Update: I'm re-posting this as I accidentally deleted the original one.

I noticed many times that the performance of the Visual Studio 2005/2008 is very sluggish. Also, the computer meets all the requirements as per MSDN, it still opens files slow and switching between projects takes too much time, and forget about the multiple instances of Visual Studio (which is common for me).

Trying different things to speed up the performance, this is what I concluded that you should have for hardware (YMMV) if you want to use Visual Studio happily:

• CPU at least 1.5Ghz.
• RAM at least 1GB (more is ALWAYS better especially if you have slower CPU). I've 2GB in Win XP machine and it works great. On Vista, probably you'll need minimum 2GB.
• Hard drive 7200 RPM (on old laptops, 5400 RPM will do but after a while, you will complain)
• Video Card at least 32MB dedicated (I personally think this is the major for better performance of Visual Studio). Better video card is always preferable as the prices these days for video card is very competitive.
• Anti virus services/processes should have "normal" priority, instead of real-time or higher. On my personal machines, I have stopped using anti virus and I don't run as administrator, I can't be happier.
• If possible, more than one monitor (LCD).

If you are a serious a developer and the lower prices these days for hardware, you should get something like what Jeff Atwood or Scott Hanselman have mentioned on their blogs for better productivity. If you are not a hardware person (like myself), you can always look at others' configuration on newegg.

Did I miss anything? Please correct!

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