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Iris Indigo Case Mod
James Palmer writes: "I have always been enamored with SGI's
Iris Indigo. Recently I resurrected an old Iris Indigo by
retrofitting it with an ATX motherboard
and powersupply." Lots of gruntwork here for a very impressive result.
More like butchered.
It begs the question...
WHY?
I must be getting old...
Jason
He's totally creeping out the Great One, eh...
Maybe you should make Case Mods a seperate category of news. I mean, lately there have been about 1 a day. that should be enough, considering some categories come up RARELY (Amiga, MacOS, etc).
Just a suggestion.
-teldak
Talk about following "tough acts"... that Frozen case earlier today makes this one look like my ass.
who set fire to their cars? ;-)
All bow to his Noodliness!! His Noodle Appendage has touched me!
Applefritter has some great lego-cased systems...even a powerbook!
You can get similarly shaped server cases from most hi end PC parts manufacturers, in a variety of colors.
What I'd really like to see is a case mod with an O2 case. There's lot of low end, sub 200Mhz ones that are salvageable from dotcom auctions.
This is more in the realm of "too much time on my hands" -- it reminds me of that time in college when we slapped together a machine using an empty case from Leinenkugals (we got to drink the beer, too, which was a hefty side benefit).
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Search google "Lego Computer Case" Lots show up...
This one for starts... http://people.netscape.com/toms/cubicle/computer/
Being called a dork on Slashdot must be like being called the retard in special ed.
I lusted after one of these and even snuck into a SGI's sales center near Detroit years ago, along with a bunch of vendors, commercial bigwigs, graphic designers, and such to see the latest Indi , software and stuff. Also, got a peek at one of the higher end systems being used for a flight simulator which would still kick some serious graphical butt. Too bad I could never scrub together the $6K just to get the basic system. I've probably still got piles of stuff on these in a box back in my parents house. Yeah, i can sympathize with James, but there's still something ...ewww... about putting anything other than an R3000 or R4000 in there...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Well, cause the original Indios are pretty damn slow these days. They've mostly got R3k processors and weird proprietray memory. They also can't run IRIX6.5 (I believe), which is "good" version of IRIX.
:-)
there was a stack SGIs in one of the labs here. I already took the only good thing, the Indy, it can still make a decent webbrowser/workstation. I suppose one could turn the Indigos into little webserver/printserver/nameserver boxes, but any old 386/486/pentium or 68k-mac will do just as good with OpenBSD on 'em.
Indigo 2s, on the other hand, are i think better than the Indys.
Still it _IS_ dman sexy to have an SGI on your desktop!
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
Where can I get a wife that will go dumpster-diving for computer hardware with me?
Do tell.
"Ford," he said, "you're turning into a penguin. Stop it."
Are there site statistics for this fellas page too? In the last case-mod post, it was almost as fun to check out the case as watch his server get nailed.
forma3
SGI has a log history of cool mods.
While I was working there, folks pointed out the Espressigo.
'Dem was the dayz.
How about instead of 3-4k posts of "This doesn't belong here" on _every_ single article, you people simply send your complaints to the editors?
link is here...
http://home.nexvs.net/~ggeros/captainchest.htm
To me this is better than gutting "just another case" and plopping an x86 in it.
Making the computer not look like THE COMPUTER is a much more worth use of time.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
You would never know it's not a real Iris Indigo.
With all the metal removed and a plexiglass frame replacing it the FCC could probably tell its not a real Indigo from the EMF radiation.
I think though that I might be inspired to do a case mod now using a Sun 411 enclosure. Given the past two days bigger cases seem to be better, perhaps I can mount my Handspring inside it.
'Same speed C but faster'
but it begs the question: What is the most ludicrous case mod out there, in terms of effort and aesthetic of the result? Anyone?
D
stuff |
I wish the case-mod insdustry and the sex-toy industry would join forces in an onholy alliance that would present to the world the ultimate geek product. A hot, lifelike girl that dual booted and had room for 5 drives, a couple gigs of ram and had usb, firewire and biological "ports". Until that happens I just don't see the point. :)
yes i run a goth/punk/emo porn site.
It may be slow if you plan on using it as a workstation running the latest CAD apps and compilers, but it is perfectly usable and quite snappy as a desktop system. Depending on the graphics/video board(s) in it, you may be able to capture video, or do other fun things too.
;)
It's not true that they've "mostly" got R3k cpus. R3k models do take weird memory though. And all Indigos have proprietary keyboard and mouse ports. While R4k Indigos with enough memory (at least 64MB) can run Irix 6.5 just fine, R3k models can only run up to Irix 5.3. Despite what you're implying, 5.3 is also a "good" version of Irix, if older than 6.5. But come on, with the free development files from SGI, you can compile anything you want with gcc. It IS unix after all.
I actually hate to see people doing things like this to such a remarkable system. I would rather they sell them to resellers so that afficionados can get their hands on them. They DID play a role in the making of Jurassic Park after all.
As to Indigo2s being better than Indys.... well, it depends. The indy does have a built-in port for an IndyCam and it is a LOT quieter and smaller and sucks up less power. The Indigo2 is newer though, and can support r10k cpus and hardware texturing.
Yohave a point there - maybe instead of a "case mods" topic, there should be a "show 'n' tell" topic :-)
Unfortunately, technology news has got an awful lot of show'n'tell type stuff going on and that might eventually become an overcrowded topic itself...
"Thursday Intel stated 'hey look, we've just built a 3GHz processor - come and see for yourself at www.intel.com'."
Follow me
Jeez. I wish I could say things like that. (/me pats his p166 fondly)
Are you located anywhere near Phoenix, AZ?
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
- Apple Desktops
- iMac
- Apple Media
- OS9
- OSX
- Apple Portables
- Apple utilities
Anyone else thinking Taco's got himself shares in Apple or something?Follow me
Too far, sorry - if it was somewhere in SoCal or Nevada, or New Mexico - that would be one thing - but Oregon is a little too far for me to drive.
Damn, but I would love to have the thing!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
If you'd read the story behind it you'd know that he found the case after it had been completely gutted and tossed on a dumpster. So what else was he going to do with it?
It's even more sexier with multiple SGIs on the desktop. :)
Seriously, I use my Indigo2 as primary workstation at home, ircing and writing software. It also runs the webserver. When I get myself a larger harddrive for the Challenge S I'll move the webserver to that one and maybe use the O2 as main workstation instead.
The SGIs are rock solid (and noisy) machines. But I like really them.
To post those gutted Indigo cases on Ebay ;)
Here's a great link for doing a similar case mod.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
I think that we were slobbering over a 40-60MZ processor back then. Even with decent hardware graphics support (and some of the lower end indigos had rather cheap (8 bit!) graphics), many people would find the former speed-demon Indigos pig slow compared to what we can do today.
While I agree that it is a bit of a step back to put an Intel CPU Inside of an Indigo case, at least he's running a Unix on it. If nothing else, it gives one the nostalga trip of feeling like you've finally managed to get an SGI box onto your home desktop.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. What the heck were you smoking?
I'd trust an old Sparc running something like OpenBSD FAR more than I'd ever trust PC hardware for something "critical to your network" like a firewall/router box. I used to use a complete Sparc IPX for exactly that, and am now doing the same with a SPARCstation 5. They work beautifully. The hardware is high-quality, rock-solid stable, and won't ever fail me. It's the kind of machine I don't have to worry about, because I know it'll run forever.
And they were designed for ripping the guts out
and replacing with a PC?
Maybe if the case was bigger, then you could squeeze a CDROM in.
-don
Heh. Found it.. According to a 1993 periodic table, the basic 1993 Indigo had an R3000/33 CPU in it (and 64Meg of ram put you back a cool $7,000 [list]).
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
My name is Indigo Montoya. You stole my RF shielding. Prepare to die!
*ducks*
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
Anybody seen any nice cases that aren't just boxes? ie, spheres, disks, pyramids, that sort of thing. Non-parallel sides. Art school stuff. Stuff inspired by cool architecture like Le Corbusier (sp) and Frank Gehry, etc?
Just curious as the boxen with radioactive green on black or aluminum with blue LEDs is a little old. They all look like electrified trash compactors.
Also I agree with others: if /. is going to start showing hardware hacks all the time it needs its own category!
Well, since he didn't have room, it doesn't seem like he had much of a choice. Not like FireWire ones are readily available for cheap.
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Well.. putting a regular machine into a fancy machine's box is kind of like cheating. Of course, your guests are going to be impressed for a second but the disappointment will be bigger. :-)
I've seen a Sun Ultra being put in an old XT case. Now pointing to this XT case and saying 'well, this is our server' was much cooler IMHO
When men used to be men
too right.
-
The aluminum cube mentioned a day ago, however, was a case that was breathtaking. It's one thing to take a case and strip it down to what you need (or add things like lights/fans), and a completely different thing to build the case from scratch, using your own designs.
Which brings me to the question: when the hell are we going to see mainstream cases that don't resemble current towers? Are there cases that are, by default, modded in the fashion common nowadays (status lcds, excess fans, useless-yet-pretty lights)? I'd really like to see less case mods and more completely custom cases, but I don't think that would happen until the souped-up cases people do now are no longer seen as modded cases, and are instead seen as mainstream. I'm assuming the main reason people mod cases is for the "hey look at my nifty case" factor; if everyone had nifty cases, then hopefully more people would consider building a custom case from scratch in order to distinguish themselves.
Maybe then we'll finally see those dodecahedron cases that the G5 is rumored to reside in :D
This is a cool idea, I've been wondering for a while how feasible it is......especially since I have 9 indigos + keyboards/mice + 19" monitors filling up a closet.....hmmmmm.....I could use some more ideas though...
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Do you people read the articles and associated pages? It said that the case was empty, having been stripped of all hardware.
Even simpler, he could have lined the inside using aluminum foil glued in place with an aerosol adhesive. Ground that, and it's a lot better RF shield than plastic.
That's what really ticks me off about these case modders. Most of them don't even expend the tiniest effort to shield their systems. Eventually, one of them will move into a condo right beside a Congressman and f*ck up the television reception. Then we will see the American RF Protection Act signed into law, forbidding the sale of computer components to anyone other than Dell/Gateway/Compaq/HP/etc. Microsoft and the big computer manufacturers will spend millions of dollars in lobbying efforts to get the bill passed (since Microsoft makes a sale almost every time someone buys an assembled system).
I have one of these beasts. Picked it up for very little, but it clocks 100Mhz, has 128MB of RAM, and the best graphics (Elan). It is truly a remarkable machine (for it's time). It's definitely still a terrific X terminal, even if it's too slow for web browsing or real 3D work.
It's kind of sad- I don't have time to play with the Indigo, and an Indigo2 is my main desktop but is slow enough that I don't use it for much either. My boss has a pair of r3k Indigos that are just sitting on a bookshelf full of old computers. They weren't spectacular to begin with, but they're so much better designed than any PC that I'm depressed to see them gathering dust.
Unfortunately, the biggest problem with these is that it's impossible to get SGI compilers at a worthwhile price, or to get commercial software that will run on them. I'd love it if someone would come up with a "secure" hobbyist license- nodelocked software at a hugely reduced price with if you send them your sysid for an obsolete system.
Ah, those were the days. Contrast with the latest PC case I just bought. The metal was so thin that when I put my fingers into the expension slots to pull it into place under my desk, I ended up with multiple deep incisions in my fingers, like the world's worst paper cuts. Ick.
The only case I've ever seen that's more solid that an Indigo was an IBM PC from about 1985, made in Greenock, Scotland, a famous shipbuilding town. I reckon that the fab had just swapped over from making plates for ships, and decided to re-use the last few, complete with water-tight bulkheads. ;-)
But SGI's are amazingly robust (and heavy) as well. A workmate just bought an Indigo (the desktop orientation) on eBay. The seller noted that he'd package it up to his usual high standard, although there wasn't really any need. When it arrived, we saw what he meant. If the Indigo was a car, it would be a Mercedes. But not an ordinary Mercedes. It would be one of the "Diplomatic Specials", the ones that sneer at small arms, and give you a fair change against an RPG. It's that sort of construction. It's not just the thickness of the box, it's the redundant internal bracing, and that the components have multiple fixings, or are in snug caddys. You could probably go over Niagra Falls in one of these babies. ;-)
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
... especially because the Indigo (like many SGI systems) was built like a mini rack... there was a backplane at the rear of the case, and all the boards slid in on rails and latched in. Drives were also sled-mounted (which is a royal PITA for SGI retroheads like myself, always scrounging for sleds!).
Please, PLEASE take the time to insert the html for your links. It makes reading user posts much, much nicer...
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
Well, after reading that iPod story on here yesterday, I definitely know what to look for in my next external storage peripheral, since Firewire is so blazingly fast, moreso than I realized. If only there were more FW accessories for PC.
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I knew it was platform independent in general, but I did not know there was this potential for cross-platform devices. Does that mean I could potentially get an iPod as well, as long as there are drivers for PC? Or is it like USB, where it could be recognized as a Generic Storage Device? Thanks for the recommendation about Oxford 911, useful stuff!
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If anything, I'd say, "Anything Goes"
http://www.bit-tech.com/ and http://www.virtual-hideout.net/ have some AMAZING tricks.
Esp. the windowed HD - OMG...
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?