Hello... I'm not much of a hardware person, so I tend to keep one computer for a while. The one I'm using now is a Pentium II with a half-gig of RAM, and it does all right, but it's starting to become frustratingly slow with Poser and other 3D apps as the meshes and textures I routinely use have gotten bigger. I want to buy a new system that's optimized for this kind of work. Faster processor, more RAM, etc. Performance is more of an issue than price - I want this new machine to be optimized for the kind of heavy lifting a complex Poser scene requires. Does anyone have any thoughts on what kind of system, configuration, etc would be best? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

I upgraded my system this week.new mainboard with a athlon xp2000 and 256 mb ddram.runs like hell, but i think ,ill add another 256 mb ram next week.256 mb seems a bit low for poser. The graphiccard has no influence on renderspeed. And look for a fast hd( i prefer 2 smaller,better than one big)

Go with my philosophy: A big ass processor, the most RAM you can stuff under the hood and the biggest, fastest hard drive you can get... all other stuff is optional! Er... except a CD-ROM so you can install Poser! Oops... and DSL so you can get to Renderosity!

I'm thinking along these same things. Right now I have a gateway-performance 982ndED, with 20 whatever hard drive, I added 512 rams the most this computer will use.Pen111 I need some links so I can look at whats best for Poser and how much?

the fastest processor you can afford is a must, also get as much memory as the motherboard can handle, go for win2k or xp. my present system is xp home, 2.0Ghz pentium4, 1Gb Ram, runs like a bat out of hell. Rob

Concentrate on processer and memory. P4 doesnt use video card acceleration and I doubt P5 will either. so if you're not playing games, spending 300+ on a video card is probably a waste when you can use that money on more ram. poser is a ram hog and I'm sure as was stated before the latest DDR sdram will probably be of benifit. make sure you get it in 512 cards rather then 256, my brother just baught the latest system from sony with 512 but when he opened the case found that there were 2 256 filling the two slots so no way to expand without jetisining brand new ram but thats what you get from a major manufacturer. go with a custom job, preferably from a local shop if you don't like digging around in your own case, you may pay a few more bucks but if something goes wrong it's a short ride to get it fixed My personal choice for a processer is an AMD xp2100 at about the same performance as the latest P4 chip it's way cheeper.

if you just want to just do a motherboard, processor, ram switch check this site out http://www.jncs.com/ they do compleatly assembled and tested bundles with practicly any configuration you could ask for.

Agree with processor and Ram, I'm up to 1.5gs of ram. Just one more thing to consider. If your going with more than one HD, get two identical drives and Raid them in hardware. Homework here, make shure your board will support it without causing trouble. Tom'shardware has a lot on that, I recall. Have fun. Q

For Poser4/5? This is the list i used for my last upgrade... Fastest processor you can get. I got P4-2Gig Stuff it with the most RAM you can manage (At least 512M) I got 512M Any decent Video Card that gives good resolution (Anthony Hernandez responded to an Email I sent to CL Tech Support a while back that any good card would work equally well in Poser 5). I got 64M Geforce3 Biggest HardDrives you can manage, at least 7200RPM I got 220Gigs on 2 HD External FIrewire Backup Drives, or a DVD Burner. I got 3 120Gig externals, plus a DVD burner Graphire Pad or better. I have a Graphire Largest decent HiRez Monitor, you can manage. I got a Xenon 18.1" LCD from TigerDirect OS - WinXP

I talk to Anthony, awhile back and he gave me some good advice, but then BryceTech who has the same Gateway, told me I had improved this machine as much as I could. Anthony told me to get a custom made one. Which is nice if you know your dealing with someone whos honest and knows what there doing. I'm Old and lucky I could figure out how to add more Ram cards. :O) I want a super Computer, that runs Poser and photoshop, psp7 like a dream. I don't give a hoot about all the other junk they put on computers. I have cable connection, and after AOL, this is wonderful. Are there company's that make our type of computers out there? That put in what a person needs. (Poser Nuts like me)

Alienware, maybee. In the Eastern US. Don't know if they're anywhere else. Or build your own. Tom's hardware has a good tut. Many more out there. Mostly get a good board. That's the first thing. Homework and research is required. Visit tech forums ask around. Make a plan then if you can't build it, go to a custom place and say this is what I want. If they don't know the products you mention, then run to the next place. Luck, Q

Alienware, Falcon-Northwest, or Hypersonic. I build machines, and if I were going to have someone else build it, those are the three I'd pick. I dunno where the Eastern US thing comes from - all three companies mentioned ship anywheres in the US and Canada. [And presumably to elsewhere] For Poser? Except for lotsa Ram and a fast Cpu, you don't need a specialised rig. If it'll run Quake III at a decent frame rate, it'll do Poser 4.

We need RAM, lots of RAM... Build a custom system. The fastes processor you can fit in your budget and a gig of RAM. If you can afford it use Ram Bus memory. It performs better that DDR on large data transfers. And really shines on streaming video and audio. Right up the alley of a 3D artist. Use Win2K or XP PRO (not the $98 home version) THey are far more stable than W98. If you want real hard drive speed get a Promice RAID controller and 2 drives. Create a Striped array. It will run almost twice as fast as either drive. If you want security the array can be set up as a mirror array. This way either drive could totally fry and you wouldn't lose a single bit. (You must have a REALLY good main board or this will not work right.) The price of DVD-RW is under $400 now. That 5 GIG disk sure will come in handy backing up that huge PoserRuntime folder. Graphics Tablets don't work well in poser, but they are a must for PhotoShop or PaintShop. You can run a conventional mouse and Graphichs tablet simultainously, do it. Ausu P4TE 1005 P4/2.0 1024 RDRAM Promice TX4 w/4 80GB IBM Raid 1,0 Lite-on 40x12x48 CR-RW GeForce 3 TI Logitech 4 Button Optical Wacom Graphire II Win2K A really big case with lots of fans and a 450 watt power supply.

I'm with Nerd on the 4 80's, my latest, not quite finished, has slots for 4 more hard drives-- make sure one of those 80s is Poser alone. As for 512 being about the same as 1G of RAM-- I don't think so, not with XP. I chose slower ram for financial purposes and it sizzles. At least a a gig, at least a gig, at least a gig!! I dont like Graphire because the sensitivity of the tablet is not accurate enough. I really like the old Intuous 1's best so a recondition might be the way. I have one of those and an Intuous 2-- might have gotten a lemon, my computer karma sucks, but the Intuos 2 is too jittery for me. I feel like I'm working with a bucking horse. Its still better than the Graphire though. Emily

RAM and RAM and again RAM. AMD Processor while better for 3D applications then Pentium. A good graphic-card with a lot of memory. A second drive as Nerd sayd for BackUp. Ohh and yeah, forget W98 because it doesn't gives the memory free when used. SHARKEY

I'm running a homebuilt 1.4 athelon Asus A7m266 board 512ddr ram Next upgrade will be the chip (amd fan here so maybe the xp2100?) and the board. I have an older board and although its my 5th Asus board, its not as smooth running as I'd like. Hard drive speed is important too. Look at sustained data transfer rate, not buffer burst rates or rpm's or any other marketing deception. Sustained transfer rate is the key. Go scsi if you can afford it, firewire if you can't, and just the faststs ATA drive you can get your hands on if you're broke.

Don't forget a CD burner so you can backup your system on a regular basis. Poser stuff tends to grow fast! Peggy

tyan tiger dual proccessor board,1 gig ddr,dual athlon mps at 1.7 gig,nvidia geforce 4 ti 4600.you cant do better..........dalebobn.

lo there I use an athlon 2000 xp chip with 1 gig ddr mem and a gforce 4 titanium graph card and it runs like a monster lol and i dont get berror messegas saying i aint got the memory dolly

i use an athlon xp 1900+ 1 gb ddr and a titanium 500 geforce 3,no problems at all,but the system i named is for the guy that posted.....money is not an issue.damn rich people.

I've found that AMD and Athlon Processors stutter on screen redraws and animation playback when the scene is complex, even if you have a lot of RAM. I've got 512MB on an AMD 500mhz K6-2, and it's not all that fast on "heavier" items and scenes. A Dell Precision 410 workstation I have at work is only 350Mhz with 192MB of RAM, and it runs circles around both my AMD 500mhz and my Dell Optiplex Gx1 450mhz/256MB RAM. I was told it was the chipset on the board/processor, I will find out exactly what the chipset is and post it. I'm with nerd, build your own. Alienware is overpriced - I configured one at their site that was over $7,000 USD, and then priced the components (even the same exact case) for under $2,000, and this includes a 20" flat screen LCD! Here's the P4 2.0Ghz barebones system I'm buying, then adding my own drives, RAM, (1GB of SDRAM is only costing me $100!!) and video card: Accubyte 7/9, 12:18 AM Bare Bones Assembled - PC Chips 922L 400FSB(533 capable) w/Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Socket 478 Processor VIA Chipset- WITH 300W ATX PS - 2DDR, 2SDRAM, 5PCI, 1 4X AGP, 2USB, U100, Sound, Lan (looks like you need to get a CPU fan??) (On Website) Accubyte Value Pkg - Intel Fan, Case Fan, Modem & Thermal Paste $29.95 (Part - BB-922-20) price $ 224 shipping $28.9 - 29.93 max total $253.93 Accubyte 888-222-8298 630-832-9200 http://mate.pricewatch.com/scripts/b.asp?3188229 PcChips Link Board http://www.pcchips.com.tw/922l.html You can get the Alienware style cases at Directron.com, search for Chieftec/Antec cases. The Matrix mid-tower case is the one I'm going for, it has 8 drive bays and is only $59.00. Hope this helps! --silver

Oh, and Sharkey's right, Win98 sucks for Poser. Get 2000 or XP, something in the code just WORKS better and faster.