Not much remains of the machine that launched my illustrious computer building career. I only kept the processors and one case fan when I scrapped the rest circa 2014. Having no income at the time, the thing was achieved on my parents’ dime, justified with “for educational purposes.”

There were two remarkable things about this computer. The first was that it was multi-processor. Yes, two single-core processors not multi-core. In 2006 this was quite something, as even consumer-grade dual-core processors were still a year or two away. And in 2021, it is unusual indeed to find a consumer machine with more than one CPU socket, since processors today have a gazillion cores. But I’ve always been fascinated by parallel computing, so I chose this area to splurge.

Financially, it was a bit unfortunate. Dual-socket meant server-grade processors (AMD Opteron), which meant special motherboard, which meant special RAM (ECC, registered). But it was worth it just for the stories.

The second thing was the fan. THE FAN. I chose the loudest, most obnoxious fan you can imagine. I have no reason for it, except that maybe it was a precursor to my “no replacement for displacement” mantra that I apply to cars today.

This thing was crazy, as any of my then housemates could attest.