Geek Memorabilia #2

Today's geek memorabilia is my first 1GHz Processor. It's an AMD Athlon, what at one time was considered a classic slot A.

I really liked this processor. It was good to me and is now very hard to find, but there is a sad story to this particular processor. In my early days of geekdom, I experimented with dual power supplies. The main ATX power supply for this particular computer was plugged into a UPS. The secondary AT power supply that powered all the extra fans, including the one on the processor, was not plugged into the UPS. One day, like many days, I went to work, and when I came home I opened the door to my small apartment and knew, as soon as the electrical burn smell slapped me in the face, that something had gone horribly wrong with my beloved 1GHz processor and the dual power supply experiment. To this day I kick myself for over looking something so trivial, but I learned two lessons.

1. Don't use the cool computer hardware for crazy new geek experiments.

2. Pay attention to what goes where and why. Basically, attention to detail is key...Especially when working on crazy new geek experiments.

I'm still going to keep this piece of geek memorabilia. For some reason I've got this idea I'm going to encase my 1GHz processor in plastic and display it in my home made geek museum. More likely than not this, one time bad boy, will sit in a box until I decide to reminisce again.