Good afternoon all. I am new here and am looking for some help. My father has accumulated quite a bit of octane, octane 2 and sgi computers and components and I have no idea what it all is. He is not in good health anymore and wants me to start getting rid of it. The trouble is I have no idea what all is here. Would it be ok to post some items here just to find out what they are so I can research and try to find someone who could use it or wants it.
Sgi and octane hardware
- Thread starter Raulozzi
- Start date
Looks like nicely spec'd machines, interested whenever you are ready to sell.
For the red octane does the light bar on the front work? Here is a good diagnostic chart to diag the octane https://techpubs.jurassic.nl/manuals/0650/enduser/Octane_OG/sgi_html/ch08.html, its also important to note that the connectors on the octane modules are delicate and shouldn't be touched or rested on anything.
Also, behind the front cover of the octanes are a series of LEDs that can also help diagnostics, they are the are described here: https://wiki.preterhuman.net/SGI_Octane#Front_plane_LEDs
I don't know a bunch about the Fuels but I do know their PSU does go bad, actually all SGIs seem to have PSU problems these days. Swapping the PSU to test is a great place to start.
For the red octane does the light bar on the front work? Here is a good diagnostic chart to diag the octane https://techpubs.jurassic.nl/manuals/0650/enduser/Octane_OG/sgi_html/ch08.html, its also important to note that the connectors on the octane modules are delicate and shouldn't be touched or rested on anything.
Also, behind the front cover of the octanes are a series of LEDs that can also help diagnostics, they are the are described here: https://wiki.preterhuman.net/SGI_Octane#Front_plane_LEDs
I don't know a bunch about the Fuels but I do know their PSU does go bad, actually all SGIs seem to have PSU problems these days. Swapping the PSU to test is a great place to start.
I do not know how to tell to be honest. Both do have 4 dvi inputs but I am not sure if there are any other configurations available for there.
That dual 600MHz/dual V12/dual DCD Octane2 is about as maxed out as those Octanes can get with the exception of RAM and the PCI card cage, which the red Octane2 has, so if the red Octane2 is at all similar to the working one then you've got incredibly sought after systems. Same for that 800MHz Fuel; that is the second best CPU config behind the incredibly rare 900MHz configuration, and that 800MHz Fuel also has maxed out RAM for a Fuel; very nice.
Do you have any idea on prices of these. I could only find a handful of things for sale and can’t see any past auctions. I’m not looking to get rich or anything but don’t want to get ripped off either.
I'm probably not the best person around here to be providing pricing advice for systems like this, but they are easily worth $1,000+ given the current market for these systems. The red Octane2 might be worth slightly less than the blue Octane2 to a collector who cares about everything being all original and in good condition as, from what we are able to tell, the red Octane2 is a custom paint job; Octanes were only ever green (or teal depending on who you ask) or blue like the blue Octane2 you have, but given the hardware, they are worth a good amount. Same for that 800MHz Fuel; easily worth $1,000+, and probably the same for the one that isn't powering on either. Fuels are notorious for PSUs going bad and are usually easily repaired.
Awesome. Thank you so much for your input. Are there any specific places I can look for information on these besides here?
Of course, happy to help!
Unfortunately with the demise of Nekochan a few years ago, a lot of SGI information was lost and has yet to be recovered, but there are several invaluable resources for SGI & IRIX nowadays, depending on what you're looking for.
In addition to the user group forums here, there's also IRIX Network forums which has a ton of useful information in its forum posts & wiki: http://irixnet.org/
There are some SGI veterans who know an incredible amount that are only present on IRIX Network, and some are only present here on the user group, but these are the two relevant SGI forums nowadays.
The Nekonomicon is worth checking out, which is an (incomplete) archive of the old Nekochan forums: https://gainos.org/~elf/sgi/nekonomicon/ and there's a lot of info on here as well.
You can also check out TechPubs which contains archived official documentation from SGI for hardware and software: https://techpubs.jurassic.nl/ as well as http://irix7.com/techpubs.html
Finally you can check out the SGI section of the Higher Intellect Wiki which has some info archived from the old Nekochan Wiki: https://wiki.preterhuman.net/Category:SGI
Those are some of the primary resources that most of us are referencing nowadays to keep these systems running and learn more about them, but there's also many other resources online for SGI, such as http://www.sgistuff.net/ among many others.
SGI Depot is also a good resource: http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/sgi.html
Hope this helps!
John
Last edited:
Wow, really very nice machines, I have to admit I'm a bit jealous and would pick them up if you were in europe. But looks like you're located in the U.S. (according to the power socket type in one of the photos).
Check out the price lists on SGIDepot, they are a good hint for market value.
Check out the price lists on SGIDepot, they are a good hint for market value.
The SGI Depot pricing is generally a bit higher than the value of machines sold from collectors to collectors, but they also come from an extremely trusted seller with access to loads of spare parts and things like return policies.
Even still, your ol' man had built up an exceptional collection of hardware, there! You're probably looking at at least $1000 for each of those machines based on the current market's hotness; those Octanes have some exceptionally desireable options in them, and by moving the PCI cardcage over to the blue one, that one's probably getting closer to two thousand on a good day. It's basically got every "oh wow" accessory one could dream of at that stage.
I am a former reseller of sgi hardware, now retired. I have a pretty good pulse on current retail values and prices. The best return may be to part the machines out, if your goal is to optimize your return. If you send me a list of the other machines I can seld you what the current values are to part out or sell entire machine. the best way to reach me is hgold@modelmasters.com