Building New Computer, Need LOTS of Ports

[ShadowFox]

I'm building a computer for my father's friend and this guy needs:
6 Serial Ports
4 Parallel Ports
4 USB Ports

Now, i'd rather not fill up all the pci slots with parallel & serial expansion cards (i've already made out my own setup that fills 5 pci slots.) So do you guys know of any other ways to get all these ports? If you do, it would be VERY helpful if you could post a hypothetical setup with exact model names of everything(mobo, all cards, adapters and such.) It also be helpful if you could post vendors and maybe prices.

Thanks

 

[AU Tiger]

SIIG makes a PCI card that can handle up to 8 serial connections, but its not cheap.

They also have a card that can handle two parallel connections. You would still end up using 3-4 PCI slots.

 

[RanDum72]

I think theres something like a port replicator somewhere that you basically attach from 4-24 serial ports to your 10/100 ethernet.

 

[SUOrangeman]

USB 2.0 is probably the way to go. The bandwidth is there and a single controller can handle over 100 devices. There are plenty of USB-to-xxx adapters out there. Heck, parallel and serial ports are available in some USB hubs. However, you have to make sure your software, drivers, and OS work well with USB.

-SUO

 

[underpaid]

There are some usb port replicators out there, but just check to make sure the drivers/software you're working with will recognize or
use the ports. I've had problems with them and do not recommend them, but that's probably one of the better solutions next
to filling up all your pci slots. What does he need all those for? burning eeproms? hehe