I'm getting ready to purchase a new computer where I plan on running Poser, Vue and Lightwave. I'ld like peoples advice and info on what they are running and what they wish they were running. I plan on buying componants running about 8 gigs of ram and a kick a!! Pent Quad or if you have better suggestions suited for my purpose. Plz Help!

We did this wheel back ;)

1. Antec 900 gamer case
2. 600 or more  watt PSU with long cable, the Antex case needs a long cable to reach from PSU to the motherboard.
3. ASUS P5K-E motherboard.
4. 8 gig RAM
5. Nvidia 8600 GT vid card with 512 RAM, or if have lot of money 8800 GTS with at least 512 RAM (more ram is good, holds more textures for Vue view ports, but you don't need anything fancy, really)
6. minimum of 2 SATA hard drives, prefferably 3, one for operating system and programs, other for holding ALL your data, never keep your Vue files, textures etc on OS drive, and back up your Vue materials/objects fodler to another drive (it gets put into your C:/mydocuments/eon software folder by defualt)
7. A GOOD monitor, bad ones suck. I got a Samsun 206BW, it rocks: ) its 20 inch, bigger ones help.
8. Vista Ultimate
9. DVD burner, don't bother with a Blue Ray burner unless yer rich, in a year or so they'll be much cheaper ;)

:)

Silverblade33 pretty much described my system! I have XP Pro 64 bit. Asus P5B.

Get as much memory as the motherboard can handle. Remember what Seymour Cray (as in Cray supercomputer) said about virtual memory. "Memory is like an orgasm. It's much better when you don't have to fake it." :-)

Do not buy a Pentium, they are obsolete. Get an Intel Core 2 quad, or if you're rich get a pair of Xeon quads like in a Mac Pro. (The newer Xeon is the server version of the Core 2. The older Xeon is the same but for the Pentium 4. Intel likes to confuse us.)

Mines exactly like Silverblades and MyCat's too, nobody mentioned the processor unless I missed it [LOL] So mine is a Quad Q6600

Also my 2 HD's are set up in Raid 1 array so I don't lose any data if one of them crashes, but I still back up to XHD as well! [can't have too many backups!!].

question if I may...
so now I'm 'shopping'  around to have a simular system (THX, Silverblade!) build...
and am getting berserk with all the nessecities the technicians come up with, like superfast ddr3 ram or must-have extra-special ddr2 or...
Some say it won't 'work' without super fast memory or (raptor) discs or............. 
(meaning: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ i.e. can't afford... i.e. end of 'story'')
(example: instead of 'just' around 28 Euro per 1 gig ram, price would be 80 Euro per 1 gig -times 8!-)
more specific advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

and............... now you have these hevy-duty machines, is your every wish Vue's command?
no more 'advice' like 'Vue has just dropped below.................'
it runs like a dream, even if you forget to mow the lawn, with a zillion grasses on it?
and doesn't get the hickups when the metaclouds pop up and you use your most beautiful lights?

what about the bugs in Vue 6 Infinite 64 bits-version?
simular?
(32 bit- Vue 6 Inf. owner here ;-))

if you would be willing to share your experience: greatly appreciated!!!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1405174&member

is what I meant... LOLLL

I'm also going to plan getting a new rig ( well atleast CPU and board )

Looks like the Q6600 is becoming a real option now around 180-200 €.

How much does the 4core actually affect the rendering process to let's say a real highend dualcore? Anyone experiences?

Don't get DDR3 memory or motherboards at the moment, WAY too expensive!!!

Stick with DDR2 memory and boards.
The very latest boards with the new Intel X38 chipsets are DDR3, but most motherboards are DDR2.

Intel chipsets are much better than Nvida, don't get Nvidia SLI boards if you can help it.

I don't htink DDr3 boards can use DDR2 memory?

Vue runs a HUGE load better on this system :) sitll crashes at times, but a lot less,and it's far, far smoother to move and build scenes and render :)

My CPU's a Q6600 too. They have a 1066MHz bus so can't take advantage of DDR2 memory faster than PC2-4300 (aka PC2-533 to confuse us) so don't waste money. If you get one of the newer models with the 1333MHz bus then get PC2-5300 or PC2-5400 (depending on how you round the numbers) aka PC2-667 memory.

In the same vein, any SATA hard drive will do. They're all very fast. Spend the money on two normal drives rather than one Raptor. (I actually bought a Raptor for my Linux system, I don't see the difference.)

I'll second silverblade33's advice on the chipset. Nvidia make very good video cards - I have an 8800GTX - but Intel not surprisingly is the king of the Intel chipsets.

I have Vue 6 Infinite installed on two machines - I only use one at a time - because SkinVue only runs on a 32 bit Vue. I've had enough problems with what I think are simple scenes running out of memory on the 32 bit machine that I much prefer the 64 bit version. And I don't render on the 32 bit machine.

Thank you so much,  Silverblade & Mycat, for your time and trouble!!!
AND......... for your advice!!! That helps!!!

(we know a lot of wiz kids & wizards, but they don't understand!
For them the machine seems to be the goal, not the tool!
An acquaintance-who-'makes'-computers said: "but what will you need to internet?
(In Holland 'to internet' is a verb, as was 'to computer' 100 years ago! ;-)) You won't need all of that! Oh, what was that program of yours again? -that was Bryce...-  Vue??? But why don't you use Blender???" "I bought Vue and would like to USE it!" "You BOUGHT it? Do you know how  much it costs?!? Site here says..." -duh-

meaning...  'they' either underestimate or think I want to break the sound barrier... and I -born digiliterate- have to draw a line... (some)where???

just want a 64 bits system, Intel quad @ 2,4, nVidia 8800 GT or GTS -what is GTX?-
and a board that can handle 8 gig of ram (and an exhaust pipe LOL)
and disc(s), but 2 external discs here?... for data i.e. impressive runtime ;-)

system requirements @ e-on 'help' a lot... (not! ;-))
according 2 those my laptop is absolutely capable... (Acer aspire 1714 smi, P4 3,4  gig, 2048 ram- a 'beast'... 4 years ago. :-( 17" full monster, 7,2 kilograms, hosts 'normal' computer parts. Have seen it on test in 3dWorld (no, didn't win.. ;-)).
therefore... thank you!!!

so you know what I mean... LOL
'my' Vue can get upset over 'nothing'...

THX again!!

I am also planning to get a new system.
I am just waiting for Intel to deliver the new quad processors in order to get a q9450 instead of the  q6600

The Asus P5K motherboard seem to be quite reliable. I have considered the DDR2 versions of the Asus P5E but found that it had problems with some high end Ram chips
As others pointed out: DDR2 Ram and not DDR3.
I plan to get an Antec P182 box to make the machine as silent as possible
As for the HDs, I initially planned to get a raptor for the system (I have a 36 Gb one currently) and 500 Gig SATA for the data, but found out that some SATA 2 HDs were almost as fast as the Raptor and considerably cheaper. I am considering disks of the Samsung SpinPoint F1 or Seagate Barracuda 7200.11. series These have 32 megs of cache and seem quite popular.

Vista, by the way, takes a huge amount of HD space, yeech :(

hi!
odd...?

may I please add another question?

I did order a system saturday... quad, 8 gig ddr2 & moooooore...
but since I had seen nvidia 8800gt at another store for less, we agreed I should buy that 1... to find out it was 256 mb & the box said ddr3...?????

I thought all 8800 gt's were -& should be ;-D - 512 mb... to discover there are even 1024 mb 8800 gt's and the price is still pleasant! (!)

http://www.alternate.nl/html/product/summary/search.html?searchCriteria=8800gt&cat1=009&cat2=256&cat3=000

help?  LOL
-did I mention I'm a born digiliterate? ;-) -

any 'solutions' would be greatly appreciated!!!

could a 1024 card, by the name of nVidia 8800 gt, be used on a 600 or ... watt motherboard?

would you...???

Quote - My CPU's a Q6600 too. They have a 1066MHz bus so can't take advantage of DDR2 memory faster than PC2-4300 (aka PC2-533 to confuse us)

Are you sure about this?

I think I see many people using DDR-2 800 with a Q66.

Ram got so ridiculously cheap anyway.

Does Vue for some reason require Intel hardware?  I'm surprised nobody mentioned that AMD chips still cost less and are still just as powerful, if not moreso.  Especially for heavy math, such as VFX and rendering.

For the amount of money you'd save, you could easily offset the cost of your GPU or extra RAM...  And if you're actually doing 3D, a Geforce card will always be buggy and less potent than even a very cheap Quadro 370 ($140).

Why Quadro if you can Quad?

The more core -> more power in rendering...

Soon by the way there is a GREAT prizedrop of Q6600 ( 180$ ) , Q6700 ( 220$ expected).

From my X2 4200+ i can only dream what it's like cause with a bit OC it will be 4-5 times faster :D

@ angora,

the 256 mb is another downgrade of 8800. I suggest you take the GTX since that is still the way to go ( prize/power ).

I just don't see ANY meaning going for the 9000er series at moment.

This new DX10.1 must be another Microsoft joke!

Hi Xpleet!

T H A N K   Y O U !!!

My machine, still bits 'n pieces at the mom, is almost there, here...
waiting for the discs & memory to arrive...
I have been soooo tempted to buy a 1024 Mb 8800-graphics card, but only found tests, based on which it would be a don't. As would even the $$9800...

So: Quad, Intel core 2 Q 6600, nVidia NX 8800 gt OverClock 512Mb & 8 gig ram a.o. will have to do... (cooler master 600 watt) ... and hopefully Vue does too (run, FLY?) ;-D

The case is covered with mesh... Vue is 'hot' and this is very 'promising'.... ;-D
because 'from our floors you can eat'...
In Dutch a proverb meaning the place is very clean, tidy and spotless.
Here it just means there is food on the floor... like hay and straw, since we share our life with 2 angorarabbits. ;-D
Never mind how often we vacuum, sweep or .............. 
It doesn't look bad actually, our wooden floor being the colour of very light straw, kinda rural, but we also buy the dust that comes with it... ;-(
It only took 5 minutes for a piece of straw to be sticking out of the floppydisc-station of my newly bought laptop. (about 7 years ago ;-)). which wasn't on the floor...

I don't like computers in the living room... therefore I have laptops (and a tablet to 'wacom').
But our rabbits don't like me out of the living room... for ever?
Guess even this will become a 'mobile' system after all... ;-D
Perhaps it means vacuming twice a day?

Also bought a -second hand- Eizo screen (but not the 1 with the most digits before the dot! ;-)).
So waiting..... ;-)

THX!!!

If you can wait just a few weeks there is a prize drop expected.

In other words for moneys of a q6600 now you get a q6700 then. Not much of a difference but a difference :P