsl]

@@Xarus1000 No, Amiga OS4 has no connection to Linux whatsoever. It is a direct port of OS3 to PPC hardware with some enhancements along the way such as 68K emulation. The port was done by Hyperion Entertainment out of Belgium.

[@Steampunk_Star_Raisin]

The Amiga 3000: Kinda like a 286 only more expensive and slightly worse...#amiga

[@valenrn8657]

A3000's ECS was 16-bit at 3.5 Mhz. LOL. The ECS was obsolete against PC's 1989 ET4000AX SVGA.

[@ahmetpehlivan7670]

The Stone Age looks of the Operating System's GUI (in comparison to Windows 3.0) must also have been a big no no back in the days. 🙂. Maple V Rel 3 is the best Computer Algebra System for Amiga which you can find on repository sites as ADF files. Installing and old Linux/m68k + X-Window-System +fvwm Manager from the 90s on one of the partitions and running GNUplot or StarOffice would be fun too. Cheerio .

[@dyscotopia]

Aesthetics are relative mind you, but I find Workbench 2.0 much more cohesive and pleasant than Windows 3.0. The latter always reminded me of those interfaces children's toy computers used, while the Amiga had style and class. It also was still better at multitasking. Now if you're referring to 1.3 and below, yes, those were ugly, but the 3000 never released with those

[@HoofDoctor]

@@dyscotopia For a long time Amiga had pre emptive multitasking in the OS long before Windows did. My 3000T has no serial number. It has a sticker that says Euro 4MB

[@xlibun]

Hey, i noticed that your intro has some fast flashing lights. Maybe you should consider editing those out since photosensitive people "don't really like those". Thanks.

[@ForgottenComputer]

You're right. I never thought of this. I'll try to avoid strobing effects in future videos.

[@ZYYXYZY]

Maybe photosensitive people should consider not watching videos on the internet, instead of manipulating people to cater to them.

[@marcindubiel8795]

Washing power supply with water, wow! unexpected 🙂

[@ForgottenComputer]

You need to dry it WELL after.

[@chaoticsystem2211]

@@ForgottenComputer yea and letting it cool down after disconnecting it from the mains... ^^

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

Is there something on the motherboard that people don't know about. or does it just say SPELLBOUND Version 4

[@andrewdunbar828]

Was it really more expensive than a 4000T?

[@ForgottenComputer]

Yes.

[@LasseHuhtala]

Once again something I should not have sold. Oh well.

[@SvenWal]

I own an Amiga 3000T UX. It worked perfectly until my basement got flooded a few centimeters - just enough to reach to the the lowest part of the mainboard. I am sure it can be restored but this is beyond my knowledge 😢

[@ForgottenComputer]

What a sad story :( It is almost definitely restorable. If you’re willing to part with it, we can discuss offline I could pay some reasonable price, arrange shipment and take a stab on restoring.

[@SvenWal]

@@ForgottenComputer I see you are in Poland? I am from Berlin so if you are not to far to the east I could jump on the car and we‘ll have a look at the old heart?

[@ForgottenComputer]

I'm Polish indeed@@SvenWal but I'm based in Ireland, so that's not a short trip...

[@Wizardess]

I can put fingers on two of these wonderful tools, my own and my partner's. Alas, they have been inactive long enough I fear for the integrity of their motherboards. {o.o}

[@ForgottenComputer]

Wow, two towers! If they haven't been opened for a while, do that now and first check for battery leaks.

[@Wizardess]

@@ForgottenComputer An A1000 overly tricked out, an A2000 similarly over tricked out, several A3000s, an A1200, a CDTV, a CD32, and some weird "stuff" that used to be A4000s. Don't have the heart to toss them or even sell them, especially the 1985 A1000 with all the nice signatures of people I knew back in the day. (If BIX means anything to you then you know who I am.) {^_-}

[@primus711]

I have 1 i saved from japan

[@ForgottenComputer]

That sounds like an interesting story in itself... how come from Japan? What's the serial number?

[@BrokenAtari]

how much effort to get firefox running on it?

[@ForgottenComputer]

Firefox not, but iBrowse yes :)

[@sebastienjunker6907]

Good evening, I see that the price of the Amiga 4000 t is a little expensive, 12,000 dollars they are going very hard on the prices, I understand that people have not bought.I remember the first IBM, 486 dx 33, 8 MB of ram disk of 170 MB, CD ROM 2x, price 3000 dollars, Amiga 4000 has almost the same power 4 times more expensive.

[@danielyttervoll1907]

Beuty

[@Krushernl]

The most expensive amiga was an amiga 3000 ux

[@ForgottenComputer]

UX was always sold as a bundle with Amiga's implementation of V. So the price was really for this specific hardware-software bundle rather than just the computer.

[@Krushernl]

@@ForgottenComputer I remember the A3000 UX, it was a bog standard A3000 with V sold with a custom badge and a tape. It was VERY expensive and slow. When the A1200 came out I tried an early 68k version of Linux and that ran way faster haha.

[@ForgottenComputer]

@@Krushernl I’m an avid Linux user but never used it on 68K architecture. Need to try once just for sports.

[@ForgottenComputer]

@@Krushernl I’m an avid Linux user but never used it on 68K architecture. Need to try once just for sports.

[@Krushernl]

@@ForgottenComputer If you need help, ask a way. But that is about the scope of your video.

[@kane587mad]

The music is way too loud over your voice.

[@ForgottenComputer]

OK thanks for letting me know. I'll be more careful with the soundtrack volume in future vids.

[@bigd5090]

It just oozes Commodore Amiga design features. It so should have featured in ealy 90s films like Jurassic Park instead of the those pathetic Quadras!

[@ksio81]

I love Amiga Videos with all this detail and knowledge. Very well! But, i had to stop at the half because, ehhh, i couldnt, ehhhh, listen to the, eeehhhhhs and uuuhhhs anymore. Its is not quiet comfortable. Sorry, but i wished ud speak more fluently. I was think about writing u this but i guess its just fair to let u know. You have such great knowledge. Pls try for the next time without these filliers

[@Thiesi]

But does it run Crysis?

[@joelcarson4602]

As the former owner of an Amiga 1000 and later, an A2000, I really hate to say it but, " It's dead, Jim."

[@ForgottenComputer]

Yeah, unfortunately :(

[@boltingskyline5234]

@@ForgottenComputer Save him! 😭

[@gawlikcreations6956]

How could you just Wash the PSU of ultra rare Amiga with a waterman??!! It will start corrode very soon...

[@ForgottenComputer]

No it will not