[fredsmith22482]

I have an extra CPU laying around with XP on it, and I also have a laptop with Vista, I was wondering if there was a way to "combine" the 2 to make it one big computer with more HDD space and another disk drive? Preferably that disconnects so I can still bring my laptop around too?

[JohnWill]

Not sure what you're trying to accomplish, why not just network them?

[fredsmith22482]

Well Im not sure. I just want to use both computers basically at the same time. To be able to run programs off both cpu's just from my laptop and use both disk and hard drives. Will networking them accomplish this?

[hrlow2]

If you want to use both at the same time, I have 3 going right now,using a router.
2 are using 1 keyboard,1 mouse, and 1 monitor. Working them with a KVM switch.

[DoubleHelix]

What you're talking about is clustering. Is it possible? Yes. Practical or simple? No.

Take a look at how people do it.
http://www.trygve.com/furbeowulf.html
http://clustercompute.com/

[shannon08]

Using network is the only way is to use both at the same time.

[daniel_b2380]

I was wondering if there was a way to "combine" the 2 to make it one big computer

use both at the same time

shannon,
two 'different' thoughts,
did you click on the links and read the information in helix's post?

here are a couple other links for info:

Cluster (computing)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_(computing)

the above from this search:
computer clustering
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...ulltext=Search

and this is one set up by an individual for personal usage:
http://helmer.sfe.se/

[JohnWill]

What's being posted is WAY to complicated for a normal user, and also requires specialized software to use the computing resources.

The short answer here is probably no, buy a faster computer.

[Karyyk]

It would probably be a good idea to mention which applications you want to be able to run. About the only way to easily accomplish this would be running remote desktop over a network. The problems with that will be that programs running on one Desktop on the other screen aren't going to perform all that well (so games and video apps are probably out, Office apps and utilities would be fine though) and that home versions of Windows don't really have remote desktop by default. If you just want access to the files, setting up file sharing would be easy enough as well. There are countless tutorials online (just Google "file sharing" and your operating system version and you should get a ton of these.

[Daggas]

Any chance a setup like this could be configured to work with Final Cut Pro to aid in HD video encoding?

[DoubleHelix]

Did you read any of the information at the links posted by various members? Setting up clustering is simply not practical. That would mean there's nothing for you to configure.

[JohnWill]

I give up, apparently unless you tell these guys that it'll work, they can't hear you.