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General discussion - Newbie question: choosing an msx computer.

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Newbie question: choosing an msx computer.

Leo
msx freak
Posts: 213
Posted: March 25 2008, 08:14   
Right contact sunrise directly , they have ordering forms from their site
it may just take a couple of week before they actually send the cartridge,
apart from that no problems , the CF interface is about 40 to 50 euros , i dont remember well.

Personally , I ordered gfx9000 ,moonsound with 128kb, cf interf, and ata ide +rs232 combo : I really like moonsound , never manage to output something from gfx9000, used a lot the ata-ide before migrating to Cf interface, and I am planning only now to start using rs232.
Ideally I would have bought : moonsound with 512kb and Cf interface with rs232 ( does it come in combo also ? )

ro
msx guru
Posts: 2315
Posted: March 26 2008, 19:41   
nothing beats a good panasonic FS-A1ST. Dunnol, the GT I never liked that much...
The 8245 are solid MSX computers in my experience. And, indeed, more portable.

Oh well
[D-Tail]
online

msx guru
Posts: 2994
Posted: March 26 2008, 20:19   
Leo: what you can do, is -as you have an IDE+RS232C- get yourself a CF adapter. That's a little device that should get its power from a PSU (I reckon a joystick port would be fine too, assuming that its power wouldn't cause the PSG to blow) and a 40 pin IDE ribbon cable will feed it. The only problem is, it's not an all-in-one device

About Moonsound and GFX9000, even though I am the proud owner of the latter, I'm kind of curious to this VSU device.
Leo
msx freak
Posts: 213
Posted: March 26 2008, 20:39   
yes i was thinking about getting such adapter , but i dont like the power cord ... the CF design much more compact.
I have my msx computer stored , and i want just to pick one of them and get it ready to use , dont want to setup cables...
I read that VSU stuff , I wonder if it is real chips or fpga design.
dhau
msx master
Posts: 1047
Posted: March 28 2008, 16:26   
It is very easy to upgrade any Panasonic or Sanyo MSX2+ computer to 512KB by using 4 x 44256 dram chips from old ISA SVGA cards.
msxrestarter
msx freak
Posts: 179
Posted: March 29 2008, 21:53   
Maybe a bit offtopic but I have a WX I would like to upgrade to 512kb.
I found an old vga card with 8 chips in sockets on it, but don't know if they are suited to perform the upgrade.
They have the following text on them : HIGH PERFORMANCE, LOW POWER 256K X 4 BIT FAST PAGE MODE CMOS DYNAMIC RAM.
Does anybody know these are usable to expand an panasonic WX ?
Sonic_aka_T

msx guru
Posts: 2261
Posted: March 30 2008, 13:41   
No number/ID on the chips? (It sounds like they're the right type)
Leo
msx freak
Posts: 213
Posted: March 30 2008, 17:07   
should be 44256, what is the pin count by the way ?
msxrestarter
msx freak
Posts: 179
Posted: March 30 2008, 20:03   
Actually, I don't have the vga card yet. I found it for sale on the net and contacted the seller for more info on the chips. Apparently this is the only text written on them. I"ll ask for some pics to see for myself.
I'll let you know. To be continued


P.S. By the way, would these chips also fit into a sony HB-G900AP ? I've got my hands on this very nice MSX2 which already standard has 512kb but should be very easily upgraded to 1024kb.
dhau
msx master
Posts: 1047
Posted: March 31 2008, 16:32   
As long as it's DIP-20 chips with latency under 150ns, you're fine. 44256 is just a type of memory chip, the actual marking could be comething like TMS514256-12 (the key part here is 4256 = "256Kwords, 4 bit each" and -12 = 120ns).

-20 (200ns) chips may be too slow even for MSX. -60, -70, -80, -10 are all very good (60, 70, 80 and 100ns).

If you're more ambitious, you can use a DRAM chip from any SIMM module, and just ground all extra adress lines.
msxrestarter
msx freak
Posts: 179
Posted: March 31 2008, 18:23   
I found another vga board which has 8 the same chips on it with the following code : V53C104FP70
According to the datasheet I found of these chips, there also 256k, 4 bits,20pins.
Any chance these are suitable
msxrestarter
msx freak
Posts: 179
Posted: March 31 2008, 19:50   
Just opened the HB-G900AP.
There're 4 chips TC514256P-12 (20pins) and 4 empty 20pins sockets.
So I guess it's 'just' finding the same chips, plug them in the right way and the 1024kb should be available, wright
But were do I get the same chips, or don't they have to be exactly the same ? I've found allready 2 vga cards with V53C104FP70 chips on it but no luck so far finding 44256 or 514256
 
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