I have about $2000+ to spend on a new computer.  Are their any recs out there for size
realtive to speed and quality of renders?

I currently have a HP Model a6028x 32bit
AMD ATHLON 64 x 2 Dual Core  4600 = 2.4 G hz  RAM = 1918
with VISTA :(

any recommndations to make this puppy roar??

any ideas ?? 

hello,

maybe i can help you!
my boyfriend knows a bit about hardware and he also build together my render quad core :)

he would suggest:

ABIT IP35 Pro, P35
Intel Xeon UP X3350, 4x 2.67GHz, 333MHz FSB, 2x 6MB shared Cache, 775-pin boxed
2xA-DATA Vitesta Extreme Edition DIMM Kit 4GB PC2-6400U CL4-4-4-12
Radeon HD 3450
OCZ Core Series SSD 64GB, 2.5", SATA II
Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB 16MB SATA II
be quiet Dark Power Pro P7 550W ATX 2.2
cpu cooler: Scythe Mugen

__
Case: Lian Li PC-V2110B

= ~ $1800 (without dvd device and operating system)

Wescot, your old computer appears to be a good one-2 gigbytes appears to be very good.  I believe that Poser states that 512Mbytes of RAM is the minimum so you have plenty.  As for a super hot video card-- 512Mbytes will probably do.  I would, though,  look into a 24 inch monitor that is capable of rotating 90 degrees to take advantage of portrait renderings eg the HP w2408h that has  a 1920X1200 screen resolution.  It sell for $500 plus tax at Best Buy ( just got mine yesterday).   

What you can do is render one figure with hair  and your rendering specs note the time it takes and ask folks here to do the same, those faster than yours, ask for their computer specs.  Jan

For the money you have left over, use it for gas

You can save money if you install the hardware yourself. That is if you know what you are doing or you know someone who.

24 inch iMac - 2.8 Core Duo
**
**Nvidia GeForce 8800 Gs w/512mg video ram

750 Gig HD

4gig ram (get ram from someone other than Apple)

Right at 2,000

Hey thanks everybody, I just came from best buy and got 2 gigs ram for $60
and will do msconfig start up when rendering.

vista is such a pain !!!

I just bought the following items from Newegg about 2 months ago for $1324 ($1439 including tax and shipping):
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit DVD - OEM
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P10664GK - Retail
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80580Q9300 - Retail
ASUS P5Q Deluxe LGA 775 Intel P45 Intel Motherboard - Retail
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Antec NeoPower 650 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - Retail
MSI R4850-T2D512 Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail  
SAMSUNG 2253BW Black 22" 2ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail

Take out the Windows Vista ($99.99), monitor ($269.99), and power supply ($99.99...if yours is powerful enough) and you are looking at  a grand total of $854.. But you may need to add $70-$150 for a new case.

Quote - Hey thanks everybody, I just came from best buy and got 2 gigs ram for $60
and will do msconfig start up when rendering.

vista is such a pain !!!

I think that will work just fine-you now have $1940 left for gas.  Jan

I have been down this road and what is important is the graphic card and the amount of memory  your machine can support, the more memory the better your system can handle the work load, the more powerful a processor then the better to do hefty rendering work, a quad core or dual quad core is great speed is not the essential factor here although a fast processor is obviously nice.

To run a 64 bit machine that's capable of using 8GB+ RAM I chose to use Vista Ultimate and I have to tell you that Vista is running quite nicely now and many of the original problems that was holding it back  have been addressed and it works fine with Poser 7. I ended up with a 3GHz quad core processor, 8 GB of ram and a GForce 8800 graphic card.
The mother board had a nVidia chip set so it was compatible with the powerful card.
Cooling is important and a decent powerful power supply is a must. I use external eSATA Hard Drives.

Having been ripped off too many times by a certain large PC dealer here in the UK when buying a desktop system, I decided to build my own system last November when my two year old Packard Bell system died, proving to be all but impossible to upgrade without replacing almost every component. 

I then recently decided that I needed to up-gun this first home-built system, to run Poser and Vue specifically.  Having built one PC already, it meant that I had a decent graphics card (ATI 1950 Pro 512Mb) which could handle the OpenGL  requirements, a Thermaltake case and Lightscribe DVD ROM.  I ended up with:

Thermaltake 500W power supply (£10 from Ebay (new))
ASUS P5Q Pro p45 motherboard (£82) Express
Zalman CPU Cooler (£15 from Ebay (new))
8Gb Geil Black Dragon DDR2 Ram (£120)
Intel Q6600 CPU (£102 from Ebay (new))
1* 500Gb Maxtor HDD for data storage (£45)
1* 250 Gb Maxtor HDD for system install (£25)
Vista 64 bit Ultimate Home Edition (£55)

The components are all top-quality and the system is fully upragedable, neither of which would be the case with a ready-made system.  Plus, I now know exactly what makes my PC tick......I thoroughly recommend a DIY approach.  Using the P5Q with it's 8 SATA slots also means I can re-use all my old IDE (3 of 'em!)drives with SATA adaptors as data drives.  So, for about £500 ($1000) plus a few bits I already had, I've ended up with an 8Gb (expandable to 16Gb) dream machine which took me about four hours to put together.  I have to say, if I can do it, anyone can, it really is simple.  Plus, I have a PC that hasn't arrived full of crap "free" software.....