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The Abit BP6 taught me so much about multithreaded programming. Programs that previously worked fine crashed instantly due to incorrect locking. It really force

The Abit BP6 taught me so much about multithreaded programming. Programs that previously worked fine crashed instantly due to incorrect locking. It really forced me to think differently about concurrent programs. After that I never found multithreaded programming particularly difficult. Challenging at times yes, but thanks to my newfound mental model not difficult. I had those brass-looking cylindrical coolers[1] from Zalman, and the two of them next to each other was quite distinctive. Had the motherboard for many years as a homelab server. I bought a few more Abit boards after that, but the capacitor plague made me switch to Asus IIRC, and then they folded. But the BP6 will forever be with me as a incredibly cool motherboard that did something unique in the consumer space. [1]: https://www.cablesonline.com/soc370airrou.html https://www.cablesonline.com/soc370airrou.html (except brass finish)

deleted 10mo ago
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serf 10mo ago
lots of cool 'engineering art' around heat-sinks and exchangers, for sure. Check out some of these shapes [0] , i'd love to have one on a shelf as a talking piece. The coolermaster cpu sink i'm using now is big, but not particularly pretty. 0: https://toffeex.com/heat-exchangers https://toffeex.com/heat-exchangers , https://toffeex.com/heat-sinks https://toffeex.com/heat-sinks
userbinator 10mo ago
I had those brass-looking cylindrical coolers[1] from Zalman, and the two of them next to each other was quite distinctive. Like this? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Abit_dual_celeron_pc_motherboard.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Abit_dua...
- magicalhippo 10mo ago
  Exactly like that, yes! Ran the Celerons overclocked, as one did, and supposedly those were superior in thermals vs noise. Not that I had any reference.
  - userbinator 10mo ago
    Those are actually Thermaltake Golden Orbs, although many companies made similar designs. As impressive as they look, and as effective as they were at the time, I believe even a modern stock Intel cooler would be more effective; CPUs of the time only had TDPs around 20-30W, in comparison to the 100W+ they are now at.
    - magicalhippo 10mo ago
      > Thermaltake Golden Orbs You are 100% correct, how could I forget? :( I think I got it mixed up because I bought a Zalman GPU cooler which had similar design for my GPU some years after. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
jaredhallen 10mo ago
Nice, I worked at one of those mom and pop computer shops in the late 90's. I built the computers, and I even went with my boss (the shop owner) to those shows a couple times. From what I remember, the show scene was pretty well declining at that point, at least in our area. I still remember the TV ads, though. "SUPER VGA! CD-ROM!!"

deleted 10mo ago

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serf 10mo ago

lots of cool 'engineering art' around heat-sinks and exchangers, for sure. Check out some of these shapes [0] , i'd love to have one on a shelf as a talking piece. The coolermaster cpu sink i'm using now is big, but not particularly pretty. 0: https://toffeex.com/heat-exchangers https://toffeex.com/heat-exchangers , https://toffeex.com/heat-sinks https://toffeex.com/heat-sinks

userbinator 10mo ago

I had those brass-looking cylindrical coolers[1] from Zalman, and the two of them next to each other was quite distinctive. Like this? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Abit_dual_celeron_pc_motherboard.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Abit_dua...

magicalhippo 10mo ago
Exactly like that, yes! Ran the Celerons overclocked, as one did, and supposedly those were superior in thermals vs noise. Not that I had any reference.
- userbinator 10mo ago
  Those are actually Thermaltake Golden Orbs, although many companies made similar designs. As impressive as they look, and as effective as they were at the time, I believe even a modern stock Intel cooler would be more effective; CPUs of the time only had TDPs around 20-30W, in comparison to the 100W+ they are now at.
  - magicalhippo 10mo ago
    > Thermaltake Golden Orbs You are 100% correct, how could I forget? :( I think I got it mixed up because I bought a Zalman GPU cooler which had similar design for my GPU some years after. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

jaredhallen 10mo ago

Nice, I worked at one of those mom and pop computer shops in the late 90's. I built the computers, and I even went with my boss (the shop owner) to those shows a couple times. From what I remember, the show scene was pretty well declining at that point, at least in our area. I still remember the TV ads, though. "SUPER VGA! CD-ROM!!"