>The question that has arisen is, should we get the Indigo repaired, or
>should we, instead, put the dollars that will be required for that repair
>toward the purchase of a Windows or Mac-based system and software that
>will probably do just as much as, or more than Volume Microscopy Workbench
>and be faster than the 100 mHz Indigo?

In terms of your options:

>3. Are there lower cost options for the repair of SGI computers that do
>not require having the work done by SGI?

It depends entirely on what is wrong with the SGI.  RAM, hard disks, are
easily available and reasonably simple to replace.  Power supplies or
motherboard problems may be a bit harder.  If it really is the processor
any techie should be able to fit it for you but you'd have to take the
chance of buying it 'on spec'.

But bear in mind too that on many higher-education campuses SGI offer
campus maintenance plans which are MUCH cheaper than their regular
maintenance and are surely worth the cost.


>2. On the basis of cost vs. performance, what Windows or Mac software
>would fulfill needs for 1) for volume surface rendering and rotation, and
>2) for volume rendering combined with the ability to calculate volumes and
>distances between points on a surface?

We use both Voxel View from Vital Images, on SGI platforms, and Voxblast
(Vaytek Systems) on PCs.  VoxelView is certainly more user friendly and
is easier for a beginner to get started with, but Voxblast is very powerful
and in our experience people get to love it once they know it.

Setting up a Pentium 2 with 128 megs of RAM and a 4 gigabyte hard disk,
with a 17" SONY trinitron monitor, and Voxblast, should cost much less
that the  "$10,000 - $15,000" which you quote.  But it would cost more
than the $3000 estimate to repair your SGI box.

                                                Guy Cox

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