[Cialug] Specs for a VM machine?

[Todd Walton]

Liftoff!  I successfully booted an existing Windows installation from
within Linux, using VirtualBox.  Well, I didn't get all the way to the
desktop because it was *slow*.  But regardless, I'm as pleased as a
pig in... underwear.

So, I'm thinking about building a new computer in a month or two.
Right now I'm running an Athlon 1GHz with 1GB of RAM.  I'd like
something with about 2 or 3 times the amount of RAM, and a faster
processor.

Question: In what way does the processor matter to running virtual
machines?  I'll get a multi-core with virtualization support, that's a
given.  But should I go for quad core and as fast as I can afford it?
Or could I save a few bucks on the processor to spend on, say, a
better video card?

-todd