Low Profile PC's with High-End Video Cards?

tsetem asks: "We have an application where we have to deliver 7 PC's running Linux, all capable of doing higher-end OpenGL Accelerated graphics, being rack mountable, and being able to fit into a trailer. My plan was to get either a 1U or 2U system, or a complete PCB with a decent graphics card on it. I've been looking all over the Web, and on various websites to see if there are any Slimline PCs that are capable of running high-end Video Cards (like Matrox, 3dfx, or NVidia). All of the systems I've seen are the Intel, C&T, or some other chip which is fine & dandy for 2D, but 3D acceleration isn't there. Has anyone run across a 1U or 2U system, with a high-end video chip built into it, or with an AGP slot so I can use my own?"

Comments

Micro ATX motherboards

[ArcticChicken]

I'm not sure if this is really what you're looking for, but I happened to be looking around yesterday for low-profile options for a firewall/router setup. Not being able to afford a rack-mount system (in terms of price or space), I wound up looking at two "Micro ATX" form-factor motherboards from ASUS:

ASUS P2E-VM microATX motherboard
This one has a built-in AGP 3D Graphics Accelerator (ATI Rage Pro), along with on-board audio, etc.

ASUS P2E-M microATX motherboard
This one drops the on-board stuff and has a standard AGP slot instead - which gives you better flexibility for your video demands. You lose a PCI slot though which kinda bites.

I can't remember what the requirements/possibilities are for rack-mountable cases, so whether either of these two boards would be of use to you I can't say. This "build-it-yourself" option might save you some money though - if you can find the appropriate mounting/casing hardware.

One potential drawback: the maximum processor speed these boards support is 333MHz (not an issue for what I have planned, but it might be for you).

[In case you have some flexibility on the rack-mount system, I found a really small, impressive micro-ATX case from In-Win (the best standard case manufacturer around if you ask me). You can drool (optional) over some pictures of the IW-D500.]

Yes, actually...

[pb]

A little searching revealed these babies; they're U2, and it looks like they do AGP.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Re:Barely high-end... but acceptable ?

[unitron]

You may find that the AGP is built on to the motherboard but there's no actual AGP slot. Compaq is big on proprietary form-factor stuff that makes any attempt to upgrade "an experience".

What you need is an AGP Riser

[scotpurl]

Any motherboard will do. A 2U case will take most any CPU, but you may run into cooling problems on the 1U units.

Anyway, here's the first link that popped up on Google:

http://www.adexelec.com/agp32.htm

Lotsa right-angle-AGP bending gadgets. They also make them for PCI, ISA, and more other things than I can remember.

NLX

[The Iconoclast]

NLX is the slim version of the ATX specification. If the 1U/2U cases are NLX compliant, you and get AGP video cards with NLX backplates which are much smaller than normal ATX backplates. I've seen NLX Matrox cards.