Memory and other hardware questions.

I have an old HP with only a CD reader. It has a Zip drive and only 2 usb (not high speed hub) ports in the back.

I was going to add some memory to it and was wondering if I can install a high speed usb hub and add a cd writer without any problems.
Is this recommended?

Should add the CDW or replace the old CD reader?

I do not play games, but was thinking of upgrading to a 128 MB SDRAM.
Should I add to the 96MB existing ram or just replace the old one?

Thanks for any and all help!

 

1) Depending on the age of the machine, you might need to replace the memory, as older motherboads only accept "matched" memory - however, I doubt your computer is old enough, i'm inclined to think you'll be alright just adding to it.
2) If i remember correctly, internal zip drives use a standard ATA connection. Unless you need it badly, i would just replace the zip drive with a CD-Rw, and leave the CDRom in place - the advantage is the ability to copy CDs directly. However, I would make the CDRw master, and the CDRom slave, as otherwise, the CDRom will act as a bottleneck.
3) You can add a standard PCI USB2 hub to your computer, and this would be better than using an external hub plugged into your existing USB port, as again, the USB1 would act as a bottleneck.

Just my opinion, for what little it's worth