My Elsa Gladiac Geforce 2 GTS card died today.
I remember when I first brought this card home. It was late 2000(almost sure). I was scouring around looking to burn some money I had gotten from working from an early dotcom I worked at. I poked around the meager little hard drives...picked up a few boxes here and there for whatever games have you. Went store to store cuz I had nothing better to do...filled with hope and excitement. Then, because I like cool things, I picked up a box for unreal (with the skeleton done up in that 3d background doodad) and it was like god himself decided to smack me upside the head and show me the way. Sitting there, behind the box was this quaint little box bearing a clearance sticker that virtually screamed at me to pick it up. Well, it was obvious someone had hidden this thing away or whatnot and I knew I had to have it. 15 minutes later I was walking home, this gem tucked under my arm and my wallet 200 bux lighter. An thus began the love affair.
-Together we blasted alien scum in freespace 2.
-Became godlike(in my mind at least) in starcraft
-Roamed for hours around Black Mesa.
-Discovered Counter-Strike.
-Neffed me from lowly newb to Platinum member.
-Helped me code my first strings of perl, PHP, and XML.
-Typed papers
We've had our moments too...
-She saw me through my first girlfriend...and second...and the ones afterwards.
-Survived transplantation into 4 different rigs and outlived everything except for this one tom jones mp3 I have that I've copied over.
-Countless drunken nights.
-Once, I thought I lost her when she wouldn't post. I bought an exact duplicate of her from a friend in a panic only to find that I had simply neglected to nestle her into the agp slot more securely.
-I'll never forget how it felt to overclock her to 212 core 350 memory stable the first time.
I admit, I was never the most faithful companion....I cheated more than once with this 8500...but that ended shortly after a fatal water-related incident. She took me back with open arms and cradled me in the gentle busom of Call of Duty and Freelancer. She never once brought the subject up again and it seemed she tried even harder. I remember the day I paired her up with a voodoo 5 pci for some dual monitor/GLIDE action...she readily agreed. Now that she's gone...my voodoo just hasn't been the same I think he misses her.
But I knew the end was near. Her fan sounded funny and she didn't have the pep and vigor she once did. I knew she was overheating a tad and underclocked below her defaults just a tiny bit. In the end, she went out with a bang. I'll never forget the look on that bastard's face. My m4 was empty and I could feel a hole being burned into my skull by his sights....awping bastards and their cheesy sunglasses. Out came my usp and this horrible clicking sound was coming from my computer. BANG BANG BANG BANG BOOM BANG! The final image she rendered...me just b4 killing that fool...I could hear and see "Counter-Terrorists Win" .... she had gotten me to the second of victory before the heat got her.
I miss her. In her honor, once the 9600pro comes in....I'm gonna dig up freespace 2 and frag me some spider alien capital ship goodness.
PS - Actually, it's more likely the bomb was defused just before my card died since I shouldn't have heard the Counter-Terrorist win thing or saw the message. And actually, the T sprite didn't really look like the death animation, but I did see a hit...so I'm gonna stick to my story.
I remember when I first brought this card home. It was late 2000(almost sure). I was scouring around looking to burn some money I had gotten from working from an early dotcom I worked at. I poked around the meager little hard drives...picked up a few boxes here and there for whatever games have you. Went store to store cuz I had nothing better to do...filled with hope and excitement. Then, because I like cool things, I picked up a box for unreal (with the skeleton done up in that 3d background doodad) and it was like god himself decided to smack me upside the head and show me the way. Sitting there, behind the box was this quaint little box bearing a clearance sticker that virtually screamed at me to pick it up. Well, it was obvious someone had hidden this thing away or whatnot and I knew I had to have it. 15 minutes later I was walking home, this gem tucked under my arm and my wallet 200 bux lighter. An thus began the love affair.
-Together we blasted alien scum in freespace 2.
-Became godlike(in my mind at least) in starcraft
-Roamed for hours around Black Mesa.
-Discovered Counter-Strike.
-Neffed me from lowly newb to Platinum member.
-Helped me code my first strings of perl, PHP, and XML.
-Typed papers
We've had our moments too...
-She saw me through my first girlfriend...and second...and the ones afterwards.
-Survived transplantation into 4 different rigs and outlived everything except for this one tom jones mp3 I have that I've copied over.
-Countless drunken nights.
-Once, I thought I lost her when she wouldn't post. I bought an exact duplicate of her from a friend in a panic only to find that I had simply neglected to nestle her into the agp slot more securely.
-I'll never forget how it felt to overclock her to 212 core 350 memory stable the first time.
I admit, I was never the most faithful companion....I cheated more than once with this 8500...but that ended shortly after a fatal water-related incident. She took me back with open arms and cradled me in the gentle busom of Call of Duty and Freelancer. She never once brought the subject up again and it seemed she tried even harder. I remember the day I paired her up with a voodoo 5 pci for some dual monitor/GLIDE action...she readily agreed. Now that she's gone...my voodoo just hasn't been the same I think he misses her.
But I knew the end was near. Her fan sounded funny and she didn't have the pep and vigor she once did. I knew she was overheating a tad and underclocked below her defaults just a tiny bit. In the end, she went out with a bang. I'll never forget the look on that bastard's face. My m4 was empty and I could feel a hole being burned into my skull by his sights....awping bastards and their cheesy sunglasses. Out came my usp and this horrible clicking sound was coming from my computer. BANG BANG BANG BANG BOOM BANG! The final image she rendered...me just b4 killing that fool...I could hear and see "Counter-Terrorists Win" .... she had gotten me to the second of victory before the heat got her.
I miss her. In her honor, once the 9600pro comes in....I'm gonna dig up freespace 2 and frag me some spider alien capital ship goodness.
PS - Actually, it's more likely the bomb was defused just before my card died since I shouldn't have heard the Counter-Terrorist win thing or saw the message. And actually, the T sprite didn't really look like the death animation, but I did see a hit...so I'm gonna stick to my story.
