What do these words means for your wallet and your computer ?

These are three areas of a computer that matter for if you want a fast computer. But you may not need
a really fast computer. The faster it is the more expensive it will be.

One thing you can count on is that even the cheapest computer you can buy is probably 3 x faster than
a pretty expensive computer cost 5 years ago.

If you are just needing a computer for the basics:

Writing and Printing text documents (letters, resumes, flyers, invitations etc.)
Reading and Writing E-Mail
Browsing the World Wide Web (Internet)

RAM is one area. RAM (Random Access Memory) is your electronic working space of your computer. The more space you have the better.

Analogy or example: Say you are a wood worker and you keep your tools in the closet. When you want to work you take some of your tools out into your work room. If your work room is small then you have to go to your closet many times to put tools away to make room for other tools. But if you workroom is big enough to fit all the tools that you need for your work then you save time by not having to walk back and forth to you tool closet always putting things away. 256 MB is standard nowadays and will work fine for most computer uses. But 512 MB RAM or more is better and won't cost you very much more money. Upgrading your RAM is worth it if you can afford it.

CPU or Processor

For Windows, Most less expensive (budget) computers use either Intel's Celeron or AMD's Sempron. They are roughly equal. AMD maybe a bit cheaper and sometimes a little faster than a similar Intel processor.
For better performance choose to get a

Finally hard drive speed 7200 RPM is fast. 5400 RPM is standard.

The programs listed above will need alot of RAM. Alot means 512 MB or more. A standard computer at the time of this writing will have a least 256 MB RAM.

But if you are doing graphics and possibly some video work then go with an Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 type of processor. Or if you decide to go with a Macintosh Computer then get a G5. For more information on your HARDWARE choices click here.