Hardware Wanted

I recently got an Indigo2 R10k with Solid Impact graphics and I'd love to upgrade it to Max Impact so I can do some textured modelling and play a few games. That and I'd really like to max out my system. I would prefer one with the maximum 4MB of texture memory but it's not absolutely necessary.

Ideally I would like to spend less than 100USD but feel free to let me know if your asking price is higher.

Thanks!

SpaceDebris wrote: Ideally I would like to spend less than 100USD but feel free to let me know if your asking price is higher.

From the price list I have seen around, I am afraid the price will be ~250..300USD, without the TRAM

ivelegacy wrote:
From the price list I have seen around, I am afraid the price will be ~250..300USD, without the TRAM

Wow. I honestly wasn't expecting that but you're absolutely right. I checked some completed listings on Ebay and 4 Max Impact boardsets sold for $300 a piece. I'm just getting into SGI stuff, primarily Indigo2s, so I'm not yet familiar with the average prices for this sort of thing. I'm still going to hold out hope that someone somewhere will be willing to part with one for less than $300 but until then I suppose I should start myself an SGI hardware fund.

Problem with MaxImpact boards is that they used to be plentiful some years back, but due to TRAM failures and the lack of Indigo2s being recycled these days, they've become increasingly rare, and hence the price has gone up.

I have bought a MaxImpact for a friend who is not familiar with ebay/dealears/forums but good at OpenGL programming, so I contacted a dealer in USA and I had a discount: 90 days of warranty included, we payed 300 USD shipped plus the 22% of fee to import, which is, from my point of view, too much money! I mean I think Octane is a better and cheaper system, especially considering I have for sale an Odyssey V6 GFX , asked 50 euro, and V6 against MaxImpact , comparing gfx about the perfromance/cost ratio, the Odysseay wins, it's staggeringly { faster, most featured, cheaper } by several orders of magnitude different.

in my head, the idea I have, is something like the following

• 100000000000000 points / 250 euro asked for a V12
• 1000000 points / 50 euro asked for a Odyssey V6 <--------- it looks the best Trade-off
• 1000 points / 250 euro asked for a MaxImpact
• 250 points / 20 euro asked for a SolidImpact

ivelegacy wrote: I have bought a MaxImpact for a friend who is not familiar with ebay/dealears/forums but good at OpenGL programming, so I contacted a dealer in USA and I had a discount: 90 days of warranty included, we payed 300 USD shipped plus the 22% of fee to import, which is, from my point of view, too much money! I mean I think Octane is a better and cheaper system, especially considering I have for sale an Odyssey V6 GFX , asked 50 euro, and V6 against MaxImpact , comparing gfx about the perfromance/cost ratio, the Odysseay wins, it's staggeringly { faster, most featured, cheaper } by several orders of magnitude different.

in my head, the idea I have, is something like the following

• 100000000000000 points / 250 euro asked for a V12
• 1000000 points / 50 euro asked for a Odyssey V6 <--------- it looks the best Trade-off
• 1000 points / 250 euro asked for a MaxImpact
• 250 points / 20 euro asked for a SolidImpact

Problem with Odyssey is that, the common V6/V8 have the stupid hardware flaw, many applications don't work with them - since it arrived just about the time that PC hardware started outclassing SGI stuff and they can be quite expensive.

I got my replacement Octane MaxImpact with 2 working TRAMS from a guy in Los Angeles for about $150CDN. I also have yet to see a V10/V12 on fleabay. Seems people come mainly into possession of them by rescuing old machines or through here.

Krokodil wrote: many applications don't work with them

Which applications ?

I know the real problem is with LCDs, I mean V6 needs more care about choosing the compliant LCD, I haven't experimented other troubles with any of these applications[]={ Mathematica, Illustrator, Photoshop, WordPerfect, MIPS/Pro, Premiere }, mainly I was using MIPS/Pro + OpenGL + gcc to develop something cool, but in my signature you can see what is in my wish list

( Ansys, Catia, Pro/E, FiberSIM, AutoDYNþ )

Krokodil wrote: got my replacement Octane MaxImpact with 2 working TRAMS from a guy in Los Angeles for about $150CDN

Well done! I bought an old MGRAS_SE gfx to develop around X11 with linux, but I still have to use seriously.

Krokodil wrote: I also have yet to see a V10/V12 on flea bay

yep, I have seen a few V12, and its price was floating from 250 to 300 euro

ivelegacy wrote: Which applications ?

IMPACT based demos and anything that expects IMPACT to run like applications involving 3D graphics. I don't have a list though, I've just heard that from other people.

I know the real problem is with LCDs, I mean V6 needs more care about choosing the compliant LCD, I haven't experimented other troubles with any applications (Mathematica, Illustrator, Photoshop, WordPerfect), but I do not have a lot of applications here, mainly I was using MIPS/Pro + OpenGL + gcc to develop something cool, but in my signature you can see what is in my wish list

( Ansys, Catia, Pro/E, FiberSIM, AutoDYNþ )

I have yet to see any of those applications "out there". I have Photoshop/Illustrator but can't test because oh no, I have brand new copies of them that came with my O2, but no licenses...thanks adope.

yep, I have seen a few V12, and its price was floating from 250 to 300 euro

Perhaps this is occurring on an flea bay outside of North America. I would snatch one of those up if one came up for that price.

Krokodil wrote: IMPACT based demos .....

For the record, you can run most of the Impact Demos with VPro graphics. I have all of the ones on the Octane Demonstration Programs 1.3 CD installed/running on an V12 Octane, a Tezro and an O350 with V12 graphics. Since they were also mentioned, ditto for Photoshop, Illustrator, MIPSPro (7.4) and WordPerfect (don't have Premiere, Ansys, Catia, Pro/E, FiberSIM, or AutoDYNþ).

You may need to invoke rulesoverrride to get them installed (scroll down to the 'Preferences' section of man swmgr if you're not already familiar with rulesoverride).

When you run them you'll get a warning: You can safely ignore the warning and click the run button to start the demo.

recondas wrote:

Krokodil wrote: IMPACT based demos .....

For the record, you can run most of the Impact Demos with VPro graphics. I have all of the ones on the Octane Demonstration Programs 1.3 CD installed/running on an V12 Octane, a Tezro and an O350 with V12 graphics. Since they were also mentioned, ditto for Photoshop, Illustrator, MIPSPro (7.4) and WordPerfect (don't have Premiere, Ansys, Catia, Pro/E, FiberSIM, or AutoDYNþ).

You may need to invoke rulesoverrride to get them installed (scroll down to the 'Preferences' section of man swmgr if you're not already familiar with rulesoverride).

When you run them you'll get a warning:

Code: Select all

This Demo runs best on OCTANE MXE or Maximum Impact systems

You can safely ignore the warning and click the run button to start the demo.

Which programs don't run on vPro then?

Krokodil wrote: Which programs don't run on vPro then?

That can also be installed/run under IRIX 6.5 with MGRAS graphics? I haven't run across anything..... but I'm sure someone will offer an example.

A more obvious limitation might be the availability of analog video options. Factory options for MGRAS graphics include the the Personal Video and Compression Options. Analog video capture with VPro graphics is limited to the DM10/firewire (and, if you can find one, possibly the DM6), neither of which are supported by IRIX to the level enjoyed by the PVO and Compression Option.

BTW, As long as you're willing to run 2GB (or less) of memory, the Octane Compression Option can be used with VPro graphics .

If you still need texturing, and you picked the Indigo2 as your choice, maybe High Impact will do, not as fast as max but still faster than solid, and can do texturing, should be budget friendlier than max, generates less heat, eats less power.

Trippynet wrote: Problem with MaxImpact boards is that they used to be plentiful some years back, but due to TRAM failures and the lack of Indigo2s being recycled these days, they've become increasingly rare, and hence the price has gone up.

That's what I was worried about when I started looking for hardware earlier this year. I passed up several opportunities to buy some systems a few years ago when they were much cheaper and I'm really regretting that now.

ivelegacy wrote: I have bought a MaxImpact for a friend who is not familiar with ebay/dealears/forums but good at OpenGL programming, so I contacted a dealer in USA and I had a discount: 90 days of warranty included, we payed 300 USD shipped plus the 22% of fee to import, which is, from my point of view, too much money! I mean I think Octane is a better and cheaper system, especially considering I have for sale an Odyssey V6 GFX , asked 50 euro, and V6 against MaxImpact , comparing gfx about the perfromance/cost ratio, the Odysseay wins, it's staggeringly { faster, most featured, cheaper } by several orders of magnitude different.

Octanes may be more powerful but I have a particular nostalgic connection to Indigo2s which is why I insist on using them. I don't need MaxImpact to do anything serious, I just want to be able play games and play around with all of the old software. I would honestly be perfectly content with HighImpact but I would prefer Max not only because it's faster, but also because having the fastest possible Indigo2 hardware configuration is just much cooler.

SpaceDebris wrote: having the fastest possible Indigo2 hardware configuration is just much cooler.

which is the reason why the "best" configuration can be quite expensive compared to the 2nd best or entry graphics options, even though in today's world it's the difference between very very slow and just a fraction less slow.

cybercow wrote: If you still need texturing, and you picked the Indigo2 as your choice, maybe High Impact will do, not as fast as max but still faster than solid, and can do texturing, should be budget friendlier than max, generates less heat, eats less power.

I'd be happy to get a HighImpact set but finding one I can afford is still the big issue. I actually went to a local computer recycling place yesterday to look for any SGI hardware I could find. Out of the many large piles of computers they had, the only SGI hardware I found was an externally badly damaged O2 that I have yet to test. I also found an IBM 5360 System Unit, unfortunately not in working order, out of which I pulled a massive old HDD. The manager was kind enough to let me have both for free. As cool as I think that giant hard drive is, if any IBM/SGI aficionados would like to trade me a MaxImpact set for it, I would certainly be interested.