Recently Alienware has added a financing facility to buy their rigs here in the UK. It is very tempting, and although I have looked at old posts on what's the perfect poser rig, I thought I would poke the wasps nest as it where, since there is a new poser version and also new PC technology such as SLI technology (that's 2 graphic cards running parallel). The rig I am looking to buy is expensive, and the fork in the road is either going for a 2 CPU machine with a single grpahics card, or a 1 CPU machine running 2 graphic cards using SLI. All components are top notch, and the prices on both sets end up very close, is just a decision between the CPU or Graphic cards. I did see a motherboard that does 2 CPU and 2 graphic cards but it only came out recently and I haven't found any reviews on real usage of it. At the moment I a using Poser 6, on a Pentium 4 3.2GHZ, with 1.5GB RAM and a 120HDD, but you know how it is, you don't want a Ferrari only because it drives well...

Neither the two graphics cards nor the 2 CPUs will help anything when the only application you're running is Poser.

My understanding of it is that Poser uses mainly RAM and CPU for rendering. Yes Poser6 uses OpenGL and the graphics card more than any previous version so my gut feeling would be the double CPU choice. I'm no expert but there is a guy on here called "Raz" who seems to know a lot about this sort of stuff, I'd recommend sending him an IM and asking his opinion. thefixer poser coordinator

Poser can't use two processors, and I'm pretty sure two graphics cards aren't going to make a difference either. The computer you have right now is quite up to date, so I'm not seeing why you would want to upgrade.

On a side not, Alienware is the single most expensive pre-built computer company I've ever seen in my life. I've always either bought a Dell or made my own. Last time I looked into getting an Alienware, the computer I wanted cost 2000 dollars. I went on NewEgg and built that same computer part for part and it cost me 700 dollars.

However, last time I checked, Alienware was the only company that had the motherboards that supported 2 graphics cards. I dont' see much point in it, though.

Message edited on: 04/14/2005 06:49

well, is not what is in it so much, is just they look sooo pretty.
I reckon I could build my own, as I said I did find a motherboard that would support 2 AMD opterons and 2 PCI-E graphic cards:
http://www.amdboard.com/tyan_s2895_opteron_board.html

but I reckon it's a little bit too much as there is no software (that I can afford) that would really justify this.
I mean the board alone is 450 (US$900), so to build the whole box, with CPU, nice cards, etc. I could be forking out around 2-3K, and I feel that for that much investment I would prefer some kind of after purchase support. So that takes me back to the Alienware option...

Thanks for the replies anyway, I did have a feeling reading earlier posts about the subject, that my PC is as high as it can go for using poser. Maybe if I win the lottery, who knows.... By the way, made a mistake, my PC is only a 2.6Ghz, must have been a freudian slip.

Message edited on: 04/14/2005 07:44

Nalif - Ahhh you built your own But did you get the little Alien whose eyes light up....LOL

ceba, that's not fair! Do the eyes really light up? Now I am really tempted! Although my dream machine design for a while was a big black box with a single red light that would hum, sitting in a James Bond baddie type of desktop, white fluffy cat included.

Ummmm... SLI isn't a new technology... I was running that 4-5 years ago with the old 3DFX Voodoo 2 cards...

If I have not got it wrong (quite possible given the state of my mind at the moment getting P6 to work ;0) ) AMD are supposed to be releasing dual-core processors later this year. Poser should work on them as they are read (as far as I understand) as a single processor. Now that will give a huge boost to Poser if it works with the program. I would keep my bucks until then. That is what I am planning to do.

see, I knew starting this thread would get me even more indecisive, don't know what to do now. You know what'll happen next, after the dual core chips come out, they'll be a mother board that would fit 2 dual core chips, and probably 4 graphic cards, or soemthing suitably ridiculous. Thing is with PCs is like with stereo systems, when you finally decide to spend money on one, a nicer/bigger/better one appears the day after you bought it.

Yea but dual-core, if they work with poser will be a watershed, giving multi-processor functionality for the first time to a program that is 100% processor dependent for performance. Think about it, the hardware will finally be able to cope better with Poser demands, and it might be happening in time for CL to get the bugs out of P6 with SR2 or 3. Whatever you do check out when and what AMD are going to release before spending your cash.

Yes, the eyes really light up... ;0) One of my friends purchased an Alienware laptop. It's a blazing system (3GHz P4, I think), but it cost $5K and is somewhat unstable. But it has those flashing lights in the alien eyes. Ah, the "I have the desire and money now, but, wait!, there is amazing hardware just around the corner" syndrome... It has always been this way. :)

AMD are supposed to be releasing dual-core processors later this year. Poser should work on them as they are read (as far as I understand) as a single processor. Not, it's still 2 CPUs and Poser will run on one of them. And as the 2 cores will operate at lower frequency than the single core CPUs then, so the system with one core will still deliver faster Poser renders. The only advantage will be that you can run another application at the same time and not slow down your render.

oh we have Alienware computers, (mines the pink one lol) they are fantastic machines and handles Poser 4,5 and 6 like a dream.

Message edited on: 04/14/2005 12:37

"Not, it's still 2 CPUs and Poser will run on one of them. And as the 2 cores will operate at lower frequency than the single core CPUs then, so the system with one core will still deliver faster Poser renders."

Damm, there goes another solution. Some of the things I read lead me to believe that it was the case. Oh well, back to hasseling CL to make their product work on existing hardware

It is a terrible pity that CL did not upgrade P6 to multi-processor. To be taken seriously in the pro 3D world requires this kind of power, not to mention that Poser itself would benefit from this. I had this argument with Kupa a long time ago. CL did not listen then, and have not since.

Message edited on: 04/14/2005 14:27

Considering the major changes to P6 - and although they did not cover everything they did upgrade the lighting, library, material room, renderer, etc. - it appears that the new owners are taking an interest in moving Poser up in the 3D world. Now, from a business-savvy point of view, they may not consider such enhancements as multi-processor support because this is available in Shade. It sure does look as if e-Frontier wants to marry Poser and Shade in this way. And I have to agree with no solution. HT is just a thread enhancement - no real multiprocessing which is probably why it has no benefit, even some detriment, for Poser. Multi-core processors are nearly identical to the physically separated multiprocessors except for the hardware container facilitation. The OS and software will still need multiprocessor support to take advantage of this. My real quim of late is 64-bit processing. Although it provides no real speed improvements, what it does provide is addressing space. That is, it provides an avenue to finally use more than 2GB or 4GB of memory (4GB being the absolute maximum addressable space for 32-bits without some sort of memory table partitioning like that used by the file storage systems). I never thought I'd see the day (so soon) that 4GB of memory was not enough, especially for 3D CG (though expected for print-resolution images and raw video). Virtual memory was supposed to alleviate this problem, but obviously only under restricted circumstances (both Photoshop and Premiere Pro handle large files using a temporary file on disk and their own paging scheme). Being able to use 16/32/64/128/+GB of memory will reduce the efficacy and use of VM (for a while) and help to avoid the "Out of Memory" issues of large 3D scenes. Buf first, we need a finalized 64-bit OS (Windows) and software to be updated with that support.

Attached Link: http://www.boxxtech.com/index.asp

Thanks for all the replies, I know this thread would get good. Rasputina: What speific Alienware system do you use? love to know the specs. As for the dual core chips, I reckon they suffer the same fate as dual CPU systems, that outside server technology and other high end applications, there is not enough software written for them. lmckenzie: I have seen the Boxx site, and the systems look amazing, but I don't think you can get them in the UK. As for buying it in the US and having it shipped, it would probably cost me more than the most expensive Alienware system. But then again I should start a different thread if I want to go on a UK-US price differences rant.

Attached Link: http://www.e-raid.co.uk

thanks for the link lmckenzie, I've been to take a look at both sites, but they have no prices, they ask to contact them to prepare a quote. Sounds pricey, like a restaurant with no prices on the menu, you know it will be tasty, but it'll cost you. Then again, the eys do light up, man, oh man....what to do??? I would ask my wife, but she'll just tell me that if I want to waste so much money, I should take her on holiday.