[SunRescue] OT: FS: SGI Crimson RE

[David Michaud]

"Joshua D. Boyd" wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 9 Apr 2001, David Michaud wrote:
> 
> > "Joshua D. Boyd" wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > I disagree.  SGIs are too expensive.  A good used SGI still costs over 600
> > > without moniter.  I'm not saying that linux will or should replace irix
> >
> > Actually... yes, you do get what you pay for, but...
> > You can pick up an entire Indy R5kSC-180 with monitor for under $500...
> > So that's not quite so true. Also consider that that was a $20k
> > machine...
> > Maximum IMPACT Indigo2 R10000's selling today for around $1500. Those
> > were $90k machines just back in 1995, so... I'd say it's pretty
> > reasonable.
> 
> Indy's are pretty poor performers from what I've seen.  The only reason
> I'd buy one would be if a Indy video and cosmo compress board fell into my
> lap (or that machine was nearly free).
> 

We really should move this to geeks, in fact I just subscribed, but
anyway...

Indys are pretty useful actually. Can't expect to do much heavy work
with them (ie, video editing, etc... it's torture, really), but
Netscape/web/email... 2D gfx work with XL-24 is really good (ie,
Photoshop or Eclipse or *sneer* Gimp)... Also, they make ok NFS file
servers or cheap web servers :)

> The Max impact machines are really nice.  The high impact ones are also
> pretty cool, and significantly cheaper.  However, it is hard to justify
> $1500 for such a machine uless you don't need much CPU performance (sure,
> an r10k is similar in performance to a P2 450, but a dual p3 800 and w/
> geforce is cheaper and there are only a few areas that the Indigo2 will
> still be faster (off the top of my head, the only performance advantage is
> in using GL for 2D and using 48bit color).  The only reason I would buy
> the SGI over the PC (and it really would be an either/or choice for me),
> is because I hate windows, and linux has so many problems with video
> unless you buy an HP.

Another area: floating point. FP of R10k's is just nuts. At the time the
R10k was released, it was the fastest processor in the world. Not sure
how it would stack up to the P3 800, or whatever, but FP perf of the
R10k is really crazy. Also, 1MB cache is a factor.

> 
> I think that within the realm of reason, my ideal setup would be to have a
> Max Impact and an O2 on my desk with a rack of Athlon's running linux
> sitting in a nearby closet and a large sun file server (just to keep the
> message on topic).  Less reasonable (but more ideal) would be to buy a 28
> processor Onyx or Onyx2 with lots of texture ram and at least 3 or 4
> heads.
> 

Right now, I'm on a dual head Maximum/Solid IMPACT Indigo2 R10000 with
512MB RAM, a 18.2GB XLV stripe across /usr across both SCSI busses on
two 9.1GB Cheethas, and an R5kSC-180 Indy beside it, both running
Teleffect for a combined three heads (one keyboard/mouse)... NFS server
is a Dell Dimension P2-450 with two AHA-3940U2W controllers with four
striped 18.2GB Cheetah's for 72GB NFS mount storage. blah blah.. . etc
etc Getting in an Onyx RE2 soon, also.

-Dave