I guess it depends. I try to keep as much spare "scratch" disk as I can-- I'd have a separate hard drive for Poser, if I could, but on a laptop that isn't too practical, so I put the runtimes on a Firewire. How much actual RAM, actual memory you have, also is figured into this. I have 1G on one laptop, 2 G on the other. And I have about 20G free on my main drive. Lower than that and I have problems rendering. Always have. It might be all in my mind for all I know, but I try to keep that much free. Then defragmenting the drive also helps so the free space is actually free. I haven't loaded up Poser 6 yet, cause I need to free up space to do it, and I've been too screwed up lately physically and mentally to get the job done properly. [Be nice to have one full day of sanity. I'm in the middle of changing meds] I'm not getting rid of programs just transferring them. I hesitate to tell anyone to get rid of stuff-- unless you aren't using them. But if you're wondering if anyone else has better luck with Poser running-- not necessarily faster but more stable-- with less going in the background and a leaner hard drive. Then yes, I have better luck that way. I also try to keep my main runtime very lean-- but this only applies to Poser 5 and higher. The less you have in the Poser 5 and I would guess Poser 6 runtime, the faster it loads and works. Hope this has helped some. Windows XP Pro and home, 1 to 2 G RAM, at least 20G free. Poser 5 with SR4.whatever. Emily