Need help in hard drive space and memory info...

[captain3911]

I am wanting to buy a new computer, is a computer faster with more RAM memory, or bigger hard drive? I see them with a 512 memory with 100GB, and a 1024 memory with 100GB as well, which is faster? With the same size hard drive, does the bigger memory make it faster? Also, will I need a 1024 for Windows Vista Home Basic, or will a 512 suffice?

[soybean]

Microsoft recommends 1024MB of memory for Windows Vista.  Assuming the hard drives run at the same rotational speed and are the same type drive (IDE vs. SATA), the drive size is not going to make a difference. 

[phoenix910]

RAM generally doesn't speed the machine up too much, though it does help a bit. CPU is the main thing you will want to look at. A mixture of Clock Speed, Dual Core or Hyper Threading, L2 Cache, FSB, etc. will make the machine faster.

And I would advise going with microsofts advice and choosing the 1024mb at least for vista. It's very memory hungry. I tried it on a 512mb machine (this is Vista Ultimate) and it took 100% of the RAM. Although Home Basic will require less, if you plan on running many apps or large apps, I would definitely go with the 1024mb. You won't regret that.