Dear CNET members,

Happy Friday! Just a friendly reminder to new subscribers to this newsletter: We have an archive of our past Community newsletters, which cover many technical and hot topics. So check it out, because I see a lot of questions e-mailed to me that have been covered before. Also, if you are in dire need of help with technical issues, you can always find help in the CNET forums, where many knowledgeable CNET members and moderators are always willing to give you great advice. So give the forums a try and post your questions there. Now let's get started addressing Dan's questions on finding compatible memory and a new hard drive for an older PC.

Dan, welcome back from your technical hiatus on PC tech. I know exactly how you feel; when you've taken a little break from keeping up with the Joneses it can be quite overwhelming. The good thing though is that the questions you've asked about RAM and hard drives of today versus older PCs haven't really changed that much. And the best part is that you don't have to figure out all this on your own, because your fellow community members are here to get you through it.

In this week's answers, you'll find a great deal of knowledge shared by our members. They have technical definitions for you, recommendations on different approaches in determining what type of RAM your older machine accepts (by using either a diagnostic utility or even Web sites to scan your computer), and when it comes down to upgrading your hard drive, heck, they give you the whole run down. Some members even suggest that it may simply be the time to move on to a newer computer, depending on the cost to upgrade those items. I think once you've read through the answers, you'll be back on track of knowing what's new from the old. In the Q&A section, I've started you all out with a few selected member answers, but please read all the answers. I've learned quite a bit myself, there's a lot of great advice. Good luck Dan! Have an awesome weekend everyone!


Cheers!
- Lee

Got suggestions? Send me an e-mail: messageboards@cnet.com

Featured member solutions
for last week's question:

 "Making your upgrade easier... "
-- Submitted by: Wolfie2k5

 "Upgrading your computer "
-- Submitted by: waytron

 "Components for an older PC "
-- Submitted by: Watzman

 "Not terribly hard, but unclear whether you should upgrade. "
-- Submitted by: BigGuns149

 "Older PC memory and hard drive upgrades "
-- Submitted by: DrMicro

 Read all member contributions

 Thanks to all who contributed!