thanks once more.. I had high hopes for carrara 6, but since it's still too early for it...

I went ahead and got mojoworld 3 pro... quite a nice engine!!! even with a very complicated alien world (with a weird atmosphere that needed a plugin to work), in normal render settings, it still rendered pretty quick... need to try poser imports next...

but so far, until I get a better machine, Mojoworld is the winner for me...  but I willd efinately check into Vue in the future, when higher tecnhology is more affordable