Big computer from eBay
But not just any big computer. This is the kind of thing that should be lifted on a pallet, and it took my dad, my uncle and 2 delivery guys to get it in the house.

(Wikipedia pic)
I have no need for it, I haven't done anything with it for ages, but I couldn't resist a machine with 12 processors and 10GB RAM for just over a hundred quid! (Even though it's not a PC and those processors are 400MHz.)
( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Thu 21 May 2009, 16:06, 14 replies)

jesus!
is that an ignition i see?
(Raol Duke, Thu 21 May 2009, 16:13, closed)

Oh dear :)
Have you looked at the power requirements and the operating noise yet?

I was repeatedly tempted by some SGI Octanes and some HPUX boxes. Then I checked the speed (very slow in the case of HPUX, sort of slow in the case of the Octane), the power requirements (high) and the noise (nasty). No thank you.. Got two O2s instead.
(syllopsium, Thu 21 May 2009, 16:19, closed)

I also have an Octane.

( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Thu 21 May 2009, 16:30, closed)

I feel sorry for your ears
Particularly if it's stuffed full of cards and RAM :)
(syllopsium, Thu 21 May 2009, 16:31, closed)

It's not a high-spec one though
Dual-processor 175MHz (which I believe is the slowest speed), SI graphics (which I believe is the lowest one). Hard drive I have upgraded from 9.1GB to 50GB. No extra cards or PCI cage. (Octane parts seem to cost a freaking bomb on eBay!)
( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Thu 21 May 2009, 16:33, closed)

Yeah.. addon prices are insane
They're still used in production houses, so can command a reasonable price for V6-V12 capable systems.

I did ponder going for a Fuel, as the O2 is slow and only accelerates video, not 3D. However, anything other than an O2, Indy or Indigo only runs Irix and even the OpenGL is vastly outperformed by any recentish PC with addon card..
(syllopsium, Thu 21 May 2009, 16:41, closed)

Octane runs Linux, but it's an experimental patch.
There's a Gentoo boot disk that works, and I was able to get Debian installed using that and cross-compile a kernel on my PC.
( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Thu 21 May 2009, 16:46, closed)

Well, it's progress..
I think OpenBSD is also getting close to working on an Octane, but there's no disk driver yet..

It's mildly interesting/irritating to try to put new packages on various OSses on the O2 (Irix, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Debian/Gentoo) and see the configure script panic with a 'what the fuck am I running on?'
(syllopsium, Thu 21 May 2009, 16:52, closed)

Feck, I just looked and even NetBSD doesn't go on the Octane.
NetBSD goes on just about anything.
( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Thu 21 May 2009, 16:55, closed)

this conversation is hilarious,cool and completely unintelligable to me.

(Fuckpig "That's not even a pound a midget.", Fri 22 May 2009, 18:32, closed)

Not that many people have a computer they could mount a motor on
and then ride around on it. A bragging point, to be sure

It surely does look like quite the beast!
( LemonEntryMyDearWatson This time, Moriarty, the hand is on the other foot, Thu 21 May 2009, 16:47, closed)

That's a bit of a beast
Nice find! I've been trying to find an Alpha of some sort and can't find one at any reasonable price, but a nice SPARC would be groovy.
(Vulpine or something, Thu 21 May 2009, 19:00, closed)

Wow !
Like, wow !
(bluetuba has a special friend in Blue Label Smirnoff, Fri 22 May 2009, 2:10, closed)

I spent the best part of last summer
decommissioning about 50 of those fuckers from our data centre.

100 quid is a bit of a bargain though. The original list price for an E4500 (fully loaded) was over $170,000.
( chart cat has an itch, Fri 22 May 2009, 2:49, closed)