Your comment reminded me of my K6 (or was it a K7) based PC I had assembled as a high schooler of modest means.

My goto testing protocol was to recompile the Linux kernel and make GNU chess play itself at the highest settings.

I was quite disheartened to find that my rig would crash out repeatedly. Not a single successful compilation of the kernel. Then on a whim I removed the case and pointed my table fan at it. Voila, everything worked.

I had planned to get some more thermal paste and redo the thermals and put the case back. But I never did.

Then one day the dialer of my landline got fried by a thunderstorm. No problem I used to dial using my modem and my skeletonic linux box.

Great setup when the money is tight. Good times.