How much memory do you think VMWare would need?  I have been
thinking of getting at least 256MB.  Would there be any reason
not to get a new machine with 512MB?

(There was a problem with older kernels and 1GB memory, I seem to
recall.)

I have always intended to get a system with lots of memory and a
cheaper, slower processor, because the processor is not usually
the performance bottleneck.

dsc