Is your computer's hard drive filled to the limit with genealogy software, games, e-mail messages and scanned pictures? Are you tired of agonizingly slow Internet access? Is that dot-matrix printer of yours out of place in a photo-quality world? Maybe it's time to upgrade your old computer or even replace it with a whole new system. Or perhaps you're a holdout finally ready to get your first computer and join the plugged-in genealogy world.

Whether you're upgrading an old computer or buying a new one, you need to make a few decisions. And your needs as a family history researcher may be different from those of the ordinary customer at your computer superstore. Here are a few key questions — and advice to help you answer them from the genealogist's perspective.