Thinking about buying Alienware computer for Poser. Anyone have experience with these? I will be getting a laptop with 8 GB memory, one or two 1.5 GB video cards, i7 processor. About $2500. I can get almost the same configuration in a Dell 17 XPS but without so much upgradeability for $1500 on sale. Do I need to upgrade to Poser 10 to run on a 64 bit machine? Any advice or experience with Alienware?

Lance

there is nothing magical about alienware computers - that extra $1000 is basically the cost of the alienware sticker.

btw if you are looking for something for rendering, a laptop is a bad idea. you can build a much more suitable desktop rendering rig for a fraction of the cost, and with vastly more reliability and upgradability.

I would not waste the extra on alienwear.   It's not any better, really.

The only thing better about AlienWare is the "Oooo Shiny" Neon Lights in the casings! And If you have a line on Poser 10 that the rest of us don't know about you need to spill it dude! Poser 9 hasn't even been announced yet!

Thanks for your advice,

Someone posted on one of the forums that (the mythical) Poser 10 worked great with 64 bit systems. I have not yet found that I need to upgrade from Poser 7 unless it doesn't work with 64 bit. I can only use up to 3.5GB RAM with my current 32 bit Vista system and it renders painfully slow. Maybe Vista is the problem.

I am kind of stuck with a laptop because I need to travel with it, but I could have a laptop and a desktop I suppose. What have you found to be a great configuration with regard to RAM memory and video cards for improving rendering speed. Is there a need for more than 8GB RAM? I have seen systems with 2 video cards, is there an advantage to this in Poser or just with gaming?

Lance

Well Poser Pro 2010 is the only 64 bit version and it will access more memory. Any Non-Pro version isn't going to be 64 bit unless this changes with the next version.

     Lance, that was probably a reference to Poser Pro 2010.  It is the current 64bit capable version of Poser.  The earlier Poser Pro will render in 64bit, but scene setup, dynamic cloth simulation, etc., all run in 32bit.

     Poser 8, Poser 7, and all earlier versions are strictly 32bit.  If you are getting a 64bit system, you want Poser Pro 2010.

     Alienware is an expensive brand, but they are meticulous about workmanship and have superb customer service in my experience.  So, I would neither encourage someone to it nor dissuade them from it.  Consider the price versus the hardware, etc., and make a measured decision.

     My laptop Pixie is the "Ripley" chassis, and was one of the first to have 64bit OS, Quadro (3600M) video card, 8GB RAM, and a Blu-Ray burner.  The processor is a now-unremarkable dual core (non HyperThreaded).  You can get considerably better than this now.

     I have had Pixie run at full processor capacity -rendering- for days at a time, with no problem.

     I also have a 64bit "Aurora" chassis desktop (named Galadriel), with the core i7 H/T quad, 12GB RAM, and a Quadro FX5800 video card.  The chassis is water cooled.  Galadriel has often done days-long render assignments.

     With the Boxx workstation (Cameron), I have had several instances in which a RAID hard drive seemed to die;  it was actually just a ratty connector at the motherboard, but Windows still has to go through the hours-long process of restoring redundancy after such an event.

P.S.  the secretary at the firehouse loves the colorful glowy Alienware.  ^^  She thought it was great that I could make it pulsate in pink for her. :D

If you're thinking Alienware thru Dell, I might point out that Dell has a outlet store on-line. They sell returned items that they re-certify. I purchased my last Dell that way and have been very happy with it. Typically the units are a little cheaper or have a few extras on them compared to building one on-line. Also, you get delivery (in the states) within a few days rather than weeks as it's already built and sitting in a warehouse in Austin (I think that's where mine came from). The Dell outlet also sells returned business PC's and workstations. I think those are the best deal with multiple chips/processors and lots of RAM. Those sell at a more reduced price as they are number crunchers and less popular than the Alienware line (which is aimed at gamers). I would think for Poser work, you should look at a good number cruncher.

Good luck

Quote - What have you found to be a great configuration with regard to RAM memory and video cards for improving rendering speed. Is there a need for more than 8GB RAM? I have seen systems with 2 video cards, is there an advantage to this in Poser or just with gaming? Lance

     Get as much RAM as you can afford and which the motherboard allows.  I had considered getting three 8GB sticks to put in Galadriel's triple-channel RAM slots, but the Alienware tech said that the motherboard chip can only read 12GB total.  Likewise, Pixie's dual channel can't use two 8GB sticks because the motherboard chip is limited to reading a total of 8GB.

     You may see multiple options for a given amount of RAM;  higher speed is better, and fewer (large) sticks is better than more (small) sticks, because it allows for future RAM addition.

     Is there a need for more than 8GB RAM?  It depends on your habits of scene complexity, total poly count, sophisticated materials, and high quality render settings.  I often exceed 8GB.  That said, Pixie -with 8GB- won't crash on a complex render;  PP2010 will start using the hard drive to compensate.  This really slows the process down, and puts hard mileage on the hard drive.  Poser usually stays under 12GB, and I rarely see Poser pull more than 20GB, with the record being just over 48GB.  My judgement would be that a HyperThreaded quad (like the core i7) with 12GB RAM is a great "bang for the buck" balance.  The more cores you have, the more RAM is needed to feed them.

     Alienware laptops now offer 16GB RAM in the M17x, and the new M18x chassis can hold 32GB!  :woot:

     Video card:  Poser does not render using the video card, but the preview quality is better if you have at least a midrange quality card so that you can use hardware shading in preview.  Anything beyond that is overkill for the current version of Poser.  Also consider if you will ever use Vue on the machine;  Vue's preview benefits immensely from a high capacity video card.  A good video card will also enable you to run a second monitor, for instance when you're at home you could have both the laptop's monitor and a 27" 1920x1200 pixel flat screen as your workspace.  If you see a Quadro as one of the video card options, that's a professional workstation card - expensive, but great stuff if you want to be able to see detail in preview during scene setup in Vue, or you want to run a big second monitor.  Galadriel has two 30" widescreens, 2560x1600 pixels each.

i have 8 gigs and have never seen PP 2010 use more than a couple gigs tops - even with lots of large .psd textures. of course i mainly render figures with props and shaders - some people have created some pretty elaborate crowd/battle scenes in Poser and im not sure if theyll actually make Poser utilize significantly more RAM, or just run much slower.

that said, im thinking about upgrading soon to 16 gigs of RAM, but its certainly not for Poser - its for Zbrush and C4D, and multitasking with Photoshop. ive been getting lots of Zbrush out of memory errors lately, and its a pain in the ass to have to close every other program and compact memory before i perform some operations in zbrush.  every time i need more RAM its for content creation, not rendering. my laptop has only 4 gigs of RAM (albeit its running a highly optimized and stripped down version of windows 7 64), and it runs Poser just fine.

Unfortunately core ZB is (still) a 32 bit app and will not use more then 4GB max, no matter how much RAM you have.  Things like decimation master are 64 bit though (IIRC) so those could perhaps benefit as will C4D.

I have an Alienware Aurora desktop (got it mainly for gaming) that I'm currently using Poser on aswell, cause my other pc is acting up..  I doubt it's any better than any other computer with similar specs tho..

And no, I'm thinking you don't "have to" upgrade to pro just cause you're on a 64 system.. your old version will still run, just not at 64.. I think

And as people above me has said, with alienware a big deal of what you pay is just for the name.. I just got mine cause I'm a bit of a computer-bimbo and wanted something decent that I felt I could "trust" being put together properly :P

Oh, and the shiny lights ofc  :P

I had an Alienware computer and wasn`t that impressed with it, it cost more and as others have said your paying for the name. Also I might have just been unlucky but my alienware machines motherboard blew after just over 2 and bit years of having it.

I would personally not bother buying and Alienware again, but would spend the extra money you pay for the name in upgrading specs, and if its shiney lights you want theres plenty of very nice lit cases around these days, my current two pc`s look every bit as pretty as my Alienware pc did.

I am currently considering an ASUS. It has the same high end specs as the Alienware but at a much lower price. Very easy to upgrade. A $1200 machine comes with 8GB RAM and I could put in an additional 8GB from Crucial for $66. I understand that the earlier ASUS units had problems but the current machines have been quite dependable. Any experience with those?

laptops are nowhere near as hardy as desktops, and if you ask youll find people that swear they wont buy laptops from just about any brand. i, for example, will never buy anything from HP/Compaq again.

the only advice i can give you is this:

dont look for something 'future proof' or bleeding edge, this is always a waste of money with computers - especially with something as short-lived as a laptop. shop around for a great deal on something that will meet or exceed your needs now, and make sure (if you can) to pick it up on a CC that offers extended warranty perks. on mine, if i purchase something they automatically give me a year free accidental/theft coverage on it and double the factory warranty (as long as i do not purchase any extended warranties). that gives me at least two years of no worries.

Quote - I am kind of stuck with a laptop because I need to travel with it, but I could have a laptop and a desktop I suppose. What have you found to be a great configuration with regard to RAM memory and video cards for improving rendering speed. Is there a need for more than 8GB RAM? I have seen systems with 2 video cards, is there an advantage to this in Poser or just with gaming?

sorry i forgot to answer these:

i dont see how SLI (2 video cards) would give any benefit in Poser, and unless you are looking for a gaming laptop you are just wasting money for added weight/heat and reduced battery life.  graphics cards have no effect on actual rendering, simply on your Poser OpenGL workspace preview. i can not tell the difference between a Poser workspace running on a 1024mb Geforce GTX 460, an 896mb GTX 260,  or an old 256mb Geforce 7600 GT.  the OpenGL workspace preview is a trivial task for modern graphics cards.  so is HD video decoding, if you watch a lot of movies. unless you are a gamer, until GPGPU becomes mainstream you are unlikely to get any benefit outside the workspace.

unless you are doing content creation, more than 8 gigs of RAM would also give you little or no benefit. currently with 8 gigs i can have poser, photoshop, zbrush, silo etc open at once and work away on them, tabbing back and forth between programs. i currently only run into memory issues when working with extremely high resolution textures/3d view freezes in Bodypaint/C4D or when generating displacement maps in Zbrush from heavily subdivided meshes - but most of these i can workaround by just closing apps and compacting memory.  i really dont see how Poser would ever need more than 8 gigs: granted i do mostly pinup style renders, but i render with maxxed out settings with raytracing/reflections/GI and have not once seen poser use more than a couple gigs of memory tops.

a Core i7 (or even i5) laptop with 8 gigs of RAM, a halfdecent graphics chipset and windows 7 64 would meet or exceed your needs.

incidentally, the most noticeable performance upgrade for Poser - at least for me - was replacing the factory HDD for a faster one (7600 RPM - im not quite ready to switch to SSD yet due to the rash of reliability issues). this also has a secondary benefit in that you can just yank the stock HDD out (with all the factory installed bloatware/trialware) and set it aside. do a clean install of your OS and programs on the new drive, and if for any reason you need to send the laptop back for warranty you can just pop the stock HDD back in and keep your work drive.

Hi

Don't buy an Alienware computer without looking at Falcon Northwest.

I'm 73, a Graphic Designer for 50 years and I've had a lot of computers, my Falcon Talon is by far the best computer I've ever had by a zillion miles.

I can see frame rates as high as 250 fps in Lord of the Rings Online and it works fantastic with Poser, better then anything I've ever had.

It came all set up and registered to me, all I had to do was turn it on and use it.

No bloat ware, not even trial antivirus software, I put in what I wanted and that was that.  The computer had been tested for 3 days I have all the records including temperatures and power draw levels of all the components.

I've had it for a year and a half now and on the strength of mine 2 of my friend have gone with Falcon as well.

And it comes with real disks, for Windows and all the other componets.

As well as a system restore disk made on this compter.

At least take a look at their web site.

http://www.falcon-nw.com/

Mike

PS.

My setup specs.

Falcon North West Talon.

I7 at 2.93 Ghz

ATI 5870 video card

8 Gigs fast ram

2 1 TB internal hard drives

2 DVD Read Write.

Soundblaster Audigy sound card.

Dell 24" Ultra Sharp Monitor.

4 External Hard dives, 2 500 Gb, USB, and  1, 1 TB Firewire and 1 500 Gb Firewire.