Where to focus $$$$

[Robert May]

A friend is going to be working with what he identifies as medium sized MySQL databases under Windows from which he will extract records and use the values from those records to produce graphical charts. For this task he will be buying a new PC and is asking where he should focus his money.

This friend has concluded that he has limited funds and must order intelligently as opposed to blindly.
Toward this end he has some questions:

(1) He is already planning on getting 1 gigabyte of RAM memory. Would MySQL respond more quickly if he added more RAM memory, or would that prove to be a waste of funds.

(2) Or, should he focus his money on the fastest processor and have a smaller amount of memory?

I realize these are somewhat ill defined questions, but are there any rules of thumb that would provide him with some bassis for equipment selection when it comes to MySQL? Even personal opinions would be welcomed.

Thank you very much for the answers you provide.