army_ant7 writes:
> Interesting... Thanks for sharing those links.
Most welcome!!
> Maybe you should hold on to those systems longer. ...
Oh I intend to. I'm never going to sell the Onyx rack, one of the desksides, Crimson or Onyx2, those are for permanent keeps. 8)
I'll sell part of the Onyx3800 in time when I can, probably some of the CPU bricks, power bricks, PCI bricks, etc. (I don't need
48 PCI slots! Hehe). But I'll keep at least a few, enough to run maybe a 16-CPU system so I can do Inferno benchmarks, etc.
The system came with a full suite of HD hardware for the gfx module aswell (the system belonged to Sony Pictures Imageworks),
so I'll probably keep all that too, and the dual-pipe gfx unit can drive 8 HD displays at once.
😀 Actually btw, some companies
do still use old top-spec Onyx3K systems with Inferno for film work because despite the old-level CPU power (Inferno was
deliberately limited by Discreet to using no more than 8 CPUs), they're still quite good for compositing when fitted with IR4 gfx
(1GB texture RAM and 10GB video RAM per pipe, up to 16 pipes per system), but most places that never had IR4 have long
since sensibly switched to HP XEON systems with Quadro, etc. (the old IR3 gfx is not as useful, only 256MB TRAM and 800MB
VRAM per pipe).
> It is doubtful that someone would buy them for performance, but more for just collector's value. ...
Indeed, though there is still commercial demand for some parts of this type of system, usually power supplies, RAM, cooling
fans, and especially the raster manager boards for IR4 gfx (those are worth $3K+ each). I expect this is true of any vendor's old
supercomputer products, certain parts continue to be required for maintenance purposes. Many companies are still using SGIs
from more than 10 years ago, especially in simulator/training roles.
Ideally I'd like to upgrade the system to Onyx3900 (a single CPU brick contains 16 CPUs, max 1024 CPUs in a single system,
though NASA had one with 2048), but they are far too expensive even today.
> If ever, you might find a museum in the future that would pay top-Dollar for them. ...
I did try contacting such a museum here recently about something else, but they never replied. Perhaps some day.
> ... I would recommend putting those systems away in one of those storage places that have cargo bay doors, ...
My garage suffices atm.
😀
Such places do exist, I looked into them the last time I moved house, but they're expensive.
I have lots of other SGIs and parts, plus some other mid-range systems (16-CPU Origin300, quad-CPU Onyx2 deskside, etc.) See:
http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/misc/garage11.jpg
http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/misc/garageNov2011f.jpg
Pity my neighbour needs his garage... :}
If this sort of thing interests you, ask around industrial companies, universities, defense places, etc. Often they're glad to get rid of old
stuff as it just takes up space. Apart from SGIs, there are Alpha systems, HP, SUN, etc. SGIs have always been more interesting to me
though because of all the gfx/imaging/video things they can do aswell as number crunching. Quite a laugh to run Maya on a 36-CPU
machine.
😀 And from what I've been told of US companies, they're somewhat more willing to accommodate hobbyists looking to obtain
such things. In Europe, all too often this sort of hardware is simply thrown away. Don't be shy about contacting these institutions, just
phone them up, ask to speak to an admin or technician, etc.
At one point I even had a UK govt dept. ask me if I was interested in a huge 144-CPU SGI, but that was way too much, I didn't even
have a garage space at the time.
Ian.
PS. One site definitely worth watching is DoveBid: http://www.go-dove.com/en/
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram