Posted Tue Nov 20, 2018 8:16 pm
I have the ACA500+. It is a very nice, external solution. It offers the ability to boot off one CF card and transfer files onto that boot card from another card that is in FAT format. It makes it much more similar to using an a1200, in that regard. If the stock 68000 (which can be overclocked via the boot menu) isn't fast enough, you can add an 030 accelerator to the card. It has built in kickstarts, the ability to install the oS directly to the CF from a flash rom on the card, and, it you can add clockport expansions and a network via the XSURF-500 module. IT will come back in stock in the near future...keep your eye out, as I believe Jens @ icomp is getting ready to do another run after the new year. It's got a few bugs, but, overall it's a great piece of hardware.
I have the HC533, which is an internal solution, inside another A500. It is a solid card. Very well made, and, I have not had a stitch of problems running it. My only complaint with it is that there's no way to slow it down to 7 mHz, in case there is incompatibility with some games or such when using WHDLoad or floppies/adf files.
I have the Wicher 500i inside another 500. It's an utter piece of crap, IMO. I had to try 30 different SIMMS in order to find ONE that it liked....glad I never throw old hardware away. Also, it does not include the CPU (just as it doesn't include the RAM), so, the cost of buying one is even higher than the other cards. Yes, it has SPI ports for expansion, but, I have found its performance to be lackluster. I've had the HD get corrupted at least 5 times when using it, and had to restore from a backup. This product, IMO, has a long way to go.
There are a few other options in the pipeline, including an 040 and 060 accelerator for the 500, from a company in POLAND. It might be sometime next year, but, they have already demonstrated a working 040 card, that I also think has some added features like RTG included.