A new motherboard with 2 ISA slots ?

[shoez]

Hello all,

I'm just in that habitual state of upgrading again, and I really think it's time I ditched my K6/2 400Mhz, for something a little more 'wiz', ya know ? Well, thing is, I've got two ISA cards in my current machine which I simply couldn't live without. One is a brilliant little modem (us robotics), and the other is my sound card (terratec ews64xl). These damn bits of technology set me back a fair wack, and I don't fancy having to upgrade them... I've been looking around, but I've found nothing, so the question I'm wondering is, if anybody knows of a mobo which sports two ISA slots, and will take any newer processors ?


thanks !



tom

 

[tritium4ever]

Absolutely no new motherboard nowadays (at least ones that support Athlon XP or Pentium 4) will have ISA slots at all. In any case, you can pick up budget PCI modems and sound cards for like $25 each. It's about time to just drop everything and start fresh, considering the age of the computer. I was very attached to my 486 (in faithful service for an entire FIVE years before buying a new computer) but there comes the time when the old stuff just gets in the way. Don't be concerned about how much it was worth back then, cause now it's all basically a heap of junk. Time to bite the bullet and ditch them cards

 

[Boonesmi]

im not 100% but i dont think any of the current boards coming out have isa slots (the chipsets still support them, its just a matter of the motherboard maker deciding not to include them)

but i can think of a bunch of boards based on the kt133a chipset that do have isa slots... these boards will also support the newest athlonXP cpu's even though the boards are getting pretty old... kt133a chipset is also a sdr chipset, so you wont be able to use ddr ram.

but some boards based on the kt133a that support new athlons and have isa slots
epox
soltek
soyo
biostar
fic
dfi

some of the integrated boards ive seen have isa slots... the km133a chipset board by biostar is the one that comes to mind


but.... really you should look at some of the newer boards based on the kt333 chipset and just buy a new modem/soundcard

 

[Peter]

boonesmi, none of the current chipsets have ISA bus support anymore. You'd have to add a separate PCI-to-ISA bridge device onto the mainboard to get that.

Chipsets that have ISA and are still available are AMD 760 (end-of-life'd already) and VIA ..133 chipsets (Apollo Pro 133 and ProMedia/ProSavage 133 series, KT133 series). They're all older technology, with chipset interconnect going through the main PCI bus, and no DDR RAM support.

I haven't seen any newer mainboards having a PCI-ISA bridge chip on, so I guess it's either stay with old chipset technology to continue using your ISA cards, or go with current mainboard technology and part with your old cards.

Modem cards are easily replaced, consider using an AMR modem. Elitegroup/PC-Chips and Chaintech sometimes supply them along with the boards, and they're not as bad as people say. You might see higher ping latency than with other modems, but you'll get very neat throughput especially on compressible data.

regards, Peter

 

[shoez]

Thanks guys !


Well, first thing I can cross of my list is a new monitor, I've just put the upgrade wheels into motion and got myself a tasty TFT... this upgrade lark could get rather addictive !

I'll take a look into those manufacturers, I am I've seen boards with at least 1 slot still. I suppose upgrading the modem wouldn't be too bad, but I paid a hefty price for the ol' Terratec not so long ago, which I really would not want to discarded, and just because it is plainly amazing ..... hey, I clung onto a GUS Max for long enough !


thanks once again,



tom

 

[Buz2b]

There are still many boards out there with one ISA slot. They are NOT at the end of their lifespan either. Yes, it would be nice to have a pretty new, "state of the art" MB and RAM but most of us stay just behind the curve anyway: Close enough to smell it but not quite there. You will most likely NOT find one with two ISA slots though that will take anything close to the top CPU's today.
Some choices:
MSI-6378 w/ VIA® KLE133
ABIT BX133-RAID
ABIT VA6 (Two ISA but only up to 1.1 GHz PIII cpu)
EP-8KTA3+Pro (up to XP2100+ on v.1.0 w/latest bios)

In fact, Epox lists several with ISA slots on this page. Just scroll down the list and you will find them.

Good Luck!

 

[IndyJaws]

<< hey, I clung onto a GUS Max for long enough >>



I loved that card! Greatest soundcard ever made, IMHO!
Downloaded tons of demos just to show off to friends.

Unfortunately, Gravis couldn't write drivers to save their lives.

 

[Jhhnn]

Moving up to a s370 fcpga board and 1gig celeron or P3 w/ via chipset would be a major upgrade from where you're at now. They're not state of the art, but I doubt that you care. Virtually all of the major manufacturers made them with 2 isa slots, probably out of production by now. It's the end of the road for isa, so get 'em while you can....

There's some info out there that the newer tualatin based celerons can be made to run on some of these boards, but it takes a lot of tweaking....

 

[XMan]

Just a thought . . .

The US Robotics model 2977 is a very high-quality PCI modem with a controller on board (not a winmodem).

And there are some great sound cards available now, or you might even get an N-Force with built in DD sound.