Feedback Comments (2008 to 2009)
I've archived comments prior to 2010 in order to prevent the main
feedback page from becoming too large.
NB: by definition I can't include feedback comments from people who
collected in person, or those cases where I delivered in person, and
most commercial companies don't tend to reply in any personal way
when buying something. Suffice to say there are many other happy
buyers out there besides those mentioned on these feedback pages. :)
Ian.
R7K/600 CPU (for O2), 146GB 15K disk (OS install for O2) and TOD battery
for IRIS Indigo to Holland (box image):
From: "jeroenj@casema.nl" <jeroenj@casema.nl>
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 9:11 PM
Hello Ian,
The R7000 600 MHz CPU for my O2 and the 146 GB hard disk work
absolutely great. Installation was easy and the system booted without
any problems. With the upgrades my O2 has been transformed (previously,
it had an R5000 180 MHz processor) into a very usable workstation that
has the performance to tackle any job that I would entrust to it.
The packaging was very robust, as usual.
Many thanks and best regards,
Jeroen
Blue front flap for Octane2 and later-type black PS2 SGI keyboard sent
to Poland:
From: "Matevz Ferjancic" <matevz.ferjancic@gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, December 10, 2009 7:01 PM
Hi Ian,
Got the packets. Dashed lines are a brilliant idea. Great time/mess
saver. Thanks mate!
Cheers!
Matevz
O2, 1600SW display and MLA sent to Belgium:
From: [a Ghent biotech company]
Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:49 AM
Dear Mr Mapleson,
I want to inform you that the system arrived allright and functions
well. ...
Everything arrived intact and on time as expected. We were very glad
with the service.
Thanks again
IRIX CD set sent to the USA:
From: "Matthew Shannon" <mshannon@f-response.com>
Date: Monday, October 26, 2009 3:37 PM
Exceptional support and excellent product quality. I received more
than I asked for and couldn't be happier. Installing and rebuilding
my SGI was a daunting task until I received Ian's "Installation
Guide". Simply put, it was thorough, clean, straight forward, and
amazingly accurate.
Definitely recommended to anyone looking to get an SGI box back in
business.
Thanks Ian!
MMS, Florida, USA
Bare later-type 1467 Octane motherboard sent to China (ie. carrier
components removed in order to ensure box weight was under 2kg and
thus postable by cheaper airmail):
From: "George-Phillip R. Orais" <geo@fairlegend.com.cn>
Date: Thursday, October 15, 2009 5:18 AM
Hi Ian,
Just got the package today, it was perfect!! Really thanks for the
great packaging hehe
...
Two words: SUPER FANTASTIC! Smooth transaction! Fast turnarounds!
And a superb reliable packaging! I never thought it would be like
this easy especially for someone working and living here in PRC :)
Great work Ian! Love your site and workmanship! Keep it up and
looking forward to do another buy to you soon ;)
BR,
Geo
PSU parts for IRIS Indigo sent to Italy (a complete PSU is too heavy
for airmail, expensive to ship by courier, so I sent just the
internal circuit boards, thus allowing for cheap shipping):
From: "Raspanti Mario" <Mario.Raspanti@uninsubria.it>
Date: Friday, October 9, 2009 3:28 PM
Hello!
At last I found the time to dismantle the PSU of my Indigo R3000
and replace its innards with the the PCBs you sent me (wonderful
packaging, by the way). This is just to let you know that
everything went absolutely fine. Perfect!
Thank you and best wishes,
Mario
Octane chassis/skins sent to Italy:
Date: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 4:41 PM
From: "Vincenzo Tanassi" <tanassi@tin.it>
Hi Ian,
just received the box and i'm excited like a kid on Xmas, really well
packed and WOW what a beautiful machine, it's so heavy and so well
engineered.
cheers... Vincenzo
300GB 10K SCSI disk (Fujitsu MAT3300NC) sent to Holland:
From: "Marco Gariboldi" <someone@somewhere.com> (please contact me if you would like to talk to Marco)
Date: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 2:20 PM
Dear Ian,
Everything arrived today, in order and -- as usually -- in excellent
shape and packaged as you always do, superbly. I just installed the
new drive and booted up my system and wow, it's so much more silent
than my SGI branded 73GB disk! I'm very satisfied, and you're free
to publish that on your site. :)
Kind regards,
Marco
CPU/RAM for Indy (and two free DEC sleds) sent to Poland:
From: "Vesselin Kenashkov"
Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 3:23 PM
Hi Ian,
Just to let you know that the parts arrived, really well packaged :)
and everything is working great.
Thank you! You have another happy customer :)
Vesko
P.S. Thank you for the sleds too - they are the same like these on the alphaserver.
R14K/550 CPU and disk sled for Octane2 sent to Greece:
From: "Sylvester Leontiadis" <dir_marillion@hotmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 9:49 PM
Hi Ian!!!
Installation of the super cpu completed with success!!
R14k is working now :-)
It seems that this cpu is about twice as fast from R12k, playing divx
videos but in rendering scenes it is something lower than twice times
faster from R12k. Also, it seems that in Maya it gives better results
than Blender!! Probably Blender has not been written in assembly, so
it is slow... it reminds of Windows C++ applications :-)
Anyway, I really love this computer. Octane RuleZ, Indigo2 too !!
Best Regards and super thanks again,
Sylvester
Later-green Octane2 sent to Italy:
From: "Stefano Fedrigo" <aleph@develer.com>
Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 11:44 AM
Hi Ian,
Today the Octane has been delivered to me.
It's the best packing I've seen ever. It took me several minutes to
open it :-)
I'm simply amazed how good the condition of the workstation is.
It's like a new one!
Even the fans are without dust. I really have to send you my
compliments for the wonderful job.
... I have no doubt, with a packing like that, the courier could have
played football with it without consequences :-)
[once he'd obtained a 13W3/HD15 adapter...]
Got the video adapter, it works :-)
I'd like to make it clear that I'm very satisfied with your packaging. :-)
I'm very happy with the software installation too. Truly a lot of
stuff to play with!
I'm using a 1920x1200 LCD monitor and, incredible, the Octane can
drive the full resolution without slowness!
...
As a final note, let me say that this was the best on-line
transaction I had ever.
Thank you very much! When I'll need some other SGI stuff in the
future I'll surely contact you :-)
Cheers!
Stefano
R12K/400 Purple O2+ system sent to CA, USA (pics: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7):
From: "Marcelo Galletti" [please contact me if you wish to talk to Marcelo]
Date: Saturday, May 9, 2009 9:41 PM
Hi there,
Hope things are going well.
I would like to thank you again and share a few comments...
One word describes the service you provided: EXCELLENCE.
1 - Pre-sale information was extremely relevant and helpful.
2 - Communication was fast and effective throughout the entire
process. Questions were answered in incredible detail within just a
few hours (sometimes minutes) of inquire.
3 - High resolution pictures of the system from various angles
provided an accurate overview.
4 - Packaging was outstanding, with all items individually wrapped
inside a box that fit everything comfortably, with enough space to
protect during shipping.
5 - Inclusion of a very nice card.
6 - Inclusion of extra bonus items, beyond described (and way beyond
my expectations).
7 - System in like-new condition (not one dust particle on it).
8 - System pre-configured, pre-installed and pre-backed up. Amazing
out-of-box experience.
9 - Labels with perfect typeface.
In addition, I agree 100% with your web site construction policy. It
successfully provides information without distractions, and is built
in a way that displays perfectly even on my cell phone.
On another note, the system is already working full-speed (it is fast
indeed), and it is surprisingly silent comparing to my previous one!
--- I'll send a picture soon... :)
Sincerely, Marcelo
1600SW monitor sent to Germany:
From: "Hanul Sieger" <hanul_sieger@mac.com>
Date: Friday, April 3, 2009 10:47 PM
The monitor arrived today. Again, it was superbly packaged ;-)
As you can see, everything's working fine [more pics].
Thanks a lot and have a nice weekend.
Hanul
Dual-600MHz Origin300 and Fuel 500MHz V10 sent to Sweden (used for
developing a parallel version of an open source FEM program, and
visualising datasets with paraview/VTK):
From: "Niclas Jansson" <njansson@kth.se>
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:02:39 +0100
Hi Ian!
Just wanted to let you know that the Fuel and O300 arrived today.
Outstanding packaging! Everything in excellent condition (the Fuel
seems to be unused).
Both systems were perfectly configured. The Origin is already placed
on number crunching duties :)
Another very happy customer!
[later...]
> Thanks! :D Did you take any pics? I forgot to do so before packing
> the systems.
Unfortunetly, no unboxing pics.
I should have taken a picture of that amazing protection around those
precious NUMALink connectors.
> Excellent! How are you finding it?
Everything is perfect! The Fuel is less noisy then my Octane and the
O300 is so snappy :) (the O300 isn't that loud either)
V10 gave a me a really nice performance boost. Paraview is much more
interactive now compared to when I used SSE :)
Thanks for everything!
Niclas
Blue top cover, PSU cover and AV board for O2 sent to France:
From: "Job, Mathieu" <mathieu.job@voit-france.de>
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2008 07:58:51 +0200
Hello Ian !
I just received the material. The package was just incredible! All is
in excellent condition and work great.
See you soon for probably another order ...
Many thanks,
JOB Mathieu
Octane2 send to Sweden:
From: "Ingemar Berg" <shinobinaku@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 13:06:34 +0200
Hi!
Just wanted to let you know that the Octane2 has arrived and is in
excellent condition. Frankly, I haven't seen such a beauty in a very
long time! :)
Many thanks,
Ingemar
Fan blower unit and quad-R10K CPU board sent to France:
From: "Eurinco - Achats" <achats@eurinco.fr>
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:21:04 +0200
Hello Ian,
We received our order this morning; I would like to thank you again
because it's always a real pleasure to make deal with you! You have
good prices, good material, you're a very nice boy, sincere and honest!
Everything was perfect!
Best Regards,
Audrey
Octane2 skins and black SGI keyboard sent to France:
From: "Michaël Charlier" <contact@aquakitten.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:46:45 +0200
Hi Ian !
I've just received the package, thank you very much !
The skins and the keyboard are perfect! I'm really happy to have a
good looking Octane 2 now. :-)
Here are the pictures:
Before:
http://www.aquakitten.com/photo-268-32-1.html
http://www.aquakitten.com/photo-269-32-1.html
After:
http://www.aquakitten.com/photo-273-32-1.html
http://www.aquakitten.com/photo-274-32-1.html
> ... Packaging ok? I made an effort to make absolutely sure no damage
> could occur, used raaaather a lot of bubblewrap. :D
The packaging was amazing. It took me forever to remove all the
bubblewrap! ;-)
Once again many thanks!
Michael
CDRW unit and O2Cam sent to Slovakia:
From: "Hornacek Tomas" <hornacek_tomas@centrum.sk>
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:44:28 +0200
Hello Ian,
Package arrives today - perfectly sealed, both - camera and cdrom
totaly pulished and ofcourse working.
You are maybe 4-5 seller form witch I take offer but you are the best
of them, ...
Again thanks for perfect package/HW. TOmo
1600SW adapter for O2 sent to France:
From: "J JANMAAT" <jeroenj@casema.nl>
Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:40:53 +0200
Hi Ian,
Just picked up the package from the post office. I installed it & it
works fine (typing this email on my O2 now)
Thanks for the great service!
Jeroen
Motherboard for Fuel sent to France:
From: "Jean-Pascal CODINE" <jpcodine@carnacki.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:13:38 +0200
Ian,
Mobo received yesterday and installed today. Works like a swiss clock.
Thank you so much, I may be back for more spares in the near future.
You're welcome to quote me on my most excellent experience :D
Packaging was still perfect, not a spot of dirt or dampness, not an
impression in the cardbaord, it looks as if the carriers have taken
real care of it.
Cheers,
JPascal
Octane2 sent to Sweden:
From: "Christer Sandvik" <christer.sandvik@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, June 11, 2008 7:32 pm
Hi Ian!
There is much on your feedback page about what kind of reputation you
have gotten yourself and sure thing you live up to it by every word,
the conversations, hardware and software installation, packaging and
on. The list can be made long and made short, you are the One third
part dealer!
Thanks,
Christer.
Several 9GB disks collected by someone locally in an emergency:
From: "Tom Rattray" <tom@tierra.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 3 May 2008 16:01:42 +0100
Ian,
I felt the need to express my feelings following your outstanding
help over the last couple of days.
As you know, I was tasked with rescuing data from a critical hard
drive for a local hospital.
The extreme sensitivity of the data and emergency timescale meant
that I was asked to work overnight on the recovery. I identified
the need for a highly specific hard drive as a potential donor for
spare parts. That's how I found your site - you had the part,
clearly listed and sensibly priced. When I read (11pm) that you
were in the same city as me, I sensed karma in the air. What may
astonish your visitors is that in reponse to my desperate appeal,
you opened your doors for me and we dealt hard drives at 2am! I
have never experienced anything like this. Even better, when I
discovered that I had specified the wrong drive (albeit by a
seemingly trivial level of detail), you were willing to repeat the
exercise the same night! The happy ending is that after a second
all-nighter I successfully used your parts to help rescue the data
for the hospital. Unlike the majority of your customers, I was not
an SGI hobbyist, but after experiencing some of your infectious
enthusiasm and hospitality, that may change. I was hugely
impressed by the level of organisation, speed of response and
downright bloody-mindedness on behalf of myself and my client.
Please never change Ian,
best regards and here's to the next time,
Tom
==================
Tierra Data Rescue
0845 094 0027
www.tierra.co.uk
Disk sled sent to Ireland:
From: "david maguire" <maguire_david@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2008 09:55:55 +0000
Ian,
I received the package yesterday. It certainly lives up to your reputation.
Thanks,
David.
Octane2 sent to England:
[Images:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12,
13,
14,
15,
16,
17]
From: "Jacques Toerien" <jacques.toerien@btinternet.com>
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 10:51:44 +0000 (GMT)
Hiya Ian!
Well, I'm absolutely blown away mate! You have done an absolutely
fantastic job on my Octane2. I'm gonna start at the beginning and
work my way down...!
I'd like to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU and THANK YOU for all your hard
work and putting up with my nagging, changing system mid flow and
constant phone calls! :D You've always answered my e-mails within
24hrs and you're very helpful on the phone and always willing to talk
SGI. Your passion for these fantastic machines shows!
I received my Octane2 (400MHz, 1 gig RAM, V8 + Blue skins) yesterday!
The box was HUGE! I think you should go and offer your services to
the RAF and teach them how to package drop-cargos! You could drive a
tank over the box and it wouldn't dent!
The system was easy to set up...Everything was clean and dust free,
you even cleaned the keyboard and mouse!
Plug and Play! Attached the monitor, mouse and keyboard (no network
cable long enough yet...!) and powered the machine on. Bam! Login
Screen..! My account had been set up and all I had to do was log in.
This is where it goes a bit fluffy (..:D..) as I have no experience
with IRIX / UNIX / LINUX, but everything was set up on the desktop
and within 5 mins, I was changing my desktop background and watching
demos! Many thanks for the comprehensive package install! I can't
wait for Saturday when I can sit up till 3am and play!
Anyway, I've attached some unboxing photos...I hope these give you a
sense of the excitement I felt last night carfully unwrapping layer
upon layer of bubble wrap!
10/10...Once again many thanks and I'll speak you again when I need
something SGI related!!!
Cheers! :D
Jacques.
CDs and V8 sent to England:
From: "Aaron Carr" <a.caar@btinternet.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 10:43:40 +0000
Hey Ian
Everything arrived early yesterday morning and wow, you'd taken
real care over everything, nice packaging, CD's in order of
installation etc. GREAT!. I thought I'd get everything installed
and then give you an email but after an epic session yesterday I'm
yet to install everything! The V8 really made a difference and I'm
getting 1600x1200@75hz which gives me a hell of a lot more space,
the fresh installation has really cleaned up the system, the
installation that was on previously had binaries, dev files and
loads of random net mounts in the root directory (which I suspected
weren't meant to be there but wasn't gunna take the risk). Its just
made the Octane into the kind of machine I was hoping for!!
Thank you for supplying a CDROM (it was faster than I thought) and
making things so easy (nice instructions) ...
Cheers Ian - Im a very very happy customer - Spot on!!!
Aaron Carr
SGI 17" monitor send to Greece:
From: "Panagiotis Diamantopoulos" <panagiodiam@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:19:44 +0200
Hi, mr. Ian Mapleson, :)
Silicon Graphics Monitor and the cables arrived to me, last Friday!
Well, Monitor is very very good and in good condition! Bravo!
I always like me Silicon Graphics trademark.
Certainly, this Monitor that I choosed is a little old model, but
when it was in year of 1994, was an avant-garde Monitor in many great
American 3D Animation Companies (as Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar,
Warner Bros. e.t.c.)
Now, I must say that you're a very bona fide person/seller and I'll
advertise you in my familiars in Greece if they want buy SGI supplies
from you!
I prefer you in future...!!!
THANK YOU VERY, VERY MUCH!!!
