G5 at Work

[bunnspecial]

I'm still meandering around a bit waiting on a permanent office, but got tired of not having a desktop.

A few months back, I'd "gutted" the dual 2.0(which was sitting idle on my desk at work). I took out the air deflector and the hard drives and transplanted them into my(then new) Quad. The DC 2.0 is going to be brought back alive(probably for use at home)when I get the replacement air deflector, but I decided to haul the Quad in to work.

Here's its new temporary home. The monitors are the same as before. I also had to pull the airport card out of the 2.0.

My current office space is actually a former computer lab and has some nice features to go along with that. I've been slowly bringing them back on line, but can only do so much. There's a huge UPS array(the computers I helped remove from here were quad Pentium IIs with 21" CRTs) that I'd like to bring back to life. There's also extensive ethernet wiring, but again I think that the switch that makes all the "magic" happen is tied into the UPS.

The UPS-assuming the batteries are good-would probably power the Quad in sleep mode for a week or more, so it would be nice to get it back on line.

The SGI Octane has been an ongoing project of mine-I did finally manage to "hack" into it with the help of folks on an SGI-specific forum.

BTW, the whole mess is sitting on a 4x8 optical bench(stored in here temporarily) which weighs a little north of 1000lbs. It's a bit low, but otherwise is not a bad desk.

 

[eyoungren]

You need four more monitors.

 

[bunnspecial]

You need four more monitors.

I could do it...I have a 7800GT coming next week. I could put the 6600 in one of the other slots and then pull the 6600LE out of my DC...

 

[Gamer9430]

I'm still meandering around a bit waiting on a permanent office, but got tired of not having a desktop.

A few months back, I'd "gutted" the dual 2.0(which was sitting idle on my desk at work). I took out the air deflector and the hard drives and transplanted them into my(then new) Quad. The DC 2.0 is going to be brought back alive(probably for use at home)when I get the replacement air deflector, but I decided to haul the Quad in to work.

Here's its new temporary home. The monitors are the same as before. I also had to pull the airport card out of the 2.0.

My current office space is actually a former computer lab and has some nice features to go along with that. I've been slowly bringing them back on line, but can only do so much. There's a huge UPS array(the computers I helped remove from here were quad Pentium IIs with 21" CRTs) that I'd like to bring back to life. There's also extensive ethernet wiring, but again I think that the switch that makes all the "magic" happen is tied into the UPS.

The UPS-assuming the batteries are good-would probably power the Quad in sleep mode for a week or more, so it would be nice to get it back on line.

The SGI Octane has been an ongoing project of mine-I did finally manage to "hack" into it with the help of folks on an SGI-specific forum.

View attachment 571008

BTW, the whole mess is sitting on a 4x8 optical bench(stored in here temporarily) which weighs a little north of 1000lbs. It's a bit low, but otherwise is not a bad desk.

That SGI monitor is a rebadged version of a Dell monitor that I used to have and absolutely loved. It had a Sony Trinitron in it. I recognize it by the arrangement of the buttons and the massive power button.

 

[MacCubed]

It looks like you got that Octane working! Looks nice

 

[MacCubed]

Also why do you use the gateway as the main monitor? I would use the dell since it's bigger and much nicer

 

[bunnspecial]

That SGI monitor is a rebadged version of a Dell monitor that I used to have and absolutely loved. It had a Sony Trinitron in it. I recognize it by the arrangement of the buttons and the massive power button.

The SGI monitor actually has a somewhat proprietary SGI video port on the back of it. It's about the size of a DB-25 connector but has some other type connectors in it rather than the standard plugs. It also has a standard VGA input-the O2 I have has VGA out, while the Octane has the other type connector.

Also why do you use the gateway as the main monitor? I would use the dell since it's bigger and much nicer

They actually are the same 1680x1050 resolution and both are 23"(I think you're seeing some perspective distortion from the way the Dell is positioned). Surprisingly enough, when I borrowed a ColorPro Spyder I was able to get better calibration on the Gateway. That's why it's the main monitor. The colors don't necessarily come through in the photo.

My eventual plan is a matched pair of 20" or 23" 1920x1080 LEDs.

On an unrelated note, I was able to get one of the two UPSs online. With the SGI/CRT powered up and the Quad running at about 75% on all four cores, the UPS reported 21% load.

Unfortunately, only one UPS worked-the other gave me an error about the battery not being connected(I checked and both the batteries appear to be fine, although possibly just stone-dead). Fortunately, that UPS powers the other half of the room, so just the one powers everything I'm running just fine.

 

[Gamer9430]

The SGI monitor actually has a somewhat proprietary SGI video port on the back of it. It's about the size of a DB-25 connector but has some other type connectors in it rather than the standard plugs. It also has a standard VGA input-the O2 I have has VGA out, while the Octane has the other type connector.



They actually are the same 1680x1050 resolution and both are 23"(I think you're seeing some perspective distortion from the way the Dell is positioned). Surprisingly enough, when I borrowed a ColorPro Spyder I was able to get better calibration on the Gateway. That's why it's the main monitor. The colors don't necessarily come through in the photo.

My eventual plan is a matched pair of 20" or 23" 1920x1080 LEDs.

The Dell monitor had a permanent VGA cable sticking out of the back of it.

Also, is there a place where you can down load proper calibrations for monitors for use on macs? I can't get my Samsung to have the same colors and everything as my MBP's screen. It's always too light/saturated, or dark/desaturated, and I can never get it perfect. So if there was a website were people can upload the proper calibrations for whatever monitors, that would be awesome. I doubt it exists though.

 

[bunnspecial]

The Dell monitor had a permanent VGA cable sticking out of the back of it.

Also, is there a place where you can down load proper calibrations for monitors for use on macs? I can't get my Samsung to have the same colors and everything as my MBP's screen. It's always too light/saturated, or dark/desaturated, and I can never get it perfect. So if there was a website were people can upload the proper calibrations for whatever monitors, that would be awesome. I doubt it exists though.

I think there's enough variation between even individual panels that you really need a calibrator to get them exactly right. The good thing is that they don't drift that much once calibrated(LCDs can have some change in the backlight as the tubes age).

Two of my Apple CRTs have built in calibration, which is a superb feature although doesn't work in anything newer than 10.5(I think). CRTs do drift enough that they need regular calibration.

BTW, back in the Leopard days Apple(for whatever reason) defaulted to using a gamma of 1.8 and not 2.2 like the rest of the world. I change all of my Macs to 2.2, which makes the screen(whether CRT, LCD, or LED, built in or external) look much better. Somewhere around 10.6 or 10.7, they started defaulting to 2.2.

 

[flyrod]

Nice setup, even if it is temporary. Could the g5 go on the floor to free up desk space? Is that a coffee warmer?

 

[flyrod]

I've worked with some of those vibration damping optics tables before. Don't use them to work on small parts or things with small screws....