When buying a laptop, how much 4GB and 320GB does one need? Or 6/320? or 8/500?

There really is no correct ratio (defined as: RAM/hard drive capacity).

You really only need 1.5GB of RAM; the hard drive capacity is completely up to you.

The capacity of a hard drive plays very little role in the performance of a computer... it's merely preference. The capacity (size) doesn't play any role beyond being able to store more data.

What does play a role is the speed, defined in Rotations Per Minute (RPM), and the cache, defined in MegaBytes (MB). Also the interface will play a role. SATA is faster than IDE. If you can get a hold of a SSD (Solid State Drive) you will see faster speeds than the traditional HDD (Hard Drive Disk).

For what you want to use the laptop for... 6GB and 8GB is severe overkill.

You will benefit from going from 1GB to 4GB of RAM (speed-wise)... but you will not benefit (speed-wise) from going from 4GB to 6GB of RAM or even 4GB to 8GB of RAM. Going from 4GB to xGB ("x" of course is a variable) will only supply your computer with more memory (to be used to run programs/processes), not more speed.

I would go with a minimum of 2GB of RAM and any size hard drive you want.

Also FYI... All laptops have the ability to connect to the internet via a wireless card.

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The more ram memory the better, the largest hard drive will let you save more pictures etc. and install more programs with out running out of storage. The 8 GB of ram and %00 GB hard drive. Take a look at these gaming lap tops, compare: http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/laptops.to?cat...

4 and 320 is a lot, probably more than you will ever need.