Hardware For Sale/Trade

What is a fair price for an Onyx2? It has 2 R12000 400Mhz IP27 processors, 2GB RAM, InfiniteReality2E graphics. Seller is asking over $1K which I think is way too much.

I bought one deskside recently, in perfect condition, I paid $1500 cash, it came with two dual R12k@400 with 4GB each + RM11 + GE + DG5-2. The trick is not the price, it's shipping; I bought it locally, and it was delivered by the seller for that price.

Why did I pay $1500 for this, well, some of our backup software still run on this platform, and the old one died, I blew up the midplane while inserting a XIO card a little too fast.

As Mia said it is the shipping that will kill you. I paid $500 for a deskside a few weeks back because I could pick it up. I just wanted the plastics, power supply and a few boards.
That said, $1K for a working machine with nice plastics is a fair price if you can pick it up. The dual 400 mhz boards go for under $100 on ebay and RM-10 boards are just over $100. So you can upgrade them for little money as long as you get the chassis cheap enough.
Where are you located? I have a deskside Onyx2 or a G-brick/Origin 300 combo I will sell you cheap if you are willing to pick them up here in Palm Springs,CA

What I really like about the Onyx2 myself is that it's very quiet, assuming the room temperature isn't terribly high, otherwise it's loud, when the fans are engaged at maximum speed. But under normal conditions (and occasionally a little burst) it's rather quiet.

I have not looked into replacing those fans with even quiet(er) ones, should this be possible, anyone looked into this?

At the dovebid auction where we bought my onyx and crimson, they were selling skids of 4 onyx2's for $40/skid. And there were a lot of those skids, maybe 2 dozen machines? ... seemed to be about 60% origin/40% onyx but none of them went for more than the opening bid.

Which works out to $10/machine. YMMV.

(The Onyx and Crimson lot went for over $200 but the onyx was IR/10000 and the crimson was a jurassic vgxt )

guardian452 wrote: At the dovebid auction where we bought my onyx and crimson, they were selling skids of 4 onyx2's for $40/skid. And there were a lot of those skids, maybe 2 dozen machines?

Have pity on late-comers who're looking for an Onyx2 now or in the future and find this thread -- what year was this?

2008.


How to get a good price is (a) know where to look (industrial/university surplus auctions, etc) , or (b) know somebody who wants to get rid of one.

guardian452 wrote: 2008.


How to get a good price is (a) know where to look (industrial/university surplus auctions, etc) , or (b) know somebody who wants to get rid of one.

I'm still hoping the Goddard NASA facility about 15 minutes from me has surplus SGI hardware.

I paid €250 for my own Onyx2 deskside. At the time it was a dual R10K config with IR2E graphics, but with pristine skins. I sold a couple of Onyx2's a while ago for prices between €200 - €350, or traded them for something 'interesting', like a pair of Challenge L desksides. These were mostly 'rackmount deskside' 300MHz R12K systems with IR2E graphics.

guardian452 wrote: How to get a good price is (a) know where to look (industrial/university surplus auctions, etc) , or (b) know somebody who wants to get rid of one.

Don't forget (c) plain luck or (d) someone who tips you off. Thanks to option (d) I picked up a purple O2+ a couple of weeks ago for €25.

And that was only because I was generous (the money was going to someone's kid). The asking price was ..... <insert drum roll> ... 10 bucks.

I bought mine last year for 500 bucks. Skins are in great condition. Specs were low. I think entry graphics and two 300ish MHz node boards? I can't remember. I have a power cable and plugged it into my wall 110v wall outlet in the basement. I booted it up and it worked, I just haven't played with it because I am afraid of power needs off that 110v outlet. I read through the forum about people using them hooked up to 110v outlets. Who is doing that now? Could anyone with one running off a 110v outlet throw out some info? Is it safe? Will it pop the breaker or melt the cable? I am just a worrier, that is why they call me whiskers Do you really need a 120v outlet installed on a 30amp breaker?

I would love to run it instead of my octane 2 during the winter since it gets cold down here. I would think it would be cheaper to run than a space heater, I am only using it for ssh and not much else.

opcode wrote: Could anyone with one running off a 110v outlet throw out some info?

You could always get a Kill-a-Watt and generate your own empirical data set. Handy tool to have around even if you don't have a room full of decade(s) old computer gear.

I still run mine from a 120V 15A circuit, but only because I haven't gotten around to getting the correct cable to plug it into the 240V outlet. (I specifically ran one for it in my new computer room but still haven't used it yet.)

That said, I've monitored my power consumption with a Kill-a-Watt on the Onyx2 and haven't quite exceeded 1kW yet, even with 2x 400MHz node boards and 2 RM10s in it. So I wouldn't worry about it too much.

And yes, it does make a good space heater. Even in winter I have to keep both windows cracked in my 12x8 computer room in or it will fastfan pretty quickly.

Edit: Actually it's running on a 20A circuit, but my power consumption numbers suggest that a 15A circuit is fine. Just don't try to run it with many other devices on the same circuit.

opcode wrote: Could anyone with one running off a 110v outlet throw out some info? Is it safe? Will it pop the breaker or melt the cable? I am just a worrier, that is why they call me whiskers Do you really need a 120v outlet installed on a 30amp breaker?

I have a 4x400MHz IR3 Deskside, and it runs fine on a 110V 15A circuit. The cord does get warm, but I haven't had any trouble. Using a Kill-A-Watt meter, it draws 945 watts at idle, and 1025 watts with a graphics load (I use the Lattice screensaver for this). Obviously there's not a lot of overhead on a 15A circuit with this beast running, so one of these days the plan is to properly wire the garage - but until then, 15A works.

Mine is somewhere between IR2 and IR3. I still have a GE14 instead of a GE16, the last piece to my IR3 puzzle. That might explain why I haven't quite gone over the 1kW threshold yet.

Unless there is a compelling business reason, e.g. required software that only runs on that platform. The fair price for an unsupported 15 yr old computer should be " free " with +/- $25 margin of error, or a 6-pack of beer (which ever is more expensive).