[casperedwards]

I have two Imac G3s. Each is 400Mhz.
I want to connect the two imacs together to make a cluster. Would this give me one computer with twice the power??? The only info I've found on clustering uses G4s or 5s as examples. Would this work with two G3s? My understanding of how this is done is that I would first need an ethernet box so that I could plug both computers together and still plug into my DSL router. Then I would install a program like Pooch on both computers....Is it that simple? Is there anyone out there who knows more about this that could tell me if this would work or if there is a different procedure for G3s. What about making a cluster of 3 G3s?

I have one more question....
One of my imacs needs a new hard drive.
I found a 160gb harddrive for $60...Can the old imacs even handle this much memory?
Thanks!!!

[the_glassman]

It should work, the Pooch site states it should work, though I have absolutely no idea what you would use it for. If you don't mind me asking, what would you use it for?

[Jens Peter]

Originally posted by casperedwards:
I have one more question....
One of my imacs needs a new hard drive.
I found a 160gb harddrive for $60...Can the old imacs even handle this much memory?
Thanks!!!

The older iMacs can only handle up to 137 Gb, so I rekomend buying a 120Gb disc.

[macaddict0001]

i think you can just plug them into your router no need for a separate switch.

[Detrius]

You could cluster a bunch of Power Mac 8500s if you wanted. There is no processor speed limit to clustering computers.

Pooch is an option. You can also use free command-line options, like lammpi. Apple also has Xgrid, which is going to be built into 10.4.

The bottom line, though, is that right now you should only bother with this if you either a) already have a program that specifically states that it supports one of these networks or b) intend to write cluster programs yourself.

You definitely will not double the speed of your computing experience just by installing something like Pooch onto two machines on a network. In fact, you will see no difference at all. For programs to run on a cluster, they have to be designed around running on a cluster.