It seems Poser 6 is causing serious fragmentation. Could this be mittigated by putting Poser 6 in a partition? How big a partition? What would exactly need to go in the partition? And finaly I have searched my helpfiles etc. and I can't figure out how to make the partition to begin with. It seems I have 30 out of 70 Gb of my harddrive free and no other drive. Also, what is the best setting for virtual memory... I am running out of memory on even tiny scenes with Poser 6. I have a PC running Windows XP and a 2.5Ghz Celeron with 248Mb RAM (64Mb video dedicated?), 75Gb Harddrive (5Gb dedicated to "restore system" partition), and OpenGL.

I seriously recommend getting more RAM - that will do far more good than any amount of virtual memory

The Celeron is not a very good CPU for multimedia. 2.5Ghz is a good speed though, so you have that much. However, with only (I assume) 256MB of RAM, with 64MB of it shared by the video subsystem, and again I assume, with on-board video, you are going to have a heck of a time with OpenGL, especially with something as math intensive as Poser. As far as virtual memory, if you are not totally sure of how to manipulate it, you should just let Windows manage it for you. Win does a good job of it anyway. The general rule with virtual memory though is, 2 times the amount of RAM. In your case that would only be about 512MB. Again, I would let Windows just manage it. But increasing your total RAM, and if you have an AGP slot on your motherboard, you may want to consider getting even a lower end graphics card, so you get the seperated RAM and graphics processor, should give you a significant performance boost. (Keep in mind also, the memory leak problem to be fixed by CL in the first update.) Good Luck! [Edited to make some more sense.]

Message edited on: 05/09/2005 09:27

256 meg memory is low for an XP system. Add a graphics app and its really low. Check your system specs and find out how many memory slots you have available. You can get some idea of memory use by running the system monitor or just checking how big your swapfile gets. 512 meg ram is reasonably cheap if you shop around. You could look at adding another hard drive to your system.

One other big thing to note: Poser 6 has a know memory bug, which causes it to give the "out of memory" message even on a high end system with lots of RAM. There is supposed to be a service release soon to fix this. To answer your main question: To put it simply: file fragmentation can occur "naturally" on any system any time you read and write data from a hard drive; the more often you do so, the more likely it is to occur. Poser pushes around a heck of a lot of data when it reads and writes a figure; if it (or any other app) crashes out, it drastically increases the likelyhood of file fragmentation; this will happen on any drive or partition that Windows is working with; putting Poser 6 on it's own partition is not likely to change this, it will most likely just keep most of the fragmentation local. As far as partitions go: You can only change the partition setting by being logged in as an administrator and using the disk manager tool. I would really not recommend messing with the partitions or the swap file unless you really know what you are doing. I'm assuming that you have a name brand PC with the PC maker's restore information on the drive. Changing the partition settings requires reformatting part or all of your HDD and this often will mess up the restore partition or the restore program (affecting your ability to return the system to it's "new" condition). As the previous posters have stated, this is really not a very good setup to use with something like Poser; the best thing you can do for it is to increase the system memory; Windows XP itself hogs almost 200 MB of system memory just to run the operating system, and given that you have an integrated video card with shared memory, this doesn't leave much memory for anything else let alone Poser. The lack of memory causes Windows to hammer the hard drive even more by using the swapfile - again, increasing your rate of fragmentation. Adjusting the size of the swapfile will not make a difference; performace will always take a hit as the system is using the much slower HDD then the much faster RAM. I would recommend upgrading the memory to at least 512 MB, more if possible. The other worthwhile upgrade would be to use a dedicated 3D video card (ATI or Nvidia); even the cheapest dedicated video card will usually outperform an integrated graphics chipset, and won't rob system RAM. Poser 6 has OpenGL support that will give it a boost when running on an OpenGL compliant video card. Finally, if it is possible in your system, I would look at upgrading the processor & motherboard to a Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon. Of course, after all this, it might just be better off to get a new computer for Poser... Hope that helps at all.

Bluecity, thank you for this detailed information. My system is a Compaq with a restore partition. I am not anxious to upgrade this machine as I hope with a royalties windfall coming up to maybe get a laptop for lifestyle reasons... what do you think I would need maybe in terms of a laptop if I want to run basicaly just PSP9 and Poser 6? and what do you think it would cost? Should I go to a Mac (I have not been able to aford one since 1998) and just replace the software I need (will CS give me an upgrade price I wonder?). What is the going Photoshop substitute for Mac? Thanks.

While you are mulling over the question of a Mac or PC, do some research into Mac versions of various helper apps. The more you work on Poser the more you find yourself doing little odd jobs, like fixing a cr2 file, UVmapping, converting textures, fixing or creating mat poses. As far as Photoshop, there is a Mac version.

Don't mess with a Compaq, that's one of the lessons I've learned in the past. I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if that Compaq still has parts of the BIOS on harddisk, on a hidden partition, and using partitioning tools could easily kill it. As for a laptop for running PSP and Poser 6: I've heard very good things about the IBM ThinkPad series - but IBM is expensive. I've got an Acer Aspire 1700 portable (17' TFT 1280x1024, P4 2.66 Ghz, 512 MB RAM (2 GB max using standard DDR266/333 DIMMs), 80 GB disk 5400 RPM, DVD/CD-RW, 7.5 kg, not exactly a "laptop"). It even has very decent sound for a portable, and a game like Warcraft III plays fine, even at high video quality settings. Poser 5 runs smooth and fast, it's got a decent graphics chip, although it uses shared memory. The main advantage is that the Aspire 1700 series uses desktop components. So I added a standard 512 MB DIMM, and I could replace the disk with a standard 7200 RPM ATA133 disk. Those desktop components are much cheaper and faster than laptop components. The power consumption is considerable, however, battery lifetime is less than an hour. I bought the machine over a year ago, at 1700, including VAT. The current series has CPUs up to 3 Ghz, larger disks, faster graphics, DVD +/- RW and so on. Prices start at about 1600 including VAT. In short, that Acer gives you the raw power of a high end desktop PC in a portable format. Laptops, either PC or Mac, are usually designed for long battery life and easy portability (low weight), at the cost of raw power. What's best for you depends on your lifestyle.

I have never heard of this Acer. I am not at all a computer person. It sounds good. I want a lap top only to get rid of desk cluueter and maybe take down to the kitchen table so I don't need to be super portable... those new Mac laptops that have CPU and monitor together looks interesting. I can't aford another copy of Photoshop... and when I last had a Mac my favorite AFORDABLE image editor was ColorIt! which was great... I was wonder what inexpensive image editor was in with Mac users in the way that Paint Shop Pro is in on PC ($120! compared to whaterver PhotoshopCS is). I like the sound of this Aspire 1700 though. Thank you.

I actually use a laptop I bought a couple of months ago as my main computer, and it's been great. I got it from Vicious PC (they specialize in "gaming" PCs and let you choose the components). What you'll find if you poke around the vendors on the web is that there is really only about 5 or 6 actual companies that make laptops; most companies just slap their name on it and give it some cosmetic changes (for example, most Dell laptops are made by Quanta of Taiwan), so you're likely to keep seeing basically the same machines over and over. Knowing this, I wouldn't be afraid to check out some of the smaller, "boutique" vendors on the web. This website is a pretty good resource for researching vendors - they take feedback from users. http://www.resellerratings.com/ I would look for a laptop with a Athlon 64 or higher end Pentium M processor, at least 1 GB of memory and a dedicated video card with it's own memory (like a ATI Radeon 9700). Pay close attention to the rotational speed of the hard drive; in many laptops they are only 4200RPM (versus 7200RPM in a typical desktop system). If the manufacter offers an upgraded HD (a faster one - higher rotational speed) this is a worthwhile upgrade. I've had high end laptops with slow HDs and it kills the overall performance of the machine. The screen size is a matter of personal taste; mine has the 15.4" widescreen (this is very common) and I think it's fine, but there are many (like the mentioned Acer) that go as high as 17". I actually travel with my laptop, so I don't like the bulk and weight the large screen laptops have. As a ballpark figure for a good laptop, I would say you're looking at about $1500. I don't really use Macs that much, and while they have their strong points, I've always considered them quite expensive versus a comparible PC. As far as image editors go; I like Corel Photopaint a lot; I've used it and Photoshop interchangably over the years, but Photopaint (now part of the Corel Draw package) is a heck of a lot cheaper. Hope that helps.

This is very helpful. One reason I thought going back to mac might be nice is not having to install big security patches a couple times a week like I seem to for WinXP. Not having to worry about worms and viruses so much. Your information is helpfull though as I am a real no nothing about this. Thanks.

If you want to cut down the possibilities of Worms and viruses don't use Outlook Express or IE.

Macs have their own share of holes and bugs, I think it's just MS get more press because they have a much larger installed base and aren't exactly everyone's favorite company. nickedshield is right; WinXP's biggest problem is the integrated Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. I'd recommend Mozilla Firefox (as I'm sure many people here are) - it's free, and doesn't have nearly the security problems IE does. Using common sense on the Internet (like just turning it off when you're not using it), installing Anti-spyware and Anti-virus software are your best defense - Mac or PC.

Using common sense on the Internet is the best defense indeed. Coupled with a firewall. And hiding behind a NAT router is definitely a good idea. About partitioning: also a good idea. Even better to use separate harddisks; if you can afford it I'd advise two WD Raptors 10,000 RPM disks (37 GB each) and a BIG 7200 RPM disk (160 GB or more). Install your OS on one of the Raptors, put the swapfile on the second Raptor, install your programs on the OS disk (in a separate partition), put your working directories on the second Raptor (separate partition) and use the big 7200 RPM disk for disk images, big data storage (Poser libraries!) and for archiving your works. I run a similar setup on my Athlon64 system and it works very well.