RIP Fred (2002 - 2010)

In the Summer of 2002, I was working a Spring/Summer Co-Op in which I was paid to do nothing. I, of course, didn't actually do "nothing" - and so I should say that I was paid to drink free soda and surf the internet for 8 hours per day exactly. No overtime! If I wanted to surf the web for more than 8 hours per day, I had to do it on my own time! Actually I don't know, I could probably have stayed longer, shipped a few more "units" but I'm not a human dynamo and it's the Summer and I got friends to hang out with.

My personal PC of the time (the Gateway GP6-233), an Intel Pentium II with a 233 MHz processor, was beginning to feel old and with a steady stream of money and plenty of time on my hands I got the particular type of fever for which there is one cure: a new computer.

I threw my self headlong into research, finding that Intel had recently re-asserted superiority and the new Pentium 4s were faster than the latest AMDs. The fastest type of RAM? RDRAM. The best ROM? DVD-RW - but hold on there, I don't need THAT much awesome power, the 16x/48x DVD-ROM is just fine for me (albeit with a 40x/12x/48x CDRW). The 2.6 GHz processor was just about to be released and so, in a shrewd business move, I decided to wait for that release, and buy the no-longer-cutting-edge 2.4 GHz model for cheaper.

And then it was just a waiting game.

Finally, on September 5th 2002 I purchased the Gateway 700S:

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz with 533 MHz Front-Side Bus.

RAM: 512 MB RDRAM (800 MHz)

HD: 120 GB (I'll NEVER use that much memory!)

Video Card: 128 MB NVIDIA GeForce 4 (with TV Out)

Disk Drive: 3.5" 1.44MB

Modem: 56K PCI Voice Modem (ooh, fast!)

Total Price: $1,544.00.

After years of enjoyment, all good things must come to an end. Recently the C: drive failed and became totally unusable, rendering the computer (arguably) dead. I mean, if I put another drive in, it would still be working today but I think it was time to let go. But I should say that it speaks well for the oft-dissed Gateway brand. Due to my participation in distributed computing projects, I can honestly say that I had a Gateway computer running at 100% CPU capacity for 24 hours per day, 7 days a week for 8 YEARS and the first thing to fail was the hard drive. You don't get stress tests like that every day.

The computer, Fred, made it from Sim City 3000 to Sim City 4... from Warcraft 2 to World of Warcraft...from dialup to DSL.... Windows 98 to XP... countless all-nighters for college... and probably most importantly - all the fun days of the internet(messageboards, instant messaging, file-sharing, MP3s. MIDI files, Windows "Themes", WinAmp Skins, and on and on).

[Pictured: Fred Desktop Screenshot Circa 2000-Something]