"I wasn't really posting the original message as a discussion"

Too late...

Thanks for the thread. My old Poser machine will not allow a better processor or more memory. About all I can do is add a larger hard drive. For those who can upgrade their old systems, it is the cheapest boast for Poser they can get. As you point out, it is a must to know what upgrades are supported before buying.

The I7 now comes in several hyperthreaded 6 core versions, but this would cost considerably more than the $400 (USD) that you spent, and one would need to be sure that the motherboard would support the CPU.

For those rich enough to afford it, there are hyperthreaded Xeon chips with 6 cores, and motherboards with sockets for two CPUs and 32 GB or more. [drool]

Only the preview (not the rendering) of Poser 9 and Poser Pro 2012 will benefit from an upgraded video card. Maybe a future release of Poser will take advantage of powerful GPUs and video memory.

lmk

Probably edited for spelling, grammer, punctuation, or typos.