LGA 1156 board with above avarage legacy HW support?

[boren]

I'm soon going to replace my Athlon 64 3000+ machine wih an i5 750 one. I plan to reuse some legacy hardware so I need a board with better than average legacy support:

- Serial port (for my USR external fax modem)
- 2x PS/2 ports (to support a PS/2 KVM)
- 2x or more legacy PCI cards (SCSI scanner and a second sound card which I use for separating the Skype headset and ringing sounds)
- Floppy drive connector (for loading the SATA drivers required by WinXP installation)
- 1 IDE (I would prefer two, but it's not essential).

Is there any board that comes close? Note that I don't intend to do any overclocking and I'm not going to play games frequently. The main demanding tasks will be image editing, media encoding and some programming.

Thanks!

 

[SunnyD]

Asrock P55 Extreme?

- 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (Single at x16 or Dual at x8/x8 mode)
- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot (at x4 mode, 2.5GT/s)
- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot (2.5GT/s)
- 3 x PCI slots
- Supports ATI™ CrossFireX™, 3-Way CrossFireX™ and Quad CrossFireX™
- Supports NVIDIA® SLI™ and Quad SLI™

- 6 x SATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5 and Intel® Matrix Storage), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug functions
- 1 x ATA133 IDE connector (supports 2 x IDE devices)
- 1 x Floppy connector
- 1 x IR header
- 1 x COM port header
- 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header
- 1 x IEEE 1394 header
- 1 x TPM header
- CPU/Chassis/Power FAN connector
- 24 pin ATX power connector
- 8 pin 12V power connector
- CD in header
- Front panel audio connector
- 3 x USB 2.0 headers (support 6 USB 2.0 ports)

I/O Panel
- 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port
- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port
- 1 x Coaxial SPDIF Out Port
- 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
- 7 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports
- 1 x Powered eSATAII/USB Connector
- 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
- 1 x IEEE 1394 Port
- 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED
- HD Audio Jack: Side Speaker / Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone

BTW, the floppy drive isn't really necessary for F6 boots if you're willing to slipstream an XP install CD with the drivers baked in (nLite can build the image for you). Makes it nice too since you don't have to worry about a floppy drive or disk failing.

 

[Gillbot]

Not to mention there are USB floppy drives and serial ports.

 

[boren]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Asrock P55 Extreme?

Yes, it looks really nice. It's probably going to be difficult to find locally (I live in Israel). The Instant Boot feature seems like an interesting twist on Hibernate mode.

BTW, the floppy drive isn't really necessary for F6 boots if you're willing to slipstream an XP install CD with the drivers baked in (nLite can build the image for you). Makes it nice too since you don't have to worry about a floppy drive or disk failing.

Good idea. I think that removes the floppy as a requirement.

Not to mention there are USB floppy drives and serial ports.

Do you know if the WinXP installer would "see" a floppy drive conected through a USB port?

As for the serial port, I guess I could use a USB adapter. I wonder though it would the same without drivers. None are needed (in any OS) when I connect the external modem to a motherboard serial port.

 

[Gillbot]

I believe it has on mine, though I don't recall the last time I used it for anything since most everything I do I slipstream in.

 

[tcsenter]

Do you know if the WinXP installer would "see" a floppy drive conected through a USB port?

Windows XP supports *some* USB floppy drives, but there are several on the market that are not supported. I've added support for most of these into a modified TXTSETUP.SIF file, which you can just drop into the i386 folder then create a new install disc:

For XP Professional Edition

For XP Home Edition

Rename the file to TXTSETUP.SIF. Alternatively, you can just use NLite to integrate all drivers you need into a custom install disc.

 

[vailr]

As for the serial port, I guess I could use a USB adapter. I wonder though it would the same without drivers. None are needed (in any OS) when I connect the external modem to a motherboard serial port.

A USB -> Serial Port adapter would require installation of a device driver. An external fax modem connected there at would also require it's own device driver. Any Windows version would have drivers available for download.
But: if you're running Linux or some other OS, finding a device driver may be more problematic.

 

[Ross Ridge]

I was looking for a board with similar requirements not long ago. Other than the already mentioned ASRock P55 Extreme, the only other board I found was the MSI P55-GD65.

Under Windows at least, a USB serial adapter won't require any special drivers and will look like any other serial port to applications. Note that most non-server motherboards with serial ports these days only have serial port headers, you'll need to get a seperate serial bracket to hook up your modem if you happen to already have one. Watch out for the P55 Asus motherboards, the serial headers on most of them positioned by the memory slots where most bracket cables won't reach.

You can also get PS/2 to USB adapaters will let you hook up your PS/2 KVM to a USB port.

 

[Modelworks]

How old is the USR modem ?
You may be better getting a usb/pci version. The reason I say that is some of the older modems look for +10 volts on the serial lines and if it isn't there they assume no connection. USB only provides +5 volts at best.

Something like this would be guaranteed to work.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-003-_-Product

 

[ehume]

Gigabyte's boards support a lot of legacy devices. Reviewers complain about it - not modern or some such.

 

[Ross Ridge]

How old is the USR modem ?
You may be better getting a usb/pci version. The reason I say that is some of the older modems look for +10 volts on the serial lines and if it isn't there they assume no connection. USB only provides +5 volts at best.

Any USB serial port adapter will have something like a MAX232 chip in that will convert +5V into the required -12V/+12V RS-232 levels. Otherwise it wouldn't work with anything.

 

[Ross Ridge]

Gigabyte's boards support a lot of legacy devices. Reviewers complain about it - not modern or some such.

The problem with Gigabyte boards is that they only have a single PS/2 port, so he'd have to use a PS/2 to USB adapter or get a new, more expensive, USB KVM. Otherwise though, they meet his requirments.

 

[Modelworks]

Any USB serial port adapter will have something like a MAX232 chip in that will convert +5V into the required -12V/+12V RS-232 levels. Otherwise it wouldn't work with anything.

It really depends on the adapter. Cheaper ones do not change the voltages and are 5vdc only. That is why I suggested to go with an internal modem.

http://www.lammertbies.nl/comm/info/RS-232-usb.html

RS232 ports which are physically mounted in a computer are often powered by three power sources: +5 Volt for the UART logic, and -12 Volt and +12 Volt for the output drivers. USB however only provides a +5 Volt power source. Some USB to RS232 converters use integrated DC/DC converters to create the appropriate voltage levels for the RS232 signals, but in very cheap implementations, the +5 Volt voltage is directly used to drive the output. This may sound strange, but many RS232 ports recognize a voltage above 2 Volt as a space signal, where a voltage of 0 Volt or less is recognized as a mark signal. This is not according to the original standard, because in the original RS232 standard, all voltages between -3 Volt and +3 Volt result in an undefined signal state. The well known maxim MAX232 series of RS232 driver chips have this non-standard behaviour for example. Although the outputs of these drivers swings between -10 Volt and +10 Volt, the inputs recognize all signals swinging below 0 Volt and above 2 Volt as valid signals.
This non-standard behaviour of RS232 inputs makes it even more difficult to select the right RS232 to USB converter. If you connect and test an RS232 to USB converter over a serial line with another device, it might work with some devices, but not with others.

 

[boren]

Windows XP supports *some* USB floppy drives, but there are several on the market that are not supported. I've added support for most of these into a modified TXTSETUP.SIF file, which you can just drop into the i386 folder then create a new install disc:

For XP Professional Edition

For XP Home Edition

Rename the file to TXTSETUP.SIF. Alternatively, you can just use NLite to integrate all drivers you need into a custom install disc.

Thanks, I think I'll use Nlite and skip the floppy procedure altogether.

I was looking for a board with similar requirements not long ago. Other than the already mentioned ASRock P55 Extreme, the only other board I found was the MSI P55-GD65.

Both look nice, but I now tend toward the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3. I'll need to use a couple of adapters to support my legacy hardware, but the total cost would still be very reasonable and I won't be giving up any modern features such as USB 3 and SATA 3. This board has has 3 PCI slots, it supports a floppy drive (which I probably won't need if I'm using Nlite), has a serial port header (though I'm likely to use a $3 serial-to-USB adapter instead). I'll also get a PS/2-to-USB adapter for use with my KVM.

 

[ehume]

Before you get a UD3 - are you going to overclock? the UD3 does not have MOSFET coolers. You have to move up to a UD3P, UD3R or above to get MOSFET coolers.

 

[boren]

I'm not going to overclock. If anything, I'd be willing to underclock had it been a guarantee for a totally stable machine.

 

[StrangerGuy]

The problem with Gigabyte boards is that they only have a single PS/2 port, so he'd have to use a PS/2 to USB adapter or get a new, more expensive, USB KVM. Otherwise though, they meet his requirments.

Slightly OT: I rather trade those useless parallel, serial, floppy ports for an extra IDE port (which is actually useful to most of us). It boggles my mind these still exist after 10+ years from the death of ISA. When was the last time you saw a serial mouse?

 

[SunnyD]

Slightly OT: I rather trade those useless parallel, serial, floppy ports for an extra IDE port (which is actually useful to most of us). It boggles my mind these still exist after 10+ years from the death of ISA. When was the last time you saw a serial mouse?

When was the last time you saw a PS/2 mouse? However, in the land of KVMs, PS/2 setups are cheaper.

Not to mention as far as serial goes, some legacy software requires certain models of modems, particularly USR external (hence serial) ones. Serial microcontroller programmers are still quite popular. Lots of other more unique diagnostic and hardware interfaces require serial or parallel ports.

Just because all you ever knew of was printers and mice doesn't mean there's no other use for em.

 

[Ross Ridge]

Slightly OT: I rather trade those useless parallel, serial, floppy ports for an extra IDE port (which is actually useful to most of us). It boggles my mind these still exist after 10+ years from the death of ISA. When was the last time you saw a serial mouse?

ISA isn't actually dead though, it exists in the form of the LPC bus that connects the SuperIO chip to the chipset. All SuperIO chips have parallel, serial, floppy ports built into them so adding support for these devices is just a matter of providing a cheap header and some traces on the motherboard. I'd love if motherboards supported two IDE ports as well, but at least it's something that you can just get a PCI card for if you really need it. You can't add actual PS/2 or floppy hardware ports if the motherboard doesn't provide them.

And yes, these legacy ports are being used, or the motherboard manufacturers wouldn't still be adding them to motherboards. Every SuperIO chip also has a GamePort interface, but thankfully that legacy port is dead and buried. SunnyD mentioned a number of uses of legacy devices, and I'll add some more. In the server world, serial ports are used as console devices, and it's pretty much guaranteed the a server motherboard will have a DB-9 rear I/O connector. Serial ports are also used to connected PCs for low level remote debugging. Modern high-end audio-visual equipment has serial ports, so you'll find serial port headers even on mini-ITX boards. Parallel ports used to be fairly common in business-type PCs because of old speciallized software that used parallel port dongles as copy protection, but that doesn't seem to be much of issue these days.

I'm using a PS/2 mouse right now, though that's mainly because my wireless USB mouse isn't working well (and I wore out my PS/2 wireless mouse...). You can still buy PS/2 keyboards and mice pretty easily. I had a floppy drive connected temporarily for F6 RAID driver installation recently because it was simpler and quicker than burning a CD. I've got a PlayStation memory card reader that's hooked up to my serial port.

 

[ehume]

I use a PS/2 mouse and a PS/2 KB. In 13 years I haven't found suitable replacements. 13 years of steady use - a Dell keyboard and a Logitech Mouseman that fits my hand and responds to my clicks (the KB is on an adapter).

 

[VirtualLarry]

I still use PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, for my IBM TrackPoint II M13 keyboard. It is one of the "model M"-style "clicky" keyboards, but it also has the "nipple", the trackpoint device.