Project Evergreen (dual mainboard g4)

[snooziums]

Hiya

Well, I had the idea some time ago of making a dual mainboard mac g4 computer. I decided to use PowerTowerPro Mac clone mainboards, upgraded to g4 processor cards. However finding a case that would handle two 12 x 13 inch mainboards was very difficult. Finally I found one and I have started modifications on it.

It is still in the early stages of design. The pictures are below:

Some specifications so far:

Dual Tsunami Mainboards (Made by Power Computing) (12 by 13 inches ATX)
Six 32-bit 12” full length PCI slots (allows for major expandability)
50 MHz Mainboard/lookaside bus speed, 64-bit data path
Eight memory slots, supports 70ns 168-pin FPM DIMMs, one gigabyte maximum ram, one gigabyte installed (per mainboard).
4 MB bootstrap/firmware ROM.
Intergraded floppy controller, dual SCSI (10 Mpbs & 5 Mbps 50-pin), 10-base-T Ethernet (RJ-45 + AAUI)

PCI cards installed (first mainboard):
1. Sonnet Trio card, two dual ATA/133 channels, two USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 400 ports
2. SonnetTech Serial ATA hard drive controller, two ports, 48-bit LBA support, supports mirroring and striping.
3. Four-port 100-base-T network card with Intel chipset and full duplex capabilities
4. ATi 9200 PCI 128 MB video card (the most powerful PCI video card currently in existence).

PCI cards installed (second mainboard):
1. Sonnet Trio card, two dual ATA/133 channels, two USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 400 ports
2. Adaptic PowerDomain 3940UW Dual-Channel UltraWide SCSI card, Ultra SCSI @ 40 Mbps per channel
3. Sound Blaster Live! 32-bit audio card
4. PCI fiber-optic dual channel card (full length)
5 & 6 Dual VooDoo 5 5500 video cards with dual graphic processors and 64mb RAM per card, DVI-D & VGA out, dual monitor support (per card), 350MHz RAM, 1600 by 1200 resolution, and anti-aliasing support.

Drives installed
1-3 Iomega Zip 100 + Jaz 1GB optical drives & PCMCIA dual card drive. All SCSI-II.
4. Seagate Scorpion 12/24 gb Dat3 DDS-3 tape drive, SCSI-II
5. I/O Magic 8x DVD +/- R/RW burner
6. Thermaltake X-Blower dual channel VR fan controller
7. Thermaltake Xcontroller four-channel fan controller

Dual 650 watt dual fan power supplies with four 110volt AC outlets each
Dual mainboard server case, 27 x 22 x 13 inches, 11 5.25 + 2 3.5 external drive bays, 9 led indicators, & 5 120mm case fans


Still a lot of work needs to be done. However I am open to suggestions and opinions. Thank you.

 

[ravenvii]

So, basically, you're going to make a quad-G4 system with that?

 

[vollspacken]

is this supposed to work? is it supported in any way in the OS or will you have to install a modified version of Linux??? what do you plan for the looks of the case? chrome? camo? white?

this is cool, please keep us updated on your efforts

and don't forget to post bechmarks when you're done...