Eegad! ! Help with my first project please!

[swaffar]

 

ok guys, so i'm working on my very first project (sweet), but i've run into a potential major problem as well as a minor one...

first and foremost, what can you guys tell me about the effect of a magnet on ram / cpu?  i know it can't be good, but here's the deal.  i'm not making a cab, but a control panel that houses an entire computer.  everything is mounted, so no case inside.  i've spent hours getting everything to fit in here without the controls getting in the way, but now i've ended up with a UltraStik 360 over my cpu fan and near the ram.  i guess i wasn't thinking about the U360 being a magnetically operated joystick! eek.  so... it's about 2 cm above the fan, placing the actual magnet about 10 cm from my CPU.  it is also near-ish the RAM.  now, the magnet is not very strong, and there is the circuit board on the stick itself between said magnet and my hardware, but i'm not sure how sensitive they are to magnetism.  any ideas???  if nothing else i'm going to get wore sheet-metal cutters and fashion a housing for both my U360's.  there should be enough of the plastic body to drill 4 holes into to affix something.  hopefully if i resort to this, it won't cause another issue by interfering with the joystick's pickup by bouncing magnetic fields around.
 
also, on a less serious note, i picked up some automotive 12v LED lights cause i wanna light up my U-trak trackball on the cheap.  i've tapped it off of my power supply 12v and i'm thinking of using the mobo HDD activity ground.  this should make my trackball flash with HDD action, but my quest is this.  do i need to wire in a resistor due to the low consumption of the LED or am i cool to just run it straight off my molex?

i'm also assuming my LED will flash with the HDD ground, but i think i'm right.  i guessing the mobo would more likely send the ground to complete the circuit as opposed to the 5V right?

anyway, thanks for any and all input you guys can give me on the matter.

[daywane]

I think you should be fine on the magnet.
the CPU and Mem. cards are not storage devices. Plus the magnet is not that strong.

wait for more informed people to respond  before you take me up on it 100%. but I really think you fine