'How much RAM can be accepted by a 32-bit processor' is a tricky question. Actually the RAM size is determined by the Address Bus size of the processor. Modern 32 bit processors like P4 and Athlon have 36 bit address bus, meaning thereby, they can support memory upto 64GB. However, older 32 bit CPUs like Pentium-MMX etc., had only 32 bit address bus, and can support memory upto 4GB. Itanium, however has 44 bit address bus, and can support upto 16TB.
This is however, is the maximum memory that can be addressed by the processor, and includes virtual memory. The physical ram that is installable in memory modules is restricted by the motherboard and not by the processor. You can find the largest RAM size supported by your motherboard if you read ur manual, which is not above 4GB, I suppose (or, even 2 GB).
And maximum HDD size is also a difficult concept, covering capacity limitation, bios limitation and also OS limitation. And limitations also differ in case of ATA and SCSI. If u have ATA-6 compliant controller, u can have a maximum of 144 Petabytes (2^48 sectors), and in case of modern SCSI controllers, the maxmum size becomes 9.44 ZetaBytes (2^64 sectors).
This is what I know, and please correct me if I am worng.
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