Assuming no problems with finance, without getting silly, what would be the best system to run pp20102? RAM, graphics card and processor - motherboard too if relavent.

Asus P6x58D-E w an i7 970 or 980 and 24 gig of ram. I prefer an Asus GT 430 Vid card cause it only uses 40 watts, it's fanless and a 128G SATA3 SSD for OS Apps and whatever HDD's You want for Content and storage Back ups etc

I've wanted to ask this of those with ridiculious amounts of ram - where do plug all those memory modules in??

Most come in 4 gb to 8gb sticks so I guess you would need the very largest capacity ones not to run out of slots on you motherboard. Is 8gb the largest stick?

Hi

I have to push Falcon Northwest.

The Basic Talon will really do the job but you can beef it up if you want to.

I upgraded to two 1 terabyte hard drives and two DVD writers.

I've had my Talon for two and a half years and I love it.

3 of my friends have bought them after seeing mine.

We've had discussions about render times and stuff here before and I can render things in seconds that take some other users many minutes.

My friend Paul just bought a new Talon and it's noticeably faster then mine and has 16 gigs of ram, I only have 8.

I can run a 3D game like Wow at as high as 300 fps, if I don't limit the frame rate.

I use the highest setting possible for preview render 4096 by X and get virtually instantaneous renders even when animating.

Next year I'm going to buy a new one, and pass this one on to my nephew.

Sorry for the over enthusiasm but I love this computer the best I've ever had. 

And the price while not cheap isn't really that bad, if you compare it to Dells and mass produced stuff like that.

FNW has been in business since 1991 and has a super reputation.

Make sure you price out a Talon, the Mach 5s do get a litle pricey with all solid state HD etc.

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

I love to window shop, just putting together different configurations getting ready for next year.  next one 32 gigs of ram, or maybe 64 by then. LOL

If you just want a list of componets build one in the configuration program and write down the componets that they use.

Mike

(ashley9803)  

Quote -   I've wanted to ask this of those with ridiculious amounts of ram - where do plug all those memory modules in?

     Workstation motherboards have more RAM slots than the general purpose chassis do.  They may also have provision for two processors.  Cameron has twelve 8 GB sticks and two hex-core Xeon processors.

     Also, workstation motherboards have a main chipset which is capable of handling a lot of RAM, whereas general purpose motherboards' chipsets are only able to read a modest amount of RAM.  For example, Pixie is 64bit, but her chipset limits her to using 8 GB, even though more RAM would physically fit in the chassis.

Here's a mother board that supports 32 gigs of ram at a reasoanble price.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z77V/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131820

Mike

     I was just perusing the Falcon Northwest configurator; the Talon has a choice of chipsets; the lesser handles up to 32 GB, the greater handles 64 GB. :D

     Even with a hideous torture-test render, the most memory I've been able to prod Poser to use was just over 48 GB. My poser usage habits are especially resource-heavy (huge enviro sets, complex materials, large render dimensions, high render quality settings), yet 16 GB would suffice for 90% of my projects.  Most Poser users would probably never approach Pixie's 8 GB limit.

I have 12 gig mainly due to the motherboard I have which is one of the original X58's from intel, and that it is a genuine Intel board and well for that reason it is a bit dicky when filling all four slots.

The new generation boards are better now and even the new 2011 socket looks nice specially if you can afford a a hex-core cpu with 6 processors that would be sweet. ;)

     Oh, and ashley9803, 8 GB is the largest RAM stick of which I'm aware.

      And to address luckybears' opening question:  

•   processor cores  -  The more you have, the faster Firefly will render.  HyperThreading will allow you to render twice as many threads as you have processor cores (albeit the virtual threads only run at about 2/3 to 3/4 the speed of the actual physical cores).  So, a core i7 quad will render eight threads, whereas a Q6600 quad will only render four threads.  Firefly maxes out at 32 threads;  you'd need a HyperThreaded dual octal processor pack to hit that limit!
• RAM  -  It's not very expensive now, so if your budget allows, get the max that your motherboard will handle.  Some programs -such as Vue- will reward you with much better preview quality and faster reaction to the controls.
• decent graphics card with some onboard memory  -  An easy goal to meet with today's cards, the benefit in Poser is to be able to preview in OpenGL with hardware shading enabled.  You'll see tiled materials actually tiled -which lets you adjust the tiling scale easily- and you'll see procedurals displayed, with scale/frequency et cetera accounted for.  Again, Vue will make much use of a good graphics card, giving you a preview quality which rivals a draft render.
• extra hard drives  -  Secondary drive to hold your scene files and renders, and a tertiary drive on which to archive content zip files and old scene/render projects.
• mouse jiggler  -  Looks like a flash drive, but it just moves your cursor one pixel every twenty seconds or so;  during renders, it will keep your computer from going to sleep.
• good cooling  -  Remember that you'll be running the processor and memory very hard for extended periods when rendering.

     Since you don't seem to be on a tight budget, You might consider a hex core Xeon processor;  they're HyperThreaded, so you'll be able to render twelve threads.  :)

     12 GB motherboards are quite reasonable now, and will give you plenty of punch (but if they offer 16 GB, so much the better!)  This build would give a lot of bang for your bucks.

     Another thought, luckybears;  if within your budget, I recommend getting a matched pair of monitors.  You can have a large preview window open on one monitor and move the control panels and library to the second monitor.  Two 1920x1200 pixel monitors would be a nice luxury.  ^^

     If you already have a monitor, buy another with the same pixel dimensions, or at least the same pixel height.  Expanding your desktop across two -or more- monitors with different pixel heights leaves you with "dead" spaces on your desktop wherein you can lose your mouse cursor or not see prompt boxes.  It's perfectly fine to use two monitors with different pixel widths.

     For example, a 1920x1200 with a 1600x1200 would work well;  but a 1920x1200 with a 1920x900 will have have unviewable desktop space at top and bottom of the 900 pixel high monitor.

Lots of information here so thanks for the help. I needed to know what other people used for poser so now I'll ask my computerr man to read this before continuing. 

Quote - Hi

I have to push Falcon Northwest.

Oh, my. They ship to Canada.

I saved my desired configuration. Now I just have to decide if I really want to spend $5200 and how I would possibly ever hide this from my spouse. I'm thinking... not.

But the site gives me some ideas...

Hi

I know it's a temptation to go all out like that. I always configure a Mach 5 with all the goodies, and then do a Talon.

It's not because I can't afford it I just can't bring myself to spend that much on a computer.

While some options aren't available I can put together a real barn burner for 3,000 to 3,500. Liquid Cooling, 32 Gigs of ram, top of the line sound card etc.

My friend Paul just got a Talon with the 3.5 Ghz, I7, two 500 Gig Hard Drives, 2 DVD drives, 2 Gig nVidea video card and 16 Gigs of ram for a little over 2,000.

It is unbelievably fast.

Faster then my 2 1/2 year old Talon that that cost a lot more then his.

But the technology marches on.

I don't have any stock in the company, this really is the best computer I've ever had, and I go clear back to 486 25 hz processors. 

I'm 74, and every computer I buy could be my last. 

Next year I'm going to get another Falcon maybe this time I will go all out and get a Mach 5, like I said it could be my last. LOL

I replace my PC every 4 years, I just have to have the fastest thing I can get whether I really need it or not.

Mike

Well, even if I spent 2,000, I'm glad you pointed the way to that site. Not as many options in Canada, unless I were to build it myself. The shops around here that offer "custom build" systems are a complete joke. I can't believe people are buying "performance gaming" desktops with 8 GB of RAM and a 4 year old dual core for $1200. But those are the sorts of options available locally.