Seeing that I have always delt with used computers, mainly 486's, can someone tell me if the new computers of today come with any ISA slots or do they all come with only PCI slots?

most still come with one or two isa slots, there are also some boards that don't come my, older, asus p2l97 comes with 2 slots. one of them is shared with a pci slot, if i have a pci card in the one next to the isa, the isa slot becomes dead, and vice versa, i've seen quite a few boards like that. so most still do come with isa, i still use 2 isa cards, my creative labs sb16 isa/pnp, and a 3com 56k winmodem, so there is still some use with older cards, on newer computers, if you don't want to spend (i say waste) money on a new modem/sb when you don't really need to. the only thing i would recomend, is not to use an isa video card, its probably best to use an agp card , with the supplied agp slot, probably the only thing, next to a net card, that is worth using the new standards for. to each is own though (vbg)

Yeah if you got a agp slot! pssss all you need is vga and you can run anything, make sure it is (vga card) supported by linux because windows is obsolete.

all new computers come with agp slots, don't they? Linux is obsolete in my opinion (vbg)

If you buy a computer that it is labeled 'Legacy free' then it does not come with ISA slots, and often times without even a standard serial connector (USB only). If your newer computer is not labeled legacy free, then it's possible that it does come with ISA slots. The only way to really know is to check the specs for the motherboard. A good rule of thumb is the more proprietary and cheaper the PC is, then the less likely it is to have ISA slots. Most computers that you purchase from chain stores like best buy, staples, etc have no ISA slots, and you will be lucky if it even has any free slots whatsoever. A lot of them have most of the hardware (sound, video, serial, parallel, sometimes even NICs and Modems) built onto the motherboard, with only 2 PCI slots. So I guess what I'm saying is that again, it depends upon the motherboard, and it's best not to assume that you will have ISA slots. As time goes by, you're less and less likely to find motherboards that do support ISA. And Tony, no not all new computers come with AGP. A lot of PCs geared towards business use PCI video cards, as there are still quite a few PCI video cards that are very powerful available. Just my 2 cents, -Michael BTW, neither Linux nor Windows are obsolete.

The frequencies involved in sound cards and modems do not require PCI slots. Not only does an ISA slot work better but as far as I can tell most ISA modems and sound cards work and many PCI ones do not. The problem is finding motherboards with one or two ISA slots. I have a computer with one ISA slot with a modem in it and a Creative Labs PCI sound card. The sound card applications are so different from the same card in ISA that I have put off trying to use them. Stick with ISA for these two functions when you can?

linux is obsolete? It'll be around long after you are gone, my friend.