Calling Veterans for Help with Old Tech!!

[jeremyrailton]

Hey guys, I'm building a machine for an associate who needs lots of old ISA slots to house VOIP dialer cards. To get the amount of ISA slots he wants, I have to go old tech and use a backplane with a CPU card. I've only built gaming systems before, so I'm unfamiliar with how this tech works. Here's where the veteran tech experts come in:

I got this backplane:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=180132785322&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=008

and this cpu card to put in it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=350084554336&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=022

So, my understanding is that the cpu card has what I need to plug in hard drives and an optical drive. One big question is how to connect power to the backplane. Does power go from the PSU to the CPU card or to the backplane? Or both? I see a space on the backplane where the traditional 20-pin power plug would go, but the plug isn't there, there are only little holes. What's that about?

Is there anything to this build other than just plugging in the CPU card, giving it power, and starting up? Sorry for my ignorance, this is just unlike anything I've done before. I'm hoping some of you veterans have done this before and can help me out.

Thanks in advance!

 

[jeremyrailton]

bumpsky

 

[flyin15sec]

Wow, thats is a real challenge you have there. What type of ISA boards are you talking about that does VOIP? I think there is possibly a better more modern solution than ISA.

 

[jeremyrailton]

yeah, there are more modern VOIP boards, but they cost WAY more, plus he already has a bunch of the old ones that work just fine, so we're stuck with the old tech.

 

[flyin15sec]

The only thing you may want to do is instead of such a proprietary setup, go with something a bit easier to work with. This won't have the same amount of ISA slots, but parts are easier to get by.

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/P4/E7210/P4SCA.cfm

Supermicro is a company that won't fold tomorrow.

Looking at that Ebay link, you'd need an AT PSU, plus a custom chasiss. I think that is alot of work. With the Supermicro board, it's ATX, any modern full tower chasis will work. They have drivers and every type of support you would need.

Go the easier route if you have to support this thing.

 

[jeremyrailton]

Thanks for the reply. I actually tried to get him to agree to this as well, but he's dead set on putting all 7-10 cards in one rackmount case. I did a lot of googling around today and have come a couple steps closer. You're right about the AT psu part, though I instead ordered a bunch of spare pins and connectors to rewire a decent ATX psu to fit my needs. It's gonna be a pain in the &^$, but he's gonna pay for it plus all my labor, so I suppose that's good for me. Now I need to figure out what all those connectors do on the board. What powers what?