The collected works of SpaceDebris

Hi,
As a child in the 90s, I was lucky enough to have access to my uncle's teal Indigo2. It was actually the very first computer I ever learned how to use and it really sparked my interest in computers as kid. Unfortunately my time with that machine was short lived, my uncle moved, and I haven't even seen an SGI machine in person since 1999. I started thinking about that old Indigo2 again after stumbling across an article about SGI and now I really want to get my hands on one for nostalgic purposes. I figured a forum full of SGI enthusiasts, I'm so glad one still exists in 2015, would be a pretty good place to ask for help.

Does anyone have any advice on where to look for a teal Indigo2 or have one for sale? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Note: I know this post probably belongs in the "Hardware Wanted" section but since it's my first post I felt this section was appropriate. I'll post in the hardware wanted section as well.
Hi,
I'm really interested in getting my hands on an Indigo2 system, preferably a teal Indigo2 but any will do. A teal Indigo2 was the first computer I used growing up and I'd really love to have one for nostalgic purposes.

As far as parts go I'm primarily interested in things like graphics cards, CPU modules, and RAM. If I get my hands on an Indigo2 I would like to max it out as much I can.

Thanks for any assistance.
Thank you all for the helpful advice!

nyef wrote: Welcome, welcome.

I see one on eBay right now as a buy-it-now, $160, free shipping, no drives, no drive caddies, damaged hinge of some sort... Apparently spins up, but no guarantee that it actually works . http://www.ebay.com/itm/Silicon-Graphics-CMNB007Y75-Indigo-2-Unix-Workstation-POWER-TESTED-ON-ONLY-Used-/331604819359?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d352ffd9f

If you do get this, note that it has the 13W3 connector for video. SGI and SUN 13W3 connectors are not entirely compatible, so be careful when you buy an adaptor.


Thanks for pointing out that ebay listing. I'll certainly consider that listing if I can't find any guaranteed working systems. And thanks for the info about the 13W3 connector. I already have a few SUN 13W3 connectors and I would have tried using them without a second thought.


hjw3001 wrote: Welcome!

I recently purchased a working teal Indigo 2 from Craigslist. Create a saved search that will email you when someone lists an SGI for sale. You can also create saved searches on eBay.


Thank you for that advice! I'll set that up right now.
vishnu wrote: Welcome! Glad you found our tiny little outpost of outcasts here in the Land that Time Forgot... 8-)

Not to be a pooty parper , but unless you've got some of the applications that the Indigo2 was designed to run, for example Pro/ENGINEER, Power Animator, Maya, etc., then even a high end Indigo2 isn't going to be very useful. Or, at least not very useful for anything here in the Modern Era. You could argue, and in fact we argue about it a lot, that a higher end Octane2, Fuel, O350/Tezro are still useful for a tiny handful of tasks that the Modern Era would still consider relevant. Though I think the majority opinion here would tend to slant against that viewpoint. And that would the opinion of people who still really love these machines. I know I love mine (2x600MHz Octane2 and 2x700MHz Tezro)... :mrgreen:


That's a very good point. Luckily I may have a resource for software. A friend of mine who worked with SGI systems in he 90s claims to have a few boxes of SGI software somewhere in his garage... If not I'm guessing ebay may prove useful for software acquisition.


Trippynet wrote: Indeed, it's about finding the right applications to run. My Indigo2 gets used for playing music via XMMS (300GB secondary hard drive full of tunes), for playing some ScummVM games, for messing around with Perl, and for general IRIX experimenting. Indigo2s can also be used to some degree for Blender and other 3D tasks, so long as you don't exceed the hardware's capabilities (ie, trying textured stuff with anything less than HighIMPACT). Of course, more complex work will always benefit from a higher spec machine, but I use my Indigo2 mainly because for nostalgia reasons, I have much more of a fondness for it than my Fuel, despite the additional performance that the Fuel offers.

For browsing the web or other modern tasks though, it's no good for this sort of thing, so you have to be realistic with expectations.

For obtaining a machine, I'd highly recommend a posting in "Wanted". There's often folk in the US wanting to move machines around, so if you're willing to drive a bit, you might be able to pick up a nice machine for very little.

EDIT: One quick note though, teal Indigo2s are usually MIPS R4400 processor systems. These are MIPS3, and so cannot use the main Nekoware repository. This requires MIPS4 (R5000/R7000 and R10000+). Of course with some customising of internal components, there's nothing to stop you putting the guts from a later R10000 Indigo2 into a teal case...


Thanks for the advice.I want one primarily for nostalgic purposes so I'm certainly not expecting to get any real work done on an Indigo2. That said if it can be used for actual work I will certainly use it, primarily for the coolness factor, cool in my opinion, of using an SGI machine from the 1990s to get work done in 2015.
foetz wrote:
Trippynet wrote: teal Indigo2s are usually MIPS R4400 processor systems

which makes them the most versatile of all. they can run everything from irix 4 to 6.5.22


Trippynet wrote:
foetz wrote: which makes them the most versatile of all. they can run everything from irix 4 to 6.5.22


True, but if you want to "max out" an Indigo2, an R10000 will provide better performance, and I'd imagine he's more likely to want IRIX 6.5 than an earlier flavour.



You both make very good points. But I definitely want to get a teal Indigo2, regardless of its limitations, only because a teal Indigo2 was the first computer I ever used and I'd like to replicate the same experience I had as a kid. However, since I'm also interested in the much greater performance potential of an R10K system, I'm just going to try and get one of each.
ivelegacy wrote: budget ?


Sorry, should have put that in the first post. My budget for a system, preferably tested and working, is around $200, not including shipping costs.
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!
Image R10K 195MHz CPU, SolidIMPACT Graphics, Phobos G160 NIC, 512MB RAM, 9.1GB 15k HDD, IRIX 6.5.22
Image R4400 200MHz CPU, Elan Graphics, 128MB RAM, 36GB 15K HDD, IRIX 6.2
ivelegacy wrote:
From the price list I have seen around, I am afraid the price will be ~250..300USD, without the TRAM :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:


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.
Image R10K 195MHz CPU, SolidIMPACT Graphics, Phobos G160 NIC, 512MB RAM, 9.1GB 15k HDD, IRIX 6.5.22
Image R4400 200MHz CPU, Elan Graphics, 128MB RAM, 36GB 15K HDD, IRIX 6.2
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. 8-)
Image R10K 195MHz CPU, SolidIMPACT Graphics, Phobos G160 NIC, 512MB RAM, 9.1GB 15k HDD, IRIX 6.5.22
Image R4400 200MHz CPU, Elan Graphics, 128MB RAM, 36GB 15K HDD, IRIX 6.2
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. :D
Image R10K 195MHz CPU, SolidIMPACT Graphics, Phobos G160 NIC, 512MB RAM, 9.1GB 15k HDD, IRIX 6.5.22
Image R4400 200MHz CPU, Elan Graphics, 128MB RAM, 36GB 15K HDD, IRIX 6.2