Question Last motherboard with AGP and ISA?

Elia1995

Junior Member
May 21, 2022
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Hello, I'm on my quest of building the best Windows 98SE retrocomputer and I'd like to use an AGP accelerated graphics card, along with my AWE32 sound blaster which is ISA.
Browsing the mobos I have, lots of them that come with an AGP slot don't have ISA slots, except for a Slot-1 mobo which has AGP and a couple of ISA slots!
So, since apparently it's possible to have both on a board, which are the best and latest mobos that were featuring both AGP and ISA? Of course with Windows 98SE support, as it's essential for my project
 
Jul 27, 2020
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Expensive but has 1 ISA slot. Doesn't have Win98SE drivers but this article may help:

 
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Iron Woode

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 10, 1999
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first gen athlon boards support both and support win 98se.

I have one with a socket A MSI board (KT400). Works fine but will need an OS patch to allow large USB sticks to be used.

You will also need a floppy drive and win98se boot disk. The boot disk image can be downloaded easily from the web.
 
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zir_blazer

Golden Member
Jun 6, 2013
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Having an ISA Slot doesn't means than an ISA Sound Card will work properly. ISA Sound Cards usually rely on native 8237A DMA, which was removed from Chipsets at around the time of the Pentium 3. Since then, you have non-fully featured ISA Slots behind some form of bridge (PCI-to-ISA, LPC-to-ISA) that may have limited functionality with Sound Cards.

Here is an example thread of compatibility: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=63773
Another one here, that focuses on PCI Sound Cards for DOS games but tangentially mentions ISA Hardware needs: http://dosdays.co.uk/topics/pci_sound_cards_in_dos.php
Even more here: https://flaterco.com/kb/ISA_chipsets.html
And check ISA Bridges section here, too: https://ilovepa.ws/2017/07/29/pentium-4-dos-gaming/
 
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440BX is one of the best chipsets of that era. It served me with 3D gaming from Voodoo 3 2000 AGP to Geforce 3 Ti 200, allowing me to finish Doom 3 with my Celery 700 in a Slot adapter overclocked to 1 GHz. Oh, the good ole days!
 
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aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
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Ooof... its not the ISA / PCI that is gonna kill you, its the AGP.
You can get ISA and PCI on server side, and used server side is exceptionally cheap and easy to find... just look up supermicro X7's
The AGP port however... well servers didn't use graphic cards as they had onboard matrox back in that generation.
The AGP is what will kill you trying to source, as they are all probably collectors edition, especially since collectors feel they need an original Voodoo2 in SLI system for it to be considered an EPIC museum piece for gaming history.

Something using the 440BX chipset is usually the right answer if you want to use an ISA sound card. I use an ASUS P2B for my Win98 build.

The problem is trying to source a working 440BX.
Im fairly sure they will cost more then a new EVGA x570S Dark costs, because the 440BX is one of the few boards which can handle a Voodoo2 SLI system + SoundBlaster AWE32 together.

You think im kidding about that last comment?

im being super serious... *serious face*
Working 440BX's are Uber Pricey.
 
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y2kse

Junior Member
Mar 19, 2007
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The problem is trying to source a working 440BX. Im fairly sure they will cost more then a new EVGA x570S Dark costs, because the 440BX is one of the few boards which can handle a Voodoo2 SLI system + SoundBlaster AWE32 together.

You think im kidding about that last comment?

im being super serious... *serious face*
Working 440BX's are Uber Pricey.
There's always examples of insane pricing on eBay*, but quickly perusing some eBay search results, prices generally don't seem out of line from what I paid many years ago. I've found the more challenging part to be getting ones with the case shield included. The other challenge is figuring out CPU support for the boards, mainly for the >600 MHz parts. Regardless, patience is required.

* I have a Powerleap PL-IP3/T in my system... :)
 

jamesdsimone

Senior member
Dec 21, 2015
654
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Hello, I'm on my quest of building the best Windows 98SE retrocomputer and I'd like to use an AGP accelerated graphics card, along with my AWE32 sound blaster which is ISA.
Browsing the mobos I have, lots of them that come with an AGP slot don't have ISA slots, except for a Slot-1 mobo which has AGP and a couple of ISA slots!
So, since apparently it's possible to have both on a board, which are the best and latest mobos that were featuring both AGP and ISA? Of course with Windows 98SE support, as it's essential for my project

Don't know if you have put your system together but I have everything you need. MSI board with an X800XT All in wonder Athlon X2 5400+ sound card 2Gb DDR2 and I can throw in a 120gb IDE hard drive and optical drive.
 

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DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member
Super Moderator
Aug 22, 2001
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Don't know if you have put your system together but I have everything you need. MSI board with an X800XT All in wonder Athlon X2 5400+ sound card 2Gb DDR2 and I can throw in a 120gb IDE hard drive and optical drive.
I know you are not around here much James, so just a friendly head's up. In the future, should you have need, shoot them a private message. Selling parts outside of the for sale/for trade forum isn't allowed.
 

tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,350
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If you could just part with the ISA card, you'd be miles ahead. Full 98SE support is your main goal, I'd rather have the advantages of AGP than whatever the merits of an ISA SoundBlaster.
 

SPBHM

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2012
5,056
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socket 370 is the newest thing that was mainstream and still easy to find with ISA slots and great 98/dos compatibility for games.
the industrial boards are just not very good for that,
and the socket 462 ones are much harder to find