I'm scoping out my next PC and need some help in making a choice that will maximize the performance of POSER and the playing of AVI files. My first question is about Processors. I assume that an 866 MHZ chip will be about 5 X quicker than my 166. RiGHt??? Is a Celeron chip as good as a regular P3 for POSER performance. I have the option of buying a dual processor motherboard. How would POSer use this and what would the performance gain be. Video boards?? What is AGP What is Nvidia?? What features on a video board affect Poser and the playing of Multi media files. What are the mechanics (math) that tells me how much memory a video board should have. RW-CDROM Can a RW CD play fast enough to play a 650 X 650 pixel AVI file without flickering IE what speed is required. Obviously ram is a major consideration.Is 256 reasonable? Would it render a 999 frame poser file quickly (ie before the next millenium) Thanks in advance to anyone who is able to shed some light on this Black Art.

First of all, please don't get a celeron. They are the equivalent of a Pentium One, which is seriously outdated. The big debate would be Pentium III versus Athalon Thunderbird and, if you're really current, the Pentium IV. I would recommend the Athalon Thunderbird processor. It is faster then the P3 of the same speed and is cheaper. Any motherboard you are likely to get now is equipped with a 4x or greater agp speed, which will handle the full benefits of the newest Video cards, though it has nothing to do with Poser or Bryce. A dual processor will not affect Poser in any way, the program is written for only one. Memory is an issue, and you should have a LOT of it. 256 is good to start, try to get a 256 chip so you have the most room to expand in the future. There are only so many ram slots after all. Any video card will do for poser, but for the fun games and stuff you will want to drop 200 dollars or more on your video card. Anything less is shaky and less than current. As far as which card to get, the geforce cards from Nvidia are considered the best right now. The cdrw you mention will play an avi just fine, as the players are all buffered anyway. good luck

Depends on how much you want to spend versus the minimum performance you want. Celerons are good processors and are slightly "faster" than equivalent Pentium processors (II and III) because of the onboard L1 cache. If you have the cash burning a hole in your pocket, go with a Pentium III (choose a motherboard based on Intel's i840 chipset though and not the i810 or i820) or an Athlon. Actually, a 450Mhz Pentium II, 256Mb of SDRAM will run Poser like a champ and leave you money for an Oxygen 3D video card (the Oxygen 3D video cards cannot be beat for rendering 3D graphics and is the card of choice for CAD professionals). For an operating system, insist on Windows 2000 Professional. Poser will run faster and better on a dual-processor motherboard, even though it's not written to take advantage of a dual-proc system. Poser 4 runs almost twice as fast on my Tyan S1837 (two P-II 350Mhz processors) than it does on my Asus with a P-II/450Mhz proc. Actually, the operating system (Win 200 Professional) will split part of the load between multiple processors, as will the RISC processor on any of the Ozygen 3D cards. Caution: the Oxygen 3D cards are poor cards for games. You'll need something like a GEForce for games. R. Baldwin, MSCE Computer Wizardry Alexandria, VA

Slow Down... These observations are my opinion only based on my experience. (may not be shared by all). RAM .... Get all you can afford. 128 min, 256 or more preffered. What is AGP? It's a newer configuration than the PCI card in your present system. You'll find that there are cards of every decription and memory config. Once again the more RAM on the video card the better. (generally) There are cards for dual monitor configs and no matter which of these you choose you are going to see a monumental increase based on your present system. Nvidia is a brand!? Mine is based on an Intel 810 AGP card with 32Mb of Ram and it screams. I also have a Matrox Dual head which is a sweet card. It too has 32Mb of RAM but it will allow me to use two monitors ...OR ... one monitor and a TV Monitor. Great if anticipate ever needing a way to go to tape. I'm truly not sure about the Celeron. I think I heard that it's Co Processor portion was a bit deficient. CD-RW ... If your throughput and read speeds are respectable I know you can do 30fps at 640x480. The calculation of an 866 being 5 times quicker than a 166 doesn't hold true in the strictest sense. There are too many vaiable to make that claim. However, I assume that your 166 is a straight Pentium and your new one would be a PIII. You will notice a drastic increase. Check out these two sights for more accurate info; www.tomshardware.com and www.zdnet.com or www.techtv.com

Thanks for your time.

One more thing: Absolutely get a 40 GB 7200 RPM hard drive (as opposed to a 5400 RPM)! It will speed up your system significantly more than going from, say, a 750 to a 850 MHz CPU. Maxtor's has worked great for me. Good Luck! JR

I'd run a CDR and a normal CDrom together no point wearing out your CDR when you can by a cheap CDrom for 40 plus you'll be able to back up CDs without going via the HD........Steve

First of all, this might be better posted to the hardware forum... :-) {I assume that an 866 MHZ chip will be about 5 X quicker than my 166. RiGHt??? } Sort of. A 166 runs on a 66 mhz system bus with, IIRC, a 2x multiplier (the chip really runs at 88 mhz, or thereabouts). An 866 runs on a 133 mhz system bus. 866 with a multiplier around 4 or thereabouts, so the processor runs at about 220 mhz, but transfers data at 133. The mathematics are VERY complicated (I've been run thrhough them twice and still don't quite get it...). However it works out, it's really about 6 times faster on paper and about 4 times faster in practice... :-) {Is a Celeron chip as good as a regular P3 for POSER performance.} For business applications, there is NO major difference between a P3 Celly and a standard P3. The Celeron has it's l2 cache disabled, so if you're using graphics or games (anything CPU intensive), it will run a LOT slower than a straight P3, but if you're running text-based applications (Word, Excel, etc.) you may actually get BETTER performance from the Celeron in some cases. For graphics, get either a P3, a P4, an Athlon or an Athlon Thunderbird. {I have the option of buying a dual processor motherboard.} If you're getting P3s, then SERIOUSLY consider this. For anything else, get a single processor board for now. {How would POSer use this and what would the performance gain be.} Poser won't use it, though you can, if running Windows2K, set it to use one processor so you can do other work on the other one. WinNT might do this too, but I don't think it's quite as "good" at it. {Video boards?? What is AGP} Advanced Graphics Port. A good idea that is 99% hype at present. { What is Nvidia??} One of the major video card chip manufacturers - and the producers of one of the best chipsets on the market for gaming (the GeForce and it's family). { What features on a video board affect Poser} Video RAM and not much else. Get at LEAST 16, ideally 32. If you're getting a Dell system and can afford it, get a 64, but otherwise you're probably wasting the money unless you are a master at tweaking both hardware and software for performance. {and the playing of Multi media files.} The chipset affects this. I'd suggest either something with the Nvidia GeForce2 or the ATI Radeon chip for best performance, though the Voodoo 4 and 5 are not bad choices. Unless you can afford a pro-level card (they start around $500 and shoot WAY up from there). {What are the mechanics (math) that tells me how much memory a video board should have.} Whatever the board can handle, though your OS might limit this. If you're using NT or Win2K, just about any amount is fair game; otherwise there are "sweet spots" that yeild ideal returns varying by OS and Motherboard configuration. {RW-CDROM Can a RW CD play fast enough to play a 650 X 650 pixel AVI file without flickering IE what speed is required.} The CPU and RAM have more influence on this than the CD drive, I THINK. Your best bet, if you can afford it, is either a DVD or CD drive AND either the CDRW or a straight CDR in a second drive bay. Otherwise, a high-end CDRW is a good bet, and should work well. {Obviously ram is a major consideration.Is 256 reasonable? Would it render a 999 frame poser file quickly (ie before the next millenium)} Depends on the OS. I have 128 and it's not bad, but 256 seems to be the most common level, and I've seen 512 tossed around out there. If you're running anything but Windows NT, Windows 2K or a non-MS Operating System, you're PROBABLY wasting your money with MORE than 256 though. {Athalon} That's how it's PRONOUNCED, but it's only SPELLED with one A (Athlon)... ;-)

My plan was to take the operating system offerred. Windows Millenium, But I'm starting to get a different message. Also the idea of a writeabe CD and a cheap CD is really intguiing. What is the downside to AMD processors, I've always been concerned that there were some applications that were InTel sensitive. Has anyone experienced such an application? Finally yes I guess there is a Hardware section. But in my defense only the techno geeks read it and I need answers My simple Brain can get around.

Bleah Do not put windows ME on a serious machine. If your running dual CPU's, go with win2000 or NT4. WinME is a red-headed stepchild of windows.

Hi DSQRD, I have an AMD Athlon 850 MHz at home (single processor) running Win98 SE. I'm very happy with it and everything works great. You shouldn't worry too much about 'Intel-sensitive apps'. You should worry about hardware sensitive to which Microsoft OS you are using. Win98 SE is probably a better choice than Windows ME. Personally, I'd steer clear of dual processors. I think your money is better off in more RAM and a better (and bigger) hard drive. I'd also recommend the dual CD setup. JR

{What is the downside to AMD processors, I've always been concerned that there were some applications that were InTel sensitive. } With the older AMD processors (Pre-Athlon) this WAS a major concern, but the Athlons have fixed most or all of the problems. You'll notice some perforamance hits with some software, but you'll also see some software function BETTER with the Athlon. They're virtually identical. To reiterate, if you want a dual proc system, go for two P3s or to P4s. If you don't, you'd PROBABLY do best to save a few bucks and get a single Athlon. Note, however, that Athlons require different motherboards than Pentiums do...