Amiga next-gen build: sam440ep

Amiga is a name of a computer and Operating System of the 80’s and early 90’s before a slow self-destruction in various ways, however it never really ever died. This build use a much more recent custom ITX board and some nice cooling and case solutions to make things interesting.

There still is to this day (as late as 2024) custom hardware (IBM PowerPC) made to run an updated OS, completely different from platforms supporting the usual Windows MacOS or Linux (all based in x86). An OS able to run things like versions of Firefox and a Chrome core for the webb, view YouTube if your willing to jump a few hoops.. etc. and use semi-modern hardware like up to AMD Radeon RX590 GPUs from 2018. If you really want to you may run some early 2000’s games never ever conceived to be possible on this platform (like doom 3 and quake 3), mostly, however it’s about running other utilities and living with something you grew up with in the 80’s and 90’s. For what may be termed a hobby-OS, there really is nothing else like it, custom hardware (when being generous), like what made the original Amiga famous, and a unique software platform (though the AmigaOS inspired other OS’es like MorphOS also possible to run on some modern Amiga machines ). This in a day when there really is only two common bases of operating systems, Windows and Unix, as Linux and for a couple of decades MacOS is both based on a *NIX core.

Back when I built the first iteration of this machine, a dvd-reader where really necessary, and although the main board did not actually needed heavy cooling I opted for a case where the sides are actually big heatsinks, allowing for a completely silent operation. Although the cpu, chipset and ram where well cooled I used some heatpipe fasteners from another case and attached them to the side heatsinks. I also wanted to expand the potency of its graphics, a Radeon HD driver had been developed and one card existed that could run on the built in PCI-slot without a PCIe-bridge, the radeon  x1550. Hooking it up was a different matter though, lacking usable tools at the time I hand-bent heatpipes into position from an old recycled GPU cooler. Not all survived, but those who did actually made a good job of transferring the heat over.

Although risking hardware on this cooling where not an option, given the rarity of the main board, so  I planned to include a failsafe. A fan that would stay passive up until a certain temperature where measured and then kick in, the mcubed fanamp, heatsinked instea on the sides and a heat probe hooked to the gpu, as the main heat generator. Here I also had, first, a good quality slim 60/70mm ADDA fan from a PSU that could be used and would just fit under the SSD and DVD. Cutting and splicing some cables together for power, I also updated some connectors from beige to black, and in the end changed to an even more silent fan. 

This system was however left sitting for a number of years due to instability issues. Not uncommon as it was affected by the so called ‘capacitor plague’. A lot of capacitors, necessary in electronics, tended to die prematurely when produced between 1999 and 2007 due to a stolen but incomplete formula from a Japanese company. A fix was to change the caps, much like I rescued an old monitor (link) but the fix was insufficient due to the tools and the very heavy duty power board.

In this, the re-build I simply changed to a, more than capable, tiny dc to dc converter also clearing up some space in the chassis, for a third hard drive for backup and mass storage.

In general there where a number of additions, I included a rare, and well working USB to ps/2 adapter so it could be easily hooked up to my kvm (very few works well with PS/2 mouse pass-through for the kvm), as well as an early and rare ssd that used heavy ‘garbage collection’, nor necessitating the ‘trim’ function that is needed to be added in the OS. SSD’s would otherwise slowly bog down and become unusable, a problem plaguing early ssds. for storage I also like the eSATApd plug, which is one plug that supplies, 5V 12V USB and eSATA in a single connector really efficient and installed in many of my computers for ease of access with external harddrives running the speed of SATA.

Almost completed there really is a limit to space but things like an added harddrive instead of the old DC to DC board, and automated heat protection with a 0db fan mode is another kind of win.

Happily in the end its well functioning and the CPU could also be overclocked somewhat, useful and a little payoff of the cooling, perhaps. Generally though it’s just a return on solving problems that didn’t exist but ending up with a unique creation. A very nice little piece that can be tucked away in a drawer, or under a main PC.