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One of my earliest gaming memories involves trading illegal goods, hunting down pirates, mining asteroids and generally gallivanting around the galaxy as the intrepid Commander Jameson in the Amiga version of Elite. Unfortunately, the Amiga was killed off soon afterwards -- or so we thought. It turns out that the Amiga brand, kind of like Cthulu, was just biding its time. Commodore USA just announced it's releasing a new small form factor PC sporting the Amiga name, but packing a much, much bigger punch than its predecessor.
With the exception of a slot-loading Blu-ray drive and the Amiga name etched across the front of the case, the Amiga mini looks a lot like the Mac mini, right down to its aluminum case and the lowercase "m" in mini. Spec-wise, the Amiga mini should've been called the Amiga maxi; the mini-ITX-based rig includes a quad-core 3.5GHz Intel i7-2700k proc, a 1TB HDD (or optional 300GB/600GB SSD drives), built-in Wi-Fi and a whopping 16GB of 1333MHz DDR3 RAM. It runs a custom Linux build called Commodore OS Vision.
There are a few major downsides to the Amiga mini, though. First of all, the system packs an aged GT 430 Nvidia GPU, a distinctly underwhelming choice, especially when paired with the overwhelming RAM and CPU. Why would you even pick up a PC with that much processing power if not to play video games or engage in some heavy duty video editing?
The price may be an even bigger hurdle, however. Commodore is selling the Amiga mini for a whopping $2,500, and you'll have to tack on another $500 or $1,000 if you want those 300GB or 600GB SSD drives, respectively. If that's a bit too rich for your blood, Commodore's also offering a bare-bones Amiga-branded box that contains nothing but the Blu-ray drive for "just" $350.
Also, old skoolers take note: Commodore USA isn't THE Commodore from back in the day, but another company that bought the rights to the Commodore and Amiga names.
Still interested? Then head on over to the Commodore USA website for more info. Be prepared to wait a while after forking over your cash, though -- the lead time on these bad boys is 4 to 6 weeks.
Thanks to TheVerge for pointing this out! Image credit: Commodore USA
Comments are closed on this article
nahshal
March 26, 2012 at 12:56am
All these bisected assed linux distros, abnormally those that acclimated to address with netbooks accord linux a bad name...
jogos do mario
muelle
March 25, 2012 at 7:27pm
a friend's sister-in-law makes $65 hourly on the laptop. She has been laid off for 6 months but last month her pay was $19426 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Go to this web site and read more NuttyRich . com
Biceps
March 26, 2012 at 10:58pm
I've got something to show your friend's sister-in-law you spamming son of a donkey. Send me her phone number.
Chewieshmoo
March 23, 2012 at 11:05am
Let's be clear, these are over priced PC hardware based machines with a LINUX OS with a "Amiga/Commodore" skinned theme. The cases have Commodore / Amiga LOGOS etched on them and that is it period. Anyone who thinks these have anything to ...do with real Amiga's or Commodore machines are kidding themselves. Before anyone who has never owned an real Amiga or C64 starts up for the record I like the LINUX based Commodore OS, I mean if I am going to use a LINUX distro why not one that is dressed up with Commodore skins/wallpaper and emulators. I just wish "Commodore USA" and the people who are buying into thise crap would be a little more upfront about what is really being sold here. I am all for nostalgia but I can buy the hardware cheaper, install "Commodore OS Vision and slap a AMIGA badge on it have the exact same thing for much less lol.
Ghok
March 23, 2012 at 5:29pm
I think anyone who drops down that kind of money without doing even the slightest bit of research (which would confirm exactly what you're saying as true) deserves what they get.... or is just some rich kid who can afford to drop a ton of money to get something with a logo he likes on it.
damicatz
March 23, 2012 at 7:46am
This is nothing but a PC with an Amiga badge on the front. You are paying for a brandname.
If you are actually interested in Amiga computers, what you want is AmigaOne.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AmigaOne_X1000
http://www.amigakit.us/
Exarkun1138
March 23, 2012 at 7:27am
What's the point in even calling this box an "Amiga"? It's not! I had 2 Amiga's and this ain't one of those....sure, I understand the name was sold, and is being used in name only, but this is stupid! And at that price, I could build a far superior machine to this POS! No thanks!
Rift2
March 23, 2012 at 12:07am
Some of those old Amiga games were pretty sweet I tired Dark Mere and this one shooter you were a big moth. I never owned one but played around with the Paint shop program in Highschool.
fry
March 22, 2012 at 4:44pm
I have fond memories of my Amiga 2000, but not fond enough to buy an Intel machine with Amiga stamped on the front.
szore
March 22, 2012 at 4:19pm
The first time I played Falcon, my 1st flight sim, on my old Amiga 3000.
TommM
March 22, 2012 at 4:06pm
I'm scratching my head why any educated computerphile would want one of these (other than the Amiga logo).
But I sure miss playing Elite on my old Amiga 500. Man I killed some hours playing that game... :)
hyperion
March 22, 2012 at 11:26am
The old Amiga was all about the graphics,so it is weird that they skimped on the graphics processor. I am still waiting for the Linux build of Atari TOS, so the aging veterans can resurrect the Atari vs. Amiga wars.
stradric
March 22, 2012 at 11:49am
My guess is that dumping all of that heavy duty hardware in such a tiny box would cause heat issues.
The real question is, if you have $2500 to spend on a computer, why would you buy this thing? A Mac mini is only $600. If you want a high performance computer, you could build a liquid-cooled gaming desktop for half that price.
