Question about bays and the number of devices that can be added

[ClientAlive]

Right on, thanks. That psu calc thing tells me I need a larger power supply but I'm not sure I'm giving it totally accurate details. I'll have to run these tools I have to get the details they need and be sure.

So what it it that burns up if you over-load the psu? Just the psu itself, or can it damage components?

[dabl]

So then you have other components that eat power too? Like maybe a NIC and a sound card and a video card.

The CPU, GPU (video), memory, and drives are your main consumers of power -- you can safely disregard the other onboard components. A 300 watt PSU should handle your AMD CPU and the the other modules of similar vintage. Just don't try putting a fancy new graphics card into that rig.

If it were me, I would use the big old Gateway case, put the HP motherboard with the AMD CPU in it, and spend $50 for 3X the hard drive space that you are presently looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136358

You could use the MAXTOR IDE drive for backups, although that particular model runs hot and tends to die young.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC7fkmymX6s

You didn't say how much memory the HP motherboard has on it -- hopefully at least 2GB.

[ClientAlive]

The CPU, GPU (video), memory, and drives are your main consumers of power -- you can safely disregard the other onboard components. A 300 watt PSU should handle your AMD CPU and the the other modules of similar vintage. Just don't try putting a fancy new graphics card into that rig.

If it were me, I would use the big old Gateway case, put the HP motherboard with the AMD CPU in it, and spend $50 for 3X the hard drive space that you are presently looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136358

You could use the MAXTOR IDE drive for backups, although that particular model runs hot and tends to die young.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC7fkmymX6s

You didn't say how much memory the HP motherboard has on it -- hopefully at least 2GB.

I know drives are cheap these days but what I have is what I could beg or scrounge togethter. If it weren't for that I would have nothing at all. That 80 gig WD drive came out of an old computer (like from 1999) someone gave me because I posted on craigslist asking. It's embarrassing. I'm severely under employed and barely make ends meet so when I see people talking about $50 here and $100 there like it's just monopoly money it just kills me. This is why I spend every minute of my free time reading, practicing, learning about every computer technology thing I can get my hands on - that I think may make money. Maybe if I learn how to implement servers I can dig up some work and pull myself out of this hole. Maybe if I learn about cloud platforms and Xen servers I can pull myself out. Maybe if I . . .

I'm sorry man, you didn't know. It's just very difficult for me to deal with right now. Nothing personal, ok?

Ram? it uses old ddr 533 mhz. It has two sticks of 256mb now and there are 4 slots on the board. I think, the board will support up to 4 gig - I think (or was it 2 gig). Someone I met on one of the forums, thank God, promised to send me a little extra ram for the thing (a gig) but I'm not sure if it will be 4x256 or 2x512 if it's the latter I'll end up with 1.5 gig total if it's the former I'll end up with 1 gig total.

I think the only card it has is a sound card. Ev else is on board. Well, I guess my room mate is an IBM certified engineer or something like that (I didn't know it until today). He looked at what I'm trying to do and assures me I'm fine - that the psu will handle it. I'm gonna roll with his advice. The two calculators I've used tell me I need 350/ 400W though - but I don't think I'm giving the correct info in them (either because it doesn't have a selection for my old, old components or because I don't know). So, yeah, I think I'll be golden.

Thanks for the great knowledge you've shared. You have no idea how much I appreciate it. Next time should be a cinch now.

Jake

[dabl]

I'm sorry man, you didn't know. It's just very difficult for me to deal with right now. Nothing personal, ok?

It's OK. I've been blessed, and I don't always remember how hard others must struggle.

For learning purposes, those old IDE drives are fine, and probably you can get it performing well enough with 1GB of memory to do your experimental setups with servers and Xen. As soon as you can figure out a way to back up any important data that you put on it, you need to do that. It might run fine for a few years, but it might not, so ....

For example, Ubuntu One gives you 2GB of storage space for free.

Good luck with it!

[ClientAlive]

Good luck with it!

Thanks dabl