Now on to one other thing.

Today marks a week since I build and established Königshammer von Sheba as my new computer, and two weeks since FitzSheba 64 was forcibly put into a terminal coma. Doing an entire feature about it seems kind of pointless, so I will merely say a few words here and then link to a photo gallery that has most of the goods about the new build.

Goodbye FitzSheba 64. You served with honor and distinction for many a long year. The members of your line will go down in history. We have named the very region that you served after you, so that your name will live on forever more. Your new descendant…Königshammer von Sheba…will sing your praises.

In February 2002 you began life as Sheba, and only came into your FitzSheba name in August of 2003 after an emergency “just in case” upgrade following our house in Canton being rended by lightning. After a capacitor-based motherboard failure in March of 2005 that happened while I was in Pennsylvania, you became FitzSheba 64. It was in this form that you served best and longest, but for that entire span you had the same Windows install, a large continuity of components, and the same soul.

You’ll be missed.

I present now a gallery of photos to move you on your way and celebrate your existence, as well as introduce your successor.

Sheba

• AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53 GHz)
• 512MB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX400 64MB
• February 2002 – August 2003

Sheba as she appeared in an everyday scene.

FitzSheba

• AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.17 GHz)
• 512/1024MB RAM
• ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB
• August 2003 – March 2005

FitzSheba under construction with a dearly departed helper.

Just have to put the case back on.

The happiest years of FitzSheba’s life.

She seems content.

Emergency surgery!

She could not be saved.

FitzSheba 64

• AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0 GHz)
• 1024MB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT 128MB
• March 2005 – March 2008

A new brain will help!

Strikingly similar.

Sometimes owners move and become graduate students.

Sometimes your GPU fan literally falls off and an immediate solution has to be found.

Sometimes it’s not pretty.

A late-life upgrade.

Betrayed again…fatally.

Königshammer von Sheba

• Intel Core2Duo E6750 (dual 2.66 GHz)
• 4096MB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT 512MB (“Super Clocked”)
• March 2008 – Present

Assemble the team!

Back with the Evil Empire for the first time since a Pentium II in 1998.

Those innards are about to get prettied up.

Yes, but will it blend?

It blends!

The second generation abides.

Fear not. Tonight you compute in the Elysian Fields.