23 Oct
2007
23 Oct
'07
5:57 a.m.
On 23/10/2007 13:04, jvdg at sparcpark.net wrote:
Ethan Dicks wrote:
I pretty much agree with the above. I still run an Indy (R5000, though
bought in about 1995 as an R4600SC and later upgraded) as a
mail/file/print server and for text editing but I rarely run other apps
on it now. I have an O2 R10K for that. I do have another R5K Indy in
the workshop, running zmail, netscape and comms stuff but it's not used
as a serious workstation any longer. I also have several Indigos which
are rarely used, and a rackmount Origin 2000 which has enough crunch
power but rarely gets turned on unless I want to warm the room.
The fastest official O2 (I think) is R12000 400Mhz, but there was a DIY
RM7000 600MHz upgrade for 300MHz R5ks.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
I had the chance to pick up a discarded Indy
about 4 years ago, but
by the time I returned with wheels, someone else had carted it
away. Given the descendent machines in the family tree in this
thread, I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't go after an Octane
or an O2 rather than an Indigo or an Indy, at least if I wanted to
do more than take the demo programs for a spin.
So for the more experienced SGI folks - do you feel that an Indy or
Indigo is responsive enough to be reasonable to use, or is it
worth holding out for something newer and most likely more
expensive to acquire? Also, something I don't know much about, do
the older personal graphic workstations use odd or
impossible-to-find memory, or are they easy/cheap to load up?
O2 is cheap enough these days that I'd recommend it as the minimum
config to get. And go for the R10K models, too. Even Octanes can be
had cheap enough to be considered for just playing around. You gan a
lot of expandibility whan going for one of those. Although they are
significantly bigger, hotter and noisier. Then again, some might
consider that a plus. ;-)
Indies are nice to just have, make pretty decent servers, too, but I
wouldn't buy an Indy today for workstation use.