Subject: RE: Computers, Computers, Computers.
From: "Holman, Dimitri" <[email-masked]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 08:15:48 -0500

On Thu, 21 Dec 1995, Simon Auchterlonie wrote:

>> c.) The last, but first choice, if you know what I mean is the good old 
>> Silicon Graphics machine. But I've heard some good, I've heard some bad.

Dave Warner Replied:
>If you get one of these, you better have a generous, rich uncle or VERY 
>deep pockets.

Dave is correct, I'm surronded by SGI's at work. Old R3000 Indigos, The
Indigo2Extreme sitting under my desk, to 20 processor rack mount Onyxes w/1GB
MEMORY, and yes they are expensive. I, however, bought an SGI INDY for under
$6000.00!! Two things you must consider though.. 1) SGI's will -NOT- speed up
rendering (ray tracing) but there is support for hardware Z-buffer, Alpha
blending, FOG and such -ONLY- if the Application talks to the hardware via IRIS
GL or Open GL. Modeling, however, is much faster on an SGI than any other
hardware platform. 2) Software is -VERY- expensive on SGI's. Example, Photoshop
for MAC or PC ($700.00 ?) for SGI ( $1000.00 + ). Lightwave for everyone else 
( $900.00 ) for SGI ( 2995.00 ?) I paid $2000.00 prior to the price jump. But
if you want to animate for cheap on an SGI your only other choice is HASH's
Animation Master ( SGI 1000.00 ?). In addition, you must put up with UNIX (
God's OS ). If you write SGI apps for a living (like I do) Buy an SGI. If not
buy somthing else..

dimitri holman
visual simulation engineer
[email-masked]
[email-masked]