Heres a puzzle for you chaps to help me sort out 
I have 4 spare pcs sat here and I'm trying to whittle them in to a single quiet NAS type machine. Allow me to lay them out:
ps I have no money for more parts
PC1 - Full tower, amd 3000, 512mb ddr ram (I think), no hd. noisy psu, noisy cpu cooler, ATX motherboard,
PC2 - Mini-itx case, mini-itx motherboard. onboard via 2ghz cpu, Unknown motherboard error causing graphical corruption. 1gb ddr2 ram. Silent passive cooled psu, 80gb sata hd
PC3 - Mini-itx case, mini-itx motherboard. Onboard via 800mhz cpu, 1gb sdram, silent passive cooled psu, no hd
PC4 - Mini-ATX motherboard and case. 256 sdram, 1.4 ghz cpu (I think), cdrom drive (teehee), 160gb ide hd, noisy cpu cooler, noisy psu.
Ok so a quick rundown. PC4 works 100% atm. PC2 needs a hd. PC1 needs a psu and hd I think.
My first thought was to go for PC4 which is already running, and add in the sata hd, binning the cdrom. The problem is it seams to be a custom machine and since removing one of the pci cards in favour of a sata card it refuses to work. Plus I cant get in to bios cause of its custom boot up so no way to install a new OS :/
This leaves me with PC1 being too big, and the motherboard cant fit in any other cases. So now I'm trying to think of the best way to juggle all the parts to give the best of both worlds.
My main thought now is the 800mhz machine. Its small and runs fine. But it doesnt have onboard sata. I have a sata laptop hd which fits the case but not the mobo, or a 3.5" ide which fits the mobo but not the case :/
I'd consider using the bulkier pc4 case and putting the parts in it, but the psu is noisier then I'd like for this job, and the mini-itx psus have special mountings making them incompatable with that case!
Help please Any ideas welcome lol.
I have 4 spare pcs sat here and I'm trying to whittle them in to a single quiet NAS type machine. Allow me to lay them out:ps I have no money for more parts
PC1 - Full tower, amd 3000, 512mb ddr ram (I think), no hd. noisy psu, noisy cpu cooler, ATX motherboard,
PC2 - Mini-itx case, mini-itx motherboard. onboard via 2ghz cpu, Unknown motherboard error causing graphical corruption. 1gb ddr2 ram. Silent passive cooled psu, 80gb sata hd
PC3 - Mini-itx case, mini-itx motherboard. Onboard via 800mhz cpu, 1gb sdram, silent passive cooled psu, no hd
PC4 - Mini-ATX motherboard and case. 256 sdram, 1.4 ghz cpu (I think), cdrom drive (teehee), 160gb ide hd, noisy cpu cooler, noisy psu.
Ok so a quick rundown. PC4 works 100% atm. PC2 needs a hd. PC1 needs a psu and hd I think.
My first thought was to go for PC4 which is already running, and add in the sata hd, binning the cdrom. The problem is it seams to be a custom machine and since removing one of the pci cards in favour of a sata card it refuses to work. Plus I cant get in to bios cause of its custom boot up so no way to install a new OS :/
This leaves me with PC1 being too big, and the motherboard cant fit in any other cases. So now I'm trying to think of the best way to juggle all the parts to give the best of both worlds.
My main thought now is the 800mhz machine. Its small and runs fine. But it doesnt have onboard sata. I have a sata laptop hd which fits the case but not the mobo, or a 3.5" ide which fits the mobo but not the case :/
I'd consider using the bulkier pc4 case and putting the parts in it, but the psu is noisier then I'd like for this job, and the mini-itx psus have special mountings making them incompatable with that case!
Help please
Any ideas welcome lol.