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I worked on a project in 1993 for which we bought a SparcStation 20 with 1 GB of RAM, but we used it with 2 X-Terminals to support 3 developers. At the time we thought 1 GB of RAM was crazy! I believe the machine cost us $10K. So, I can imagine 5 years later a SS 20 with 2 GB of RAM would be considered obsolete tech, but I think $1000 would not be a bad price for it. (I see Wikipedia says the SS20 maxed out at 512 MB, but I distinctly remember having 1 GB because it seemed like such an astronomical number at the time, considering my first computer had 16K.)

Yes, my old (but at the time still usable) windows box had 2 GB hard drive and 8 MB RAM in 1997.

I think you're right, 97 is too early for an affordable computer with 2GB. But it wasn't just SGI that had those capabilities, I bought a used HP Visualize J2240 (manufactured circa 1997-8) in the early 2000s (like 2003) and it came to me with 2GB of RAM, with a max of 4GB. This machine was also very expensive when new, in the same range as the $35K SGI you refer to.