SGI: Hardware

Hi, have some question to ask.

Now that i have been playing
around with my sgi machine and figured out the most common task, like shell command , extracting tar files, installing blender, making network connection from mac mini to my two sgi computers etc, i am happy with every things works for me.
But the two sgi machine really needs more ram and a bigger scsi hdd, ram.

1: where can i get / buy new scsi hdd, scsi cdrom, ram ?.

The scsi hdd has to be 50 pin
connector cable, i think!.

what type of ram does two machine use ?.


hardware info:

1. sgi indy r5000, 320mb ram, 6 gb scsi hdd, solid impact graphicscard ( i think its the low end card?).
1. sgi indigo 2. r4400 , 200mb ram, 9 gb scsi hdd, solid impact graphicscard (low end graphicscard ?!).

Allso, i need to open those two machines and use a air can sprayer to clean the two computers for dust. ( i have a anti static wristband!).

i would allso like to change the background desktop picture, icon!).

later on, when i can afford it,
i would like to buy an octane 2, r12000 , 2 gb ram, 2gb scsi hdd, cdrom,odyssey pro v12 graphicscard, so i can playback full hd video 25 fps,
use the octane 2 for 3d realtime rendering with texture mapping.

but a used octane 2 is very expensive!.


henrik.

henrik2008 wrote: The scsi hdd has to be 50 pin
connector cable, i think!.

Correct, but with a suitable adapter you can use SCA (80pin) or 68pin disks as well.

henrik2008 wrote: what type of ram does two machine use ?.

http://www.sgistuff.net/hardware/system ... tml#memory
http://www.sgistuff.net/hardware/system ... tml#memory

henrik2008 wrote: hardware info:

1. sgi indy r5000, 320mb ram, 6 gb scsi hdd, solid impact graphicscard ( i think its the low end card?).

And Indy cannot have IMPACT graphics. There's XL graphics, either 8bit or 24bit, and XZ graphics (24bit, with hardware Z buffer)
Also, no Indy can have more than 256MB RAM installed.

Jan-japp is correct. For Indigo2, maximum RAM is 1GB for the R10000 models, but the R4400 model like yours tops out at 384MB.

Hard drives are not a problem. Indigo2 can happily run with 2 300GB SCSI drives with the right adaptors. My own one has a 36GB 15K drive and a 300GB 10K drive, both with SCA to 50 pin adaptors.

thank you.

it could be neat to have some kind adapter
to use a modern harddisk, like a sata hdd
and convert it to scsi hdd to fit inside
the indy or indigo2 computer, or maybe a older type of hdd ?!

I just saw a 36gb scsi ultra320 80pin on a website (90$), could
this harddisk work on my indy machine ?.

another hdd i saw in copenhagen, in a computer shop
was an scsi 80pin 18gb hdd, 10.000 rpm.


Is it diffcult to put the hdd inside those two
machines i own ( sgi indy r5000, indigo2 r4400!).
I dont hope i blow anything up?? or
damagde my sgi computers!.

i dont know how much irix 6.5.22 can regonize when we are talking about scsi hdd in terma of gigabyte ?!.




my os is irix 6.5.22
today i typed in ' hinv ' in the unix shell on my indy,
indy reported back my graphics was indy24,
dont know the spec of this graphicscard!.


There one thing i really dont understand, that is,
Softimage for irix i now old, why wont
autodesk give away softimage for irix free?.

I just wish it would happen, but it properly will
never happen!.

Yes i know , a stupid question!.

cant post in this forum, getting mysql errors all the time!!!

henrik2008 wrote: i dont know how much irix 6.5.22 can regonize when we are talking about scsi hdd in terma of gigabyte ?!.

Up to 9 exa bytes, though I don't remember if there is a smaller size limit on Indy hardware. In the worst case, it would be well into the terabytes.

is there space for adding an exstra scsi hdd
both in indy and indigo2 machines ?.

Technically, there are two drive bays in an Indy, though it is usually recommended to use only one hard drive in an Indy because of possible heat problems. When Indys were new, the most common configurations had either only one hard drive, or a hard drive with a floptical drive in the second drive slot. In general, hard drives generate a lot more heat than flopticals do. Having said that, I did run an Indy with two 9 GB hard drives successfully for many years.

what about indigo2 , i have the indigo2,
you know the big large cabinet. pink color
i think it is!.

Is there any space for putting an exstra
hdd inside this machine?.

i could buy 2 scsi ultrascsi 320 36gb
each, would these 2 hdd work in both
machine ?.
i can get 2 hdd for as much as less than
200$.

Do i need terminators for the hdd?.

atleast i need 2 80pin to 50 pin adapter!.

Properly i ask to much, but i have'nt done
anything to upgrade my 2 sgi machines,
now its time to do something to those
two machine, like upgrading and install a lit
of nekoware freeware!.

atleast i installed blender on indy, works
perfect, i never thought i would be able
to figure out irix or install software, but
now i have a small knowledge of those machines /
irix.

Its like xmas when things works on
the sgi machines, i am really so exited!.

josehill wrote: Up to 9 exa bytes, though I don't remember if there is a smaller size limit on Indy hardware. In the worst case, it would be well into the terabytes.

That's the XFS file system limit.

You'll run into the 2TB max LUN size before that, which is a SCSI limit. Annoyingly, the same 2TB LUN limit applies to SAN storage.

In my Origin 350, I have a 4TB XVM volume made from two 2TB SATA disks on an LSI adapter. Bigger disks cannot be fx-ed (I think Ian M. tried and failed).

If you search around a bit you should be able to find cheap SCA disks cheap. Last time I needed some I ended up with Seagate 10K7, 300GB @ 25EUR each. The adapters can be found on eBay and cost a couple of bucks. Apparently some of them do not properly terminate the unused 'wide' scsi lanes and won't work in narrow scsi systems like Indy and Indigo2, but this never happened to me. also, technically speaking, U320 SCSI removed narrow (or was it fast?) SCSI from the spec, so some of the last U320 disks my not work. Again, this is theory, never happened to me. I usually buy Seagate 10K.7 or 15k.3 and newer disks, mainly because they have FD bearings which are quiet and keep the power consumption (==heat!) down.

jan-jaap wrote: You'll run into the 2TB max LUN size before that, which is a SCSI limit. Annoyingly, the same 2TB LUN limit applies to SAN storage.

Come to think of it, the biggest single LUN I ever actually attached to an IRIX machine was, indeed, just under 2 TB. It cost us a little less than $200,000 at the time!

next i visit nekochan, i could post detail
of a couple of scsi harddisk , and anyone
feel like to comment on my hdd detail , if it would
work or not, they are welcome.

I am not buying anything on ebay, i hear
lots of people get cheated like hell!.

ok, so i am gonna stick with scsi normal drives ( the newer one's!)
36gb should be more than enough for each
machine!.

i've buy them from a computer store next time!.

@jan-jaap - I have had some HDDs fail to work in an Indigo2. I have two different models of 300GB SCA drives. One model works fine in my Indigo2, the other doesn't. Both work fine in my O2 however, so there is a compatibility issue there somewhere!

ok, but what is SCA ?.

Would "serial atached SCSI" hdd drives
work ?.

Maybe i can connect an external scsi drive to my
Indy or Indigo ? , cant remember if the external connection
on the backside of my indy or indigo2 is
80, 72 or 50 pins ?!.

I used to have an external scsi zip drive for my old
EMU ESI 3200 audio sampler, the zipdrive was
really slow! (EMU ESI only has builtin floppy disk
port for loading audio samples, sold it long time ago!).

Here is a list / links to a computer store called
Fønix, located in copenhagen denmark.

Maybe i can use these scsi hdd ?.

The website is in Danish, but it should be easy
to figure out was it says on the website,
i mean the specfication is in english!.


Link:



https://www.fcomputer.dk/hardware/hardd ... 6.4gb.html



https://www.fcomputer.dk/hardware/hardd ... 8.2gb.html



https://www.fcomputer.dk/hardware/hardd ... f5000.html

https://www.fcomputer.dk/hardware/hardd ... rddisk-3.5 ″-ultra320-scsi-72.8gb(2).html



https://www.fcomputer.dk/hardware/hardd ... 1-001.html


Which scsi hdd could i use in these links ?.

Henrik,
Probably easier for people to comment in specific drives if you can find out the original manufacturer's designation for the OEM HP version; e.g. ST336...LC for variants on Seagate 36GB 80-pin drives ("SCA" is the same as 80-pin SCSI, not SAS)

I have a 36GB Seagate running in my Indigo2 - ST336705LC - doing fine if a little noisy. The drive plus GBP0.01 plus GBP4 postage, the 80/50 adapter GBP1.76 all in, from Ebay. Some people use IDE drives, but the SCSI/IDE adapter is rare and expensive. Also worth checking out the SCSI drives listed in www.sgidepot.co.uk/sgidepot/scsiitems.html for indications as to what is compatible, as well as Ian's Indy and Indigo2 pages.

The external connectors are 50pin. Note that the Indigo2's external SCSI is a second channel, separate from the internal devices channel, whereas (AIUI) Indy has a single channel, so you need a little more care not to have clashing device IDs.

For RAM, I've bought this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LOT-OF-TEN-32 ... 4d0afc15f3
from which I took 8 to make up 2 x 4 sets (I had 4x 32MB already) and max out - if you got two lots, you could make up three 4x 32MB sets for the Indigo2 and two 4x 32MB sets for the Indy - but, obviously, only if you don't have SIMMs of useful sizes already to hand, remembering you need four SIMMs of the same size to make a set. Alternatively, somewhere here I should have eight 16MB SIMMs going spare after the upgrade, so PM if you are interested.

Good luck!

Thank you.
allright i will follow you advice and
make some research on the subject!.
I am not gonna spend a fortune on my
two sgi machines, because they are not
that good or fast.

I saw on a website from England, where
they sell all kind of accessories for sgi machine
etc, they even have plenty of octane machines i can
buy.
The cheapest octane 2 , single core r12000, 400 mhz
with odeessy v8 graphicscard , scsi hdd, cdrom
is around 500£ , thats a loy of money and
if you want a octane 2, dual r14000, 2gb ram,
odesssy v12 pro with every thing, it
will cost over 1000 £, pew!, thats to much!.
with an octane, its worth upgrading, because is
so "modern" and "fast".

I just dont have that kind of money now!.

Chears!.

If anyone can use these link for buying
sgi accessories , i found 2 website where
you can buy lots of sgi releated things etc...

links:

http://www.used-unix.com/acatalog/SGI_O ... tane2.html


http://www.mashek.com/SGIsystems/Octane2.php

Trippynet wrote: @jan-jaap - I have had some HDDs fail to work in an Indigo2. I have two different models of 300GB SCA drives. One model works fine in my Indigo2, the other doesn't. Both work fine in my O2 however, so there is a compatibility issue there somewhere!

Some of the newer LVDS drives just don't support single ended SCSI anymore. A more common problem is that some drives just don't work if the unused 8 bit of the bus is not terminated, thus you need an SCA <> 50pin adapter that has a terminator for the upper 8 bit and that has to be enabled.

I found two scsi terminator ( looks like a dongle
thing!, grey color!).
They came with my two sgi computers, when i bougt it!.
properly i can use those two 2 terminators?!.