Build Your Own $1000 Apple Server

A 26-year-old in California will sell you instructions on how to turn an off-the-shelf iMac into a server.

by Alex Goldman Associate Editor, ISP-Planet [March 29, 2000]

Johnathan May's webhosting company, Point in Space (PS), faced a very specific problem: he specializes in Apple servers that host Apple-friendly apps like Lasso and FileMaker. However, FileMaker limits its servers to 50 databases per server. Therefore, PS needed small, cheap servers, and lots of them (well, three to start with, anyway).

So Johnathan decided to find a way to turn the iMac into a cheap server. Once he figured out that that the iMac's power supply conformed very closely to a standard ATX PC supply, he could by an off-the-shelf chassis, and insert iMac parts.

With some custom wiring, and parts from Digi-Key (he claims a total cost in parts of $50), he put the brains of the iMac in a rack mount. With used iMacs going for $600 to $800 on eBay (which suggests that if you're in a big city you could find them for less) this could be a very cheap, powerful server.

Johnathan does not sell i-Mac rack mounts, but he'll sell you instructions on how to build one for $40. The offer appears on The i-Mac Rack-Mount Project web page.

If you want to order an "i-Rack," you'll need to contact Marathon Computing. When we asked them if the i-Racks were ready, they replied:

They're not *quite* ready to ship yet. The metal fabricators will start getting them to us this weekend, and we'll be assembling and shipping them out next week. They're available for preorder at the advance price of $349 (at least until the end of this week), and after that, they will move to the regular price of $399. In either case, your card will not be charged until the product is out the door.

The key question is: Is an i-Mac a good server?

Johnathan's answer:

Why not? All the parts (hard drive, motherboard, etc.) are quality components, just like in its bigger brothers. The power supply gets replaced by the one provided with the rack box, which is an industrial-grade one meant for serving. Like I said, I've had three of these running for a month non-stop with absolutely no problems as of yet.

We have not seen an i-Rack and we have not tested these machines ourselves, but if you host many small Websites, it may be worth looking into.

 —End