Silicon Graphics. The mere mention of the name is enough to get a budding CGI artist dripping with tech-lust. And hey, why not? After all we are talking about the computer systems that helped ILM bring the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park to life, not to mention Arnie's liquid chrome nemesis in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. In fact, it's fair to say the SGI equipment has been at the heart of nearly all computer based FX houses since the early nineties. Now, I know what your thinking "well if it's good enough for George Lucas and the ILM gang then it's good enough for me", right? The only problem being that you (probably) can't afford one, and even if you could you almost certainly couldn't afford any decent software to run on it.
Well, the good news is you probably can afford one thanks to the ever deflating prices in the current second hand SGI marketplace. Take a quick peek at the UNIX section of Ebay and you'll see what I mean. Even better, contact one of the numerous SGI re-sellers for a true bargain.

Is SGI for Me?

In short, maybe...

SGI systems run a proprietary UNIX based operating system called IRIX and if you have little or no UNIX experience then you may find the basic interface slightly daunting, if not down right mystifying, and if your used to the more comfortable operating environment of Windows (yeah right!) or MAC-OS then you'll be facing quite a steep learning curve to fully familiarise yourself with the IRIX OS. However, if you have previously joined the ranks of the ever expanding Linux community then you will feel right at home with IRIX, as they are both UNIX based and therefor very similar in basic operation.

Applications

If you plan to buy an SGI to run applications that you would normally run on a PC, i.e. Word Processing, Spreadsheet, etc. Then you’re going to be disappointed. Currently there are little or no "office" based applications available for IRIX. Which is no surprise considering that these machines were intended to be used for high-end 3D work.

If you plan to buy an SGI(IRIX) machine for graphics work then you better make sure you have sufficient funds to buy the necessary applications. We are talking serious money here. For instance, a copy of Maya complete currently sells for a cool $7,600 and the price quickly escalates to $20,000 for the Unlimited version.

Don't think for a second that you can download some "cracked" version of Maya or Softimage from some aptly named website such as SGIWAREZ.com, they simply don't exist. Which is a good thing, right?

However, you may note that there is a healthy library of freeware and shareware apps available for IRIX, so if you have no aspirations to be the next ILM then you may be able to content yourself with freeware apps such as Blender and the excellent BMRT.

Conclusion

There's no doubt about it, IRIX isn't for everyone. However, if you yearn for something more exotic than your average Joe PC, the SGI (especially a second user machine) may be for you. Just bare in mind that you will need a fat wallet if you plan to run commercial software.


Machine Bought

Indigo2 Impact 10000.
384MB RAM.
4 GIG Hard Disk.
20" Monitor







Recommended: Yes