AllUrBaseRBelong2Us wrote:

I like the idea of VLB--gives it a unique nostalgic feel. If you can find a nice socket 3 board, you could use a PODP5V83 processor for added uniqueness. Otherwise, I'd go with a 486DX2-50 or 486DX2-66 processor. Not a fan of the DX4's. Stay away from the 486DX-50 to avoid bus speed compatibility issues.

May be the case for you, but my 486 came with a PCI Cirrus Logic - as such VLB holds no sentimental value for me. It's motherboard had two VLB slots (FIC 486-VIP-IO2) but at the time I had no idea what those were. The first time I ever saw a vlb card (multi I/O controller) was about 5-6 years ago, and I had no idea what it was until I googled it's FCC ID.

EISA didn't gain a lot of traction, other than for high end servers.

There were combined VLB ISA PCI motherboards, often shortened to "VIP", but the PCI implementation tends to be inferior to PCI / ISA boards