Multi-pass rendering is also a useful process along with the other advices given. DAZ has a good tutorial on this subject. I slip in the occasional render at work and the computer I use for that has bare minimum specs. I have to do an organized approach as mentioned by Jestmart to build the scene, then use multi-pass to render it as different shots which I layer together in a photoediting program for the final result. One huge advantage of the multi-pass approach is that you have more control if postwork should be necessary. I have derived the most benefits in being able to control specular effects and saturation by this method.The multi-pass rendering method is suitable for any rendering software package you might be using and any image editing program that supports layers will be suficient. Doing your work in a modular manner takes more orginization, a little more work, and definitely patience; but the results are well worth the efforts. For instance you can use posterization in Photoshop to get a toon effect if your video card doesn't support toon render in DAZ, without affecting your original files! Render once then try different effects, pretty cool. Like I said more effort but definitely cheaper than a new machine and saves your mesh details.