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Hm, perhaps you better go let your eyes be checked:

DELL

Apple

And IMO especially Apples mainboards ARE beautyfully laid out.

how about this one:
Dual PPC 970

The PowerPC 970 (G5) processor is POWER4 based, not POWER5. Sub $1500 POWER5 machines are not not going to happen soon.

Okay. Or maybe you'd rather play with the reference board?

where are the dual-proc small form factor CPU-X(where X is anything -x86) mobo's these days?

Is Micro-ATX small enough? If you'd be happy with ATX, then why not play with a dual processor 64-bit MIPS system?

it sucks. nobody seems to be pushing the CPU envelope, cheaply any more... its all x86 hegemony

Oh, cheaply. Perhaps you should take a look at some products based on ARM chips.

There are a lot of interesting CPU architectures out there. The only reason not to be using one is the need to run Windows (and even then you can use IA64, although it's not cheap.)

Can somebody please benchmark a dual AMD opteron against a dual PPC 970 (MAC G5)

Not so fast, a significant problem in such a comparison is that gcc has *much* better support for x86-64 than it does for PPC64. If there was even a chance that a dual PPC970 machine was faster than a dual x86-64 machine, the likes of Yellow Dog, and Momentum Computer would have been all over it.

Sunny Dubey

Interestingly, there are ways ways to install OS X on unsupported machines. Granted, these are simply legacy Mac's but perhaps with more tweaking one could eventually install OS X on those killer dual 1.4GHz G5 prototypes from Momentum Computing.

Well, not exactly vaporware. They did exist, but the problem was that the motherboard itself cost as much as a complete x86 system.

Speaking of which, here is Momentum's 970FX evaluation mobo. Only $4500 for a basic evaluation system. :)

There's of course the more humanely priced Pegasos II for 500 Euros, but it's rather underperforming for 2004 and compared to those complete x86 systems you speak of. I've heard Marvell, who supply the northbridge for the PegII, will sell a "Discovery III" northbridge for the PPC970, so things might improve. Mai Logic, who made the failed Articia S northbridge and Teron motherboards (a.k.a. "AmigaOne", "Dragon", "Boxer" and whatnot), are supposedly planning an "Articia I" (IIRC) northbridge for the 970. I guess it's likely that they'll make a Teron based on this as well.

You should check out: Momentum Computer

Sure its pricey, but I suppose if your interested in such price isn't the key issue.

Sunny Dubey

You'll be seeing 2.5gHz G5s first (perhaps next week, according to the rumour sites). The 3gHz machines aren't expected until end of summer, or thereabouts.

I'd be _very_ interested in playing with a generic PPC970FX board (www.970eval.com) with Linux, though, if it became affordable.

I'm _really_ hoping the new machines at end of summer come with PCI-E, so we can all get on with the task of migration at the same time as major processor upgrades.

As someone mentioned, there was the PReP platform that never took off and the CHRP platform that never took off. Now there's an open PowerPC 970 platform.

While the heading refers to Linux on Macs, there's a number of other PPC machines that'll run Linux

a pegasos I or II is a PPC based machine, there's also Amiga One boards - a new Mini-ITX AmigaOne looks REALLY appealing, as long as it's not slugged with the "Amiga Tax" (double the price for the privilege of being able to run AmigaOS4 if it's released). a Mini ITX board with a GHz or more G4 - not a scaled down VIA type setup, but a full honest-to-goodness G4. That's appealing.

There's also several VMEbus boards based on PPC chips from PPC440 to G4s, and a newer one out soon from Momentum computer, Dual G5s on an ATX board. Pricey, but it's just a reference board at the moment.

If prices dropped on these, especially on the Momentum board, I could see these being real alternatives to x86, especially for people a bit worried about MS's palladium plans. A mac is a wonderful thing, but if you ask 'Why bother" about putting Linux over the top of a machine that'll run OSX, one of the above solutions might be an option.