Even a sub-$3k SGI would have been extremely difficult to pull off. PC manufacturers, even ones making higher end workstations, benefitted from Intel's economies of scale. Even if they were ordering custom motherboards they were picking a lot of components out of a catalog.
SGI machines had a lot more bespoke components. Even if they chased higher volumes they would have a far smaller scale than the PC space. Even then how would SGI chase volume even if they had a "cheap" option? They had no experience with retail sales. None of their reps would have tried to sell machines with lower price tags and sacrifice a commission.
The Indy (at $5k to start) was derided as an "Indigo without the go". I don't think SGI would have had any success building their own take on the PowerMac 4400. If an Indy couldn't make SGI customers happy there would be no way for a lower spec machine to do so.
Also, keep in mind that an Intel-based system *competitive with an SGI system* was still *much* more than $2K to $3K.
You cannot simply compare the price of a no-name corner shop parts bin PC with something designed to the same standards as an actual workstation and declare that the latter "should" cost the same as the former.
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Even a sub-$3k SGI would have been extremely difficult to pull off. PC manufacturers, even ones making higher end workstations, benefitted from Intel's economies of scale. Even if they were ordering custom motherboards they were picking a lot of components out of a catalog.
SGI machines had a lot more bespoke components. Even if they chased higher volumes they would have a far smaller scale than the PC space. Even then how would SGI chase volume even if they had a "cheap" option? They had no experience with retail sales. None of their reps would have tried to sell machines with lower price tags and sacrifice a commission.
The Indy (at $5k to start) was derided as an "Indigo without the go". I don't think SGI would have had any success building their own take on the PowerMac 4400. If an Indy couldn't make SGI customers happy there would be no way for a lower spec machine to do so.
Also, keep in mind that an Intel-based system *competitive with an SGI system* was still *much* more than $2K to $3K.
You cannot simply compare the price of a no-name corner shop parts bin PC with something designed to the same standards as an actual workstation and declare that the latter "should" cost the same as the former.