The closest I came to an SGI machine was an N64, so I would be interested in hearing the stories. What did consolidating the SGI boards get you? Didn't that cause thermal issues?
Are Presidio and "the death star" you referenced above related to RenderMan? I've done research on hardware for image processing (https://aetherling.org/), so it's interesting to hear about these systems.
OMG do you want to hear war stories about SGI?
Turning SGI machines into keg-or-atores at Lucasfilm when consolodatiting to the presidio when all these Octanes and others were at ILM in Marin?
Yeah - many a machine was turned into a bar...
Heck the team building exercises at FB were to "build a bar for your team..."