Hello All,
I need to get a proposal together for a new 3d system to run XSI and after fx........ I haven't a clue where to start, currently running on a frankenstein machine but we want to buy a workstation prebuilt this time and with a digital DPS solution probably.........should I start by visiting SGI.com or what has been your past experiences.......need one machine, running nt or win2k, gig+ ram, dual processor,digital processing card from DPS, firewire,scsi drives etc.......where do I start as my bosses would prefer to buy a workstation than parts....
any advice appreciated...ps I am in Ireland
al.
When I was heading a new studio building the CG dept. from scratch in NYC I did extensive research with workstations. Avoid SGI's they're no longer supporting NT platforms. But BOXX technology and Hewett Packard is a strong consideration. Depending if you prefer a dual AMD Athlon or a dual Pentium 3 machine. I must say the cost and performance value on a AMD is enormous. Plus its certified for Softimage XSI.
Thanks,
I have just been onto the SGI site and see that there are machines avaliable.... under sgi.com/products/legacy, does it matter if they are unsupported if they are good all round workstations?
yes...when you are doing a production and your machine bites the dust...what then?
with a good supported warranty and service, you will have a replacement machine and on-site tech service within a few hours. without you maybe lose money as the downtime of the machine mounts.
Secondly, whoever said SGIs did good NT machines? I know a lot of people who have had nothing but trouble with them, and their machines are not cheap.
Cheers,
Balgillow
well Avid (who sell XSI) also sell workstations. I haven't much looked at them because I always buy parts separately, but I guess they might be very well suited for the task if they're actually built to run XSI and 3D.
Last Spring I recommended to the company 5 Intergraph ZX 1 and ZX10 to work on a CG animated series I was supervising. After debating between various workstations HP, SGI, Intergraph, Compaq and Dell. I went ahead with the Intergraphs due to price/ performance and track record for PC workstation under Windows OS. SGI has a history for UNIX systems and I wasn't going to become a guinea pig to work with their NT machines. The second generation SGI NT workstation is a Dell machine with a nVidia Quadro Pro card. A downgrade from their first generation PC using SGI technology that was developed for Windows 2000. SGI has abandoned the PC market due to the soft market and competition. You could probably purchase a SGI PC system for sale. But don't expect to upgrade since SGI discontinued that line. I've managed to test a SGI 330 and had problems with the screen refresh rates. The BOXX technology PCs seems to be picking up among the industry. Digital Domain has incorporated it into their pipeline. Including School of Visual Arts/ NYC stellar computer animation department. HP Visualize workstation is another outstanding machine. Which several cg shops are using like Duck Soup Productions and Kleiser Walczak. Again, you may want to research the price and software requirements to run either PIII or AMD Athlon.
First of all, I don;t think SGI abandoned the pc market as the previous reply states ( if I;m wrong please let me know), SGI and Intergraph joined efforts and we bought 2 SGI Zx10 last february. Till know they have worked perfecttly, they are really fast and trusty. Dual 1 Ghz, 1GB ram and a wildcat 4210 that really rocks. So if I had to speak for sgi I would say its great because it has the experience of intergraph in the pc market, the experience of themselves in the Irix/unix market, and a great set of graphic boards including the wildcat that IMHO is one of the best i've seen and many benchmarks in the web ratify it. SO is SGI good??, of course it is, Would I buy an Sgi if the decision was on me??, well NO, Why??, it is damn expensive, you can get exacttly the same machine ( even with the wildcat option for a bit more money) from Dell for example because dDell is one of the few manufacturers that ship wildcats ( from the people who make oxygen cards).
From what I've heard Dell has also a good technical support and guarantee features, so I would check dell.com, or maybe hp or something else because an irix system or a mac are unique, but pc's are all somewhat the same thing, and only a graphic card and a mother board will change drastically from one another. Sorry for my long reply, and hope this helps.
I visited sgi.com, and i found out they are no longer selling the zx10 though they are supporting it. ( [censored]..hehe)
It seems like there alliance with intergraph only lasted about 6 months, thats pretty weird, they are now in a joint venture with OSC in making an intel Itanium based system. So maybe I;m one of the few guys in the planet to use a piece of colcetion an SGI ZX10, a machine built and sold for only six months, hehe. what has happended with intergraph??, does any body know??. well that gives you another reason why NOT to buy an Sgi NT, at least not yet, until they settle down, and mature in the Pc market. By the way the new machine they are selling is linux based and with intel ittanium, that really sound good, but I do'nt want to try it and find out in other six months they are no longer making it, hehe, just kidding, they deserve respect for the years of great irix machines they made//
For those looking for info on Intergraph and why they sold away their business:
http://www.intergraph.com/intel/index.asp
The brief synopsis can be viewed by clicking on the "Intergraph Hardware History" link. But if you want the ugly truth, I suggest you read everything just so you see how evil this business really is.
As for SGI, they have abandoned all Win32 development as of June 2001 due to poor sales and falling revenues. SGI will continue towards development of 64bit Linux, IRIX, and Windows on Itanium.
Matt
Matt Lind
Animator / Technical Director
Softimage certified instructor:
Softimage|3D
Softimage|XSI
speye_21@hotmail.com
Thanks a lot everybody,
I am a newbie to the industry so I am well aware of the history of unix etc but have never used a unix machine, reading between the lines of all your comments I think that there is a move towards windows for good or bad with a strong threat emerging from Linux in the near future......... so I think that the best thing I can do is to buy from Dell and buy a digital video playback card system separately.....
Thanks for the discussion, much appreciated.
al.