Isa computer building
Posted by roiber08@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 11 comments
As looking for on original ibm computer gave me only few, very pricy ones, I've decided to put one together from different parts that I find online. It seems like a more viable and cheaper option, and I don't care for it to be an original set inside a retro pc case, it just needs to work so I can connect an mda monitor to it. I've found already an Isa motherboard (it has a processor, cooler and ram) as well as a Hercules card, so besides a power unit and some floppy or disk driver to install ibm basic what would I need, and maybe you have some tips for me about the building process I could use?
Phydoux@reddit
I'd LOVE to find a MB with 16 bit and 18 bit ISA Only on it (no PCI bus...). I still have DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0 to put on it too.
NightmareJoker2@reddit
You will need to find a 486 or 386. Windows 3.0 on a 286 is pain. It runs, but… it’s pain.
grislyfind@reddit
From experience, old video cards may not work well on later ISA motherboards (even 100 MHz-ish Pentiums).
Educational_Bee_6245@reddit
Yea, that mainboard has everything you need beside a video card. I guess Hercules is not really period correct but should work. What might take some fiddling is getting both printer ports not to interfere with each other. In case you don't have two printers just switch one of them off.
Yea, you will need a floppy drive.
You can also get a compact flash card and an adapter use as a hard drive.
roiber08@reddit (OP)
Yes hercules was the first one that came to my mind, as it was sort of "upgrade" to normal mda cards, but I think I can use some older mda card. Besides, my monochrome monitor probaby won't be able to handle non-text based graphics, so I guess it doesn't matter.
LeftyTheSalesman@reddit
Your monitor can display Hercules graphics, that was the main reason for the success of these cards.
majestic_ubertrout@reddit
These Intel 440 boards are great for experiencing DOS while having the ATX form processor and much higher comparative ease of use.
This isn't really the right platform for Hercules/MDA though and you're probably going to mostly frustrate yourself using it that way. The processor in this is many multiples of the processor in the original IBM PC (as in, literally 50 times) and it will cause complications.
Just put a early AGP card in there and enjoy DOS/Win98.
gcc-O2@reddit
They risk the BIOS POST/setup screens not working on CGA/MDA too, since this is a few years past CGA/MDA jumpers on boards.
abagofcells@reddit
You REALLY want to use that monitor 😆
roiber08@reddit (OP)
Yes, I AM fulfilling my dream of using a cool looking green monitor, even if that means learning innerworking of some ancient technology
ProperEye8285@reddit
Here's how I would approach this. First you need to get a functional computer and then "downshift" to get the MDA working. That motherboard looks to me to be a slot 1 Pentium III and should be able to run windows 98SE which is where I would start. If it has built-in VGA great. If not you'll need to get a PCI or AGP vga adapter as well as that board's bios will not boot without one. then you'll need a 3 1/2" floppy, ISA hard drive and CD-ROM. The board might be able to boot from the CD-ROM but you might need to create a floppy boot disk to install 98SE. once you get 98SE installed and running its time to explore whether you can find dos drivers for that MDA card and get them installed for dos mode. Either way you'll be running a dual monitor VGA MDA setup as your "modern" bios will not recognize MDA as a valid display adapter. Final challenge will be to get programs that run in MDA mode to output to that adapter; that one I don't know the answer to.
Good Luck!