Don't know about the RAM but...
POSER PRO will support either 3 or 10 render nodes, depending on which version you buy.
I'm thinking that it will only support 1 CPU per node, so Intel's SkullTrain second CPU would go
unused by POSER, as would a second Xeon.

  I was thinking more like 8 intel 2180 CPUs & oc the crap out of them, or now maybe 8
5200 wolfdales. Don't like the .5 (12.5) multiplier though.
As for RAM, 4Gb should be enough for render nodes of this type.

  I would say that for the price mentioned $23,500 we could use 8 Q9650s, oc them to 4Ghz
and use 8Gig RAM per node and still have money left over!
After all the 8 CPUs will only Us set back about $4,750 ;)
The sad part is, Vista Retail will cost us $2,400. Seems fair to me :(