Hi - I have been wanting to upgrade my desktop to a dual processor system, add in a second HD, and more goodies. I plan on buying a new computer case, possibly a 1 or 2 gb ram chip, and i'm buyin my friend's computer (P4, like my desktop but its a compaq, mine's made from compusa.) Is it possible to use 2 motherboards together? or would i be better off getting a dual processor motherboard(s)? I plan on using his hard drive, ethernet card (so i have 2 and can make this a router/firewall), video card (better 3d card), sound card (dont have one). I want to get a tv card pretty soon so i can play movies on a tv instead of the monitor. any help would be greatly appreciated!

"Is it possible to use 2 motherboards together?"

Yes. You would be running two independent computers in the same case. You would use cluster software to make the two computers work togather.

"would i be better off getting a dual processor motherboard(s)?"

If you have a dual processor motherboard then you would use a single kernel with SMP support. Which is better depends on what application types you want to run. Looking at the cards you want to install I would say that you would be better of with SMP than with a cluster.

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Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
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Steve Stites

I run a dual processor (ASUS mobo, dual AMD 2000+ MP). Running dual with linux is soooooooo much better [than windows] because you can compile all your software to take advantage of the dual processor.

If you're serious about ultimate performance, take a look at Gentoo. It provides an relatively easy way of compiling a linux distro from scratch (known as a stage 1 installation)- which means every single application down to the last byte is optimized to take advantage of a dual processor.

Agreed, Gentoo will mold into anything and is definately the best for this situation.

jailbait -

""Is it possible to use 2 motherboards together?"

Yes. You would be running two independent computers in the same case. You would use cluster software to make the two computers work togather."

any clustering software you know of and recommend? Would i need a special case for this, or would it be possible to wire it together?

""would i be better off getting a dual processor motherboard(s)?"

If you have a dual processor motherboard then you would use a single kernel with SMP support. Which is better depends on what application types you want to run. Looking at the cards you want to install I would say that you would be better of with SMP than with a cluster."

well i'm looking to save money, and increase my computing speed/power... my friend's giving me a good deal on his computer.

thanks for your reply!

"any clustering software you know of and recommend? "

The most popular clusterin software is Beowulf. Here is a discussion of Beowulf:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=101154

"Would i need a special case for this, or would it be possible to wire it together?"

I don't know. Here is a thread on building your own case if you need to do that.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=162275

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeB....home.page.html

Steve Stites