Multiple Motherboards?

[TooNA]

Has anyone eveer seen plans for building a PC that utilizes more than one motherboard?

I am curious to see how it would be done.

Any input appreciated.

 

[Markbnj]

Why? Computers used to have multiple backplanes but circuits have been getting smaller and more integrated. What components would you need to mount on a second board?

 

[JackMDS]

Welcome to AT Computer forums.

Sure Asus and few others manufacturers make Motherboards that are a combo of four Motherboards each with a Quad CPU.

So actually, you have 16 CPUs cores on the Motherboard. Each CPU has its own 4 slots for memory too.

Otherwise, what is on your mind?

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: TooNA
Has anyone eveer seen plans for building a PC that utilizes more than one motherboard?

I am curious to see how it would be done.

Any input appreciated.

See the Tyan Thunder S4985 with the M4985 Option board. You will need two HT4881 Hyper Transport TM connectors to mount the M4985 to the S4985.

I would also be interested in knowing what an 8-way 32-core 128Gb ram rig will be crunching . Gonna play WOW ???

Welcome!

 

[TooNA]

I thought I saw plans once and I have since been unable to locate that site. If I remember right the plans utilized 4 motherboards and had the power of Big Blue for like 1200 bucks. Alas, my memory is hazy.

 

[themisfit610]

Beowulf clusters work like this.

You can press old systems into service into a cheap cluster using Linux and some special clustering software. It's interconnect limited with gigabit ethernet and faster CPUs most of the time for doing IO intensive stuff like video encoding, but for stuff like SETI @ Home or other distributed computing tasks it can be very fast and cheap. Especially with new energy efficient Athlon 64 X2 processors.

~MiSfit

 

[Markbnj]

Ah, multiple machines in one box. Must have been too early for me to be answering forum posts. Still not sure why when you can already get 8 or more cores on one board. Maybe for some I/O intensive distributed computing it might make sense to replicate everything.

 

[arnav]

See the Tyan Thunder S4985 with the M4985 Option board.

WOW !!!
I really never even thought about this. I didn't even know we could do that. thats amazing.
I will try to get my hands on one of those.

 

[TooNA]

I wonder if these boards can be clustered? 4 processors! Cool.

 

[TooNA]

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo

Originally posted by: TooNA
Has anyone eveer seen plans for building a PC that utilizes more than one motherboard?

I am curious to see how it would be done.

Any input appreciated.

See the Tyan Thunder S4985 with the M4985 Option board. You will need two HT4881 Hyper Transport TM connectors to mount the M4985 to the S4985.

I would also be interested in knowing what an 8-way 32-core 128Gb ram rig will be crunching . Gonna play WOW ???

Welcome!

Very, very cool!

 

[TooNA]

One way to do it.

http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/be...tutorial/building.html


There are several results ofr a search query "Beowolf Clutster" or "Beowulf Cluster".

 

[MrSpadge]

I'm also somewhat interested in this question. What I have in mind: I allow myself to have one PC-box dedicated for distributed computing, so I'd like to stuff as much power in there as possible. If I could mount 2 boards face to face I could use the same case cooling for both of them (i.e. less noise than 2 separate cases) and I could get 2 x 4 cores without using an expensive board with stupid FB-DIMMs and sockets too close for silent air cooling.

It's more like a rough idea though, currently it's just a normal box with a virtually cost-free AXP 2.2 GHz

Thermaltake offers a case which can accept two boards, I think it's called Mozart XT. It's a normal one plus a mini/micro/nano/pico/femto/atto/whatever-super-small-ATX one. And it's huge, ugly and expensive and probably has loud low quality fans, as it's typical for TT. For least for the products of them which I've bought / seen over the years.

MrS

 

[jkresh]

I think mountainmods has a case that can accept two full sized atx motherboards (and probably two solid watercooling kits if you want it to be quiet and cool) and 2 psu's, (http://www.mountainmods.com/co...-duality-c-21_71.html), based on the size and cost you could just get two midtowers for less but I guess this one would be easier to move then two seperate boxes.

 

[MrSpadge]

Thanks! Quite a bit better than the Thermaltake. Looking at the price I'll surely stick to some standard case though..

And here's how I'd prefer such a case:
http://www.speedshare.org/fztItTPQpf
4 front 120 mm is enough, 2 power supplies are enough and the 4 80 mm at the back could be replaced by 2 120 mm. Oh, and solid side panels and top of course, save the windows for someone else

MrS

 

[jkresh]

yeah, I don't understand why the used 80mm on the back, most of the rest of there cases are 120 only (mine has room for 9 120's of which I am using 7, 3 in on radiator, 1 in regular, 3 out). They recently made some interesting changes to their cases (you have always been able to swap the side and top panels but now the front and back can be changed as well, so if you want more optical bays or an additional slot for a radiator you don't need to buy a new case, just a new panel).

 

[Zepper]

Yeah, just siamese a couple of budget cases together. Or you could use a couple of Lian Li mobo drawers and build your own box to hold them. Scavenge drive racks and other hardware from other cases to make life easier. I'd a thought VinDSL would have jumped all over this one as he's always touting the Mountain Mods cases...

.bh.