The two Baby AT boards I used in real systems back in old times were MB-8433UUD-A and HOT-591P, both of which seem to be retro favorites now, so lucky coincidence
I stopped caring once ISA/DOS faded away... maybe you count the 980DE3/U3S3 AM3+ I have as a bridge machine (has IDE and floppy)

DFI ITOX G7S620-N

This is an LGA775 motherboard based on the Intel i865 chipset. This chipset has rock solid stability in Windows 9x and XP.

The board itself has dual ISA slots with full support for DMA under DOS, AGP 8x, dual Gigabit LAN ports, USB 2.0, SATA, IDE, FDD... it basically has everything I need for an ultimate all-in-one retro PC.

Until I got this next motherboard...

AXIOM Tech IMB200

Very similar specs to the DFI board except has an extra PCI slot, a built-in CF slot, and only a single 10/100 LAN port. It also uses a different ISA bridge chip, which reportedly has better compatibility though I haven't thoroughly tested that yet.

Currently in the process of migrating my mulit-OS Pentium 4 build to this IMB200 motherboard.

Well first on the list is my trusty MS-5148 , its nothing special and its a pretty average late 90s socket 7 430TX ATX motherboard with early USB / CMOS battery and PS/2 but it has 4x pci and 4x ISA slots , I've used it for years and crammed every expansion card imaginable into it , hooked it up to a bunch of midi boxes , upgraded it a number of times, and played heaps of games in DOS 6.22 , WIN 3.1 and WIN95 , it has its quirks , but its mostly reliable so I'll put it on the list.

Next would be a split between the ABIT BF6 and ASUS P3B-F , both really solid 440BX motherboards , I used the ABIT first then later migrated to the ASUS , probably because it had a bit of a legendary reputation , but I didn't notice much of a difference. Anyways both are good , and both handled being kitted out to the max pretty well for WIN98SE.

Those have been the ones I mainly use for retro.

In terms of other motherboards , more recent ones , and I might be able to put these both in since they're pretty old at this point.

I used to have a haswell 5820K build with two gtx980s in sli , ran eveything really well back in the day.
The mobo is a ASROCK x99 Extreme 3 , hard to believe its 10 years old at this point , how times flies.

Which leads me to this , my current motherboard which is getting really long in the tooth but has served me really well for a number of years now
This build was really fast , ages ago , I sold the 980s and used the money to get a 1080Ti , moved from Intel to AMD and got a 2700x , which is also very old now , and got my hands on some M.2 drives which i really coveted at the time since i was moving from a regular SSD to tiny gum stick form factor drives holding as much capacity , it felt like the future.

The X470 Master SLI also had the perk of having onboard WiFi vs my older mobo so no need for pci wifi cards.
I'm still using it as my daily driver , 6 years old at this point since the day of its release.

AppleSauce wrote on 2024-08-05, 05:03:

Next would be a split between the ABIT BF6 and ASUS P3B-F , both really solid 440BX motherboards , I used the ABIT first then later migrated to the ASUS , probably because it had a bit of a legendary reputation , but I didn't notice much of a difference. Anyways both are good , and both handled being kitted out to the max pretty well for WIN98SE.

Out of curiosity, did you ever find having only a single ISA slot to be a limitation at all?

Interesting question!

Without any planning I guess it's Intel BX based motherboards.
Our second PC was a Gateway PII which used an Intel made BX motherboard.
I've since picked up a second Gateway with a S370 Intel BX motherboard and a Dell Slot 1 BX motherboard.

None are perfect, both gateways come with AudioPCI 64 onboard and the S370 also has Rage GPU, none of which is great but can be disabled if needed.
And the Dell has the stupid fake ATX connector.
But all are stable morose then the ASUS boards in my experience and can be used for both dos and 9x gaming.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-08-05, 05:32:

AppleSauce wrote on 2024-08-05, 05:03:

Next would be a split between the ABIT BF6 and ASUS P3B-F , both really solid 440BX motherboards , I used the ABIT first then later migrated to the ASUS , probably because it had a bit of a legendary reputation , but I didn't notice much of a difference. Anyways both are good , and both handled being kitted out to the max pretty well for WIN98SE.

Out of curiosity, did you ever find having only a single ISA slot to be a limitation at all?

Can't answer for Shponglefan but for me PCI is much more useful, much prefer to use PCI over ISA for network, graphics, etc. Only reason for ISA is dos sound and typically that'll just be the one card.
Only reasion I can think of needing a 2nd ISA slot is if it's needed for external MIDI.

The ASUS CUV266 I'm running in my win98 system right now is an absolute champ. I've always been partial to ASUS for years but this mobo really takes the cake for me in terms of stability. The system is solid as a rock and I honestly believe I haven't had a single BSoD with it or at least none that I can remember. The board is from around 2001 with socket 370 getting long in the tooth so I assume the stability is from having learned lessons from previous boards. Overall can't recommend this mobo enough for a stable workhorse win98 system.

My vote goes to the Asus CUBX-E.
440BX, ATA100, runs a Tualatin with an adapter, ISA slot(s).

There are a lot of nice 440BX/ZX boards, like the BP6 and MS-6168 ver2.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-08-05, 05:32:

[...]

Out of curiosity, did you ever find having only a single ISA slot to be a limitation at all?

I'd say that depends on OS. Applesauce says Win98Se, in which case ISA is of very limited use - there are Windows-specific ISA cards they are rare and generally not that interesting. For DOS however one is a must and more is better.

That's my problem with answering 'favorite' or 'best' - that totally depends on what something's being used for. But if being purely nostalgic...

- ECS K7S5A. Dirt-cheap with build quality to match, notorious early BIOS bugs, but for a short time both the fastest board on the planet and the most affordable new board. Was a great upgrade catapulting my poor student self into the 21st century.
- P3C-D. Dual Slot 1 i820 chipset. This was an epic quest for me, I had to try and discard 5 dead boards before I found one that worked. In the end it's a decent dual P3 platform, similar to the ubiquitous dual Via ApolloPro133a boards, with slightly better PCI performance (and no SBLive issues) but slightly higher memory latencies. But the effort involved in procuring one, taking over 15 years, gives this one a warm spot in my heart.
- MSI MS-6168. Slot 1 i440BX uATX with onboard Voodoo 3. This board is epic and I have a personal link to it. At the turn of the millennium I worked at the Packard Bell helpdesk and this board was used in our systems at the time (PB codename 'Bora Pro'). We lusted after it, but bemoaned the lack of expandability. One colleague convinced me there was a new version with onboard Voodoor3 and AGP slot, then laughed when I believed it because I shoud have known AGP was a port, not a bus and you can't have more than one. He kept reminding me of that, long after we stopped working for PB, as we were also both moderators on the same tech forum. (in retrospect, given the V3 hardly uses AGP you could have made a similar board to Asus P2B-VM with onboard Voodoo on PCI and an AGP port, but I digress). The great thing is that - apart from awful caps - this isn't just a solid board, it can be a good platform for pushing the limits. the rev 2.0 supports CuMine and as a BX FSB can be pushed above 100MHz. I have one board that is rock-solid at 133MHz and with a Tualatin 1400S. Not the fastest possible system with that CPU by a long shot (that CPU really needs a GeForce 4Ti), but it triples original performance all while still being in the same tiny PB uATX tower. Add Zalman CNPS3000 and it's silent too, add SATA SSD and I/O improves even more than CPU. My favorite vintage system by far 😀

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-08-05, 05:32:

AppleSauce wrote on 2024-08-05, 05:03:

Next would be a split between the ABIT BF6 and ASUS P3B-F , both really solid 440BX motherboards , I used the ABIT first then later migrated to the ASUS , probably because it had a bit of a legendary reputation , but I didn't notice much of a difference. Anyways both are good , and both handled being kitted out to the max pretty well for WIN98SE.

Out of curiosity, did you ever find having only a single ISA slot to be a limitation at all?

Not really since the ms-5148 is dedicated almost full time to DOS , the p3b and bf6 totally cater to windows 98 so I don't really have a use for the isa slot , someone else might find it a limitation though.

Let's see. None listed in order.

- ABIT BE6-II HPT366 - best Slot 1 I could ever ask for. Proper 133FSB operation, lotsa IDE to work with, overclock options galore.
- Soyo 6BA +IV - sort of an indirect sibling to the BE6. It can't really overclock due to the PLL chip used, but has almost never crashed.
- Luckystar 6BX2 - small AT board that has a lot of potential with a BIOS mod. VRM is totally Coppermine compatible, but BIOS never had a chance to get the support. Patched my BIOS and it runs great.
- Gateway Tabor 3 - built upon the WS440BX, this thing is literally A TITAN. I mean it - only the ABIT and Soyo have come as close as being that rock solid.
- ECS K7VZA - neat, cheap and stable KT133A mobo, as long as you were using Shuttle's version of the BIOS (ECS' BIOS was just crap, period.). Have ran Windows ME on it with zero crashes... on an IBM Deskstar 20GB (60GXP) no less. (although I assume the 60GXP is one of the metal platter Deskstars, similar to the 34GXP I own)
- ECS K7S5A - neat small OC gremlin once recapped and flashed with the right BIOS. Mine sports Rubycons and polymer caps as of speaking.
- ABIT NF7 and NF7-S v2.0 - great boards (one is without SATA), Taipan BIOS does wonders with a mobile chip
- Soltek SL-75FRN2-RL - almost the holy grail of nForce 2. Forget the mess that is A7N8X, this is one of the kings, along with the NF7 and DFI's Lanparty NF2 Ultra B. Took me almost a decade to find a working one, it now paid off.
- ASRock P4Dual-915GL - microATX monster that can expand your GPU horizon greatly. Did I mention that thanks to the 915 chipset, it runs HD7800/7900 cards?
- ASUS CUSL2 - one of the few great ASUS boards, long before their quality took a plummet into the ground worse than Mayday. Like seriously, their later 775 boards (945 onwards) quality were worse than ECS.
- ASUS P5P800 and ASRock 775i65PE - neat 865 based 775 boards. Unfortunately both are limited to P4 and Pentium D as far as I remember, at least in ASRock's case.
- FIC P4M-RS350 - very interesting microATX mobo, with an onboard Radeon 9100. Found one OEM'd by Medion (which I fortunately managed to flash back to FIC). Depending on what CPU you have, different splash screens appear - I currently replaced the one for Celeron but might have to work something up for P4/P4HT as well.

M919

These have all been very reliable with nice features--

QDI P5I430TX TITANIUM IB+
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/qdi-p5 … 0tx-titanium-ib

MSI K7N2M
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/msi-k7n2m

ASRock G43Twins-FullHD
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asrock … g43twins-fullhd

leileilol wrote on 2024-08-05, 15:49:

M919

Some people don't like that board, but I like my mine. Looks like the PCM has a tendency to curl though.

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/pcchip … m919-ver-3.3b-f

Asus P2B
Asus A7V/A7V133
Not the best, but I had great luck with them. P2B an absolute pillar of reliability in my experience, sold tons, never had one break or cause trouble. First A7V one I got was with Duron 600, last A7V133 I sold was with XP 2400+. A7V/A7V133 very finicky with component selection, but otherwise indestructible.

I have an A7V133 I like a lot, and the only other Asus I have a soft spot for is the P/I P55T2P4 revision 3.0 ... though I am hoping to make peace with P5A-Bs.

I like a surprising amount of ECS/PCChips boards, like M537DMA, M919, M571 K7S5A, K7SEM...

But fave of all time, has to be these little suckers of which there are many clones.. https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/gemlight-gmb-386sat

I think this Octek Hippo DCA2 looks pretty nice with the dark solder mask, black memory slots, yellow tantalums and labels:

Plus its got an MR-BIOS and it uses weird RAM which makes it more interesting. Haven't had a chance yet to see if its weird ED-RAM really does provide better performance, and sadly I've only got 8MB of the stuff anyway which is a little limiting.

Ampro Little board/PC and Little board/186. Have the former but not the latter.

Circuit Cellar MPX-16. NOT.

Radio Electronics RE Robot brain aka Vesta Technologies OEM-188. YES IT'S MINE. I may have the only one on earth.

I like sbc's in general. Intel and 68000 based that is.

Octek HIPPO-12 VIP, I was looking for it because it was the motherboard I used for the first computer I built myself, it may be not perfect in many places, but it means a lot to me.

But it is difficult to find, and it has been encountered occasionally, and it has been severely damaged due to battery leakage.

Hi everyone 😀
Oooh, i love these kinds of threads. Some of these boards mentioned i've heard of but never used myself.
I'll try not to make this post too long.
My personal fave boards are what i've used and what i've kept coming back to, so for me:

Gigabyte GA-5AX rev 4.1 using an AMD K6-III 400Mhz CPU. This was the 1st computer i'd built with mostly brand new parts, and not second hand. (Except for my Voodoo 2 card)
I got this board in my 1st year of college, and had it ever since. I just absolutely love this board, so much hardware versatility. I've used it with MS-DOS/Windows 98, and maybe 2000.
I've had a lot of fun with this board so far, and learnt a lot too.
I would also love messing around with MIDI files in Evolution Audio on the sound cards i'd use using the DB50XG. (Microsoft seemed to shy away from MIDI stuff in newer OS, WHY?)
When not doing that i'd be playing DOS/Windows Games, a bit of programming, web browsing etc. Happy memories.

I've built other systems in between but something slightly newer, from my previous PC was the Asus M4A78T-E with a Phenom II x4 955BE, I'd used this system for 10 years, and would almost never run into stability issues. This was my 1st Quad core system. I learned a lot about computers from this motherboard too, maybe not as much.

Right now, I'm using an Asus Prime X570-P with an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, RTX 2060, 32GB DDR4-3200 RAM, and i still prefer to have a dedicated sound card, using a SB Recon3D PCIe.
I use this rig for programming, recording samples, listening to music, watching DVDs/Blu Rays, and a lot more besides, including Gaming: both older/newer games and console emulation like GameCube/PS3/Wii U etc.
Although easily the most powerful system i've ever owned, i like this mobo as much as the previous board i mentioned, but not quite as much as my GA-5AX, no where near as powerful as the newer boards, but i kinda miss the magic of that older system, synths and all. Maybe i'm weird.

My favourite board would be the Asus Maximus Extreme. Three real PCIe ×16 slots – enough said.
My MSI MS-5169 has also held up pretty well; it's rock-solid on Windows NT 4.0, 2000 and XP, even with an AGP video card running at 2×.