Hardware Wanted

ivelegacy wrote: The Maximum IMPACT is claimed to offer double the performances of the Solid IMPACT about that, but it is limited about the mount of TRAM

and what's wrong with that?

foetz wrote: and what's wrong with that?

i was only pointing out the limitation of the 4Mbyte of the Texture ram of the MaxImpact, just an other coin for the thesis that says that Octanes have the best performances/cost ratio.

ivelegacy wrote: Octanes have the best performances/cost ratio.

oh absolutely

foetz wrote:

ivelegacy wrote: Octanes have the best performances/cost ratio.

oh absolutely

Concur. Fuels can be faster but still lose to dual CPU Octanes. And Octane is a true workstation compared to the more Dell-like Fuel. Fuel was an attempt to grab market share back from Sun which was undercutting the Octane with it's also-Dell-like Ultra 60. I don't think it worked. The Tezro is a rock to Octane's scissors but Tezros sell for Chinese Telephone Numbers (i.e. really big numbers )...

Not if its a 900MHz Fuel :p. I got one of Mopar5150's 900MHz Fuel PIMMs. Just gotta find the rest of the Fuel...

vishnu wrote: Concur. Fuels can be faster but still lose to dual CPU Octanes

do you mean IP30 with dual R14K @ 600 Mhz + Odissey V12 vs Fuel R16K @ 800Mhz + Odissey V12 ? I am not an expert and i have never tried such machines, never seen by my eyes, but i know i can buy a Fuel with the price i have to pay for just the dual R14K @ 600Mhz

really, i was asked 700 euro for a Fuel R16K @ 700Mhz with 4Gbyte of ram, 36Gbyte of HD, and V12, as i has asked 500 USD + shipping + VAT (22% of the total, so 22% of { goods + shipping} ) for just the Octane2 dual R14K @ 600Mhz X_____X

it seems to me that Fuel has a best ratio between performances / costs, as the fact an Octane2/SMP/V12 is very expensive

to quantify, assuming these two machine are "equal" about performances, let us talk about costs:

about super Octane2, i was asked for the following
+ 300 euro for the base machine (chassis, plastic, PSU, 3 disks of 36Gbyte each, 4Gbyte ram, Xbow v1.4)
+ 600 euro for the Dual SMP CPU module R14K @ 600Mhz (probably it is more expensive due to the VAT)
+ 300 euro for the Odissey V12 gfx
--------------------
=1200 euro


1200 for the super Octane2 euro vs 700 (euro for the Fuel fully loaded

edid:
could Fuel ?
- use the USB to attach any HID device like pen, draw tablet and such a things ?
- attach an USB pen drive or an USB hard drive ?

Just curious about that, has the fact Fuel has the USB.

TeamBlackFox wrote: Not if its a 900MHz Fuel :p.

let me say that now I envy you two things
- the marvelous yellow labeled cooler mounted on your indy R5K @ 180Mhz
- the @ 900Mhz Fuel experience

really

Bear in mind it's an apples-for-oranges comparison. Tasks that can utilise both CPUs efficiently will run faster on the Octane. Single threaded tasks can run faster on a Fuel as it supports up to 900MHz CPUs.

Then just to complicate matters further, Fuel has faster disk I/O than Octane, so tasks involving a lot of data transfer may benefit from the U160 SCSI bus on the Fuel - if you have a fast enough hard drive of course. Hence, getting the faster machine depends a lot on the price. Plus as you've seen, a dual 600MHz Octane can still fetch quite a price. Although saying that, the 800MHz and particularly 900MHz Fuels also hold their value well too.

Trippynet wrote: Then just to complicate matters further, Fuel has faster disk I/O than Octane, so tasks involving a lot of data transfer may benefit from the U160 SCSI bus on the Fuel

U160 SCSI is possible in the Octane, but only external (and it requires a PCI shoebox / shoehorn).

Then just to complicate matters further, Fuel will work with an U320 SCSI card, but performance of that particular card is ... underwhelming. Fuel will take a SATA card (disks limited to 2TB), that can be quite useful.

jan-jaap wrote: Fuel will take a SATA card (disks limited to 2TB)

which SGI P/N is such a PCI expansion ?

jan-jaap wrote: U160 SCSI is possible in the Octane, but only external (and it requires a PCI shoebox / shoehorn)

i have not understood: is it XIO24 SCSI card or XIO-PCI (through PCI cartridge and then) PCI-SCSI (plugged in the cartridge) ?
i have seen XIO24 SCSI card (quadric channels) on ebay.

Trippynet wrote: Although saying that, the 800MHz and particularly 900MHz Fuels also hold their value well too

how much are them ? just to have a value to compare what i was asked to pay for the R16K @ 700Mhz version

ivelegacy wrote: i have not understood: is it XIO24 SCSI card or XIO-PCI (through PCI cartridge and then) PCI-SCSI (plugged in the cartridge) ?

C'mon ... http://www.nekochan.net/wiki/SGI_Octane#Add-On_Options

Qlogic QLA12160 is a dual channel U160 SCSI card. Since this is a PCI card, you need a PCI Shoebox (3 slots) or PCI shoehorn (1 slot) to mount it in the Octane.

Due to the bandwidth limitations of the XIO-PCI bridge in the Octane / O2K series, you will not be able to use the Qlogic QLA12160 to it's full potential.

i mean SGI 4-Port Differential Ultra SCSI XIO Card for Octane, P/N 030-1281

ivelegacy wrote:

jan-jaap wrote: Fuel will take a SATA card (disks limited to 2TB)

which SGI P/N is such a PCI expansion ?

No idea but if you just buy one with the correct chip from eBay it should work. Many people around here (incl. myself ) did that with good results. See also viewtopic.php?t=9046

ivelegacy wrote: i mean SGI 4-Port Differential Ultra SCSI XIO Card for Octane, P/N 030-1281

That is not an Ultra 160 SCSI board.

i have a dead front plane in my IP30, but i already have the PCI Cardcage (1), may sATA-PCI (with the right chip) also work for Octane2 ?


(1) used to add USB support in linux kernel, and … it works only with a window of 20Mbyte/sec
never used with Irix, so it should be very interesting if it will ever work with sATA

about Indigo2 Extreme Graphics, i am reading that guys have combined these Silicon Graphics P/N

• 030-8106-005
• 030-8105-006
• 030-8226-002

i am confused about auction like this (Silicon Graphics Indigo2 Extreme Graphics 030-8106-005 030-8226-002 030-8105-006), is it really possible ?




full informations about indigo2 found here

ivelegacy wrote:

vishnu wrote: could Fuel ?
- use the USB to attach any HID device like pen, draw tablet and such a things ?
- attach an USB pen drive or an USB hard drive ?

Just curious about that, has the fact Fuel has the USB.

Mass storage - no
HID - keyboard/mouse, yes; don't know about pens and tablets - have a look at the Fuel Hardware Aggregator
USB audio - some; I had a very cheap device to provide sound out (which just worked, before it died for no apparent reason) and I think some devices enable sound in (with a microphone) as well

ivelegacy wrote: about Indigo2 Extreme Graphics, i am reading that guys have combined these Silicon Graphics P/N

• 030-8106-005
• 030-8105-006
• 030-8226-002

Not about to pull mine apart to check, but as there are three boards in an Extreme set and the auction picture looks like what's in my I2, I think the error lies in describing the set as "High Impact (2-Board Set) with the additional Extreme Graphics Board". More likely it is just an Extreme set.

Hope this post appears - one the other day on "Impact ready" I2s vanished (or perhaps I hit cancel rather than submit!)

ajw99uk wrote: Not about to pull mine apart to check, but as there are three boards in an Extreme set and the auction picture looks like what's in my I2, I think the error lies in describing the set as "High Impact (2-Board Set) with the additional Extreme Graphics Board". More likely it is just an Extreme set.

yes, you are right! I have checked the P/N and the guy on ebay is wrong: he is selling an Extreme Set, there is no HighImpact in his auction. The problem is … i am not expert about this stuff and his auction was confusing me a bit. I have also cross checked the photo on Lan's web, and MaxImapact set looks completely different, so no more dubs about.

thank you for your post !

ivelegacy wrote: [*]Octane can have up to 4Gbyte of ram, and Octane2 can have up to 8Gbyte of ram, ...

Found this while searching for something, minor error, thought I'd post a correction: older Octane mbds have
a max of 2GB RAM, not 4GB.

The max for later 1467 mbds is indeed 8GB though.

Ian.

so i was talk not correctly, thank you for the fix up!

Internet Fate wrote: No I haven't assessed the practicality of running maya on any of the machines. Once again this is all new to me so I'm trying to feel it out. If maya would be hard to run on an Impact then are there any alternatives with better performance?

it's pretty simple - get the top end configuration of your desired workstation model:

- indy in all it's configurations is a bit too small for proper 3D work unless you only work untextured.
- o2 R12k 400 mhz and maxed out RAM. probably too slow for maya but softimage will do. as should older software.
- indigo2 R10k 195 mhz and maximum impact graphics with the texture option. you can run softimage 3D well on this one. high-impact is also a graphics card worth considering for this system.
- octane2 dual R14k-600 and V8 or V12. maya runs in acceptable fashion - and everything else that ever came out for the SGI.
- fuel - any CPU config and V12 graphics. should run at least as well as on the octane except for rendering due to being limited to one CPU.
- tezro - any configuration should do, really.

keep in mind that the software available on the sgi is at least about 12+ years behind what is out there these days in terms of functionality, performance and UX. that can be quite hard to get accustomed to ('how could we ever work with THIS?'-effect). there's also nothing magical about this platform, it was simply the best option available in the 1990's. the world moved on and surpassed it. so don't expect in 2015 to stumble into a secret fairy land of hardware accelerated CG wonder that somehow can still compete.

a few other notes:
- you are about a decade too late for the big SGI hardware bonanza. decent systems might not be so easy to find anymore. sorry about that
- the computers are old and parts of them will have become unreliable and prone to breaking. so get spares if you want to work with them! also some knowledge about how to fix issues yourself will definitely come in handy
- these systems use lots of semi-exotic bits that you can't buy in computer stores (anymore). think about your storage options and connectivity with whatever system you have used so far
- be prepared for the noise and power-draw of these boxes. the indigo2 can easily be used as a heater. the octane sounds like a jet engine
- not all sgi's play nice with current day monitors

GIJoe wrote: keep in mind that the software available on the sgi is at least about 12+ years behind what is out there these days in terms of functionality, performance and UX. that can be quite hard to get accustomed to ('how could we ever work with THIS?'-effect). there's also nothing magical about this platform, it was simply the best option available in the 1990's. the world moved on and surpassed it. so don't expect in 2015 to stumble into a secret fairy land of hardware accelerated CG wonder that somehow can still compete.

In some fields, the software has not advanced in the slightest. Pro/E, for instance, has not added anything useful since Wildfire 2. Since Wildfire 1, really, except for a few fixes. Framemaker, well, if you just have to work with XML I guess 7 and newer are "better" but generally speaking, no. I haven't found a better audio player than MXAudio, which dates to Irix 5.3.

In others, if you need PhotoShop or Illustrator for example, you're screwed.

So it's really a mixed-up situation which depends on exactly what you want to do.