Modern Motherboards - Whats working

[Eric Erickson]

All,

A physical machine that I use with Arca Noae is starting to develop some issues. So I'm looking to replace it. So what motherboards have folks been having success with V5.1. Now some of my requirements are:

• Has to have PS/2 ports for both Keyboard and Mouse (needed for my KVM Setup)
• Would like several (at least 2) PCI-E Slots so I can slap a supported network adapter if the onboard MB one is not
• 1 of the PCI-E slots will be be used for a SCSI Adapter for my tape drive
• AMD preferred over Intel

I want the 2 PS/2 ports, as while I've had success at times using USB->PS/2 Adapters, they have generally been with IBM Thinkpads and sometimes even they don't work right through my TrendNet KVM.

Thanks in Advance!

[Neil Waldhauer]

The vast majority of OS/2 users are on commercial computers, not home-made from motherboards.

Any Lenovo M series desktop computer in the last 15 years would work with your requirements -- I've tried pretty much all of them.

You can go with the hobbyist market -- It's more of a hobby than a rational decision. I know several skilled hobbyists inhabit OS/2 World. If building your own computer brings joy, go for it.

You can buy refurbished computers from the many of the major electronics retail websites now.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

I documented some reported working mainboards on the OS2World wiki, right here:
- https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Motherboards

But I don't think they have PS2 ports anymore.

Regards

[ivan]

You didn't mention video output ports.  I ask because all my units are using HDMI either direct or via a DVI to HDMI adapter.

My setup is a 4 port Tcnewcl 4k KVM switch which takes USB 2.0 keyboard and trackball as well as my 28inch 1920x1200 HDMI monitor.  The main computer has a MSI A320M Pro-VD Plus motherboard, another possibility is the ASRock AB350M Pro4 - it has 2 PS/2 ports which you want.

BTW I think you should be thinking about upgrading your KVM switch to enable  you to have a much wider choice of motherboards.

[Dave Yeo]

The biggest problem with new computers/MB's is how much memory OS/2 sees as they're designed with 64bit OS's in mind. Lots of reports where less then 2GB's is usable on the newest
Neil's advice about Lenovo M series is good, I picked up one, about 6 years old, for C$90 (US$65-70), works great, no PS2 ports on this one but they were an option. Most (all?) are Intel though.

[Pete]

Hi Eric

The MSI B450 - https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php?title=MSI_B450M_PRO-VDH_MAX - almost fits your specs ie works well with ArcaOS 5.1, no problem accessing around 3.5Gb RAM *but* only has 1 PS/2 port ...

@Martin: This does not seem to be on the mainboards page  https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Motherboards


Regards

Pete

[Eugene Tucker]

I am happy with my ASUS TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI. (The wifi does't work) and you will need the last drop from Paul Smeadly of Uniaud.

[Martin Iturbide]

@Martin: This does not seem to be on the mainboards page  https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Motherboards

Thanks for letting me know. I had updated the list.

Regards

[aziz]

*but* only has 1 PS/2 port ...

That should not be a problem: there are ps/2 splitter cables for this. In fact mouse and keyboard are connected to different pins on the ps/2 connector.

[Matt Walsh]

I'm using a USB splitter for my 4 computer setup for the Keyboard and mouse.  It's a generic USB switch selector and was less than $15.  I also use a "Vention" HDMI splitter which was also cheap.  Both work fine with my ASUS B-550 Prime.

[Roderick Klein]

Hi

I documented some reported working mainboards on the OS2World wiki, right here:
- https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Motherboards

But I don't think they have PS2 ports anymore.

Regards

PS/2 ports are on most modern systems dead as doornail. Maybe industrial mainboards (that are sometimes pretty expensive), still tend to have PS/2 ports.
The more modern systems the 8042 PS/2 controller is also going away from the mainboards.

Roderick

[Olafur Gunnlaugsson]

Hi

I documented some reported working mainboards on the OS2World wiki, right here:
- https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Motherboards

But I don't think they have PS2 ports anymore.

Regards

PS/2 ports are on most modern systems dead as doornail. Maybe industrial mainboards (that are sometimes pretty expensive), still tend to have PS/2 ports.
The more modern systems the 8042 PS/2 controller is also going away from the mainboards.

Roderick

Most motherboards on the market have at the least 1 PS/2 connector that is usable as either KB or mouse, a few specialist gaming boards skip them altogether but that is not the norm at all yet. If one is all that is needed you can choose from a number of AM5 or 12/13th Intel based boards.

"Business boards", i.e. LTS boards designed for long term support contracts frequently have both KB/Mouse connectors but feature slightly older chipsets as in the case of Intel in particular, the "business" chipsets are frequently not shipped in volume until long after the "performance" ones, even if they are announced at the same time. I am running this with a Ryzen 5500: https://www.asus.com/uk/motherboards-components/motherboards/csm/pro-a520m-c-ii-csm/

Not the newest board but, received an updated version late last year when I bought it and with Ryzen 3 support that is not really an issue speed wise, and the PCI slot comes in handy. ASUS still has at the least one PS/2 connector on most of their boards, but on AMD670 and Intel 760/90 gaming boards only some of the PRIME boards have them.

The LTS type boards are not always available to the public since they are intended for the OEM market, but large OEM makers such as Pegatron (DELL, HP, Acer etc) et al have them in their lineup, sold under a variety of names. The Asus is sold to end users however: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Business-Motherboard-Supports-Management/dp/B0BTJ4KLR8

ASROCK has at the least 1 PS/2 connector on all intel boards bar a few intel 790 boards, it is missing from a number of AMD 6xx series boards but LTS boards such the AM5 https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/A620M-HDVP/index.asp actually have 2.

MSI has a few as well: This one is similar to the Asus minus the  PCI socket: https://uk.msi.com/Motherboard/A520M-A-PRO
Most other MSI board have a single PS/2 connector

Most Gigabyte boards have at the least 1 connector, their LTS boards have two like this: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/H410M-H-V2-rev-20#kf

Biostar has 1 connector on everything except Intel 7xx gaming boards, the consumer 7xx boards have 1 however
Their AMD LTS boards have 2 PS/2 connectors but the Intel ones only one for some reason
eg https://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=995

[Andi B.]

Thanks for the information. I slowly start to search for an replacement of my current 4-core Intel based system so this very useful to me.

PS/2 is often needed for OS/2 as I run into situations where USB does not work anymore but the also attached PS/2 keyboard does. Maybe this is now better with the very last USB driver set but I fear such problems I had with my SATA drive where nothing except PS/2 and copy com1: worked could not be debugged without this old interfaces.

Although I currently run an Asus board I thought I should go with MSI now (again). But the Asrock A620M-HDVP you mentioned looks very good on the first sight. I wanna have at least 8 cores (real ones, not the hyperthreading crap) so I will end up with AMD this time. But I also wanna have the integrated graphic to work with my 3840x2160 via DP. Anyone tested this with current AMD chips? Low energy consumption to get very quite operation are primary requirements too.

[Neil Waldhauer]

PS/2 ports are on most modern systems dead as doornail. Maybe industrial mainboards (that are sometimes pretty expensive), still tend to have PS/2 ports.
The more modern systems the 8042 PS/2 controller is also going away from the mainboards.

Roderick

Even the latest Lenovo M series desktop has optional PS/2 ports. My particular problem, which is not unique to OS/2, is in supporting access to IBM iSeries and mainframes that still rely on their legacy keyboards. I expect to be able to support PS/2 connected keyboards for a long time to come.

[christech]

ArcaOS works pretty well with my Asus Crosshair V. Has PS/2 but it is now over 10 years old and is AMD.