I asked the question several months ago concerning requirements for a new computer.  I had a Dell pentium 700 with Windows 2000, 512 megs and a 40 gig hard drive which was no longer hacking Bryce.  I am very familiar with computers having taught software for several years but I posed several questions to see if my thinking was still current regarding memory, video card, processor, etc and received several well thought out answers.  I waited long enough for the items I wanted to come close to a reasonable budget and ordered the following: Core I7, 6 gigs, 1 terabyte hard drive, 4870 vidoe card.  The box was a full size gamers box (Sniper).  Heck, it glows in the dark!  Bryce is about fifteen times faster measuring some old renders which makes it worth it, not to mention I can load games, etc.  Part of the previous discussion was Windows 64 bit or 32 bit and if Bryce would run with 64 bit.  As I wanted a lot of memory, and the Core I7 needs memory cards in groups of three, I opted for 64 bit Windows Vista and three 2 gig cards for the 6 gigs.  I have had no problems running Bryce with this configuration and have not had to choose compatibility mode for Bryce.  One really cool thing I have had so far is actually being able to create trees as my old setup would lock if I created a tree with more than two branches.

One thing that did happen was my old Dell flat screen did not have Vista drivers and I had to go out and buy a new monitor...shucks.  If anyone is contemplating just ordering the box, I would sugest checking your monitor for compatibility with Vista.

I want to thank all who answered my questions.

Beak

nice uber PC!!! I hope to see some awesome renders! :D

 I find it's generally good advice to get a new monitor with a new box..they're cheap enough, at least compared to my Amiga daze...LOL.. ...

It is sweet, is it not, to upgrade and see those outstanding results.   I recently upgraded to a Core2 quad with some nice goodies in a full size gaming box that has tons of cooling fans.  I'm running XP pro 64 without so much as a burp.

Congratulations, I know you are excited.

OOOOh Shiny!

Hi, I know exactly how happy you are, I've just bought a Core i7 system myself as an upgrade from my old Pentium D and you're so right, it's staggeringly fast!  Expensive, perhaps ( I went for overclocking and water cooling too) but in the long run as an upgrade from an older generation processor I think it's great value for money, even for a home hobbyist like myself.  In the week and a half since I bought it my productivity has gone through the roof.

There's some Bryce specific render benchtest timings here http://www.alexpensotti.com/bench2.html which may be of use to anyone considering a new PC, and not just the Core i7's.  Top of the chart though (at the time of posting) is a similarly overclocked Core i7 system which does the test render in 2m 22s.  I've mailed Alex my screenshot which is half that at 1m 16s but it's not up on his site as yet.

The freedom a fast PC gives you to really explore your art in general, and Bryce in particular, is a pure joy.

Regards,
Steve.

Yup, going from Pentium4 to a quad core 6600intel and 64 bit 8 gig ram...holy crap!! ;)

if they make a new version of Bryce fully 64 bit (far a sI know it isn't currently??) you should have tons more fun, as you can drop bazillions more models, trees etc in!