Look at the server I bought myself for Christmas.
 

This Christmas, I bought myself an SGI Origin 200 server for $200 (plus $85 for shipping). It has six hot-swapable SCSI drives, two normal SCSI drives, dual 225 Mhz. R10000's (a 64 bit mips-based processor), and 1,152 MB of ram.

I hope I know what I'm getting into. I don't know anything about IRIX, but they say it's really easy to administrate, and I hope they're right. If they aren't, I'll be willing to learn.

Still, the final product is that there is now a 4U rack-mount server in my living room. It's kind of freaky at first. My parents are handling it surprisingly well, although my mom got a bit cross when she saw it sitting on the coffee table this morning. Can't blame her, really. I moved it in short order.

The worst thing about it is that it purportedly consumes 720 watts of power. Yikes!

I think I should probably get a rack to put this and my other stuff in, but it weighs 55 pounds and only has holes for mounting screws on the right front side. Also, it's 24 inches deep and slightly less than the standard 19-inches wide. SGI wouldn't be so mean as to design it for a proprietary rack, would they? Oh, well. The table works fine for now.

Here's a picture: http://www.travisdart.com/pictures/misc/3computers

What do you think? Was this smart?

Well, what are you going to use it for?

Then I'll tellya if you're smart or not.

I'm about to put together a new desktop for my folks from parts and a P2 350.
I bought the laptop I'm on right now (in a coffee shop in Reston, VA presently... Enjoying a chocolate muffin and some coffee.) for 200 bucks as well.

To think I could have had a server... Nah. i needed a laptop more.

What are your plans?

-Shade

You know, I think you have helped me convince myself. It may be big and foreign, but it's really just UNIX, and I can do that.

I plan on using it as a server. It has a lot of processor power and storage capability considering the amount of money I spent, and I don't guess it will be a pain to live with.