Hardware For Sale/Trade

I've decided to part out some of the equipment in storage because of lack of time and space for them.
I need to make room for other projects at the moment.

Six SGI Origin 350 systems as below: All six modules are gone.
(SGI calls these 2U rack servers as "modules")

(Qty 0) Origin 350 - Base Compute Module ( Had two, both of them sold )
4 x 700MHz CPUs
8 x 512MB (Premium) RAM - total 4GB
IO9 card + drivecage
2 x empty drive sleds
no harddrives (standard 3.5" SCSI SCA as in Octane and others)

(Qty 0) Origin 350 - Base Compute Module ( Had two, both of them sold )
4 x 700MHz CPUs
2 x 512MB (Premium) RAM - total 1GB
IO9 card + drivecage
2 x empty drive sleds
no harddrives (standard 3.5" SCSI SCA as in Octane and others)

(Qty 0) Origin 350 - MPX Module ( Had two, both of them sold )
4 x 700MHz CPUs
2 x 512MB (Premium) RAM - total 1GB

All systems are tested and verified working.

There are two variants of the Origin 350 bricks; Base Compute Module and MPX Module.
The Base Compute Module works standalone just like any standard system. They are fitted with an IO9 adapter card which provides gigabit Ethernet, SCSI for internal disks, IDE for system CD/DVD-ROM and provides NVRAM to keep system enviroments. There's also correct IDE+SCSI cabling for the drives and ofcourse disk sleds. Without the IO9 card the machine cannot work standalone. (These cards are a rare sight and often cost lots of money on eBay)
The MPX Module lacks the IO9 daughtercard, the drive cables and sleds. (Without this it won't work standalone and must be connected to either a Base Compute Module or a NUMAlink router.) Other than that, it's an ordinary Origin brick.

All compute modules are packed and ready to go, but I haven't packed the MPX modules yet cause lack of appropriate shipping boxes. The MPX modules is a little bit of a gamble to see if someone's interested in them. They mate up perfectly with either of the others through NUMAlink cable though.

I haven't calculated shipping yet, so I might or might not be able to offer shipping through the local post office - their limit is 20kg.
The deal depends really on if you have the possibility to either pick them up (northern parts of Sweden), ship within Sweden (no weight limit using bus shipping) or arrange your own shipping.

I've got other stuff coming up also a bit later... AC-powered NUMAlink router, AC-powered L2-controller, etc. The router + L2 are both gone.


( Everything gone - nothing to see here. )

This really an excellent opportunity for the nekochan membership. Along with the Tezro, the O350 seems to have been one of the hardest SGI systems to acquire.

The O350 can also easily be converted into the functional equivalent of a rack-mount Tezro Workstation with the addition of a Fuel VPro board: the original discussion is here ; a photo how-to of the O350/VPro installation process is here ; and instructions for changing the PROM splash-screen to display as a Tezro are here . It'd be a pretty nice way to end up with a quad processor - VPro equipped workstation.

ramq wrote: The Base Compute Module works standalone just like any standard system. They are fitted with an IO9 adapter card which provides gigabit Ethernet, SCSI for internal disks, IDE for system CD/DVD-ROM and provides NVRAM to keep system enviroments. There's also correct IDE+SCSI cabling for the drives and ofcourse disk sleds. Without the IO9 card the machine cannot work standalone. (These cards are a rare sight and often cost lots of money on eBay)
The MPX Module lacks the IO9 daughtercard, the drive cables and sleds. (Without this it won't work standalone and must be connected to either a Base Compute Module or a NUMAlink router.) Other than that, it's an ordinary Origin brick.

If anyone ends up needing one, I have a spare IO9 .

recondas wrote: The O350 can also easily be converted into the functional equivalent of a rack-mount Tezro Workstation with the addition of a Fuel VPro board: the original discussion is here ; a photo how-to of the O350/VPro installation process is here ; and instructions for changing the PROM splash-screen to display as a Tezro are here . It'd be a pretty nice way to end up with a quad processor - VPro equipped workstation.

I've not understood the drive to "convert" to a Tezro. The Onyx350 InfinitePerformance will do anything a Tezro will do and maintains the possibility of further expansion later. Is the InfinitePerformance splash screen just really bad looking?

SAQ wrote: I've not understood the drive to "convert" to a Tezro. The Onyx350 InfinitePerformance will do anything a Tezro will do and maintains the possibility of further expansion later. Is the InfinitePerformance splash screen just really bad looking?

Drive? For whatever reason you're making way too much out of Tezro PROM screen switch. It's there as an option for whoever owns a capable system, to use or not as they see fit. Nothing more, nothing less.

FWIW, I happen to prefer the IP PROM screen - but since I hardly ever reboot, I don't see it enough to get that excited about it.


If any one feels compelled to make the Tezro PROM molehill any larger, please do so in the thread already started on the subject , so we don't drag ramq's FS post too far off topic.

Bump, with update on amount of servers left and shipping.

Why do such offers (in Europe) have to happen just after I decided to save a bit of money XMas presents?

Hey, it started if August, so you had the end of the summer to decide anyway.

ramq wrote: Hey, it started if August, so you had the end of the summer to decide anyway.

Ha ha ha, it must have been the time I was suffering coffee withdrawal symptoms…

Well, it looks like there's a high bidder on all four remaining systems (including L2 + NUMAlink router) at the moment, so I'll inform you others if there's a chance left.

ramq wrote: Two of the modules went to Holland

And in case you were wondering, here they are


It's been a pleasure! I'll follow up my adventures with this new toy in a separate thread. My immediate plans include adding some more RAM which I still have. The second module doesn't have an IO9 or SCSI drive backplane, but I want to install a SAS3041 board and a couple of large SATA drives instead.

And no, I have no immediate plans to turn this into an Onyx350. This baby will live in a rack somewhere, where it can run 24/7 and be useful

Thanks Björn!

ramq wrote: (Qty 1) Origin 350 - MPX Module ( Had two, one of them sold )

FWIW, I think the correct term is Expansion compute module : The only difference between the base compute module and the expansion compute module is that the expansion compute module may or may not contain an IO9 PCI card and the devices and connector ports the IO9 card supports.


An MPX module has RAM and PCI-X slots, but no CPUs: To increase the amount of memory in the system, the compute modules can connect to a memory and PCI expansion (MPX) module as shown in Figure 2-4.The MPX module is a 2U AC-powered device that can have from 1 GB to 8 GB of memory. This module also has four PCI/PCI-X slots. .

Congratulations jj!

Thanks for the clarification, Jan-jaap - and enjoy your new systems!
Please do make an own thread and be thorough, I think everyone wants to know.

As for the "MPX" versus "Expansion". Somewhere along the way there were confusing information from various sources, including SGI own docs, which made me use either of those two terms. However, with the specs included there ain't any doubt - these are Expansion Modules.
The four remaining modules are spoken for so if there's nothing that happens along the way, all things for sale are gone soon.

However, I have leads on other fun equipment - including HP RX2660 and HP AlphaServer DS15... hehe

Everything gone now.
Jan-jaap got the first two modules and I'll let the other taker reveal their christmas present themselves in another thread.