at work I need to have one or sometimes two instances of a vmware virtual Windows 7 machine running on my real Windows 7 machine. The computer I'm using is Dell Precision 490 from 2009 I believe, possibly earlier. Running Windows 7 ultimate. Problems while running VM's: The entire computer slows down when a vmware instance is running. Pages take a while to react to a scroll, applications take forever to launch, and programs hang both in the virtual machines and on the real one. So, what components should I upgrade to improve this? I guess a more pointed question would be, which components will help the most? Possible options: Getting 8gb of RAM instead of 4gb new graphics card new processors? (Is that really an option?) My intuition tells me it will be a combination of the RAM and graphics card. There is also the possibility that an '09 tower just isn't cut out for vm's and our business should purchase a new tower.