I'm going to attempt to build my own computer (done it before but it's been years). I'm already getting headaches from thinking about this. Any suggestions on components and places to buy them? I will be using P5 on this machine. Kristta

Attached Link: http://www.pricewatch.com/

for online purchasing via CC, Id check out pricewatch.

Hope this helps,

Logan

Get lots of RAM. A lot of hard drive space is good, but 7200 rpm is probably plenty of speed. Then buy some more RAM. A CD burner will be useful for archiving old projects. Plus, get a lot of RAM. A fast video card with lots of memory is helpful, because posing will be fairly quick that way. Buckets of RAM. I'd go with at least a 19" monitor, screen real estate is at a premium with Poser.

I used to get my components from a place in California called PC Shopping Planet, but I think they've gone out of business. I've gotten my last two computers from Dell, because they I can buy 'em cheapr from them than I can build 'em, any more.

Oh, and get as much RAM as you can. :)

Jack

Attached Link: http://www.tigerdirect.com

I've got a secondary hard drive that I use as a GoBack drive. It's smaller, but I never use it for anything else. ... Comes in handy and defrags in about 0 seconds. I'm also using an Nvidia graphics card... It has a lot of video RAM, but I play a lot of games with advanced graphics. I also enjoy computer animation. You might want to call for some tech info on the type of card you want.

Strange, but my Athlon XP 2700 with 1 Gb DDR333 outperforms my P4 2.8 HTT with 1.5 Gb Dual Channel DDR400. Not only is the system faster, it could also render scenes that didn't render on my P4 system. I'd go for an Athlon64 processor, and at least 1 Gb of (preferably dual channel) DDR400. Two identical 7200 RPM disks on hardware Raid0 (Highpoint controllers tend to be faster and more stable than Promise) also help. Videocard: my Athlon uses a GeForce Ti4200 with 128 Mb - works fine. My P4 has a Radeon9600XT with 128 Mb, also more than fast enough. The GeForce card uses less driver processes, so I'd go for GeForce. You could also wait for a bit until PCI Express really takes off. Get a monitor that can display at least 1600x1200 at reasonable refresh rates (75 or more). Even better, get two monitors. Hope this helps, Steven.

Newegg.com without question is the place to buy for price and service, and with very useful user reviews on the hardware. Anandtech is a good place to start organizing components. Allstarmicro is another good place to buy hardware.

Message edited on: 08/26/2004 16:11

Message edited on: 08/26/2004 16:18

Attached Link: ZipZoomFly

Attached Link: http://www.newegg.com

Try www.tomshardware.com for some good reviews of components, plus a price checker, another is at www.streetprices.com. I have a two drive Raid0 setup as Steven mentioned, I think it is the only way to fly, but bear in mind if you loose one drive you loose everything, think backups! I also didn't notice much of an improvement going to 2 GB of memory, but get at least 1. I also kept my old computer in service, connected to the new one via a KVM switch and network cards & hub, has lots of advantages.

To heck with the CD burner ... 650MB doesn't go as far as it used to. Get a DVD burner, instead. They're affordable now.

and keep the old one..you can turn it into a Linux server, maybe set up a render farm..;) the only thing I've noticed is the parts seem to be obsolete in 3 months (i.e., the fastest boards and drives no longer are..;) well, as we used to say in the industry, 'buy the most computer you can for your money'..good luck.

I got a great DVD burner for $49 after a $10 rebate. I put the old CD Burner into my second computer. The great thing about the DVD burner is that I can put my entire Poser original product collection on just a few DVD's, and get rid of the 120 CD wallet I'm currently using. That thing is rather heavy.

Get a motherboard with SATA Raid 1 Capability and two large SATA Hard Drives. Run the drives in Raid 1 configuration --that way if one drive crashes, you still have everything in the other drive. www.zipzoomfly.com and www.newegg.com are both excellent. If you are considering other mail order vendors, you can check on their customer satisfaction at www.resellerratings.com and www.pricegrabber.com.

Actually, My Nvidia card is GeForce... I've got the 128 and the 560mb of video RAM cards, but I think I have the 128mb plugged in right now.... heh... I'm not sure why.

Pakled, some things don't need the fastest, latest, tech. Does the latest red-hot graphics card the gamers are buying make any difference for 3-D work? Lots of graphics RAM, that makes a difference for Poser. Does hardware acceleration? There's a bit that can be saved there (and a graphics card can be upgraded later). And what about other render engines? Think about expansion -- spare drive slots in the case, buy two big memory modules instead of four small ones, that sort of thing.

"Does the latest red-hot graphics card the gamers are buying make any difference for 3-D work?" Yes they usually do (all the "big ones" at least), but Poser do not make use of "hardware acceleration". "And what about other render engines?" In Poser you can only use the P4 or Firefly rendering engines. I would suggest (as everyone else) alot of RAM, minimum 1 Gb (dual channel). One thing to keep in mind when bying a motherboard is how many RAM-slots it has. Usually there are 3, which is useless if you are going for "dual channel" because you can only use "pairs" of RAM. Buy a motherboard which have 4 RAM-slots (dual). In that case you could start with 1 Gb (2x512 Mb) RAM and later on (if need be) expand with another 1 Gb (2x512 Mb).

Attached Link: http://forum.pcmech.com/

Nobody mentioned this so far, but you need POWER first, and solid, reliable and hopefully silent cooling devices second.

So on top of all the tech stuff, be sure you have a good and solid case, with all the i/o plugs you need, and with a good and powerful power supply unit, capable of giving a stable alimentation to all the devices you will use. A good surge protector/continuity power unity is also something to take into account: think of being at 99% of your animation rendering and 'POP!' power off due to a storm or whatever...

A cooling device (socket fan or cpu fan as you prefer to call it) must be something to invest on. It's quite stupid buying the latest 4GHZ hyper-pumped CPU and having it to perform at 30% after 2 mins of power-on because of overheating. Yep, those cuties get hot... really hot... and the more secondary processors you get (video cards have their own processors, as most new soundcards do), the more heat sources you have in your case. So have a case full of grids, and keep it in an open environment (it's also useless having big fans whirring when they can move only hot air because you put your gridful case inside a closed bookshelf...).

Just a 'different' approach ;)

Message edited on: 08/27/2004 03:32

How exactly does more RAM on the videocard help?

More RAM on the videocard is helpful when doing realtime rendering, 3D games like Doom and Quake make extensive use of the RAM on the videocard. Realtime rendering also occurs in programs that have an OpenGL or DirectX based preview mode (DAZ|Studio for instance) In the case of Poser/DAZ|Studio lots of video RAM is not really important, the standard cards of these days have enough. If you're a bit on a budget, don't buy the fastest CPU available, buy 1 level slower. Overall performance of the system will be less than 5% slower than with the fastest CPO available, and it'll save you hundreds of dollars (which you can invest in more memory or a decent RAID0 controller, resulting in a significant speed increase!) A good case, with a good power supply, is also worth investing in. I'm rather happy with Chieftec, and Antec has a great reputation.

If you don't need to have the absolute fastest computer, you can find some really great deals. I got my motherboard for $10, after rebate. I currently have a 1GB Duron CPU that a friend gave me. I bought a video card for around $55, and got 512MB of RAM on sale at Best Buy. Another friend gave me 128MB of RAM. I already had an old computer case and smaller monitor. Voila! I had made two computers out of the misc parts I'd gathered. I'm also convinced a large case helps promote air circulation. You also get more room to work inside the computer. I have a 27" case which sits on the floor. I can work inside easily without needing to remove the motherboard. I bought round IDE cables as well.

Message edited on: 08/27/2004 09:41

That's what I was wondering, svdl. I know that I'm taking advantage of the NVidia GeForce playing games like Dungeon Siege, and it's fantastic for animation programs. I never really researched other cards, though. I'm not sure if it's exactly what you'd want for Poser. Major resolution would be a plus. Is there a better card simply resolution wise? Oh, and make sure to USB port yourself out... heh... you can do anything with those including the old external HD.

Ok so far you've all missed the obvious. Current computers are 32 bit machines which are great as far as it goes. Now 64 bit machines are starting to hit the market and this should be your starting point. A PC with a 64 bit processor is the first thing, then a decent amount of RAM, at least 1 gig but preferably more. Then a decent graphics card, preferably an ATI Radeon, much better and faster than Nvidia which I have by the way.
Now I know all you tech heads out there will be saying "ah yes but there's no way to run a 64 bit machine right now". Technically that's right, there is no dedicated 64 bit operating system so you won't see the benefits until there is! but it will work with a 32 bit operating system (xp for instance). I'm told that Microsoft will have the 64 bit operating system by early 2005 so do yourself a favour and get a 64 bit system now or whatever you buy now will be "old hat" by next year. I need a new PC but I'm waiting for a few months to get the advantages of 64 bit. Trust me the advantages will be like a microwave over a camp fire :)

Message edited on: 08/27/2004 13:34

Message edited on: 08/27/2004 13:36

Resolution wise? My Ti4200 can go to 1920x1440 at 75 Hz, and 2048x1536 at 60 Hz, and mind you, that card is almost two years old! The Radeon 9600 XT also goes up to 2048x1536, at 75 Hz. My CRTs cannot handle that. I think a "low end" Geforce FX card is more than enough, both speed and resolution wise, to handle Poser requirements. You only need the more expensive 3D cards when playing games. I've got an older machine (Athlon XP 2200, 768 Mb RAM) with a RivaTNT2 chipset and 64 Mb RAM, still pretty good (and the card was less than $30!), but the maximum resolution is definitely lower and Poser is definitely clunkier on that box. I do not know of a current video card with a better maximum resolutino than 2048x1536, at least not a consumer video card. The specialist cards for the CG industry can do better - much better, I've heard of resolutions of up to 12000x9000!! - but are simply not affordable. And you'll need a monitor that can handle that resolution. 2048x1536 already requires a high-end 21" CRT! My 19" CRTs stop at 1600x1200 and 1440x1080.

thefixer: you're right about 64 bit. I'm waiting for a MB that has both Athlon64 support and PCI Express support, when those are available, I'll build myself a new box. About ATI versus nVidia, yes, the ATI cards ARE faster. I've seen the specs of the x800 and I was drooling. But somehow the "old" Ti4200 is lighter on resources than the ATI. My P4 2.8 HTT FSB800/ATI Radeon 9600XT/1.5 Gb dual channel DDR400 SHOULD be faster than my Athlon 2700/Ti4200/1 Gb DDR333 with poser, but it isn't. IF you've got the budget, go for Athlon64, an ATI x800 card, 4xSATA150 RAID 0 and 2 Gb of dual channel DDR400. That's the fastest money can buy these days.

OK, here is my take on this: I don't have lots of money, so I can't always afford the biggest and baddest CPU, etc. Why bother with a 64-bit processor when there won't be a Windows Operating system that will take advantage of the 64-bit processor for another year or two? By then we'd likely have another couple generations of "bigger and badder" CPU's anyway. It makes more sense for me to save up for a "full fledged" Athlon, rather than a Duron CPU, and get up to 1GB of RAM. Oh, yes, and get at least one larger hard drive!

Hm... Yes, I'd go for the 64 bit processor. If you put the right stuff in, you'll have the computer in another year or two.

About 64 bit operating systems: there's no Windows yet, agreed. But Linux 64 bit is there, and it's incredibly fast. No use for Poser users, alas. But you could always install a BSD/Mach kernel (there is a 64 bit version) and hack Mac OSX over it... Don't know if it's legal to put Mac OSX on a PC, but it can be done (actually, Mac OSX has been developed on PCs!).

Attached Link: http://komplett.co.uk/k/k.asp

Attached Link: PC Power & Cooling.