Abstract: A modular multinode computing apparatus includes a rack mountable enclosure and more than one system board that is secured within the enclosure in a high density configuration that is preferably configured so that the system boards are positioned in substantially the same plane, which is also the plane in which the apparatus resides when mounted within a rack. The enclosure preferably has four system boards, and is sized as a 1 u form factor. When mounted in a rack with like units, the apparatus permits a data center or computing cluster to be fabricated that has a processing density that is much greater than conventional clusters that are configured with 1 u based single node units.