The Pentium MMX was neat looking

I've been cleaning up and disposing of ancient hardware that I know I'll never use again. This chip was among the stuff I kept.

It's funny how Intel put effort into making something you almost never see look cool. The neat polished metal printing and the pins going all the way through the package to create a spiffy pattern.

This particular chip is dead; I used it for a few months in a 430VX motherboard that drove the processor at 3.3V. Intel pulled a fast one on us, though; they made the Pentium MMX to use a lower supply rail voltage (2.8V) and though the chip worked just fine at 3.3V, it must have run quite hot and eventually died due to thermal failure.

Thankfully it was cheap ($5, already obsolete at the time), but I guess I hung onto it then because it looked cool.

I had completely forgotten I had it.