RapidRoad USB Review

[fitzsteve]

Nice review.  I was very curious to hear how it works in Zorro II mode, 2mb/sec is a nice speed.

I tested it recently for my review on A1200/A4000:

http://www.fitzstevesamigaworld.co.uk/?p=253

I'm going to be testing out a USB Sound Card this weekend, just arrived from eBay yesterday

PS.  Very nice A2000 you have there by the way.

[fitzsteve]

Great! Can't wait to read!

As promised, I tested a Creative USB Sound Card which I picked up cheap on  the other Bay, I'm pleased to say it works with the RapidRoad!  Plugged  in and immediately it was picked up by Trident and the lights came on...

Went to AHI Prefs and as expected right at the bottom of the list USB Audio 16bit Stereo++

First  test was to try an MP3, sadly my 040 @40mhz wasn't man enough to decode  the MP3 and drive the USB Audio, it worked but the audio was very  choppy and the system was unusable while the track played.  Even with  128kb MP3 @ 11025khz.  I think a fast 060 or PPC would be able to do it  just fine since AmigaAMP works on PPC too this would be ample speed.

However  some good news for 040 owners, as long as you're not running something  that obliterates the CPU it works perfectly, I was able to test ASP  which is a spectrum emulator which has AHI and the sound was crystal  clear.  I imagine Amiga CD Games that work on 020/030 with AHI support  will be fine too, I need to do some more tests.  I tried Quake but as  above there was too much CPU load to do clear sound, it was breaking up  just like the MP3's

Overall a successful test and yet again the RapidRoad just works!

[fitzsteve]

Hi, the model is:

Creative Sound Blaster SB0270 - USB External Soundcard



That's not my pic, just one I found online.

I shall try streaming the MP3 from Ram, it was from external USB stick so maybe the sound card and usb stick were using too much data although I believe it to be CPU related.

[fitzsteve]

I have one of those. Your saying it would work with my A1200 if I got rid of subway and got RapidRoad?

I tested on my A4000 and as you know Zorro III is much faster then clockport so I can't guarantee it will work on an A1200.

If I can find some time to open my A4000 I'll try it on my A1200 which has a Blizzard 1230 and report back.

Steve.

edit:

Just ordered another RapidRoad lol, this one will go in the A4k as it's the reduced cost version and then I'll use the clockport one in my A1200, expect the USB Sound Card test in a few days/1 week

In the mean time I tested an MP3 from Ram Disk instead of USB on the A4k and it played back just fine, there was some stutter at first but then it settled down (after about 10 seconds) and played ok.

[fitzsteve]

Hey Guys, I got a second RapidRoad USB so moved the clockport version  back to my A1200, somewhat as expected the 030 isn't able to drive USB  Audio but it does work in as much as the device is picked up and  playback is attempted.  There are occasional beeps to suggest it's  trying to play!

A fast 060 might be able to push it, assuming the clockport has enough bandwidth.  Shame I got rid of my 060 lol.

[fitzsteve]

I don't think the clockport has nearly enough bandwidth. Probably have better luck with a MAS Player...

I'm going to get a Prisma for music playback but was hoping the USB sound card would be useful for AHI audio, i.e for Amiga CD games and emulators.

[fitzsteve]

Pop the NTFS file system in l: and it might just work

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/ntfs_0.9