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Thread: ISA backplanes

  1. #1
    Great Puma (Level 12) Niku-Sama's Avatar
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    Default ISA backplanes

    i kinda want a retro computer, like win95/98 era to play pre direct x games on, but i didnt want another big honkin tower so i looked to go smaller.

    so i wound up with two single board computers (sbc). Ones a pentium 133 (i think) with 30 pin SIMMs on it (wish it was 72 pin) and the other has a celeron (socket 370) and some DIMMs on it.
    the pentium might be socket 5 which is kinda a bummer but maybe not.

    anyway they both use a 16 bit ISA slot for expansion plus a standard called PC/104 which is, in this case, a weird ide looking connector thats basically tapped into the ISA bus directly.

    i'm tryting to find either a ISA backplane or a PC/104 ISA adapter so i can build a small retro PC, i'd only need a backplane with 2 or 3 slots on it. basically for a sound card and/or some other oddball cards i come across.
    i can run these SBCs on their own, they have disk controllers and video chips onboard. its not much longer than the ISA slot it self but i'd really like to find something to mount it to.

    any one have any thoughts?

    i've checked ebay and local e-waste recyclers. craigs list and offer up from time to time but nothings popped...

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    calthaer

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    Is the problem that the backplanes online that you can see are too large? It could be the case that small backplanes are either rare or nonexistent. As you've noted, many computers of this era were large - cases tended to be massive with lots of extra space, and people didn't even need all the ISA slots that came on their motherboard (modem, sound card, video card...that's it) - let alone have need of a backplane that would accommodate more.
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    Great Puma (Level 12) Niku-Sama's Avatar
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    Default

    size and price. i could find all sorts of cheap backplanes but they were large and the smaller ones cost upwards of several hundred dollars some times.
    how ever i had an idea the other day diggin through my old stuff.

    a riser card

    its essentially a blackplane some times with a proprietary card connector at the motherboard side. but i dont need the motherboard side i just need a group of ISA slots bussed together.

    so i managed to find a cheap one and everything tones out with a multimeter, i need to find a tester PSU. i dont want to yank my 8088's psu and the 386 one is ded. i might get a small form factor atx and user a converter but i might need -5v so i dont know if i want to go that route. i still need an enclosure of sort but i still need to get a place of my own at the same time

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