Such is the namesake for my brand new desktop computer. Well, with a few adjustments. My new desktop is undoubtedly a she, and her DNS name is simply “charlie.”

Before I jump into my usual round of essay scribbling on why this computer is so awesome and why I need it, here are the specs you’re dying to see:

• AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition – 4 cores, 3.0GHz
• Gigabyte GA-M790X-UD4P motherboard – Sockets AM2, AM2+, AM3 supported, max. RAM 16GB @ 1333MHz
• 4GB OCZ Gold PC2 6400 DDR2 SDRAM (upgrade to 8GB planned)
• XFX NVidia GeForce GTX 260, 896MB
• PC Power & Cooling Silencer S61EPS 610 power supply
• Western Digital 320GB SATA 3Gb/s hard disk – OEM
• Lian Li PC-K7B case
• DVD burner from Nighthawk

I’m really just getting my feet wet in terms of the stuff I can do with this thing. I didn’t realize for a long time how much I was missing by not having SSE2, AMD-V, and multiple cores. It’s certainly a blessing to have all this and more in such a quiet (albeit relatively large) box.

The benefits of having a computer this powerful are already becoming apparent. When it does crash and X resets (due to this bug), I’m back at my desktop in 10 seconds instead of 30. I can also use Windows 7 and Mac OS X when I have to – both as minimally as possible, Windows for reprogramming Yubikeys (more on those in a minute) and OS X for managing my iPod because iTunes on Windows sucks, and because certain Enano things tend to break under Apple’s OS.

Accompanying this transition is the decommissioning of two computers, Xombie and Capsaicin. Neither was used for very much: Xombie did a poor job at managing torrents and my webcam, and Capsaicin did a somewhat reliable job at running IRC (I’m regularly on 4 networks). Nighthawk has taken over the duties of both, and she continues to be Enano’s Mercurial master as well as the home of all my music (which I can’t stand to not have access to from multiple OSes). Basically Nighthawk is acquiring more duties as she transitions from being the constantly-experimented-with computer to more of a server. I really don’t need Xombie or Capsaicin anymore with the power Nighthawk has and the easy virtualization available to me on Charlie.

We’re looking at some eventual serious overclocking potential on Charlie. Once I’m able to afford a good cooler, I want to try and push her up to 3.7 or even 4GHz. There’ve been some suspicious results with Linpack though – it indicates possible instability under the High load test, 4 threads, and all my settings at stock. Oh yeah, and the CPU peaked at 62C. I’m debating whether it’s necessary to RMA some parts and try a different CPU of the same model, or blame it on the motherboard and RMA that. Either way I’d be without a solid computer for a week or so, which would suck.

Still I am very excited at the potential this thing has. She serves Enano pages in 0.03s and I have Compiz on CRAZY high settings with no signs of stuttering or lag whatsoever. Pretty much everything real-world that I’ve thrown at her, she’s handled with no sweat whatsoever. Hopefully I’ll be at least up with the times for a couple years, eh?

Oh yeah, the Yubikeys. (Published the post without this section, forgot I planned to add it.) Yubico sent me five Yubikey IIs as a thank-you for supporting their device in Enano. The new version, which has a little bit of a learning curve compared to the old, is very useful to me as I see this high degree of security (a 32 character password) now being available to things that don’t support Yubikey (or only support it commercially), like Windows, OS X, and a number of websites I visit. At the same time I retain the OTP functionality for things that support it, like most of my servers and Enano websites. The keys are more solid too – I could run over one of these things with a semi truck if I wanted to. They say they’re also designed to survive a dunk in the swimming pool but I don’t think I’ll try that one. Wonder if that also means they’re tamper-resistant like the IronKey, too. Either way, I’ll be looking into figuring out if there’s anything special that can be added to the Enano Yubikey plugin to make it more friendly to version 2.0 of this very economical, very innovative security device.