VOGONS


First post, by 90skidJohnny

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Howdy all. Ive tried to do look up some info on this but, kinda striking out.

My current motherboard has ISA slots. Can I add a riser to a single slot? Also, if the riser has 3 slots, will this in turn give me 3 more ISA ports?

Only reason I am even interested, is im having trouble finding a cheap vintage case that wasnt build for using a riser and having the cards horizontally vs vertically. Was wondering If I could just get a riser and change the layout.

Thanks.

Reply 1 of 5, by bakemono

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Yes there are some risers that can plug into any ISA slot, even on a board that was not designed to use a riser. (Many risers use a nonstandard edge connector though, so watch out for that.) The number of total expansion cards that you can use at one time would still be limited by electrical issues (eg. load, capacitance) so don't expect to plug in 10 ISA cards or something like that.

Reply 2 of 5, by 90skidJohnny

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Thanks for the info. Yah I found a "probably" broken 386 machine for pretty cheap. Want to try to put my 486 board in it. The 386 machine already seems to have the ISA riser card in it. Think im gonna give it a shot. Its cheap enough.

Otherwise imma have to hack up the case. Which, i really dont wanna do. I know it can be done, but, anytime cutting tools are envolved, i tend to, screw it up 🤣

Reply 3 of 5, by kixs

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If your 486 board is also only ISA based then I don't see a problem using ISA riser. But if you have VLB or PCI, then you're sacrificing performance (video, i/o).

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Reply 4 of 5, by 90skidJohnny

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Kixs I didnt think about that. Hmmmm...
I have ISA and VLB. No PCI.

Im still ordering parts for this build, and right now, i currently ordered an ISA video cards vs VLB due to cost at the moment. I know VLB is cool, but for what I plan on running on this machine, it may really be overkill.

Reply 5 of 5, by 90skidJohnny

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FYI, i just bought this. No idea if im gonna be able to get the board in, but we shall see. It's one of those so ugly i like it type things.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/163597718506