# 2 computers, 1 case



## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

if i put 2 computers in one case what could i use them for?


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## Assassin48 (Jun 12, 2009)

folding/crunch


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

something other than that.


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## Charper2013 (Jun 12, 2009)

Download servers?


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

ok...

its more of a demonstrative/show rig.

but it needs a purpose


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## WhiteLotus (Jun 12, 2009)

looking awesome... sorry i got nothing.


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

come on guys...

what could 2 computers be used for if they where both in the same case?

cant be gaming. you'll see why later


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## etrigan420 (Jun 12, 2009)

Fitseries3 said:


> ...cant be gaming. you'll see why later



Damn, I was going to suggest a "Lan in a Box"


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## Assassin48 (Jun 12, 2009)

play movies/music


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## CrackerJack (Jun 12, 2009)

lol i have no idea, what case would u use anyway?


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## sneekypeet (Jun 12, 2009)

graphics rendering?

just a guess, but cant you link two systems for rendering purposes?

Something I think I read here before, just not possitive on it!


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

i cannot comment on the case but it would be a tight fit i can say that much.

do they make psu  splitter cables?


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

what sucks is i cannot speak about the case for a bit as its top secret for now.

i have 2 m-itx boards im going to stuff inside the case and get 2 machines up and running but i want to know a purpose.


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## Assassin48 (Jun 12, 2009)

purpose = because you can! lol


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## p_o_s_pc (Jun 12, 2009)

Fitseries3 said:


> i cannot comment on the case but it would be a tight fit i can say that much.
> 
> do they make psu  splitter cables?



yes you can get them just don't know where to find them. I have found them before. Maybe read some of the post here and there MAYBE a link 
http://www.overclock.net/faqs/112866-how-use-one-power-supply-power.html


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

p_o_s_pc said:


> yes you can get them just don't know where to find them. I have found them before. Maybe read some of the post here and there MAYBE a link
> http://www.overclock.net/faqs/112866-how-use-one-power-supply-power.html



i need one A LOT shorter than that. 

this is beginning to look like a 98% custom build

i need to find a solution for hdd's now. board only has ide


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Jun 12, 2009)

linux fireall and midea server + regular 7 desktop


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

it will eventually have 2 atom/ion boards in it so it could be a gamer i guess


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## WhiteLotus (Jun 12, 2009)

graphics rendering, or some serious physics some how?


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## mlee49 (Jun 12, 2009)

MegaPronz?

Edit: 2 computers one case ewww  lolz


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## scope54 (Jun 12, 2009)

some kind of HTPC....like 1 case 2 tvs!!!!!


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## DreamSeller (Jun 12, 2009)

scope54 said:


> some kind of HTPC....*like 1 case 2 tvs*!!!!!




+1 i have the same thought ))


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## Assassin48 (Jun 12, 2009)

game while you fold with no slow downs


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## newtekie1 (Jun 12, 2009)

The only thing I can think of would be running them as servers.  One being a web server, the other being a media server, or file server, or FTP server.  Or even both being web servers.


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## From_Nowhere (Jun 12, 2009)

Purposes... multi-core done wrong, or what people have said here before, two servers in one case.


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## mrw1986 (Jun 12, 2009)

E-peen?


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## mlee49 (Jun 12, 2009)

newtekie1 said:


> The only thing I can think of would be running them as servers.  One being a web server, the other being a media server, or file server, or FTP server.  Or even both being web servers.



Two Atom servers? Could that possibly be efficient or just a pipe dream?


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 12, 2009)

I would do a web server on one and a database on the other.  The web server board would need two NICs and the database would need one NIC.


Or...

Redundant server where you have your database and web server (or whatever) on one and mirror everything to the other.  If one goes down, you can quickly change over to the other to take charge.  100% redundant in one box.


Or...

Have one video computer and one audio computer.  The video computer handles projectors and the audio computer handles audio feeds (primarily for recording).  That way, you have the tower in the middle with a video engineer on one side and the audio engineer on the other.



Redundancy and space saving are really the only two reasons why you'd spend extra for two computers in one case than two separate cases.


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

it wont be stationary


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 12, 2009)

How about a two-player Windows-based gaming console?  Both users have their own input/output devices (mouse, keyboard, monitor) and can play LAN games with each other.  Obviously an Atom won't be able to handle the latest and greatest games but good oldies should work fine.


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## phanbuey (Jun 12, 2009)

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2009/03/02/cooler-master-builds-20-core-pc/1

like this?


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

interesting. i wish they had a build log


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## phanbuey (Jun 12, 2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAZwHDGz-3I

mot a build log but a bit more detail


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

not enough...


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## phanbuey (Jun 12, 2009)

keep watching, after half way it shows snapshots during the build.


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

i watched it a few times


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## phanbuey (Jun 12, 2009)

if there was only a way to link them all together into a single OS.  that 20 core requires 5 montiors and keyboards... would be good for either security systems/ monitoring systems/ cypercafe terminals/ Digital signage applications...


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## n-ster (Jun 12, 2009)

Yea I thought gaming too... and if it's portable, it'd be great! I just remembered my friend had those flip screens he could attach to his Xbox lol... perhaps you can put 2 of those and voila! playing video games or other stuff against friends!

When you go somewhere, you could bring that dual-PC! like your going to the beach with some friends? Have nothing to do late at night? Noone has gaming laptop? NO MATTER! Fit brought his 2 PC-in-one rig!


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## Sasqui (Jun 12, 2009)

Really can't think of anything that 2 pc's right next to eachother could accomplish, other than portability.

Intriguing question / idea.


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

DING!  

idea......

atom/ion boards are advertised as what?

"full 1080p bluray playback capable, dx10, cuda, hdmi, and windows 7 ready"

perhaps i could set it up like this...

Master pc:
ion/atom board
32gb ssd
bd-rom/dvd drive
4gb ram
ubuntu w/mythTV frontend

Slave pc:
ion/atom board
500gb-1tb hdd
4gb ram
ubuntu w/mythTV backend server

in this configuration the front end handles all the video for the display/tv and can access  internet, tv channels, record tv, play music etc.

the back end does the encoding of video that is recorded on the frontend as well as acts as the media server for all the media.


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## Polaris573 (Jun 12, 2009)

Just basic utilities and work.  Multitasking to the extreme.  Watch TV/movies on one while you do work on another.  You need two monitors though.  

For example I'm using the linux shred command to shred and write zeroes to a hard drive right now.  Which means i can't play games because I'm stuck in linux.  With a second computer that wouldn't be as much of a problem.


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## DR.Death (Jun 12, 2009)

space saver have one as your main rig and another as a server or media player hooked to your tv


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## CDdude55 (Jun 12, 2009)

Game on both at the same time.


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## Geofrancis (Jun 12, 2009)

have one main pc for your gaming etc like a nice quad core gaming rig. then have a small atom board for all the things that you need running 24/7 like bittorrent/web server/proxy for mobile broadband/file server so you dont need to leave your main power hungry computer running all the time and wasting power.

i dont the same thing but i didnt have them in the same case.


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 12, 2009)

has to be matx or smaller. VERY limited space


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## A Cheese Danish (Jun 12, 2009)

Fitseries3 said:


> perhaps i could set it up like this...
> 
> Master pc:
> ion/atom board
> ...



I think you found your answer 
I'd say use it for stuff that needs dual playback, or have one be a file server, and the other as the main system, and have it do basic necessities.
But, pretty much what you just stated lol


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## _jM (Jun 12, 2009)

Fit... I need to see the case you have in mind.. seeing as you said it was "Top secret".....I MUST KNOW!!!!!!!!!! 
 You have to answer this... I know you said its going to be 98% modded.. but are you building this one from scratch or are you modding a case that no one knows about?
Im digg'n your idea with the master/slave htpc/server rig all in one.. very interesting idea you have...


@ CoolerMaster's 20 core with *5* itx's in one case.. freaking insane, wtf would someone do with that rig...?


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## Geofrancis (Jun 13, 2009)

if you really wanted to go crazy with itx motherboards check this out!

http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/cluster/

imagine one of these built with atom dual core's and nvidea ion chipsets for folding 12 boards, 24 cores, 48 threads, 12 gpu's thats will draw less than 300w with an efficent psu.


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## Fitseries3 (Jun 13, 2009)

_jM said:


> Fit... I need to see the case you have in mind.. seeing as you said it was "Top secret".....I MUST KNOW!!!!!!!!!!
> You have to answer this... I know you said its going to be 98% modded.. but are you building this one from scratch or are you modding a case that no one knows about?
> Im digg'n your idea with the master/slave htpc/server rig all in one.. very interesting idea you have...
> 
> ...



i cannot show anyone until its finished. i didnt make it no. its a show piece though.


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## douglatins (Jun 13, 2009)

Showing of in the forum and getting lots of respect. Hehe


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## TheLaughingMan (Jun 13, 2009)

There really is nothing out of the usual that you can do just because they are in the same case.  You will just have to settle for doing the same thing everyone uses the "spare parts" system for.  Use one computer in the case as a Media Center PC.  And use the other computer for normal computer tasks.  Then you can have them access each other for file sharing.  I mean, it was be a pretty cool setup to have two computers in one case, but unless they are servers, there is not way they can tackle the same task at the same time.  It would be great for multitasking though.

P.S.  You can also have one of the computers running a defrag program like OO Defrag for both systems.


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## n-ster (Jun 13, 2009)

dude, watch the double posts 

I guess that for the average user, 2PC-in-one is not very useful though...


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## computertechy (Jun 14, 2009)

one for hardcore pron/the other for softcore lol!

just a suggestion!


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## n-ster (Jun 14, 2009)

I think even my crappy laptop can handle both at the same time lol... now can I handle it is the question xD


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## MoonPig (Jun 15, 2009)

Other than folding, i really can't see a point in two computers in one case...

I suppose you could play two games at once... lol


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## Geofrancis (Jun 15, 2009)

the ways i would use more than one computer per case is either as a desktop and server configuration or as a blade arrangement with as many computers as possible in the minimum space

i have been looking for a 5.25" or 3.5" industrial motherboard for downloading that could be mounted into a drive bay in my computer but they are a fortune to buy.


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## Kantastic (Jun 15, 2009)

Well you don't necessarily need to use both computers right? You can use the 2nd for tasks that are limited to one computer.


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