Affordable ISA external slots

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carlmart

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Sep 17, 2006
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A friend of mine deals with audio speaker measurements, and the program demands using a Turtle Beach ISA board.

Finding ISA slots in modern boards is practically impossible, and he usually has to go after second hand mobos, which do not last too much.

I did a search on external ISA boards, and they are around $170, which is the price of a quality new mobo.

Any suggestion on options?
 
What is he doing to kill the old, used, motherboards?

Chances are, that the capacitors are really the only thing going bad.

The capacitors are pretty easy to replace if you have any experience whatsoever with a soldering iron.

As for an external ISA slot, the usb2isa-r thing is really the only affordable thing available.

It is not a high demand product, so of course it is going to be somewhat pricey.

So either that or just keep replacing old motherboards if you don't want to recap them.
 
Well, it's no surprise for me on the used boards not lasting too much. Capacitors are rarely the problem.

In any case he just turns the PC on when he's measuring something. Past boards used to last more, as is also my experience with my more recent boards.

It's not for me, really. I would have gone for a more modern option.

Yes, the adapters are probably the best option.
 
carlmart said:
Well, it's no surprise for me on the used boards not lasting too much. Capacitors are rarely the problem.

In any case he just turns the PC on when he's measuring something. Past boards used to last more, as is also my experience with my more recent boards.

It's not for me, really. I would have gone for a more modern option.

Yes, the adapters are probably the best option.
Click to expand...

I've got some old boards that have ISA slots - Socket 370, Slot A, and Socket A. The only problem I ever had with any of them was the capacitors dying. If the CMOS battery goes dead that can be a problem as well.

Unless this person is using old power supplies that are killing the boards, I really don't see how they could be dying all the time.

In any case, yes, the adapter is going to be the best bet as long as it will work with the card and OS you are needing it for.

The old PCI to ISA expansion chassis setups could not do DMA transfers - most likely driver related as from what I have been able to find out, the hardware specs say it should be able to do it. Not sure about the USB one.
 
OK, I might have to ask my friend exactly how many boards he had problems with, but the last one (second hand) died quite quickly.

I definitely think he should take a different path, instead of wasting money in used mobos.

Once again, it's not me who's using this scheme. I never would.
 
All this money spent on old shitty motherboards, they guy can't just buy new software that supports modern hardware?
 
Things were working fine for him until recently, and the software (called LAUD) was a few hundredths, when it was released in late '90s. It strictly required a Fiji or Turtle Beach sound board to work with it. ISA, of course.

Later versions cost several thousands, and my friend was fine with what he had. As I said, only recently things started to get difficult.
 
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