When i first started out with 3d graphics i had no more than 512mb ram, AMD athlon 350xp cpu, 64mb graphic card, win 98SE and things ran well.

I was also inform while doing any rendering no matter what program you used you are best off turning any programs that run in the background off, this will help with giving a bit more speed cutting render times down.

Anyway on to this computer, its sn AMD Athlon 3000+ chip, 2gig ram, 256mb/256bit graphic card and win xp home. I find that renders are fine on it but if i have my AV, Firewall, Antispyware and couple of other programs running in the background the renders slow down...this is noticable mostly with Bruce(yes i use it)

Another big upgrade due soon with the computer...4gig ram, 1gig graphics card, amd 5200+ chip and new motherboard.

I have opinions of my own -- strong opinions -- but I don't always agree with them.