Using spare computer parts!!

WillowMuse

Hi,

We currently have three desktop computers, would it be possible to take the memory card and hard drives from the two spare ones and fix them into the one main one???
If this is possible, how would we do this?
Thanks in advance for any help:)

Shelly

Browntoa

you need to see if its the same type of memory,hard drives might do again you need to see if they are Sata (small red ribbon cable) or IDE ( big ribbon cable) and if the machine you are putting them in have the right connections. I would format the old Hard drive before putting them in the new Pc (will probably only be able to fit 1 extra drive). If its an IDE drive you need to look on the back for a small row of connectors , it will be set to Master and you need to change it to slave

kwikbreaks

Computers are pretty much like Lego sets where the bricks get redesigned every couple of years. Memory standards seem to change every couple of years and the most common HDD interface changed not long back from PATA to SATA.

The connectors are different so you can't really go wrong with HDD because you won't be able to fit one incorrectly (apart from master/slave issues as mentioned above) and some main boards do support both types.

Similarly for memory although you must take care not to force anything as the connectors are a lot more similar to each other than the different HDD ones. Not all combinations will work plus all the memory runs at the speed of the slowest stick so you could possibly make the machine slower.

If you have a couple of old PCs and are thinking of upgrading a newer one using the old parts there is every chance that they simply won't fit unfortunately.

WillowMuse

Browntoa - Thanks for replying, all are IDE connections:)

Kwikbreaks - Thanks also for your reply, all three are approx the same age, all run on the same operating system ( if that makes a diffrence)

Not a complete novice on the operating of a computer but am when it comes to the mechanics Just don't want to muck it up:)

fwor

I've done this a few times in the past, and the gains that you tend to get are surprisingly small. Quite often you will find that your chosen recipient - the one with the best overall spec of the 3 - will only have 2 memory slots and both are already in use.

With hard disks you typically find that they will all have old, slow, drives, so you may gain disk space, but performance will be no better (or possibly slightly better if you put the OS on one drive and everything else on the other 2).

In my experience, the best gains for ageing PCs are to be made by finding which of the 3 will take the highest spec CPU and memory, and then buying secondhand parts from Ebay to upgrade it - though anything over say 4 years old probably isn't worth the effort for what you end up with.

googler

Further to the previous post which suggested you'll only be able to add one additional drive to your chosen desktop - if it has a spare PCI slot, you can get a PCI-IDE interface card - typically this provides two extra IDE channels, each of which can take two IDE drives (one Master, one Slave). Maplin sell them, but they're by no means the only retailer who does.

You'll probably have 2 IDE connectors on the motherboard in your chosen desktop, and typically one of these is connected to your optical drive(s) - CD, DVD, whatever - and the other to your hard drive(s). Again, typically, if you have a single HD that'll be the master, and you can add one slave drive to that IDE channel.

As previous poster said, there may be little gain in speed etc, but for me, the benefit was to have all the drives (five in my case) accessible directly from one desktop, and not spread over a network.

WillowMuse

Thanks everyone for your help, you have given me a lot to think about

We did wonder if this would be worth doing as the three we have all work well, its just the space and speed to be honest.
We may have to consider buying a new one and selling these to help pay for it