exxos 16Mhz accelerator / 520ST install

[+remowilliams]

So I've picked up one of exxos' 16Mhz accelerators and installed it into my 520ST.

 

The price of this accelerator is really reasonable and the install was quite easy with the largest part being unsoldering the 68K from the motherboard and installing a socket in its place.  I also had to solder the new 68K to the accelerator board itself.  You could socket that too, but it'd be tall enough to preclude reinstalling the shielding.  It just fits in there now with the bonus of enough room for a bit of thermal tape so the new 68K can use the shield as a heatsink.  Shipping was quite fast from exxos to the US.

 

This accelerator makes the machine much snappier in general operation and lends a great speed boost to games that can make use of the extra speed (many of which happen to be among my favorites 🙂 )  I'm really pleased with it and haven't found a need as of yet to switch it back to standard 8Mhz speed...  

 

Although my MegaSTE is still the technical king of the Atari hill, I'm fairly certain this little guy is now going to be the regular use machine with the addition of this accelerator to the existing upgrades.  It's an unbeatable compact package.

 

[+DarkLord]

Awesome - thanks for the report. I've always liked Chris Swinson's work.

 

I feel the same way about performance with my AdSpeed equipped

Mega ST. It's the kind of thing where once you are used to it, you

go "Huh!?" when it's turned off.

 

Combine it with NVDI and it becomes "Things that make you go Zoom!".

 

 

 

[Sporny Kun]

Interesting, thanks for the feedback.

[tjlazer]

I've always wanted to get one of these, might have to pick one up sometime.  Does this fit the Mega ST too?

[+remowilliams]

On 6/25/2023 at 9:27 PM, DarkLord said:

I feel the same way about performance with my AdSpeed equipped Mega ST. It's the kind of thing where once you are used to it, you go "Huh!?" when it's turned off.

 

That is definitely the case here, I've already become a bit spoiled with the additional speed even at the desktop.

 

And having a boost to sim/polygon type games similar to it's big MSTE brother is really nice : )

 

16 hours ago, tjlazer said:

I've always wanted to get one of these, might have to pick one up sometime.  Does this fit the Mega ST too?

 

According to the listing it is STM/STF/H4/H5 motherboards only.

[snarkdluG]

There is plenty of room in a MegaST so it should work fine. However, there is a a blitter fix board soldered on the 68K processor in a MegaST. In many cases it can be desoldered (and a small bodge wire underneath the board). 

 

It's probably just untested on a MegaST since Exxos consider them to be very unreliable motherboard. He had most problem with them. So I don't think he have one of those. Me on the other hand, like them a lot. I have run a DSTB1 16Mhz booster in mine. Worked fine. 

 

EDIT: You could, of course, ask him if it will work in a MegaST.

Edited June 27, 2023 by snarkdluG

[swatcop]

@tjlazer Chris (Swinson) has quite a bit of information about his accelerator/s and the issues he has encountered with Mega ST's due to their noisy and unreliable bus.  Even with the "mandatory upgrades" you aren't assured they will work.  I was going to get one for my Mega but in my researching it decided to go for an AdSpeed... but the search for those is a saga in and of itself.

 

If you're confident with desoldering and soldering, the EXXOS accelerator is probably worth a shot.  Worst case scenario, you have a socketed CPU if you can't get it running and it can be used as a decoder for TOS 2.06

 

@remowilliams That is the perfect little computer and thanks for posting regarding the EXXOS accelerator!  Wonder if you could shoehorn a Gotek and UltraSatan in there?

[+remowilliams]

3 hours ago, swatcop said:

@remowilliams That is the perfect little computer and thanks for posting regarding the EXXOS accelerator!  Wonder if you could shoehorn a Gotek and UltraSatan in there?

 

I've got those covered so I don't need them inside : )

 

Here's a shot with an iPad Retina screen monitor, which isn't that much smaller than the original Atari one.  😄

 

What the camera doesn't show is this screen is so sharp and so dark/high contrast that it really does resemble what the Atari monitor looks like.

 

[Tillek]

1 hour ago, remowilliams said:

 

I've got those covered so I don't need them inside : )

 

Here's a shot with an iPad Retina screen monitor, which isn't that much smaller than the original Atari one.  😄

 

What the camera doesn't show is this screen is so sharp and so dark/high contrast that it really does resemble what the Atari monitor looks like.

 

Out of curiosity, how are you connecting the monitor?

 

[+remowilliams]

16 hours ago, Tillek said:

Out of curiosity, how are you connecting the monitor?

 

It is connected via HDMI from the RGBtoHDMI that this unit has.