SGI: Hardware

I do like the desk side, but an empty rack to put stuff in over time would be cool.
If SGI works well with Win/Lin/BSD for a render farm I could be happy with that.
With video cards taking the load off for Raytracing it would be hard to get a rack unless it had 12 to 24 core Xeon.
singing; I want my... I want my S.. G.. I.. bring in the drums and a guitar solo

Trekiej wrote: If SGI works well with Win/Lin/BSD for a render farm

that doesn't depend on sgi but the program you wanna use

That takes me to wanting to find out about LuxRender.

Trekiej wrote: So how much data are we talking about?
1. Resolution
2. Texture mapped Polygons/sec.

How much do you want? Here's one possibility:

Once you have the necessary hardware you can download the software here: http://www.visbox.com/cq3a/


There's a simple comparison of the V12 and a few variations of InfiniteReality graphics in this post: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16722836&start=15#p7319524

I still have the 4xRM10 IR3 system mentioned in that post , and still use it on a regular basis (mostly weekends, a day or three at a time). As has been mentioned, it does convert electricity into pixels, noise and heat, but I still find it useable in a residential setting.

The InfiniteReality portions of the system started life as part of a Onyx2-based RealityMonster, and I ran the small piece I had as an Onyx2 system for several years . Since its conversion into an Onyx350, it uses significantly less electricity and produces less noise and heat.

Awsome, I stil need to do some more research.
Is there any machines out there that can do 4k level gaming that is not a high end pc/mac?
I guess I will have to stick with finding out what will make a high quality model/scene and then send to render.
I wish I could use Blender game engine and record that. I believe Blender can animate viewport for a whlle now.
It uses opengl and maybe that is a better example I was looking for earlier.

Of course not. You're asking the impossible.

I am sorry, did SGI ever reach a 4k level?

Apple makes a 5K imac now that is pretty good-by the time you price a decent (not an el cheapo $500) 4K monitor it is like they are giving a high end computer for free. It depends on your price of "high end" and I would consider a $2500 imac to be decidedly mid-range. Maybe my standards are outdated, but I consider, as far as workstations are concerned, (low end < $500 < midrange < $5000 < high end).

The problem is 4K is a LOT of pixels that until very recently most hardware was not designed to cope with. E.G. the reason they have done an imac and not a standalone monitor is because there is no good interface that has the bandwidth in one connection - yet.

SGIs can of course run very high resolutions, to 4K and beyond, but only with additional specialized hardware, and definitely not an Onyx (1). I think anything with a v12 or a newer infinitereality (3 or 4) would be a good bet.

If you just want to get a pretty picture and high performance I think you will find yourself coming back to the imac after looking at every other option. Because that's what I'm coming up with. Not to mention, mac is the only one that really does a good job of working with high-DPI displays out of the box. I'm typing on one now with one retinal and one standard monitor and the support is about as good as you can get, even when dragging windows between the two - but you will have to update your programs to support it. For example, there is a free retina patch for office 2011, but I recently broke down and got Autocad 2015 after giving up for the last time on Dassault's Draftsight and it's crashes and memory leaks. I just wish I had switched sooner, because autocad on a retina screen is a really beautiful thing.

The two members here that I know of who have high-DPI monitors on SGI are hamei and mia (both with IBM T220/T221). DPI independence is something that Irix does much better than even windows 8 or 10, or -gasp- linux, it is really good for something that was last updated 10 years ago but sadly I don't think it can be considered state-of-the-art anymore.

foetz wrote: well let's be clear, an onyx rack at home is for fun. you can't justify that reasonably but the good thing is you don't have to either
if you dig it and find some good offer just take it and enjoy the view

I can think of far worse vices than having an onyx for fun, that's really the whole point of these machines. If you can't have fun with them, then why bother?

Trekiej wrote: I wish had a job that could use these machines it would justify the cost at least.

I don't think there is a single workplace left that would justify the addition of an onyx- for anything. Maybe there are few dozen in the world left, still chugging along and entrenched with expensive peripherals, but then you will not get to have fun with it. You would have better luck procuring a Mercedes SL as a company car

TeamBlackFox wrote: You're right that I haven't bought/sold one personally, but I was VERY close to getting one.

I wasn't trying to come across as poo-pooing you but you don't *have* to spend a lot of money on one. There is also a large generational divide between onyx1 and onyx4 for example. If he wants an infinitereality box of any generation, scour dovebid and every once in a blue moon you can see a lot** of onyx2's or origin2ks for less than the cost of lunch. If you can afford the inevitable trip to pick them up you can get a very good deal. The problem is always location.

*edit: Not lot as in "many" but lot as in "multiple units in a single auction"

I still think that SGI machines are cool, great, awesome, excellent, even if they are new or used.

Trekiej wrote: I still think that SGI machines are cool, great, awesome, excellent, even if they are new or used.

they are because they were made for pro use from the start. obviously the priorities and budgets are quite different from home user stuff in that case.
unfortunately the number of pro gear drastically decreased in recent years. on the desktop it doesn't even exist anymore at all so getting an sgi to see how it was back when there still was a difference is a good move no matter how the raw numbers compare to what you can buy now. a good machine is much more than just the peak performance of some of the components as we could yet again confirm in another thread a few days ago ...

Thanks, I love to collect computers, games macines, etc.
I wish the fun was back in computing.

Trekiej wrote: I still think that SGI machines are cool, great, awesome, excellent, even if they are new or used.

Of course. They're ten-fold more powerful than even an Amiga 4000T, but again, remember they suffered a similar fate. I'm still laughing at the 4K question Rick, that was just priceless man.

Sorry, you will have to PM me over the 4k question.
I guess I am really really running out of stuff to ask.

foetz wrote: ... a good machine is much more than just the peak performance of some of the components ...

Why did it fall apart ? I know why SGI fell apart - their management was a collection of imbeciles. But there really is a segment of the population that wants what SGI offered at one time, isn't there ? A complete package that works well, not faddish crap that disappears in a week and never worked properly to begin with ?

Apple was sort of going that way but now they are also off in lalaland, doing ridiculous crap to attract 'investors', industry lapdogs and fanboyz. Look at their stewpid bouncing icons - oh boy oh boy, now we're talking Dodge Charger ! This is some cumputin', ain't it ?

Gag.

I am pretty tired of this antique SGI hardware crapping out but there's nothing current that's nearly as good. Current operating systems are just flashy worthless shit and they all have cameras buried in your underwear drawer.

It's disgusting.

TeamBlackFox wrote: The IR Graphics are a league above IMPACT and VPro. I've spent a little time on an Onyx2, IR3, quad 400MHz and 8GB RAM. Its very fast, but what IR is good for primarily is for is high performance 3D visualization and rasterization, you wouldn't want an IR workstation as your everyday system, the desksides consume over a kW of power, and the rackmounts require 220V power. Plus my friend told me an Onyx2 weighs in at over 300lbs.

I've been running my Onyx2 for the last 3 weeks straight compiling Gentoo stages. Pulls about ~700W (on 120VAC) if I remove two of the drives. I imagine that jumps up a fair bit if I could actually engage the Kona graphics under Linux, though, but I am pleasantly surprised with it as a buildbox. Electric bill will average my usual for the summer months, so its manageable. And for a machine of that size, it's amazingly quiet.

Most of the weight in an Onyx2 appears to be in the PSU and fan tray. Once you pull those two components out, the thing is surprisingly agile. Pull some of the boards if you want to further lighten it up. The wheels screech like the tortured cries of a hundred suffering children, though.

The wheels screech like the tortured cries of a hundred suffering children, though. Yikes.

Kumba wrote: The wheels screech like the tortured cries of a hundred suffering children, though.

Mm, there's this stuff called "oil" ?

hamei wrote:

Kumba wrote: The wheels screech like the tortured cries of a hundred suffering children, though.

Mm, there's this stuff called "oil" ? :D

I have carpet...gravity would invariably do its thing and I'd wind up with oil stains in the carpet. Need to just hunt some thick grease down at some point. Though I don't look forward to getting the bottom carrier apart again to get the grease where it'd be the most useful...

I think some ptfe (dry lube) would be better suited for this application than heavy grease, no ?

Yes, go the dry method. You can get some graphite in a little tube and squeeze (blow) it into the wheels.

It used to be sold at hardware stores to silent noisy door hinges.