Expand your A4000 or A1200 to be a monster machine, capable of frightening small children and animals, with the Ramiga Z series. The Amiga 4000 is many things. The ultimate in the Amiga computer range, the most expandable Amiga, the fastest Amiga, rare as hen's teeth and the subject of many a strange and exciting teenage dream not involving members of the opposite sex. Even though when available it had a very high price tag and enjoyed flagship status, the A4000 also came in a lousy box. When it was first launched I heard a rumour the case was originally designed as a Commodore project to create the cheapest PC clone ever, and I can believe it. Little things, like the fact that the single 5.25" drive bay isn't actually deep enough to comfortably house a standard CD-ROM drive, come to light sooner rather than later. Rather sadly, the number of expansion slots -- one of the main reasons to buy an A4000 -- are limited to four. All in all, for the machine claimed to be the ultimate multimedia platform, there was some terrible cost cutting. There were signs that things were looking up. Before it all went horribly wrong for CBM, the mythical A4000 Tower was shown to a select few. This system addressed many of these faults (and added many exciting features), but of course you can hardly nip down to Dixons and pick up a half a dozen. Tower cases mean expansion: that's their job, and the Z7 is one big son of a bitch. It's about 64cm tall, with a metal casing and plastic front panel. A hinged door on the front opens up to allow access to the disk bays and switches, whilst a smoked plastic panel allows the all important speed display and power/turbo/drive access lights to be seen. Internally, things have changed a lot. The A4000 consists of two circuit boards meeting at right angles. The daughterboard (into which Zorro cards are slotted) connects to centre of the main motherboard, and sits upright allowing four cards to be fitted, sitting parallel to the motherboard. Obviously this limits the number of cards to the height of the case original case. The Z7 system includes a brand new daughterboard which replaces the original and now sits parallel to the motherboard. This arrangement covers the motherboard memory area, so make sure and SIMMs are in place before fitting the card. However, it also means a lot more slots are available. In contrast to the native A4000, the Z7 has a total of seven Zorro III slots. The the normal Amiga style, the slots have a double life: five of them have matching ISA PC slots and two are Amiga video slots (the original A4000 had three PC slots, and one video slot). This means I can fit my GG2 bridgeboard card, a PC ethernet card, a PC parallel/serial, a PC internal modem card and still have room for as many graphics and SCSI cards as I'm likely to afford. The number of drive bays has been increased by an order of magnitude, with six 5.25" bays and a 3.5" cradle which can carry three drives. Installation Set aside several hours for installing your Amiga. Armed with the best engagement present yet (an electric screwdriver) it took me most of a Saturday morning when I could have been watching cartoons to get everything sorted. A lot of this was down to the instructions referring to a slightly different case and the mysterious location of the supplied fan bolted which had been bolted into the wrong place. Rather than squeeze in all the wiring, I fitted the IDE drives in removable packs in the 5.25" bays, and mounted the SCSI 3.5" drive under the floppy in the 3.5" bay. The non-standard floppy drive size also left a gap in the front display, which I plugged with the smaller blanking panel from the original A4000 case. If you have two floppy drives you will have to house at least one in a 5.25" bay (probably both thanks to the Amiga cables). Anyone considering the Z7 would probably also be thinking about (or already have) a processor accelerator. Happily there is ample room in the case for a WarpEngine, although this is probably due more to luck than design as there is only just enough space between the Warp's SIMMs and the 3.5" drive bay. The CyberStorm 060 system also fits happily, but if you plan on adding a SCSI card to CyberStorm, you will have to remove the 3.5" bay totally and re-mount and drives in one of the 5.25" bays. Until a few years ago, in my naivety, I thought the LED displays on PC computers which display their processor speed were smart. I thought they somehow sensed the speed the PC worked at. Of course, I realise now how foolish I was and like most features of the PC is was all a bit of a bodge. Setting the processor speed is a matter of setting some jumpers to highlight the necessary segments in the LED display, that's all. There is nothing to stop you cranking it up to several hundred: it just won't make any difference to the speed of the computer, that's all. I hope to get my display to spell out my name sometime. The Turbo button doesn't do anything other than make the LED marker "Turbo" light up. Switching the computer on and off is a matter of fitting a high-tech plastic mechanical linkage arm from the switch to the re-positioned PSU. Rather sadly an improved rating power supply is not included in the price, so when you start to fill those bays and slots think about adding More Power (grunt). I would put it under the desk, but the leads to the keyboard and trackball don't stretch. I would extend them, but I couldn't be bothered, and anyway I don't really want to hide it away. I'm proud of it. When I come into the office in the morning, it still surprises me. It's big and it's mine, and I can hang my jacket up inside it. Sometimes I catch it out of the corner of my eye, and get a shock. It's a big bastard alright. It's good to see a good and beefy fan fitted, although it's location is not the best as it is at the opposite end of the system from the Zorro cards. However, inside the case was a lot cooler than my original system, so it seems to work well. Gripes and Pluses The documentation is poor, and concentrates on setting the LED speeds more than fitting the Amiga motherboard. For example, there is no mention of the anti-static precautions which are essential when dealing with something a valuable as an Amiga 4000 motherboard. The documentation I was supplied with also seemed to refer to a slightly different case, and overall some degree of flexibility of behalf of the person installing the system is required. The nationalistic use of the Welsh flag might also be considered unnecessary by some (not me, I like Wales). The Tower case itself seemed to be be of a fair to middling quality PC style case. I still have the scars on my fingertips from the rough interior finishes. On the plus side, pose factor is high. Some PC owners happened into the office and were awe-struck as an Imagine render was relaying on the system which no longer bore any resemblance to an Amiga. They were still puzzling as to the make of PC which I revealed what was inside, and I'm still not sure they believe me. There is no doubt the Z7 has been a genuinely useful purchase. The number of drives fitted to my system before the Z7 meant that I had to operator the Amiga with the case open and a CD-ROM drive resting on the PSU. Now everything is hidden away in a cool case (in both senses of the meaning), and there is still room for more kit in there: although a larger PSU might be necessary before I connect anything else. Amiga professionals with too many video boards will be delighted at the two video slots, as well as the ample space to park drives. Box out: A1200 options The Z5 system is very similar to the Z7, but is specially designed for the A1200, and rehouses it in a tower case slightly smaller than the Z7. Using a special board which connects to the trapdoor connection (including a passthrough) it provides five Zorro II slots (and four PC slots) which means at last A1200 owners can fit graphics, bridgeboard and networking cards to their Amiga. As a result, Zorro-based hardware has now been opened up to a lot more users, which can only be a very good thing indeed. With a fast 68030 card, the A1200 can be expanded into an extremely neat and quick piece of kit. Unfortunately the position of the A1200's PCMCIA slot means that there is no space to fit expansion cards, although an adaptor is now available that angles the slot through 90 degrees. With cards like the Squirrel proving extremely popular, there is no need to do without. Ramiga can also supply a cable to allow 3.5" IDE drives to be fitted to the A1200 motherboard, and so adding harddrives is now made even easier as well. The extra hardware included in the Z5 permits a standard PC keyboard to be used, with automatic remapping of the Amiga specific keys. Prices A1200 Z5 System (including 200W Power Supply) £429 Options: PC Keyboard for Z5 (£19.95) PCMCIA Adaptor for Z5 (use PCMCIA cards in Z5 case) £29.95 2.5" -> 3.5" Hard drive cable (use 3.5" drives in Z5) £15 A4000 Z7 System £429 Options: 200W PSU £64.95 Ramiga Z7 Tower case tel: 01690 770304 Ease of Use 70 Documentation needs updated. Beginners or the inept might need help. Performance 95 Lots and lots of lovely slots and drive bays. Looks well smart. Value for money 80 Expensive compared to stand-alone PC case, especially as no PSU included as standard. The strong german currency has recently forced the price up. Overall 87% Breathes new life into the ultimate Amiga. Make the make machine that Commodore promised for yourself.