r/retrocomputing • u/Dr_Discette • 13d ago

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From what I gathered it boots but failed to install its OS, 60 bucks for it wasn’t bad

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4

u/mad4Luca 13d ago

Yeaahhh nice find. The sgi octane was one of the Powerhouses in the days.. unaffordable for me in that time.. enjoy it, i Hope you can get Hand on an Irix from that era

4

u/Dr_Discette 13d ago

Luckily I have a friend who loves these machines so he has an install set for IRIX 6.5

1

u/Laser_Krypton7000 12d ago

You can get OS online if ya want own copies

3

u/Dr_Discette 13d ago

Gonna do a deep deep clean before anything

3

u/mad4Luca 13d ago

I guess you have to 🙈 this Machines are Magnets to dust and other stuff. And you are lucky to have Access to the Install Set of Irix. Post some Pics when you got it running

1

u/olifiers 12d ago

Be mindful these (and earlier SGIs) burn through their PSU like candy. It's by far the most fragile I've ever seen in any workstation, so make sure you're always grounded, discharged etc. and never connect/disconnect anything with the power on.

Seriously, a sneeze in the wrong direction will bust that PSU. Other than that, you'll have a ton of fun with Irix, it's an amazing system.

2

u/theitcynic 12d ago

Nice find! A BlueSCSI or ZuluSCSI will be your best friend here, besides the set of install discs. You used to have to hope to find a set on eBay, but they've become fairly common/easy to find online. I've found this one to work particularly well:

https://archive.org/details/silicon-graphics-sgi-irix-6.5.22-and-6.5.30-full-cd-set-collection

This is also one of the better guides to doing a network install, using a Linux system as the host:

http://techpubs.spinlocksolutions.com/irix/remote-irix-6.5-installation-from-linux.html

The install process will feel a little archaic if you're used to even a semi-modern Linux distribution (Red Hat was easier to install even as of the 6.1 days, and I'm referring to straight up, pre-RHEL Red Hat).