Hex
Hex was an Eilson-class Battlecruiser, used by the Fodrotski brothers during the First Age.
Hex | |
|---|---|
| Former commission of Oz K. | |
| Namesake | Semi-sentient Wizard computer from Discworld. |
| Former Names | Dragoon, Nebuchadnezzar |
| Role | Battlecruiser |
| Class | Eilson |
| CPU | AMD Athlon XP 2500+, 1.8GHz |
| GPU | ATI Radeon 9600 Pro |
| RAM | 1GB DDR 400 |
| Storage | 80GB PATA HDD |
| Other Components | Thermaltake Xazer II full tower, DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo, 40x CD-ROM |
| Known Quirks | Many |
History
Constructed at the House Geek Chipyards in 1999 (under the name Dragoon), Hex sported a selection of components deemed top-of-the-line in its era.
During an upgrade cycle in 2001, Dragoon was recommissioned as Hex to reflect its evolutionary nature. During the upgrade, Oz cut his hand on the case while installing a heatsink on the new CPU. The blood spilled onto the new core, and was perceived as the source of a curse by the ancient House; Hex's essence was considered tainted, possessed of an evil desire to destroy weaker or inferior machines. This curse had uncanny tendency to leap into other systems through shared internal components.
While many computers are considered 'temperamental,' it was widely agreed throughout the House that Hex was not only wildly temperamental, but cursed. The machine was believed to attack systems that challenged its persona. The first recorded casualty came after Oz decided that he had had enough of Hex's oftentimes unpredictable temperament. After a reformat, the system was re-commissioned under the name Nebbuchadnezzar. Critical errors almost immediately began to plague the recommissioned PC, forcing a second reformat. Once renamed Hex, the problems ceased.
The last known casualty was The Cheat, Gregor Fodrotski's sleeper build. Gregor chose to use The Cheat's HDD with components from Hex for a rebuild, only for his HDD to suffer the Click of Death.
Hex was decommissioned circa 2005. The curse was believed to linger in a number of computers of the era through loaned or shared hardware, though upon constructing a PC that shared no components with Hex, Oz was freed from the curse.
Trivia
Hex was one of the first House Geek systems to be outfitted with Windows XP.
Hex once determined the e-mail address of Lin, never having met him before, with no active connection to the internet.