Got 2 free pc's - Oh what to do Oh wise ones?

Finally i enter the desktop pc world.

Never done this before.

I got two desktop pc's from job for the first time in my life. They are exactly the same. I have only used laptops. Never done moding.

So what to do?

Dream*
Basically combine both of them to make one pc which does max performance. It will be used for the family to watch movies, web tv, surf and download. and not use my laptop. Uber dream is that it is not as bloody noisy as it is.


Reality
They both have basically the same specs
one has 3.2ghz processor the other 2.8ghz
the 3.2ghz has only cd burner
the 2.8ghz has cd burner + dvd player


Ram - put the 2ghz ram from one to the other machine making it 4ghz - according to my knowledge this requires no software. automatic or not?

Hardrive - Add the the second harddrive - this requires knowledge according to the web, you can not simply put it in and voila extra space.

DVD - The main machine has only a cd burner. The other has a dvd player. Can i just plug it in or?

or make a dual processor thing?

Fan Noise - ffs sake this thing makes more noise than a vacuum cleaner.even in tranquile mode. Presently formatting one of them will tweak it and give temperatures after wards.






SPECS X2
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Operating System System Model Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600) IBM -[6230xxx]- 1.0
Enclosure Type: Mini-Tower

Processor a Main Circuit Board b 3,20 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
16 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: IBM MS-9128 2.0
Serial Number: 051RF5H
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: IBM -[T6E121A]- 09/08/2004

Drives Memory Modules c,d 190,04 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
76,48 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8483B [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

IC25N030 ATCS04-0 USB Device [Hard drive] (30,00 GB) -- drive 1
Maxtor 6Y160M0 [Hard drive] (160,04 GB) -- drive 0, s/n Y45AX1PE, rev YAR51HW0, SMART Status: Healthy 2048 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM1' has 1024 MB
Slot 'DIMM2' has 1024 MB
Slot 'DIMM3' is Empty
Slot 'DIMM4' is Empty

Local Drive Volumes
c: (NTFS on drive 0) 160,04 GB 75,95 GB free e: (NTFS on drive 1) 30,00 GB 532 MB free


Controllers

Display Standard floppy disk controller
Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]

NVIDIA Quadro FX 1100 [Display adapter]

Iiyama TXA3601GT [Monitor] (14,1"vis, februar 1998)

Bus Adapters

Multimedia Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D2
Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D4
Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D7
Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24DE
Intel(R) 82801EB USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 24DD Realtek AC'97 Audio


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I basically want to make the most out of both the machines. :)

Thank you in advance.

Z%

http://d.imagehost.org/0227/DSCF5589.jpg

http://d.imagehost.org/0890/DSCF5583.jpg

http://d.imagehost.org/0290/DSCF5585.jpg

http://d.imagehost.org/0687/DSCF5586.jpg

I'm going to assume that the specs listed were not obtained from the system pictured.

That's because I can clearly see that all 4 dimm slots are occupied, so if it has 2GB memory it must be 4 x 512MB. That means that at best you will only be able to increase the memory of one of the systems to 3GB, but since that's about the maximum that XP can recognise you won't really miss out on anything. Just take two of the memory sticks out of that system and put them into the other one.

It appears that there is some sort of SCSI disk controller and a SCSI disk, the one connected to the add-in card by the thick black cable with multiple connectors. However, this may not be active or detected if the necessary drivers haven't been loaded. It does mean that you've already got a second disk in that system, but it looks like there's room for a third if required, but since SCSI disks were expensive I suspect it will be comparatively fast but quite small in size (probably 36GB), so you may just want to ditch it.

From the specification it sounds like the other system also has a second drive, but this may be connected via some sort of internal USB adapter. Again you may just want to ditch it since a USB attached drive will be quite slow and it is only 30GB capacity.

Moving drives across from one system to another is easy. All you need to remember is that on each cable you need a master and a slave. This is determined with little plastic/metal connectors called jumpers which short a pair of pins together. You will find one or more one the back of each drive. The drives can be explicitly set to master and slave. However it is now more common to set both drives to "Cable Select" in which case the drive connected to the end of the cable is the master and the drive connected in the middle of the cable is the slave.

You should just be able to move the DVD player from one system to the other. Just check the small "jumper" tags on the back of the drive to make sure it is configured as "slave" or "cable select". - the existing cd burner must be already configured as a "master" or "cable select" since it is the only drive in that system. Judging by its position in the case I'd guess it is already set up correctly.

To move the hard drive across is just as easy. If the jumper is set to "Cable Select" then you won't need to do anything. If it is set to "Master" then you need to change it to "Cable Select" or "Slave", and you will also need to connect it with the connector in the middle of the cable. You may also need to physically move the drives about in order to be able to connect the cable correctly.

You can't make it dual processor without changing the mother board, and in any case the processors usually have to be identical, so forget that as an idea.

As for the noise, some of these systems quieten down after the system has loaded, but initially start with the fans at full speed until the temperature has been determined. If that's not the case you can probably control the fan speed with "smartfan" software.

The ram limit you speak of is in ALL 32-bit OSs, NOT just XP. 32-bit OSs can address 4GB, but only 2.75 to 3.5GB are available to the OS and the rest is used by hardware.

Well Lynx pretty much said it all. It is as easy as plugging it in and voila with bot the HD and the DVD Rom. Also as he said you may have to set the jumper, in case you're not sure what that is it's a small plastic covered metal "bridge" between two pins on the back of your HD that look like this
http://img.tomshardware.com/de/2005/..._jumper_ma.jpg

Now the Master, Slave and Cable Select pins differ from drive to drive usually it's printed on the drive label somewhere, or even next to the pins.

Now to quiet the PC the best idea is to spend a few measly dollars and get some new quiet fans. considering that you got the computer for free you should order a few of them The big one in the first pic looks like a 120mm and the smaller ones are 80mm they are pretty cheap on Newegg $5 or so a bit more for the fancy ones ;)

NYPD BITCHES!!!!

Lynx, you're a great asset to this forum:)

Yes, he is.

So are you guys

1000000 thanks for your advice.
presently under major obligations in the family, birthday celebrations and stuff + openings in career world. must fulfill.

Can not do anything on the machines right now, but will get back to it asap.

please stand by.

sorry



.

Ok i do this slowly. Cause this stuff seems way over my head.

Lynx your right
the specs i gave are of the one machine i was formatting.
The one pictured is in fact
2.8ghz
1ghz ram (split in four)
2 x hard drives of 40gb & 40 gb :cry:
(i thought they where copies of each other :pinch:)

STEP 1
Have added the ram of 512mb with no problems. :01:
(first mod)


STEP 2
to add the dvd. Will do it tomorrow.

When its all done, maybe purchasing a moderatly priced video card would be in order. Spending between 100-150$ would really boost the systems overall performance.