Connect several computers to work as one

[hank-1]

I would like to connect two or more PCs to work in unison, I would appreciate any suggestions and advice on the best way to do that. I recently bought 2 inexpensive identical refurbs, HP6300 Pro mini towers, w/ i5-3470, 16 gb memory , 1TB HDD, Both run win-10 pro.
I'd like to link them together and use them as one workstation, or as a backup and/or file server on my home network. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[USAFRet]

Sharing/linking drive space, yes, mostly.
Sharing actual CPU/AM?GPU resources? No.

 

[hank-1]

Sharing/linking drive space, yes, mostly.
Sharing actual CPU/AM?GPU resources? No.

So that would be by just setting the "Share" option in windows right?

 

[hank-1]

So that would be by just setting the "Share" option in windows right?

I was hoping to share processing power as well.

 

[USAFRet]

So that would be by just setting the "Share" option in windows right?

Yeah, pretty much.
Permissions as well, but File and Folder sharing is where you want to start.

 

[hank-1]

Yeah, pretty much.
Permissions as well, but File and Folder sharing is where you want to start.

Thanks, it's a place to start, and since I'm in corona isolation I have lots of time ponder and research some more. Stay well !!

 

[Alabalcho]

I was hoping to share processing power as well.

It is doable (and done) but not for what you want it. So called "Distributed computing" - take a task which can be split in pieces, and each piece sent to different computing unit.

 

[hank-1]

It is doable (and done) but not for what you want it. So called "Distributed computing" - take a task which can be split in pieces, and each piece sent to different computing unit.

Thanks Al, that's what I thought, I used to support IBM 8100 and DPPX , and 4300 back in the 1980s and '90s (before I retired). I wasn't shooting for quite that lofty goal, I was just wondering if normal tasks could be shared between PC's, like they get split between the cores of a single CPU. I do thank you for suggestion to just use sharing and permissions to share files and devices though, it's an easy start that I hadn't thought of.

 

[MeeLee]

been doing projects like these for months.
And no, you can't combine 2 PCs to share resources.
You can however, use a decentralized (cloud) program, that will distribute work to both PCs.
Or, take the hardware (RAM, GPU) out of one, and install it in the one that can hold the most hardware.