I build my own. Component incompatibility effects more than just Poser. So if you build a smooth system, Poser will run well. If you don't then nothing will run well. Personally, I use AMD chips, ASUS boards (though they are not keeping up to date and I may change to Tyan soon) and if I use more than one ram chip I make sure that they are all the exact same chipsets. Use a good quality hard drive. Maxtor is good and cheap, Western Digital is ok too. I prefer the IBM Deskstars. Use at 420 watt or better power supply. What OS and how you configure it makes a difference too. If you want to research your own homebuild, start with the CPU chip and see what boards are approved for that chip. AMD has an approved list. If you use WinNT as in Win2k or XP Pro, then there is a hardware compatibility list that MS puts out. Stay with that. ATI seems to have made a comeback with their video cards. The old radeon's suck but from the ATI 8500 and above they seem pretty smooth. You'll want a gig of ram. Less is not going to do you right over the long haul and more just drags down your OS. How you configure your BIOS also has a lot to do with it. There's a thousand variables. But if you get through them, you'll be the wiser for it. If you don't have the time then as for the systems you suggested........ Gateway --- run like the wind. get that only if they pay you to take it. HP Pavilion --- same as above. Dell is ok for a ready made system. The Dimensions line uses nvidia cards from what I can tell. That's ok for games and openGL apps like Mojoworld. I prefer ATI. The key to any system is the motherboard and I have no idea what board is used in the Dell products. So many people overlook the importance of the MB. I like Win2k but I can't scoff at XP Pro. There are advantages to having XP Pro. Win2k is pretty rock solid too, but its older technology now. XPHome doesn't excite me at all. Hope that helps.