Hi people im soon to purchase a new p.c, and want to spend about 12,000$ U.S. , I need some advice on the best options for this budget, Preferably some sort of system that can network render if possinble, I was going to buy the fastest laptop i could find and want to network it to some sort of super processor or system than can handle just poser 5 and 3dsmax full renders for animation, can some one suggest a system or a place to invcestigate this please, I can make the pz3 via laptop no probs , but when it comes to render time ,i dont want to be waiting days for a few minutes of hi end renders.

You'll probably end up waiting anyway. The more powerful your computer, the more tempted you'll be to compose longer and more complex scenes. It's a vicious circle. :)

That said, Alienware makes some very nice high-performance laptops. The Area-51m Extreme can be custom-equipped with a Pentium4 3.2GHz processor (with HT technology and a 2.5MB cache), 1GB of PC-3200 memory, ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro (128MB), Audigy soundcard, 160GB of hard drive storage, a DVD burner, and built-in Ethernet for about $4000. Alienware also sells dual-processor workstations bundled with 3DS Max 6. The MJ-12 series might interest you.

$12,000!!! for one computer? dang, you could build a network with that kinda dough..heck, you can get a decent laptop for $1,200..;)
Main thing is to get the fastest processor and most memory, first. The graphics card really doesn't count, get a decent one, but the turbo-charged models aren't going to speed up the render.
2nd thing, is that laptops go obsolete in less than a year (I came up with a time unit called the 'Comdec'..which is the interval between 1 trade show and the next..;) most laptops are made 'obsolete' in less than 6 months.
the Alienware PC's are a good bet, if you're into serious bucks.
3rd- if you're going the network route, you'll only have 1, 2 machines on it(I guess), so your network traffic isn't going to be all that much. 10mpbs cards will work fine, if you have that kinda cash to sport around, you can go 100mbps, if you'd like. Most servers are either dedicated to a few tasks, or are used for storage. Considering what you can get (100g+ drives for under a couple hundred), this shouldn't be an issue.
long story short, you could get all the droolware you want for less than half the amount you're talking about. It's probabaly the Scotsman in me, but I think you can get a real deal for a lot less.

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)

Do you REALLY have a $12,000 budget or is that a mistype? There is a big difference in your option base if you only have $1,200 as opposed to 12,000$US.

$12,000 set up: Dell Precision 650 Dual CPU w/2x20" LCD's: about $5000 Dell Notebook: about $3500 for high end 3D capable Render Farm: 3 Dell 4600 Desktops

For 12,000 bucks it better render in less than a millisecond,wipe your ass and get you a beer all at the same time :)

dare I be heretical about this..but you could afford to get the high-end software with that kind o' spendy...;)

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)

HO-LEE!!! My dream system was only $6,000!! Dual 3ghz, 2 GB RAM, and dual 200 GHZ HD's, with the most amazingly powerful video card I've ever seen (which was something like $3000 on its own - it was a Wildcat)...

Remember, kids! Napalm is Nature's Toothpaste!

This is what I get paid to do, so pardon the lack of details, lol 1 - set aside 1,000 of that to have someone build these for you 2 - plan for 5 systems 3 - Monitors should be 17 to 21 inch LCD secondary plus one 21 inch CRT for color correcting -- 4 total 4 - Use KVM's 5 - Buy 7 MB & CPU's, all identical (2 for spares) 6 - Load up all of the systems with RAM 7 - Set one system specifically up as a resource cow -- the place where all your content is stored. RAID format, preferably serial ATA (SCSI is also good) 8 - single OS across the board for the workstations, match it to a strong server back (XP & 2K3 are my suggestions) 9 - UPS the lot. 10 - Two workstations, 2 renderboxes, one system server/file server 11 - Upgrade your software packages and add aditional plugins -- possibly even add a second modelling package. I'd recommend Maya or Lightwave right now. 12 - Further suggestions: Vue, Carrara 3, Vegas Video, Sound Forge. 13 - have fun first, worry about everything else second.

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)

Here's an Uber Mac from the Apple Store Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5 8GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 8x1GB 2x250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel) Bluetooth Module SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW) Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English Mac OS X - U.S. English Promotion Savings -$300.00 Subtotal $10,671.95 Just add VirtualPC, Max, P5, and anything else you want

Why shouldn't speech be free? Very little of it is worth anything.

Well for $12k I'll put a system together for you. Actually 12k is Waaaaayyyy too much. You could equip a whole office of 5 artists with that. Just get a high end dell. Or wait till the 64 bit processors come out. Or for 12k you could have people in Chile and Brazil do your work for you for peanuts.

"Or wait till the 64 bit processors come out." Why wait? the Mac G5 already has them now

Why shouldn't speech be free? Very little of it is worth anything.

The Opterons and Athlon 64's are out...and considering the number of supercluster wins the Opertons have under their belts... If it's good enough for Cray...

$12,000 would buy you 30 times my computer, giving you 60GHz. Or you could save another $1000 and buy a single copy of Softimage|XSI instead :)

A top end Dell with dual Xeon, 2-4GB ram, dual drives, high end graphics card, CD-RW, DVD, etc... Can be $5k-$6k without monitors. (even higher with a better graphics card)

I would build 2 computers. One with all s/w, one just for Poser & 1 or 2 more 3D programs. Install the minimum on the Poser computer. Have at least 1.5GB RAM. if you are that serious about hardware, you really need to reconsider your 3d software. For pure rendering speed at the highest quality, you should consider buying 3dsMax, & maybe a plugin like Reiss Studio for importing Poser projects into Max. Then Network render acrossed 2 or more computers. The Vray plugin renderer for Max can netrender within a single frame. The Global Illumination render speed blows away all competition easily for even still images, & for rendering animation- even faster. Also- yoou will save a fortune if you learn to build your own. Also helps teach you how to fix/upgrade by building yourself.