[rescue] Machine valuation; Was SGI files Ch11 again, bought by Rackable for $25M

[Sheldon T. Hall]

Saith JP Hindin ...

> So this brings up a question I have pondered over the years, as 
> I've picked up new gems for the basement (or brother-in-law's 
> garage, in this case, woe as me) - I'd like to know what the 
> original value was.
> 
> For example, in particular I'm thinking of my Sun E10000, 
> 64GB RAM, 64x 466mHz processors. I've seen suggestions that
> have ranged from $5m to $10m for this single machine, had it
> been bought from the factory floor as configured back in 
> '99/'00 when it was new. I have absolutely no clue how
> realistic those figures are - for all I know they're from 
> people who are very wishful in their thinking.
> 
> How would you folks go about determining what something like 
> this cost?

Well, sometimes, to misquote Casey Stengel, you can look it up.  If you have
an old price list or something like it, of course.

I have an SGI Challenge L "Deskside Supercomputer" in
all-black-on-black-with-black Tandem dress, built about 1995.  I also have a
1995 SGI price book.  For the purposes of this exercise, we can imagine that
SGI sold the machine, instead of Tandem.

The computer's been updated a bit (6 of the later R10K processors, more
memory, much bigger drives, CD burner, 30 GB DLT tape drive, etc.), and my
1995 price book doesn't have the R10K processors.  In that book the Deskside
ONYX only went up to 4xR4K and the Power Challenge topped out at 6xR8K. The
low-end Challenge L was $68,000, while the top standard config ONYX (4xR4K,
64 MB RAM, RE2 w/16MB, 2 GB system disk) was $228,000.

Since a lot of the stuff we have now you couldn't buy at all back then, some
unit pricing might be amusing.

2 GB FW-HVD drives were $4,300 each, or $2,150/GB.

An MC3 memory board loaded with High-density RAM (1 GB) was $113,000.

A 10GB DLT tape drive was $9,900.

A 4xR4K CPU board was $80,000.

The price difference between a 1xR8K Challenge L and a 2xR8K machine was
$60,000, so I suppose an R8K processor was $60,000.  If an R10K was in that
ballpark, a 4xR10K processor board must have been in the quarter-million
dollar range.

I can find neither DVD drives nor CD burners in the prce list.

So, as a WAG, my Tandem-badged Challenge L would have been ...

Low end machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  $68,000
5 more R10K processors (assume R8K prices) . 300,000
3 more GB RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  339,000
88 GB add'l disk space . . . . . . . . . . . 193,500
DLT drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    9,900
DVD drive, say . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10,000
VME dual 100baseT, say . . . . . . . . . .    10,000
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -----------
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $930,400

And that's before software, service and support plan, and all the other
stuff that companies usually bought along with computers in this price
range.

I have a "build sheet" on a rack Challenge that was over $2,000,000
including software and support. I don't have the machine, of course, just
the build sheet.

-Shel