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Upgrading O2 to an R10000 ? - Printable Version

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Upgrading O2 to an R10000 ? - soviet - 12-20-2020

Hi guys, recently got a complete O2 motherboard tray that have an unknown R10/12K cpu.
From what i can make from the text in the bottom the part number is 030-1247 (hand written and the ink is very faded).
So according to google should be a R10000 195MHz (1MB L2)

To my dismay my O2 don't have a removable metal separator so i can't install the cpu, i have to get another case or O2.

Currently have an R5000 300 mhz cpu, does "upgranding" to the 195mhz R10000 deserves the cost and effort ?.

RE: Upgrading O2 to an R10000 ? - Fascia - 12-20-2020

O2 motherboards are specific to R5k/R7k and R10k/R12k. I very much doubt it will allow swapping CPUs between the two types. There is also some form factor difficulties, as the PCI riser needs to be installed. It may be possible to run without it, but the manual specifically warns against that. The R10k will require a different riser than the R5k.

RE: Upgrading O2 to an R10000 ? - soviet - 12-20-2020

I have a complete motherboard assembly incluiding the pci raiser cpu etc already assembled.
Only missing the correct case that can take this boards of boards (one that have a removable metal plate).

RE: Upgrading O2 to an R10000 ? - SGIArtist - 12-21-2020

In the below thread someone has gone through the same upgrade. They had the same issue with the case and got one that was compatible.
https://forums.irixnet.org/thread-578.html

As far as I know either motherboard should be able to accept any CPU. You should gain about 10% more performance. However the R10K consumes quite a bit more power and has a fan, so more noise as well. I personally don't think it's worth the upgrade and am actually going in the reverse direction for a while.

RE: Upgrading O2 to an R10000 ? - robespierre - 12-21-2020

The O2 can run a R10K with an R5K PCI riser if you remove the tray. The PCI connector of the short riser just barely fits over the R10K heatsink. (Or so my memory is telling me that posters on Nekochan discovered.)
The tall back panel is not required if you do this. (And you cannot use a PCI card.)

RE: Upgrading O2 to an R10000 ? - soviet - 12-21-2020

I have the complet R10000 board assembly pci tray etc, only need an empty case to shove the board in.

The question is if is really changing from the R5K 300 mhz to the R10K 195 mhz board, is an upgrade.

If is 10% like sgi artist commented bothering purchasing a new case don't seem to deserve the spending.

RE: Upgrading O2 to an R10000 ? - kaigan - 12-22-2020

I don't imagine that the speed upgrade between those two specific CPUs will be very impressive. I don't have benchmarks available, but without something like a 300 MHz R10000 to replace the R5000 with, I don't think it's worth the investment. I followed the guide that SGIArtist linked to for my own upgrade, which did require sourcing a different chassis, too. I was lucky enough to get one from a fellow vintage computer enthusiast here on the US east coast very inexpensively.

I will also say that my O2, even with its R10000 CPU at 300 MHz and the full 1 GB of RAM, is still not exceptionally speedy. It'll run things like Blender and Adobe Premiere just fine, but more intensive applications are likely to lead to a slowdown. Then again, it was SGI's entry-level system at the time - it's not supposed to be an Octane.

So, in short, unless you really want to invest in the O2 because you like it specifically (and are willing to find/buy a faster R10000 for it), I wouldn't bother with that particular upgrade path.

RE: Upgrading O2 to an R10000 ? - Irinikus - 12-22-2020

If you can get your hands on an R12K@400MHz then it will be worth it (the exact same upgrade process will be followed), but even that CPU offers limited performance! (Don't expect it to launch rockets!!!)

Here's a performance comparison of various machines using Blender:

The blender tests have shown CPU performance to simply be a function of MHz for CPUs ranging from the R10K to the R16K! The R5000 was a little bit different! Judging from my results, the theoretical render time for an R5000@300 MHz would be: 28 minutes and 54 seconds to complete the render! (The R10K@195Mhz took: 22 minutes and 18 seconds to complete the render!)

This shows the R10K@195MHz to be 22.8% faster than an R5000@300MHz!

The R14K@400MHz is 60% faster!

[Image: n04QneV.png]

RE: Upgrading O2 to an R10000 ? - soviet - 12-22-2020

Real cool that performance comparision.
Have to wait to fish something better.