Rack An iMac

Andrew van der Stock writes "Check out this link and see a rack-mounted iMac. Very Cool." Shades of the 21" Frankenstein iMac covered a few months ago here on Slashdot. This is a cool hardware hack of the "gotta get it done" variety. Talk about faith in a platform! But what is he doing with all the old iMonitors? Perhaps ESR and friends could use some interesting targets ...

21" iMac not found...

The link in the old "21" Frankenstein iMac" story ain't working no more... Here's a link that works: http://www.macaddict.com /community/reallifemac/12_28.html [macaddict.com]

Power issues???

Well, I'm not an electrician, but I wonder how long these things would last. I noticed that he stated that the iMac power supplies were 'very close' to that of an ATX. How long will these last? It would seem to me that without some form of fault tolerance, even minor discrepancies in current could eventually cause major troubles. Maybe I'm wrong. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.

Obligatory open source zealotry: Selling the plans?!? What the fuck?!? Hardly open source.

Re:Power issues???

In general most electronics are pretty flexible in terms of supply voltages - they have to be, because not all power supplies are equal. Tolerances of +/- 10% are quite normal, and for individual chips the voltage ranges are often much wider.

Additionally, most computer components are designed to interface to other manufacturers, and so the voltages are standardised for this reason.

That's a reasonably cool hack

The iMac isn't a bad computer b straight computer terms for the money (the original model can be had for around $600-$700 or so), and with WebStar and Filemaker they make solid, stable low-volume web servers that are _very_ easy to set up and maintain, even for the non-wizard. An iMac (at least the original version) is basically a highly modified laptop logic board that has been wedged into a monitor - the chipset and I/O are all on one small board and then the CPU, RAM, and Mac ROM are on a daughtercard, which is also how Apple typically designs their laptops. The drives are standard IDE.

Filemaker is a slick database for basic we functionality, and it has a built-in XML-based set of command functionality that you can insert directly into your code. There are some really nice wizards for the novice, too. Filemaker does not traditionally handle heavy loads well, and the MacOS has plenty of issues of it's own in a multitasking world, but for lower-volume websites the combination will give you pretty good bang for the buck with relatively low admin overhead.

What's interesting here, of course, is the case hack. At his costs, an iMac makes a decent rackmount system, though Apple has had an inability on their own to handle the server market - they have never quite "gotten it". Apple had, briefly, a terrific AIX-based series of "Apple Network Servers" that had Apple design, hot-pluggable everything, were CHRP multiprocessor 604e-based (they couldn't even run the MacOS on their own), and MacOS-based applications for managing the server and utilities with a Mac look and feel running under AIX. They were pricey, but very competitive with IBM's own AIX boxes and with the Sun and SGI boxes that usually get sold into the printing and publishing market. However, these came around late in Apple's dark days, and were unceremoniously "Steved" along with Newton and their never released PowerExpress 6-slot G3 Mac as a cost-cutting measure.

Since then, Apple's been particularly weak in the server space (even more than usual) - throwing OS X Server on a 3 slot G3 or G4 with only one power supply and calling it a server don't make it one. An iMac-class rack server would be a nice little seller (especially if redundant power and or disk could be hacked into it), but a project like that wouldn't make Apple a ton of profit so it won't happen. Hopefully an enterprising third party will be able to make something of it.

- -Josh Turiel

Re:(Re)Legitimizing the Mac

Has Apple totally abandoned the low-end server market?

Yes, and the high-end server market. And the gaming market. And the business market. And the educational market. And the PDA market. And pretty much every other market except the publishing market and the I-don't-care-what's-inside-my-computer-as-long-as- it-looks-real-purty-and-has-a-one-button -hockey-puck-for-a-mouse market. Did I leave any out?

Hell, I was just wondering how many iMac users would still feel comfortable hugging their Macs g'night each night if they were in a rack instead of their cute little smiling iMac cases. :)

Cheers,
[e-mail]

Re:Rack a Commodore 64!

You think mounting an iMac is cool? I've mounted a Commodore 64!

Some people should leave their sexual pervesions to the privacy of their own homes, it's probably a good thing an iMac has no floppy drive. :)

Troc

How about rack mounting PowerBooks?

You could fit a PowerBook inside a 19" rack completely. All you'd have to do is let the ports poke out the back. Then you could open up the front of the rack and take it home at the end of the day.