Hi guys. I am thinking of updating my system to cater for 3D programs and rendering. Any advice for CPUs, memory and graphics cards? Is a P4 3.2 OK? Is a dual CPU really better than one? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am prepared to spend a little money as long it makes a difference. ie I don't want to buy a twin CPU if the rendering speed is not that much faster. Kind regards, Mil.

Twin cpu's - Make sure the program you will be using can take advantage of this configuration. Some do not. If you DON'T get a PC that has twin cpu's, you may want to go with a 64-bit cpu, so you can be ready for programs that can take advatage of that, and also when the program(s) you already use, can use it. PCI Express over AGP. I would do it. It may not be THAT better right now, but the programming is going to catch up with the hardware, better to have it, and already be prepared for any advatage it may have. AS

You'll probably want a system that has a lot of ram, and can handle a lot more. Throwing more ram at a lot of 3D and 2D programs seems to help a fair bit.

I'd advise an Athlon64 Socket 939 system. You can upgrade it to a dual-core Athlon64 when they are released (scheduled in September 2005). Or wait a few months and buy an Athlon64 dual-core system. PCI Express. AGP is "old" technology by now, PCI Express is the way to go. Right now, PCI Express graphics cards are the same price as their AGP counterparts, or even cheaper. And PCI Express mainboards have become mainstream. Look at the nVidia Quadra based graphics cards. They are designed for graphics workstations and have excellent OpenGL support. Pricey, though. But much better than the mainstream game cards, at least for 3D apps. Lots of RAM. Start with at least 2 GB. Win64 is about to arrive, I expect that especially RAM and CPU intensive apps will be the first to make the move to 64bit. Use 1 GB modules, so you can expand to 4 GB. Multiple harddisks. I'd advise two small and very fast drives (Western Digital Raptor, 10,000 RPM) though they're expensive, and at least one large regular 7200 RPM disk for mass storage and archiving.