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Wanted: Pentium 4 Family Motherboard with ISA Slot(s)

F

fmis

Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2011
Messages
33
Hello,

Anyone have such a beast, located in the Greater Toronto Area? Looking for one for free, cheap, or trade.

Thanks! :D
 
generally only P4 industrial control mobos will have ISA slots .. not cheap

the MSI MS-6530 400FSB P4 comes with one ISA slot (even thou it is not listed in specs)
this was an OEM board out of a MSI Metis or Hetis 845 from memory
 
Or get a PCIMG motherboard and find a used SBC on ebay. That's what I do. Can usually get an entire setup together for around $100.
 
kb2syd said:
Or get a PCIMG motherboard and find a used SBC on ebay. That's what I do. Can usually get an entire setup together for around $100.
Click to expand...

PICMG SBC with backplane might indeed be the way to go, there's at least one socket 478 board on ebay presently.

Mighta been insanely expensive though, I forget now. Edit: 3-4 of them, and they're all quite pricey.
 
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Pentium III was the end of the ISA slot on consumer motherboards for Intel. There are some consumer P4 mobos with ISA out there, but they're not common.

I'm not sure when AMD systems stopped having them, you might have better (or worse) luck trying for an AMD equivalent. I presume your goal is "the fastest computer with ISA you can get", in which case you can still buy industrial mobos for the latest systems that have ISA. I intend to buy a new motherboard this way for my Core 2 Quad box (Core i7 and it's friends be damned, I'm keeping my FSB... -_-) so I can toss a SB16 in there and keep it DOS-compatible (manufacturers saw fit to remove the necessary features for PCI SB emulation from more recent [post-p3 or so] motherboards..).
 
I'm probably going to go this method when I put together my workshop workstation. It's definitely the cheapest method available (that P4 SBC is BIN $80 I believe, which isn't outrageous). The backplanes are pretty cheap...I guess the hardest part for a systems builder would probably be finding a case for one, since shipping old steel cases can get expensive.
 
I'll toss my two cents' worth in by saying "Why?". P3 systems with ISA slots can be had as junk and can run at fairly respectable speeds (1.4GHz) with plenty of memory. Generally, they're better-constructed for extended use also.

Workshop systems don't have to be the top-of-the-line gaming systems, do they? If you really need a speed demon, buy one and network it to the P3 system.

While there are P4 systems with a few ISA bus slots, they're the circus sideshow animals.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Workshop systems don't have to be the top-of-the-line gaming systems, do they? If you really need a speed demon, buy one and network it to the P3 system.
Click to expand...

I'm going this route for the number of ISA slots -- I have a (more than 12, less than 22) slot backplane, split 50/50 with ISA and PCI slots. It won't be a speed demon, either, since I already have a P3 SBC with a 1GHz processor installed. It's just nice to have the extra ISA slots, since I'll be using an Adaptec AHA-1522A for its floppy controller, the 8-bit ISA controller card for my EPROM burner, an ISA 56K actual-serial-port type modem, and an ISA National Instruments GPIB board. The PICMG motherboard + SBC seemed to be the easiest way to get a moderately fast processor (running Linux/DOS/Win2k, anything over 500 MHz P3 is fine) with more than two or three ISA slots. Plus, it was $10 at the surplus auction!
 
kb2syd said:
I've got to stop trying to reply at 5:30AM. I make way too many mistakes. Of course, kishy is right. PICMG with a backplane. You just have to be patient. I see them go for less than $100 quite regularly.
Click to expand...

Heh, I didn't want to 'call you out' on it, but I did want to make sure the OP knew what to search for.

Depends on your perspective. Anything over $50 is probably pushing it in terms of objective value for the purposes the OP seems to want it for, but of course specialized industrial applications where no alternatives exist are usually willing to pay more, so despite it (as a motherboard) being no better than something you can get for $20 or less if you apply yourself, the form factor and intended applications bump the price up.
 
kishy said:
Depends on your perspective. Anything over $50 is probably pushing it in terms of objective value for the purposes the OP seems to want it for
Click to expand...
Well, my experience is that you're not going to easily find a P4 board with an ISA slot for less than you can put one together using PICMG.
 
I have a bunch of old and expensive data acquisition cards that are ISA so I can see a need some people might have with needed a faster then P3 machine with ISA slots. As others have mentioned the way to go is an industial SBC card on an ISA backplane. I find that old P2 early P3 systems are still good enough for my cards (and have enough ISA slots) but I use older software to work with them anyway.
 
Yep, for most things, I can keep a 486/Pentium machine around to play with the ISA hardware and a modern(ish) PC for other lab functions. I'm just trying to remove some of the non-vintage machines from my workshop space!
 
glitch said:
Yep, for most things, I can keep a 486/Pentium machine around to play with the ISA hardware and a modern(ish) PC for other lab functions. I'm just trying to remove some of the non-vintage machines from my workshop space!
Click to expand...

Wait long enough and they'll all be vintage! :)
 
Thanks for all the fantastic replies! I'd never considered an SBC w/backplane, but I'll look out for one now. Those who have responded to my other threads will know that the main reason I would like ISA is to be able to interface with ST506/412 type drives. For convenience/portability, it would be nice to just have one rig that can do it all! (Seemingly) having exhausted options like bridge-boards, this sounds like it might be the next (last!) best thing.

(Has anyone done this? Am I doomed to fail? Let me know. :D)
 
A cautious "maybe". The problem is that the BIOS in modern systems is pretty much keyed to IDE drives and so won't really support an older MFM-style controller. However, if you have a controller with its own BIOS onboard, you might have luck with a P4 system.
 
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