[slime-eater]

Hey gang - thought it'd be fun to turn this into a poll.  I've got a dead and cannibalized R4600 Indy that has donated various guts to other causes and now is basically a shell.  The Dallas chip is dead. The R4600SC module has been removed to be donated to someone who has a crappier R4600PC or R4000-100 early Indy. 

I'd like to move the guts of a Linux x86 system that I've got with a pretty uninspiring case into the Indy, but that would obviously require some modding to the sheet metal chassis and is an activity that cannot be reversed.

The Indy chassis has plenty of scratches and is probably in Grade C condition.  It's not a rare Indigo Elan or a Fuel or some rare Personal Iris.

Assuming it IS offensive to do this, what collector wants to come and collect (or pay for shipping) for the remaining husk? I don't want to be a parts depot hoping someone cares will eventually find it and restore it a few more decades!

[kaigan]

I'm not personally a fan of irreversible case mods to vintage hardware, and I say that as someone who runs a sleeper Sun Ultra 24 as his primary desktop. With that build, I was working with a dead machine (and just standard X86 hardware, at that) and I still made sure that everything I did could be fully reversed and the machine put back into its original condition. I still have all of the parts.

There are only so many SGI Indy machines in existence. It's likely that someone out there has a motherboard that doesn't have a case and a restored system could be made with those components. That preserves the history and ensures that another system is out there for people to learn from and enjoy.

If you were to create a new chassis piece that the top cover would slide onto (certainly not an easy thing), that would be really nifty and I'd be all for it. The same goes with avoiding any actual cuts or modifications and just putting the machine inside the case and running cables out however possible without causing damage.

All that said, that's just, like, my opinion, man. It's your case. You do with it what you like. I'm not going to burn you at the stake for taking a Dremel to the case, although I'll probably look away a bit sadly.

[Raion]

There's a screencap of me out there saying something like "Don't casemod any SGI, unless it's a Fuel" - which is a riff on that every SGI except the Fuel uses a nonstandard board size and case. But even now, I would probably just shut up if I saw a Fuel being ripped apart and ATX guts shoved inside.

The reason being is that these systems are expensive, and destroying a specific case or part just to turn it into art or a generic PC case or whatever would simply ruin something that could have been used. That being said, there's people out there who painted Octane cases red, O2 cases white, Onyx2s purple and white etc.

Personally, if I were to do something like that, I would want to rig up a set of adapter brackets, and make all mods reversible hence off that, rather than cutting up the case. That would probably placate those of us who would freak out.

Here, I'll explain what I mean by the above:

Go to a hardware store, buy something called a "rubber expansion nut", it looks like this: https://www.mcmaster.com/expansion-nuts/...ivet-nuts/

You can glue those to the bottom of the case with some kind of epoxy and if you get a good size you'll be able to create a mounting bracket that you can put boards of any kind on, and then you could fabricate a steel plate to cover the unused holes on the Indy and fasten them in with port anchor nuts (like those nuts used for serial ports or VGA ports etc.) and then from that you could jerry-rig something.

Now, as Kaigan points out, this is just an opinion. It's not our business to demand what you do with your hardware, but I will frown upon it even if you did turn it into an otherwise kickass machine. Simply put, it feels wrong to me. You can share it here, but like anywhere else people are free to praise or criticize it. If they insult you personally we'll remove it, though. Going to the effect of "hurr hurr retard modded an old SGI what a moron." type comments are immature, and I realize they don't offer anything to adult discussions. So we won't allow people to be assholes.

Moreover, I have reservations about whether the Indy makes sense. As for MaXX, people here know my opinions on the guy - I don't like his software, his attitude, or his past in the community. Broken promises and all that. It's hard to replicate IRIX on anything but IRIX, but E16 has the IREX theme that comes close!

Little tangent, but if someone has access to CNC machines or a large enough 3D printer I'd be down to help setup an irixnet kickstarter where we could do a run of ATX-style cases based off the Indy or o2 or something. That'd be the shit, and I think such an opportunity could be done in multiple styles and dimensions.

[jan-jaap]

Assuming it IS offensive to do this, what collector wants to come and collect (or pay for shipping) for the remaining husk? I don't want to be a parts depot hoping someone cares will eventually find it and restore it a few more decades!

This.

I've seen more than my fair share of hardware pass though my hands. A lot of it came in the form of 'please empty my basement' when I was only interested in one or two items. The dirty little secret of maxing out systems is that a lot of hardware passes through your hands and you keep the best bits.

I want my systems to be complete and operational, not just sitting there looking pretty. This means I also maintain a large supply of spare parts to keep things going in the future because repairs at  the board or component level are often not possible. I want my spare parts to be relevant to the systems I own, tested and safely stored.

Everything else has to go. I cannot be the boneyard for every SGI ever made. My house would be overrun with it, my family wouldn't accept it, and it simply wouldn't be fun anymore. This is my hobby, I'm not the SGI preservation trust.

So, I have a few simple rules:

1. Everything non-SGI goes a.s.a.p. I don't care if I get any money for it, as long as it's gone.
   
2. SGI systems not relevant to my collection, and desirable parts, are sold. Again, it's usually priced to go because that's the objective. I have a job to pay the bills, I don't need to live off the sales of SGI hardware.
   
3. Anything that doesn't sell is free for pickup. If it's really rare and you ask me nicely I may even ship it.
   
4. If nobody wants it, it goes to the recyclers.
   

There is no exception to rule #4. No emotional BS. It doesn't matter that it's old or rare, what matters is that nobody wanted it even when it was free. If you have any complaints about that, you're effectively saying: you store it forever please, in case I ever need it. That's just not going to happen. Please come get it while it's there, it's free!

Personally I don't care about casemods. It's sad and wasteful to gut a working system to put some PC bits inside, but OTOH, if you turn something that nobody wants anymore into something new and keep it in your life a little longer, what's to complain?

[weblacky]

Normally I’d be appalled and give you the third degree. But not this time. I’m very against taking pristine and good condition parts and destroying them. Destroying includes drilling holes in them.

However you claimed this case very beat up and was already parted out. In that case, I’d give my permission. Collectors want good examples. But your case is no longer a good example and isn’t close to a working system anymore.

But if you defile a good, clean, part, a lighting bolt will strike you down.