Editor's take: MSI is giving away a free 500 GB hard drive with the purchase of a new barebones PC kit. The marketing ploy may seem attractive at first glance, but don't be fooled. The freebie isn't ...

Reader Fred wants to know if a laptop hard drive can be plugged into a desktop PC. “The pin out appears to be the same,” he notes, “but there is no separate power-supply connector.” Short answer: yes.

Solid-state drives are universally faster than old-school hard-disk drives, but not all SSDs are the same. They come in different shapes and sizes, have different maximum speeds, and as you might ...