Epyx Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 Okay I have an Atari 520 STFM lined up for purchase ($40 for the 520stfm, sc1224 monitor plus mouse and games). I have a couple of quick questions and hope between you experts some can get answered as my searches on the net have turned up not much... Memory and the 520STFM Being a commodore/pc guy how can I tell how much ram this 520STFM has in it from the desktop? I am hoping it has at least 1mb for compatibility with most games... Memory Upgrading If it doesn't have 1mb how was memory on the 520STFM upgraded. Was this one of the models that took 30pin simms or do I need to do soddering work? Games and 512k Last question...did most ST games cater to 512k or were games after a certain year all 1mb games? Thanks in advance everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarianer2003 Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 Hi, the 520 STFM has seriously 512 KB RAM - an upgrade is not easy. The SIMMs were first used in the STE models, so you have to do soddering work. To upgrade the STFM, you need 16x 256Kbit-Chips (= 32 KB each). But how to do the upgrade? I don't know Greetings Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epyx Posted October 27, 2003 Author Share Posted October 27, 2003 Thanks...how about checking the amount of RAM from TOS? How can this be done? I want to be able to see how much ram it has before buying. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 Thanks...how about checking the amount of RAM from TOS? How can this be done? I want to be able to see how much ram it has before buying. Thanks again. IIRC, TOS has no way to show how much memory you have. What you may want to do is get a Ramdrive program. This should give you an idea of how much memory you have on the machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epyx Posted October 27, 2003 Author Share Posted October 27, 2003 Thanks Inky and atarianer2003 much appreciated. Strange that you can't see from TOS how much Ram is free but we are talking about 80s OS's hehe. As for soddering that sucks...anyone know of schematics for accomplishing this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mendon Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 Check with Best Electronic's. There used to be a RAM board called EZ Ram (I and others referred to it as Sleezy RAM) that made upgrading the RAM somewhat doable; Best still might have them or an alternative. I used an EZ RAM and got by with it until I bought a 1040ST. The hardest part with EZ RAM is postioning the RAM board as it doesn't fit the best and the board tended to rock some as you typed or moved the machine. And Inky is right in that TOS doesn't tell you how much RAM is available. You need a RAM disk or one of the many other desktop programs that have available memory as a feature. For $40 I think you got a pretty good deal. Hopefully the drive in the machine is a double and not single density. Mendon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 Whilst we're on the topic of memory, where can I get some for my STE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the-daryl Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 Inky, there is someone on Ebay selling STE memory for like 12.50$ each... not sure if that's a good price tho... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...gory=29552&rd=1 (And btw it's not my auction I'm plugging or anything just trying to be helpful) I just picked up a 1040 stf myself. Partly for nostaglia and partly to do some MIDI work on... I think I got a good deal on monitor, cpu, and homebuilt HD (with an ICD controller that would actually allow me to add a second device to)... But I am still learning some things about it and relearning others... And from looking around on the web, soldering aside, it seems like it would be cheaper just to try and find a used STE w/ 4 meg than to buy the memory which just seems crazy hehe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarian1 Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 To find out how much RAM in in your ST, I use a program called SYSINFO. It's free and small (can fit on a floppy). Try googling "SYSINFO" and it should pop up somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 STE uses old generic SIMM's, same used in older Mac's and other older vintage PC's, nothing unique about it. Don't go nuts paying $$$ for that kind of ram. Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jens Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 It's thirty-pin simms that you need. 60-70ns. With a lot af soldering you can even get those into an stf(m). It's about 60 or so soldering points... How to make it is written in Chips'n'chips (google for chips_fr.zip). Unfortunately this document is in german I think. If someone wants an english version of this please drop me a mail and I'll try to translate it. If I'd not be able to do this in a proper way I'd give it. But perhaps it's not needed anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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