[rescue] O2 as desktop?

[Robert Rose]

 >I've got a line on a cheap O2 - R5k 180mhz, 384mb, 2x2gb, Irix
 >6.5w/media.
Nice box, I have one myself, the previous owner used it as a firewall (yes, 
you can all laugh now).  Paid $US250 with 64Mb and both Kingston and 
Crucial were having a special on ram so I got another 256Mb reasonably 
cheap.  People on this list considered it a good deal at the time.  Keep in 
mind the sub $500 Octanes currently available when deciding what cheap is.

 >I don't know the size of the cache yet and it has no AV
 >module.
Probably 512K cache.  Lack of AV is a bummer.

 >My other Unix machine is a Ultra 30, 300mhz/2mb, 512mb ram,
 >how would this compare as a general desktop machine?
My comparison is an Ultra 2, 200mhz, 256mb and I find the two similarly 
usable; however, I do hate CDE with something approaching a 
passion.  Mozilla on the O2 is pretty slow and I've yet to sort out the 
terminal types/definitions between the different Unixes.

 >Without dropping
 >more cash into it, what cool stuff could this O2 do that say a U30 or
 >Linux machine can't?
Pity it doesn't have the AV, 'part from that it's a great intro into 
another Unix flavour, and looks great on any desk.  I'm told it's quite 
good for playing with OpenGL.

 >I know about the video as texture and no texture
 >memory features but does that get me anything if I'm only running
 >Irix 6.5 and freeware programs?
I guess it depends on your intentions to get an AV option or not.  I'm only 
just starting to play with the video editing stuff included with Irix, so 
far so good.  I'm just getting back into reading code-cutting books after 
about 5 years, mainly the fundamentals like sockets, IPC, threads, 
etc.  I'm brewing thoughts of harnessing the HP D280 and/or Ultra2 to do 
some grunt that the R5000 is lacking in.

 > P.S. What board do I need to get FDDI on this thing?
Methinks you'll need a SGI branded option if there ever was one.  I tried 
using the TI-based 10/100 PCI card that mine came with in a pentium running 
FreeBSD & OpenBSD with no luck, wierd errors returned by the kernel along 
the lines of "I can see a MII interface there, but it doesn't look right".

Let us know if you decide to grab it.

Rob.

PS. You should register it with SGI if you do decide to get it.  If it's 
got 6.5, they'll let you buy the 6.5.n updates for a per-disk cost.  It was 
worth it for me considering downloading the maintenance release at 
$AUS0.19/Mb would have cost me more than 10 times the per-disk price from SGI.