Yup, built the rig myself. Teaching computer hardware, operating systems and software is my job, so being my own "on-site service" is not a real problem. The main disadvantage is that I don't have a stock of mainboards, memory modules, hard drives etc, but I haven't encountered an issue yet that I couldn't solve. A good relationship with the local computer store helps too. Alright, some specs. The mainboard is a MSI K8N SLI Platinum, based on an nForce4 chipset. A good mainboard is essential. Brands like Asrock are cheaper, but less stable, I don't recommend such a brand. MSI, Asus, Abit and Gigabyte are all good. I have a slight preference for MSI, since they bundle the board with a really good manual. The Athlon64x2 family consists of five CPUs, the 3900, 4200, 4400, 4600 and 4800. The higher the number, the faster (and more expensive) the CPU. The 4200 and 4600 have 512 kB L2 cache per core, the 4400 and 4800 have 1 MB per core. I don't know about the 3900, but I think it's 512 kB per core. Since a large L2 cache is very beneficial to Poser, the 4400 and 4800 are the best CPUs. The 4800 is too expensive (around $900), the 4400 is only slightly slower, and costs about $500. The case is a Casetec. Advice: if you're going to build your own rig, buy a decent case. The $30 cases just don't cut it. Good brands are Zalman, Antec, Chieftec, Casetec, Lian-Li. Again, not the cheapest, but if you're going to build a high-end rig, you also want a good case. Power supply unit: get yourself a GOOD one. The simple PSUs by brands like Sweex and Q-tec are cheap, but the output isn't really stable and they tend to break down under heavy load. Rendering in Poser is heavy load! I use Fortron PSUs, which are silent and stable. Papst is also silent and robust, so is Zalman. Make sure the PSU can deliver at least 400W. The disks are Western Digital Raptors. Expensive but very fast. Those two 73 GB disks are my working disks, I keep my downloads on another machine with much more disk space (400 GB total). Those 2x73 GB are more than enough for my working stuff. Finished scenes are moved off to my storage machine. I never run into space problems (and my Vue scenes are quite complex, each scene has its own working directory at about 2 GB). Graphics card: nVidia. A nice fast one, I'd recommend a 7800. Or you might go for a nVidia QuadroFX, a 1400 or 4400/4500. Expensive, but optimized for 3D modeling. Maya will love it. Somewhat more expensive (starting at around $800) are the 3DLabs Wildcat Realizm cards. THE best for 3D modeling, but hard to come by. You don't have to handle the screwdrives yourself, by the way. A decent computer shop will build the rig for you at a small charge (around $50). Then you'll also have a warranty, probably something like 6 months carry-in. At some computer shops you can purchase an extended warranty and on-site service, but that might be quite pricey. Good luck!

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