Fastest motherboard with at least 1 ISA slot?

[precaud]

I am putting together a "new" PC for the bench. It will be set up as dual-boot (XP and Win98SE) so I can still use programs I wrote 30+ years ago. The most difficult hardware requirement is that it must have at least one 16-bit ISA slot. Preferably two, but I think I can get along with one.

I presently have two boards that will do the job:
: Tyan S1830 Tsunami AT. My current Win98 machine with a 950MHz P3. Has 4 ISA slots. Not a racehorse, but has been uber-reliable.
: Soyo K7VTA Pro. KT133A based with a 1.7GHz Athlon XP. Has one ISA slot. Recently retired after 16+ years bookkeeping duty. Needs to be recapped.

Anyone know of other mobo's that would be a better choice?

[mzzj]

Intel Core i7? 

https://www.amazon.com/Interloper-IHD620-H81-motherboard-Intel%C3%82-Core-processors%C3%82-Core/dp/B01J1LDCV2/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1535381458&sr=1-6&keywords=isa+motherboard

Core2duo:
https://www.amazon.com/YAYKON-YH-945A6-Motherboard-chipsets-Support/dp/B07G7BB8RD/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1535381458&sr=1-4&keywords=isa+motherboard

Not sure how good match either of the boards are for XP or Win98. There is probably no driver support for half of the included features.

[precaud]

Intel Core i7? 

Core2duo:

Not sure how good match either of the boards are for XP or Win98. There is probably no driver support for half of the included features.

Yeah, that would be a concern. The first one is pretty pricey, too. My preference would be something from "back in the day"...

[dexters_lab]

personally i would suggest going for something high reliability from the period... so names like supermicro, intel and abit come to mind especially if you want to run the period operating systems.

the ISA16 slots started to disappear from the domestic/gaming boards quite quick but there will be lots of boards aimed at the professional / corporate market that would include at least one of them

[Halcyon]

personally i would suggest going for something high reliability from the period... so names like supermicro, intel and abit come to mind especially if you want to run the period operating systems.

the ISA16 slots started to disappear from the domestic/gaming boards quite quick but there will be lots of boards aimed at the professional / corporate market that would include at least one of them

+ 1 Supermicro. They make excellent products.

You might be able to pick up a Supermicro P4SCA which is a Pentium 4 board. It's now EOL but a quick Google reveals several on ebay and Amazon.

It is highly unlikely you will find an ISA bus on anything post-Pentium 4.

[precaud]

Very interesting board, that. Unfortunately, no drivers for 98SE.

[digsys]

Been in a similar boat for many years, and always kept a few boards lying around, I may still have 1 or 2 somewhere -
This is what worked for me - I have 1-2 PCI M/Bs with PCI to ISA converter boards  .. I think I even made my own custom one - I can look up the chipset
required, if that is of interest. I think it was Sunix, but not confirmed. There are also USB > ISA converters ie arstech.com/install/ecom-prodshow/usb2isa.html
Not sure about your driver situation though, or some of the unique ISA features.
I've never had a problem finding old ISA PCs on local trading post sites, but for $20+ bucks each, you can afford to reject a few :-)

[precaud]

Thanks digsys. I don't want to mess with converters. Don't need to - the two boards I mentioned above will both do the job, I'm just wondering if there's a better one from back then that would be better.

[IconicPCB]

Google PICMIG

[Halcyon]

Very interesting board, that. Unfortunately, no drivers for 98SE.

Even though it's not officially supported by Supermicro, you still might find Windows 9x drivers for the chipset/NIC directly through Intel. My experience with Supermicro boards in the past is that generally, very few additional drivers are actually needed as most of the components are already supported by the major operating systems.

Failing that, you might have to resort to something older like the Pentium II/III boards. They might not be as fast as you'd like, but if you're running Windows 98SE, it might be your only option.

[precaud]

The P4SCA is interesting but pretty pricey. So far, my Soyo K7VTA Pro is looking like the best choice.

[bob225]

The only relatively modern hardware with native ISA I can think of is PC104 - software wise use a modern pc with VMware to run the old systems - I use some automotive software via a XP 32 bit on a VM


What is the ISA card for ? Is there a modern pci/pci-e card replacement for your isa card ?

[precaud]

What is the ISA card for ? Is there a modern pci/pci-e card replacement for your isa card ?

It's the power, interface, and control card for my AP Instruments 102B network analyzer. They replaced it with USB versions, not compatible and no upgrade path.

[bob225]

Replace the analyser ? im sure you can pick up something used cheaply

[mikeselectricstuff]

Industrial MBs may be worth a look - not sure how available this one is these days but used one for several years

http://www.ibt.ca/v2/items/mb820/index.html

[Halcyon]

Industrial MBs may be worth a look - not sure how available this one is these days but used one for several years

http://www.ibt.ca/v2/items/mb820/index.html

I've noticed this a bit recently. What makes this board "industrial" ? It's a bog-standard consumer board.

[Nusa]

In the case of generic motherboards, industrial mainly means a commitment to an availability and support lifetime that is years longer than consumer motherboards.

In this case, I'm guessing there's a significant supply of old stock that is still available, perhaps due to deliberate overproduction to support the fact it's "industrial" vintage. I doubt they're still actually being made.

[precaud]

Please... I'm not looking for options to my plan... I'm looking for a possibly better motherboard to use than the Soyo K7VTA (which will probably work fine)...

[mikeselectricstuff]

Industrial MBs may be worth a look - not sure how available this one is these days but used one for several years

http://www.ibt.ca/v2/items/mb820/index.html

I've noticed this a bit recently. What makes this board "industrial" ? It's a bog-standard consumer board.

Long term availability, ISTR it also had a few extra things like hardware watchdog and RS485 options on the serial ports

[Halcyon]

Please... I'm not looking for options to my plan... I'm looking for a possibly better motherboard to use than the Soyo K7VTA (which will probably work fine)...

There are a number of options in this thread. Part of the difficulty is that you're limiting yourself to boards with Windows 9x drivers available and is within your price range. Unless you're willing to spend $300 or $400, then you really won't have many options to choose from and you'll have to settle for bottom of the barrel, cheap consumer boards.

If you're after something reliable, well supported and stable, then spend the extra money on a Supermicro board.

[precaud]

Please... I'm not looking for options to my plan... I'm looking for a possibly better motherboard to use than the Soyo K7VTA (which will probably work fine)...

There are a number of options in this thread. Part of the difficulty is that you're limiting yourself to boards with Windows 9x drivers available and is within your price range. Unless you're willing to spend $300 or $400, then you really won't have many options to choose from and you'll have to settle for bottom of the barrel, cheap consumer boards.

If you're after something reliable, well supported and stable, then spend the extra money on a Supermicro board.

Oh c'mon, that's hyperbolic. You're making it sound like anything less than the Supermicro is a POS.

The Soyo has been my daily-driver business computer for the last 15-16 years, running at least 8 hrs/day 5 days/week, with zero issues. In an Antec tower that has also had zero issues.

Never mind. I just ordered the caps to recap them both and I'll go that route.

[james_s]

If it's going to be running Win98 and XP, how fast does it need to be? Any number of Pentium IV or Athlon systems would probably do the job. Assuming you're not going to be gaming on it or doing a lot of web browsing anything from the mid-late 2000's should do the job.

[Halcyon]

Please... I'm not looking for options to my plan... I'm looking for a possibly better motherboard to use than the Soyo K7VTA (which will probably work fine)...

There are a number of options in this thread. Part of the difficulty is that you're limiting yourself to boards with Windows 9x drivers available and is within your price range. Unless you're willing to spend $300 or $400, then you really won't have many options to choose from and you'll have to settle for bottom of the barrel, cheap consumer boards.

If you're after something reliable, well supported and stable, then spend the extra money on a Supermicro board.

Oh c'mon, that's hyperbolic. You're making it sound like anything less than the Supermicro is a POS.

The Soyo has been my daily-driver business computer for the last 15-16 years, running at least 8 hrs/day 5 days/week, with zero issues. In an Antec tower that has also had zero issues.

Never mind. I just ordered the caps to recap them both and I'll go that route.

No, not at all. You asked for our advice and we're giving you our suggestions. Supermicro are known around the world for their high quality gear. I've used their products since the 1990's and my Pentium III P6SBA board still works as well as the day I bought it.

You asked for a "better" choice in your original post so we delivered. But as I said, if you're limited in budget, you're also limiting your choices. As they say: Stability, Performance, Cheap... pick two.

If your existing boards do what you want them to, then stick with those.

[BradC]

Never mind. I just ordered the caps to recap them both and I'll go that route.

I did that with Soyo boards back in the 90's. The originals lasted a couple of years. After replacing the caps with quality Japanese units the boards were taken out of service (retired) last year after ~17 years of 24/7 use. At the time it seemed nuts, but they were the only boards I could find that had the right chipset and form-factor to fit the requirements.

If you already have boards that work, then stick with those. The more pre-heat you can get into the board, the easier it'll be to re-work the caps. Motherboards have huge internal planes and really suck the heat from the joint.

[james_s]

I re-capped a lot of boards back in the early 2000's, never had one of them fail again.