Getting Started, Documentation, Tips & Tricks

Kotomo wrote: Now try hauling an Origin 2000 deskside in a Mark 4 Jetta

I once moved a 4D PowerSeries on the back seat of a VW bug (the old one). I think I had to take the front seat out.

Was easy to take bits and pieces off of that car. Basically, with wrench #13 you take half the car apart. I remember once I got the back bumper locked behind another car's front bumper while reversing out of a parking space. Couldn't go forwards or backwards anymore. Went back into the house, fetched wrench #13 and took the bumper off the bug. Problem solved

Getting my machines home was not exactly easy.

I got my SGIs all together from a guy who seemed to be selling off his collection. I arranged the deal online, and agreed to get the items in my signature as well as two big parts boxes and some extras in exchange for two old laptops and an iPad 1. He was in a city near mine that my dad often visited for business trips (I'm too young to drive, otherwise I would have driven down there myself). A while later, my dad had to go to that city, and he agreed to pick up the machines. Now, when he goes there, he carpools with his business partner, who owns a relatively small car. He claims to have been very surprised at how large the machines were, and says they almost didn't fit. So after his business trip, my family was planning to go to our cottage, so he just went straight there and we met him. The first thing he said in regard to the machines was "The cubes were heavy". I didn't have a sync on green monitor there, so I put the Octanes, Indigo2, and Indys in a closet and decided to just use the O2 until I got home. So I set it up, everything is good. The issue is, we were trying to sell the cottage at the time. I ended up having to hide the whole O2 setup 3 times for showings. Since we were moving, we had to bring all the stuff from the cottage home, so I had to pack all the SGIs into the car as small as possible to make room for items ranging from lamps to outboard motors. Also, it was raining... We drive home, I worry about plastic skins, everything is fine, except my house is on top of a hill, and the driveway isn't. So I have to carry a lot of 50+ pound machines up 20+ stairs. I get them inside and unload them in the front entranceway, but the issue is that again, we're both moving and coming home from the cottage, so my parents are trying to unload cats, clothes, food and more into a tiny, awkwardly shaped room that's completely full of UNIX workstations. So I have to frantically carry them all down into the overfilled, messy lab and find places for them. A lot of them just ended up sitting on the floor.

Worth it.

Epic story!

Although I can drive, I don't have a car. There are not many places in Prague where you could park a car.
So when my IntelliStation arrived by truck, delivered to my work, I just left it on the hallway because I couldn't move the pallet anywhere on my own.

After two days sitting there, my office manager freaked out asking me to get rid of it or he would get rid of me. Fair enough.
A friend with a station wagon came to help me, but he regretted as soon as he realised I live on the fourth floor and the 115 years old building where I live doesn't have a lift.

Huge beast.

Ah, I am lucky to have the opposite problem. Too much space in my vehicles.

But I am curious how a lot of people here are managing to fit multiple full height O2k/Onyx racks in (at home)? I have one full height rack at home (non-SGI) and I am already having to put in a new 30A circuit just to power the contents. Thankfully it is below grade and doesn't need any dedicated cooling. I think I could fit just about one more in, but that would be it!

ajw99uk wrote: Just taken an Octane from Huddersfield to Oxfotdshire, so good to hear there are some more in town! I still have a Fuel and I2 - did the 6.5.22 upgrade on the latter, ftp-ing the tardists from a linux box.

Welcome to nekochan btw, I've found members here really helpful.

small world!

These stories are great btw, I think I got off lightly..... (although it was a round trip to glasgow in the other half's car and back to pick them up, the M74 is a nice drive). There are enough racks at the office I haven't had the urge for some at home yet!

In other news, I found some sensibly priced memory so decided to give the "broken / for spares repair" octane a go. Inspired by Dodoid's excellent videos (and also maybe howtobasic, you tell me... ) I made a video on the process



Sorry for the non-existing production quality.

japes wrote:

Kotomo wrote: Now try hauling an Origin 2000 deskside in a Mark 4 Jetta

Wait a second, please tell me about this. I had a mk4 Jetta and I brought home a Origin 2000 deskside in the B7 Audi A4 that I replaced the Jetta with.

There was a small tear on the C pillar trim because my helper wasn't patient enough during unloading, but it worked. I don't know if it would have worked in a mk4 Jetta. I had to pull the skins off and pulled the PSU out, then put the module on the folded down rear seat. When I sold the Origin 2000 I delivered it to the new owner in a B7 A4 Avant without any drama.

First, it helps that all the skins have been removed, or were smashed to bits long ago before you get to take home your very own Origin 2000 Deskside. I then proceeded to remove all the node boards, both the router boards, the power supply, and the fan tray. All of that went into the trunk of the car, but if I recall correctly I had to put the fan tray in the front seat. There were also no hard drives installed in the machine to worry about, so now I'm left with the empty shell and the midplane. The shell is now light enough to lift up and throw into the back seat through rear doors.

It juuust about fits through the doors, I might have scraped some trim on the door, but that doesn't bother me as the car was already fairly beat up by the time I bought it. It's a 1999.5 model year, and is just my A-to-B car. So long as the engine and wheels work, that's all that matters.

This was just one of the Origins I took home. The second one came on a separate trip.

Don't panic about the compression connectors. The rumors are worse than the reality.

Just don't be egregious. Don't drag them through centimeter-thick dust, don't grab them with your hands, don't clean them with a paper towel and Windex. I've inadvertently bumped mine gently and they still work.

SAQ wrote: Don't panic about the compression connectors. The rumors are worse than the reality.

Just don't be egregious. Don't drag them through centimeter-thick dust, don't grab them with your hands, don't clean them with a paper towel and Windex. I've inadvertently bumped mine gently and they still work.

Yeah, I only had one brief incident with them and that was on my Octane1 while diagnosing failed TRAMS 2 years ago. It briefly refused to recognize the graphics (EMXI), but somehow I got it to work again and it's never caused a problem since.