Claire and I have won a protracted legal battle with our local authority and at the moment we're going through the settlement stage.  Presently we're claiming damages and I'm hoping to get a new computer and Poser Pro 2012 (or whatever it's called) out of the money.

I'm not at the point of specing the system yet - I'll be having a custom built rig - but I'd like to know if 8GB is a realistic amount of RAM or would I be better served getting 12 or 16?  The system will be used for graphics and music recording, so I need something pretty hefty.  To that end, I'm seriously considering 2 x 1TB disks.  Music recording eats up disk space at a phenomenal rate and I don't want to have to write everything to DVD every other day.    

Once we know the lay of the land regarding the damages settlement, I'll have a better idea if this is going to be a reality and, if so, I'll start working out the spec.  I've resigned myself to getting a wide gamut TFT or somesuch, since nobody makes a decent CRT at a realistic price nowadays.  Boo hiss.  Apart from that, I have a few sound card options in mind but I don't know what's worthwhile in the graphics card department now.

Before anyone asks, it will be a Windows 7 based machine. 

yup I'd go with 8gb. tho I'd go with 1tb and 1 2tb. the 1tb for system, the 2tb for data.

I'd also throw in a SATA dock (you can get them cheap) and get some spare 1 or 2tb HDs and use them in the Dock as backup cartridges.. if you've got a little to spare for that.

I agree those hard drive docs are awesome ;).

As for ram, 8gb is more than enough for Poser. Not sure how much your music programs will need tho.

Laurie

I have 8 GB on my computer, and it has no trouble at all with Poser Pro 2012.

8 Gb of ram should be adequate. but i would not choose a 1Tb for a system drive.

a 250Gb fast drive is better, only loading OS and apps on it.

a couple of 1 Tb drives for runtimes and storage, with a couple of large externals for backup. ( only powered up when backing up files)

avoid Maxtor  drives if at all possible ( in my experience very unreliable)

think of the amount of actual work a system drive does, compared to one used for storage. it is the most likely to fail first.

partitioning a drive will not save your data from mechanical/electronic failure.

I do keep my system on a smaller, faster drive actually ;). The big slower guys are relegated to storage.

Laurie

If you've got the cash to spare, you might look at a solid state drive for your system drive. I run a 100gb SSD and only keep Win7 and a few other minor programs on it, with everything else (including all my 3D apps) on other drives.

The difference in boot times is rather significant.

Thanks for the input, folks.

Yeah, I know about Maxtor drives, too.  Then again, any brand of drive can fail and when it does, it's always when you ain't backed up.

I used to like Seagate but I've had a couple of those die on me.  The most reliable I've found so far were Hitachi.

I like Samsungs here.. got a pair of "ecogreens" slower than most at 5400rpm, but they run a lot cooler. I was having problems with seagate and WD 7200's burning out after a year to 18 months... whatever I did they just ran to hot. the Samsungs are having no problems at all.

I have a Hitachi 500 gig 7200 rpm for my C drive. It's given me years of error-free and faithful service thus far ;). It also runs cool.

Laurie

Get USB 3 too.
Windows 7 Readyboost on USB and "fast" SD's or sticks can make your system VERY fast.
8GB RAM, and some readyboost sticks.

I have 6B Ram  now , one SD card and 2 USB sticks on readyboost.
Did not have a problem yet.

Happy Posering
PS, you"ll love Poser Pro 2012

Here's hoping I can get the new rig soon.  These old boxes are ancient.  

In truth, the absolute best HD I ever had was a SCSI IBM at 10,000 rpm.  That baby was fast. 

Slow drives aren't really an option with recording music; I need something that's going to record at least 16 tracks simultaneously without any dropouts, slowdowns or appreciable latency.  Sure, quite a lot of that is due to the processor but a lot is also down to disk access.  I don't think 5000 rpm is going to cut it, unless they all have a super wide data bus these days.  

Recording at CD quality takes 10mb per minute for each stereo pair, so 16 tracks is 80mb per minute.  There may well be times when I need to use 32 or more tracks at once, so the disks are going to have to throw a lot of data around pretty damn fast. 

The question of how much RAM is enough for Poser is dependent on your usage habits and -to a lesser degree- how many cores you're feeding.  The relationship is not linear;  i.e., double the cores will not use double the RAM, but a HyperThreaded quad will use more RAM than a dual core during rendering.

If you create complex scenes, use sophisticated materials, render with raytracing/IDL/SSS enabled, and render at large pixel dimensions, then the 12 or 16 GB option may well be your best choice.  If your Poser habits are not so grandiose, then 8 GB should be plenty.

For the hard drive, you might consider paying more to get a larger buffer cache for a given size/speed hard drive.  That would help the HD keep up with the audio recording data flow.  An SSD for the audio work would be a good option.

1. RAM actually does factor into rendering, contra common claims: More RAM means you can increase your bucket size and get faster renders.

2. Audio processing is very intensive, and if you use a lot of plugins, can bog you down fast.

3. RAM has come down so much in price, I don't really see why you would cheap out on it if you can afford it. 16 GB of DDR3 RAM can now be had for around $150. So even if it's overkill, why not guarantee that's not gonna be the bottleneck for a while?

RAM is cheap. 8GB DDR3 RAM is about 40 Euros here. You can easily squeeze that I to your computer budget, say by buying a 3.4 GHz CPU instead of a 3.7 GHz CPU - trading a 10% CPU difference (= you won't notice) for a 100% increase in RAM (definitely noticeable).

Some interesting posts there.  Seach's point re my usage is extremely relevant, since I always use up to the limit of what I have at the time and I have every intention of getting to grips with the more advanced features of Poser as soon as possible.

The more I think about it, the more it seems 16GB will be the way to go.  Like they say, why spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar?

RAM is cheap at the moment: I'm about to remove the 12Gb (6 x 2Gb sticks) I currently have with 24Gb ( 6 x 4Gb), for about 70% of what the original 12Gb cost me 2 years ago.

Sam absolutely definitely get that 16Gb, if you don't you'll only have to upgrade in future.

OMG..and I feel silly here with my lowly 6 gigs of ram....lol.

Laurie

I recently did a render for a canvas print at 660mm X 460mm (600mm x 400mm including bleed area) at 300DPI or at least that is what I set the dimensions to in Poser 2012.  It did render but used every bit of the 12gig I have installed to do so.  Also had IDL and SSS mind and it took almost four hours to complete.

As to drives I like Samsung and use a mixture of 1tb in the system and 2tb for backup.  The system ones are F3s and the backups are "ecogreen".  I used Samsung F1s on my previous system as well and they are still running while my Maxtor drives (of which I had two) have long since gone to hard drive heaven - or hell.  May be just my luck mind but if I was buliding another system now I would equip it with Samsung HDs.

Laurie - don't feel too bad.  My current Poser box, an ancient single core 32 bit Athlon, has 1.5 GB.  The OS is so old it's in Latin.

You can understand why I want to upgrade. 

Quote - Laurie - don't feel too bad.  My current Poser box, an ancient single core 32 bit Athlon, has 1.5 GB.  The OS is so old it's in Latin.

You can understand why I want to upgrade. 

I completely understand...lol. Having a nice, fast box is awesome ;). I just upgraded from a dual core to a quad core a few months back (and from 3 gigs of ram to 6 gigs) and the increase was very noticeable ;). You'll feel like ur in the cockpit of the Concorde...lol. Especially if you go for the 16 gigs of ram and a quad core. If you can afford it you might even step up to a 6 core. They aren't as expensive as I thought they might be.

Laurie

@Sam Therapy: Saw your current system specs. When you upgrade don't forget the seat belts :)

I have 12 gigs of RAM expands to 24. You never can have anought RAM, especially if you use Vue.

I look at how much RAM the motherboard and controller chipset can utilize, and then fill it up!  But I realize that I'm a RAM hog and not everyone is.  Believable3D and Drifterlee make good points.*

RAM does seem a relatively inexpensive component, and I would advise a prospective buyer to consider

• What other programs will you be using which might need or benefit from lots of RAM?  Vue?  Video/audio editor?
• Are your usage habits perhaps going to grow with time, especially after you get a new more capable machine and you realize that you can do things which you could not do before?
• Are your favorite programs' appetites going to grow as new, more complex versions are introduced? E.g., PP2012 will use more RAM rendering than P4, because PP2012 is doing a lot more.

For many folks, 1.5 GB would always be enough, and buying more RAM would be a waste.   For others, maxing out the motherboard is worthwhile.

One more thing Sam...definitely make sure you get Windows 7 64 bit....you won't regret it ;).

Laurie

Something else to consider if you're going "homebuilt"--the stock heatsink/fan that ship with the processor just don't cut it for stuff like Poser--I recently built an second generation i5, and running all four cores @100% for 30 minutes doing an HQ render meant that I saw CPU temps in the 95C range, which is way too hot.  Tossed an aftermarket cooler (which includes a radiator as big as my hand) on it, and I rarely see the temp get to 65C

When I bought my new PC last summer I got the i7 with 12 gigs and extra case fans. It never runshot.

Quote - Something else to consider if you're going "homebuilt"--the stock heatsink/fan that ship with the processor just don't cut it for stuff like Poser--I recently built an second generation i5, and running all four cores @100% for 30 minutes doing an HQ render meant that I saw CPU temps in the 95C range, which is way too hot.  Tossed an aftermarket cooler (which includes a radiator as big as my hand) on it, and I rarely see the temp get to 65C

Another option is sealed water cooling rig: it's not one that you assemble yourself but one with the coolant already in it and sealed at the factory (you replace the cooler on the chip and the rear case fan). I had one put in mine when it was built and my CPU doesn't get over 30-35C degrees even with all six cores going hard.

I wanted a water cooler so bad since I have a very hot AMD proc..lol. Alas, it was not in the cards. Next time tho :D

Laurie

Quote - Something else to consider if you're going "homebuilt"--the stock heatsink/fan that ship with the processor just don't cut it for stuff like Poser--I recently built an second generation i5, and running all four cores @100% for 30 minutes doing an HQ render meant that I saw CPU temps in the 95C range, which is way too hot.  Tossed an aftermarket cooler (which includes a radiator as big as my hand) on it, and I rarely see the temp get to 65C

Won't be home built.  Will be custom built.  A significant difference.  The guy I'm using for this is very, very good.