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Free working SGI Indy with 20 inch SGI monitor

PostPosted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 8:58 am
by JimRMooney
I'm moving from an Auckland house to a city apartment and I no longer have room for a fully working Indy workstation, new in about 1996. I kept it when my employer Peace Software retired it about 10 years ago. It once supported over a dozen developers on X terminals, it still has a label "gecko.peace.co.nz" on the front.

I just confirmed it is still working with a fresh install of IRIX 6.5.21 (2003) and a known root password (that matters, it is no longer easy to mount the drive+filesystem in something else to edit the password). It has an R5000 150MHz with 128MB RAM and 2 internal SCSI drives of about 8GB each (IRIX 6.5 uses about 1.5GB), an "IndyCam" digital video camera that still works as well as it ever did (sub-VGA but novel in 1996) and analog audio, video & S-video inputs (again good for 1996). The IRIX OS includes Netscape Communicator 4.8 (web, email, HTML editing, contacts, NNTP reader - also good for 2002). I also have a spare mouse and spare SGI keyboard for it. I have put hi-res pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/33717570@N ... 329980717/ (view the 16MP originals to see finer details) showing the interior, external ports, case condition and a screenshot of a shell window showing hardware inventory with complete hardware details. The 20 inch monitor has inputs for both VGA HD15 and the more rare SGI/Sun 13W3 connector. I think I also have a box of SGI CDROMs (IRIX, dev & SGI demos etc) somewhere but I have not found that yet (maybe soon as I pack this week and unpack the following week). I don't have a SCSI CDROM drive but I believe CDROMs may be possible to mount via a Linux workstation over LAN. I don't currently have the tiny microphone that clips to the side of the IndyCam, I'm hoping that is with the CDROMs which could be posted later if/when I find them.

It has only been switched on a few times over the last 6-7 years so the power supply etc may outlast some machines of similar age that have been powered up for more years. At the least I'd like it to be spare parts to keep other more loved Indys running.

Between family growth and home downsizing it has to go from my home now. The heft of a 1996 20" monitor probably makes a courier not economically feasible, so I probably need an Auckland destination.

I am moving Sep 7th 2013 and it has to have a new destination by Sep 14th 2013. I have one offer from outside Auckland to take just the system and peripherals without the hefty monitor, but if someone wants the monitor too that would be preferable to both of us. Without a new offer the old high-end monitor will be reluctantly headed for e-scrap.


Thanks in advance,

Jim Mooney

Re: Free working SGI Indy with 20 inch SGI monitor

PostPosted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 2:35 pm
by xjas
Man, I would LOVE to give this thing a good home but I'm moving house this month too. Load Blender and some video editing tools on one of these and you'd have essentially what ILM or Pixar people were running at the end of the last century. :mrgreen: BTW Irix 6.5 still gets some backports of current Linux/Unix apps. I could definitely see having some fun with this if I could make space; I reckon getting it across town without a car would be pretty difficult though...

I was given a couple of these when they were still sort-of current (around 2000?) but never got them working - I think they'd been stripped of HDDs & RAM, and copies of Irix were impossible to find back then! Pretty much the only computers I kind of regret getting rid of. I also remember running my 20" SGI monitor on my PC at the time, but it was not VGA so I used a homemade HD15->5 BNC cable and hacked the VGA's refresh rates with a firmware util!

Re: Free working SGI Indy with 20 inch SGI monitor

PostPosted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 12:24 pm
by JimRMooney
Thanks tezza and everyone, the Indy and monitor are on their way to a new home (in a hefty 47kg 50x60x50cm carton).

Re: Free working SGI Indy with 20 inch SGI monitor

PostPosted: Sun Sep 08, 2013 10:05 am
by Gibsaw
So who took it?