I wouldn't worry so much about processor as I would memory for running VMs.
 
Anyway, you can use a netbook, laptop, desktop, etc. to run your VMs. If you're worried about jumping to the host OS, just make sure wireless is disabled and there's no physical connection otherwise, and you're good.

What I've heard more than VM escapes with malware is behavior modification based on whether or not the infected machine is running in a virtualized environment.

Good luck!

thanks SephStorm  and  ziggy_567 .. i will dig up about this and see what is the best way to go

thanks a lot

I'd look into using deepfreeze along with the sandboxie/bsa combo.

You could also take a look at the Table of Contents for the book "Malware Analyst's Cookbook"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470613033

It's got most of the open source and free tools listed.

Don't have that one...  New item for wife's Father's Day list...

I know a guy called Thomas Roth used the Amazon Cloud to crack wpa-psk network initially in under 20 mins but he refined that down to about 6 mins.

Amazon got the hump with him a little and were quoted at the time as saying

using the cloud service to create a tool to show how security can be increased is okay. But don’t use it to actually crack passwords:

Would probably want to speak with them first before hiring their hardware

I am in a similar boat.  I will actually be starting a new job and one of the projects will be to setup a malware analysis lab.  My plan will be to use a separate ESX host, fully segmented/isolated from the production network.  Build the victim systems and snapshot the whole lot. 

Thanks for the book recommendation, going check out the kindle sample and most likely purchase it depending on the content.  Sometimes technical books don't translate well to kindle.  But you can at least download the DVD contents using an SVN client and grabbing the google code repository. 

I also used the following site to gather certain tools for this job: http://zeltser.com/malware-analysis-toolkit/ there are some additional links to certain specifics.  For my home lab I will probably be converting my present Desktop to an ESX host once I get my new system.  Install a 2nd NIC for management of ESX and utilize the other for the VM network or just setup my laptop to manage it therefore still keeping it fully isolated from the home systems.