[weblacky]

I've been collecting SGIs for over 20 years (since 1998, got my first computer computer in 1993), I got most of my older collection before 2002 when it was just common junk you could get anywhere from a recycler or eBay (by the pallet-load sometimes). My Octanes and Tezros were found after 2010. All my SUN SCSI boxes are 5.25" face-plate-style SUN 411 narrow SCSI caddy-loading 1X/2X optical drives that came in those boxes. You can certainly still buy them on eBay but prices are not closer to $100+ per drive. Cheapest one right now appears to be ~$125.

I found an eBay lot of these last year (several units) and did a best-offer to get the price down. So I now have enough to satisfy my needs for the future. The SUN enclosures are great for old floptical/floppy/SYQEST/IOmega/Optical drives. I keep any old drives I might remove because they still work and are useful (I don't throw anything out).

Understand that all this stuff predates 1998, so it will need to be cleared of dust and power supplies may need rebuilding. Now all the enclosures I've cleaned and tried recently (4 in total of SUN 411 enclosures, and 1 UW SCSI 711 HDD SUN enclosure) have seemed to work fine without rebuilding, it's on my list though. There isn't anything special about the enclosures, you can remove a drive from one and use it normally on an SGI sled or the like. Interestly, many of the old SUN CDROMs I've seen are wrapped in thick plastic sheets to prevent dust migration into the drive from the fan system. Also, many of the SUN drives have custom firmware, so they too lack the 512 jumper...but's because it's their default mode! Most UNIX stations (even NeXT) used the 512 booting trick on optical drives so their firmware didn't have to know what an optical drive was.
SUN really thought of everything back then, amazing that they still work (and I've had 2 modern blu-ray drives fail on me!). I also managed to get a fair number of CDROM caddies before all my sources went greedy and now ask $5+ a caddy...I narrowly got them a year before for almost just under $1 piece, cleared out the shelves when I found them :-)

This stuff was still in use when I was alive and doing computer stuff, I've been fortunate to not have to move in many years, so I don't shed vintage parts. Like all of us, the prices for previously worthless junk is going insane, but that's artificial scarcity for you. I remember when these CDROMs were jokingly used as door stops in computer recycler warehouses...now they are suddenly worth $100+?

I'm mostly just lucky I saved everything (it's my primary hobby/field) and I've kept eBay saved searches since 2007 on these things and buy them when they came up for a fair price. Just takes time. Also helps to sometimes ask recyclers if they have any of this stuff, you'd be surprised what recyclers keep and forget about. I got nearly half of my SGIs from one recycler that way...just happen to have them sitting for a year in the back...saved for whatever...nobody asked about them..until I did (then I bought them all).