[Irinikus]

I'm going to be buying an Onyx desk-side system from Ian Mapleson, and will obviously have to have it shipped from Scotland to South Africa!

Ian sent me the figures defining it's dimensions as well as its mass, and I have to say that these machines are far larger and heavier than I ever imagined!!!! (Considerably larger than an Onyx2!)

It's basically the same size as my V880z!!!, although it weighs considerably less! (According to Ian, It weighs in at +- 73kg and should weigh about 100kg once packaged and placed on a pallet, and has the following approximate dimensions: 64x52x81cm (height/width/depth))

All I can say is both WoW and Ouch at the same time, due how much this is going to cost to ship!!!

This is one of the last SGI's on my bucket-list, so it's worth it!!!

We're going to have to wait until this Covid madness is over though!

[CB_HK]

Congrats! The Onyx is a really cool system. What are the specs?

And you’re absolutely right about the size difference! The older deskside systems were a good bit beefier than the later form factor, though they’re my absolute favorite design for SGIs.

Looking forward to the photos and, I’m guessing, some videos of it in action!

[Irinikus]

Congrats! The Onyx is a really cool system. What are the specs?

And you’re absolutely right about the size difference! The older deskside systems were a good bit beefier than the later form factor, though they’re my absolute favorite design for SGIs.

Looking forward to the photos and, I’m guessing, some videos of it in action!

It's a low spec model.

The higher spec graphics modules for these system are fragile, due to their boards being poorly braced, rendering them flexible.

All I want is a working example of one of these machines, so I'm not really concerned about the specs on this one.

[hamei]

All I want is a working example of one of these machines, so I'm not really concerned about the specs on this one.

In that case, I'd probably be hunting a Twin Tower .... coolest-loooking old machine, to me.

[Irinikus]

All I want is a working example of one of these machines, so I'm not really concerned about the specs on this one.

In that case, I'd probably be hunting a Twin Tower .... coolest-loooking old machine, to me.

They're super-cool, but unfortunately are as rare as chicken teeth!

[jan-jaap]

They're super-cool, but unfortunately are as rare as chicken teeth!

Pfft, tell me about it. I spent years looking my Professional Series, and then a decade to make it work. Parts are basically non-existent.

That said, I have a love-hate relationship with the Challenge/Onyx series. My first Onyx (RE2) was absolutely jinxed and would eat one or two boards per year. I must have replaced most parts of it (including the power supplies), and nothing ever fixed it. Just when you'd think it was working something else would break. In the end I got an Onyx IR and simply got rid of it. The Onyx IR is also down with graphics problems right now. OTOH, my Challenge L has been super-steady. 12x R10Ks and happily humming along. Love that thing.

My favorite old iron are still the PowerSeries though. These things are reasonably bulletproof. Almost everything is through-hole technology, which is much more reliable than early SMD tech (like Reality Engine). Crimson is cool with it's red skins, but technically it's a castrated SMP system, and mostly empty inside. I find e.g. a 4D/440 VGX much more interesting.

[Irinikus]

I'm looking at getting it with 4 R8000's@75MHz installed, as I don't yet have an example of an R8000 system, and I don't want another indigo2!

I'm currently checking with Ian, to see if he has R8000 boards available.

Will it run reality graphics with R8000's installed?

[jan-jaap]

R8000 supports RE2.

Onyx deskside has one slot for a CPU board.

An IP21 (R8000) CPU board has one or two (but not 4) CPUs.

[Irinikus]

Cool, then it will have to be a dual R8000 then!

[Irinikus]

Ian has agreed to make it an R8000 with Reality 2 graphics!!! (He's doing me a big favour on this one and for that I'm extremely grateful!)

He didn't recommend the R8000, as it's performance for standard tasks is less than exceptional, but I want this machine to be based on the R8000, as it will be different and allow me to play around with this rare CPU without having to get yet another Indigo2!