mcl hardware configuration query

[janson@netmbx.netmbx.de (James Anderson)]

i'm moving a large graphics/simulation system back to MCL from  
a UNIX lisp environment. i was thinking -- quadra 650 with as much
memory as i can afford, but there's always more than meets the eye...
would an experienced MCL'er be kind enough to offer advice about
effective system configurations? i tried the short faq on
cambridge.apple.com, but it wasn't very specific. for example:

 can anyone offer rules of thumb for relative address space sizes
  decstation/lucidcl v/s mcl?
 is system 7's virtual memory effective enough to use it?
 what ratio physical-memory to swap space does one go by?
 is any one disk better than another - or just as fast as i can get? 

 anything else i should keep in mind?

thanks,
james.