I need to upgrade my system to take on anything higher than what I'm using (Poser 8). I also use Silo 2 and am learning Photoshop CS5. I'm looking for suggestions for the best barebones PC systems to look for on a (low) budget. At this point, Pro 12 will be as high as I go for a while, and I've viewed the requirements for that program. Though I've been working on a comfy laptop, a desktop will probably be a better investment as far as updating.

Any suggestions for buying or avoiding are appreciated! This would be primarily for modeling and texturing realistic images; not really into animation or toons at this time.

Thank you!

I have an AMD quad 2.4 ghz, 6 gigs of ram and it runs just fine ;). You could get a barebones with that for 300 or less at someplace like Tiger Direct or Newegg.

Laurie

I think the requirements for Pro 12 and 14 are the same.  PP2014 is optimised in several areas, particularly with ray tracing and the preview.  It's faster than PP2012 in many areas.  I'd seriously consider using the most recent version as the speed up is a bit like having a faster computer.

Hi

I'm not pushing this specific computer.

The specs are pretty good for what you want to do, as far as processor, ram, and video card goes.

3+ Ghz Processor, nVidia Grapics card, and at least 8 Gigs of ram, plus a 1TB hard drive.

It's about as much computer as you will get at this price.

http://www.amazon.com/iBUYPOWER-GAMER-POWER-AM678-Desktop/dp/B00BF9MVCU/ref=amtcd_B00BF9MVIE_B00BF9MVCU

As noted the computer shown needs a bigger power supply then they are specifying, I'd go 600 W, but for the most part this would do the job.

But this is the kind of thing you can look for or have someone build for you.

If you can to spend around $1,500 then I'd look at a basic Falcon NW Talon.

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

Best computers on the market.

I can run anything on mine, and  create 3D video in minutes instead of hours. 

Mike

Just a reminder, since this comes up alot, Poser doesn't really take full advantage of the latest GPUs (only using them for the OpenGL preview), so anything you get new should be fine.  But if you want to use a 3rd party renderer, you'll have more choices available with nVidia (because of CUDA) than with AMD/Radeon.

You'll want a 64 bit OS...

Well, you could pick up a 1st gen Xeon workstation off ebay for less than $200.  Tons of them coming off lease.  Slap a new hard drive & operating system in it and you are good to go.

Try www.magicmicro.com I have three machines from them and they are excellent with three-year support.

 I thought it would cost less to build it myself, but a Xeon showed up on ebay that looks better than what I could have put together for the same price. It has a 4-core Intel and a quaddroFX VC. Some older stuff, but I couldn't do much better right now. I might spring for a new case and some fans if the ventilation isn't good enough.

Thank you, everyone, for the advice.