Go for an AMD or Pentium chip if you can. I hate to admit it, but my husband's AMD 1.8 seriously smokes out my P4 2.2 on rendering speed. Anything else, and mine is faster, but Poser really seems to like AMDs. And, totally OT, why the hell does my laptop keep dropping keys and making me tap em twice? Grr. Also, when deciding on RAM, push for a single stick of 512. You get better upgrading options that way. DDR can still be a little delicate, so if you add more, go with a Crucial stick and they guarantee and will replace without any problems.