LGR – SGI Indigo2 Computer System Review
LGR – SGI Indigo2 Computer System Review
Diving into the Silicon Graphics Indigo² desktop workstation computer! This was a beast in 1995, and yes, “it’s a UNIX system, I know this!” How do the pros and cons stack up, what games can you play on it, and is it worth the cost today?
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My university had these back in 1996 and I used to spend many a happy hour learning about how GL worked on it. Gorgeous machines, way ahead of their time, but now hilariously outdated. Even a budget PC graphics card or iGPU is dozens of times faster than the Max Impact graphics. Amazing how quickly technology marches on
>Indigo 2
>Is teal
You had one job
Oh, too bad they didn’t make a custom bezel for the ODD!
It rocked! (The color).
Reminds me of alpha servers
"Up to…" one number, with another number as "maximum"? Hummm… confusing!
theres was such a demand for 3D graphics back in the day that even if you paid 50K in a PC you made that money back in just 1 month!
its not about buying power its about buying time and getting a head start over everyone else, while it would take 10 years before the tech would be cheap enough for normal people to own for 10 years the rich had a head start meaning they were making millions! that they would pass on that wealth to their next generation an so on
and this is while you will always be poor cause you see this machine today as some kind of waste of money while the successful saw it as a way to not be poor like you!
Haha, nice "core"/CPU pun!
PI
HOT MACHINE
Wow, get really precise with your "20.41 kg," as if the 45 pounds were .00-accurate. 😛
Can it run crysis ?
We had these at work, SDRC, back in the day. Development of I-DEAS CAD/CAM/CAE software. Good times.
In 1996 I bought a house for $76,000. And not a crack house. It was brand new, partially custom built, 3 bed, two bath, 1301sq ft.
3 years later I had an Octane based "Trusted Workstation" ruining Trusted Irix that cost over $100K.
https://www.commoncriteriaportal.org/files/epfiles/st_vid4003-st.pdf
Amazing machines
Wait.can you get review for about SGi Onyx?
Could one rebuild this computer with a modern CPU motherboard and components?
"Loaning"?
* lending
My suite mate in college had one of these. M3 AND and an SGI workstation, talk about spoiled!
Ha! I used SGi computers all through college…
“Academic discount”
On a 86k pc….
SGI systems make me feel all warm and fuzzy
IIRC there have been SGI keyboards that had nice ALPS switches instead of rubber domes.
A tip. if you want to get into SGI, be patient, wait and one will pop up on local (note Ebay) on Craigs for near nothing, but just be prepared to spend a little to get them working out of all my machines, 2 x indigo 2’s, 3 x O2’s and 2 x Octanes only the one O2 works. they are fun machines but not worth buying premium prices for. especially as they do not use x86 software. LGR nailed this review…would love to see him review an Octane 2 with the v12..thanks Clint.
Not enough SGI/SUN PCs reviewed in your channel. I suggest the SGI Octane and O2. And the Sun Ultra 5. God they’re beautiful machines. THey also made nice 24" HD crts (well, sony rebranded crts)
33mhz for 10k fuark
"Academic discount," haha! Please tell me these are slightly better than the Casablanca Avio!
But does it run Minecraft?
We need a LGR x Doug DeMuro crossover. "And now let’s take a look at the 1995 Indigo2’s quirks and features."
Can it run HL2
u the guy that who made sandwich why u here lol
An Indigo 2 would be cool to own as a collector as it’s so unique and at the time such a specialized system, but as far as system capabilities I don’t see much of an advantage these days. If you want to use UNIX similar to IRIX you can do that now easily.
Being a film student in the mid 1990’s, I would have traded my kidneys for this computer. It was the absolute wet dream computer of every filmmaker at the time.
cool
Hey LGR, I realize this video is like 3 years old now but a few releases ago Mame added support for the indigo2 and the indy, and you can fully emulate irix on it:) while it is quite slow, it is pretty cool that you can sort of emulate silicon graphics machines now
At the time it was glorious, just glorious.
I’ve never met a piece of old computer "junk" that I didn’t like. 🙂 I was an avid collector of computers and software throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s and into the 2010’s, and around 2008 I was given an Indigo 2 workstation with 2 big heavy external SCSI hard-drives, no keyboard, no monitor, no mouse (though I had a ton of keyboards and mice that would have worked fine with it). Also had a bunch of IBM and clone XTs, ATs, 386’s, 486’s, a TRS80, Apple ][c, mainframe dumb terminals (was planning to buy a PDP-11 or maybe even an old Cray that Sydney Uni were selling off cheap on eBay), and so on. Bought tons of stuff locally and later via eBay. When other people heard about my collection, donations started trickling and later flooding in, and pretty soon I had a house full, 1 shed full and another shed on the way to full, and a work office full. I had set-up a computer museum (a massive glass display case) at my local university, and had plans to expand the museum. But then in 2013 disaster struck. Health issues forced me to rapidly downsize my collection and I gave almost all of the hardware and much of the software away for free. Have often regretted the loss of my collection, and especially the Indigo 2 …
so basically, this is the Neo Geo AES of mid 90s PCs…..
And people say that Apple’s new Mac Pro is expensive at $53K…
Al this Boomer tech is now packed into our little smart phones.
THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARYDOOS?!?!
Only I feel like that guy talks in 90ths
Used to maintain a studio full of SGI stuff, including an Indigo2 Max 10000.
And it’s better than my laptop
It must run GTA III
HOW DO I HOOK IT UP WIRELESS, WHEN AT WORK IN THE 90’s IT WAS ALWAYS CONNECTED BY ETHERNET CABLE??? Still runs extremely smooth like a Rolls Royce! Please help!
Have one of these at home. Every time I turn it on, the neighbours call air traffic control.
The keyboard is mechanical and has ALPS switches. One of the better keyboards around and definitely not rubber dome.
Mario 64 main menu, interesting
7:57 looks like the menu from Mario 64
LGR: "You’d have to be a very special unique blend of crazy geek to buy one of these"
Me: <nervously eyes the SGI Octane on the shelf>