I just bought the following items from Newegg about 2 months ago for $1324 ($1439 including tax and shipping):
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit DVD - OEM
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P10664GK - Retail
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80580Q9300 - Retail
ASUS P5Q Deluxe LGA 775 Intel P45 Intel Motherboard - Retail
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Antec NeoPower 650 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - Retail
MSI R4850-T2D512 Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail  
SAMSUNG 2253BW Black 22" 2ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail

Take out the Windows Vista ($99.99), monitor ($269.99), and power supply ($99.99...if yours is powerful enough) and you are looking at  a grand total of $854.. But you may need to add $70-$150 for a new case.

Well, considering he didn't change anything other than installing Poser, I would say he did eliminate other possible culprits. It's pretty simple really: Boot takes x seconds - Install Poser Boot takes y seconds - Remove Poser Boot takes x seconds If poser doesnt have any affect on boot, then x should equal y. However, if i recall correctly, Poser does require a reboot after install to complete its setup. Right? Therefore, the only way to truely see if Poser increased boot time would be to perform two reboots - one to complete the setup, and another to check the time your system takes to boot up.

You people calling him a tattletale or any other related terms are being idiotic. He simply used an example of something obviously considered acceptable to illustrate his point. People do this EVERY DAY in life. Grow up. To say his image suggested there may be some "potential" sexual act is asinine. If thats the case, then pull every image of any people kissing, hugging, or a million other types of displays of affection, cause any one of those actions can be potentially sexual. Pookah, you were clearly discriminated against. However, the owners of this site have the right to pull any image they wish. Drop it, move on.. Dont feel bad, you are not alone. It has happened to other people before. If it really upsets you, there is nothing making you stay here and continue to post images.

I seem to remember being able to change the texture, then change it back and have it be updated in the render.. But, another way of doing it would be to just rename them as you change them. denim1, 2, 3, etc.

Sandra Bullock?

Cool. The scenes are similar, but not the "same". Are you comparing anything in particular? Render quality? Time? All the above?

Millman, I really have no idea what the heck you are talking about, cause it doesnt get any simpler than http://www.daz3d.com/ Products, search, support, etc etc, all right there on the front page, with no registration required, just like you say you want.

Nice. Id say the first pic looks best/closest to realistic. The poser pic is dull and a little cartoony (yeah, thats a word! lol). D|S doesnt look like it likes the imported lights, or it didnt import their intensity properly, or maybe its just poser not properly interpreting the lights in the first place?? Have you experimented any more with that?

Sorry to say, but this survey is a waste and will do absolutely nothing to change what is going on. Existing laws are already in place for such copyright violations, but people continue to steal. If laws actually stopped thiefs, there wouldnt be any theft to complain about! lol

All a DNS (domain name server) does is translate the text domain name to an IP address. Register.com is not his host, and will most likely be unable to assist you in any way other than telling you to contact his host. Stick with qins.net and birch.net.

register.com is a registrar, meaning they just register domain names. The people you need to contact is the site's host. The contact info points to www.qins.net. However, a traceroute of the domain leads to www.birch.net (auto-redirects to birch.com). Birch.com looks to be a broadband provider. They are in the same area of the US (texas and surrounding areas) as qins.net, so they may be affiliated. I would send an email to both. Here are there contacts for such issues: abuse@birch.net and abuse@qins.net Since it is somewhat unclear who the host may be, make sure to clearly state the issue and the domain/location of the files so they will be able to determine if they are the actual host. It is quite possible the individual is running the website directly from a home PC, connected to a broadband connection from birch.com, using a domain registered by qins.net.

Damn, this thread is full of misconceptions! "AMD part numbers don't reflect the actual clock speed, but rather what AMD reckons to be the Pentium clock speed that would be needed to equal the performance." Not quite.. The model number is representitive of how fast the previous generation of Athlons would have to be running to keep up. "Most professionals use the AMD CPU for cost savings and business applications, however, Gamers and serious high-end Animation and graphics intensive users go to the Intel because the AMD generates a lot more heat than the Intel CPU's." Outdated.. The P4 generates a lot more heat than the Athlon these days man. The latest ones are real bad. The new 3.2Ghz Prescott P4 runs about 30F hotter than the Northwood P4 (163F vs 133F) at the same clock speed. Except for the initial Athlons (many many years ago), and now the current P4s, the heat dissipation between P4 and Athlon is a couple Watt difference. The so-called overheat problem of Athlons was not a result of higher heat generated, it was the lack of a thermal diode. Intel chips have had a thermal diode to shut them off and protect themselves from overheating for years. Most gamers go with Athlon because it is cheaper and faster. (I should know, I am a gamer and have been building systems for gamers for almost 10 years). Business users tend to go with the Dell's, thus they go with Intel. Animators go with the CPUs that used to always be better in those apps due to competitors incredibly slow FPU performance - Intel. However, if you look around you will see more and more firms switching to Athlon64s every day. Sandoppe - People who claim to have problems with Athlons or tell you not to buy them are either misinformed or just simply zealots. Bottom line is you will be doing great with a CPU from either company. The P4 and AthlonXP and Athlon64 are all fast CPUs.

Even though they will both be slow, the Celeron 1.1 is the better choice in this case. It's clock speed advantage will give it the upper hand here, by a little. However, later on down the road when you decide to upgrade, just keep in mind the Celeron is a lot slower than other equally clocked CPUs. ie: A Celeron at 2Ghz is much, much slower than an Athlon or P4 at 2Ghz. Mason, that Celeron article is from 1998 (!). Thats far too outdated. The Celeron has changed a heck of a lot since then, and is far more crippled than it was back then too.

Why must this come up every other month. The answer is really simple. Are you making 3D art? Yes, therefore you are a 3D artist. Argument over. There are obviously varying degrees of skill involved.. But that is the same for ALL art. Some people paint objects, or form objects from clay, or create 3D objects on a computer to make a piece of art. Some people photograph existing objects or render existing 3D objects to make a piece of art. They are all artists, but the argument always comes up. The painter says you are not an artist because a computer or camera does the work, and not your hand and brush. The sculpter says you are not an artist because a computer formed the shapes, not your hands and tools. A 3D modeler says you are not an artist because someone else created the objects and you just stuck them together for a render. In the end it doesnt matter. They all created a piece of art.

Gas. Diesels dont have spark plugs.