(need a quick answer) usb 2.0/old modem

i got a computer i bought a couple years ago, spec-wise it shouldve been a decent gaming computer but its a hunk of crap, but it was better than my previous 200 mhz pc that i had to share with my younger brother,

it only has a 30 gb hard disk, and ive been wanting to expand on it for awhile now, i do have a spare 120 gb HDD but i currently have it installed in my ps2 via HDloader but id rather not resort to that unless i had to,

ive been eyeballing one of those large capacity usb external hard drives, so it would be easy to transfer to a new computer if i ever get one but they all require usb 2.0 and i dont have 2.0, so i would have to get one of those usb2.0 pci cards,

now heres the dillemma, i dont know if its normal or not, but out of the 4 pci slots i have the 2 in use dont really provide alot of room for anything else, there MIGHT be enough room to use the other 2 but it appears to be a pretty tight fit, it almost looks like if i was to plug in inything else that it would touch the video card, if not just be really really close to it

is that normal?


anywho, the original thing, i was going to remove my old pci 56k modem from the pc, to make "safe" room for the new usb ports, (if its safe to do so), i doubt its as simple as turning it off and taking it out, theres bound to be some conflicts if i remove it without uninstalling it right?

or does it really matter how close the usb 2.0 card is to my videocard, ?

i think removing the 56k modem should be quite safe as long as your not using it hehe

if there are 4 pci slots, and you want to know if they would touch, do a simple test by opening up the computer (turned off) and move 1 of the already in use cards, into an adjacent slot. just to see. i doubt you will have problems though, most stuff on pci cards rarely comes further out than the panel plate...