Bev:

I was hoping you'd reply--thanks--I had seen your other recent IIABDFI reply, but was unsure only after reading info @ the Intel site that referred to very large music and/or image files [both of which I use everyday]. I have all music on one of my storage drives and have not noted any issues in terms of access speed, say when I burn on C: using files on G:.

I take it you saw little difference...

dg

Thanks!

I'm looking at page 6 of the service manual, "Inside Your Computer." My two DVDs are on top, then the floppy below them. My native HD was where it's shown in the diagram, with a space above and below--I believe those are the spots where I put my Seagate and my Maxtor, respectively. I remember the Maxtor was sort of an afterthought--I didn't think I had room @ all and definitely had to use the extra green strips attached to the inside of the case in order to attach it @ all. I was actually surprised that the IDE cable reached both drives and my PCI card, without coming too close to anything else that generates heat. The IDE also easily cleared the video card, which luckily in this case has a low profile [it doesn't have a huge fan that prevents use of the adjacent PCI slot].

Hope that helps.

BTW: Does the 'clamshell' case on your 8400 open 90 degrees [as shown in the book]? Mine definitely does not [more like 45-50 degrees] and looks like that's the way it's designed: those curved hinges that the screw slides through, which is mounted in the corners [to the left of the arrow in the diagram] are not long enough to permit opening the case fully. I thought that was a pretty bad design flaw--it made installing the add'l HW very tricky.