I'm visiting the forum for the first time today.  After reading a few of the threads on this board -  especially the rant about Poser content that's not been tested for DAZ - I've got a few questions that I'll preface with a short introduction about myself.

I'm 36, married, childfree-by-choice, and have a full-time job.  I've decided to finally take the plunge and start a new hobby in 3D modeling, but have zero interest in creating my own content.  As such, I've decided DAZ will best suit my needs as a burgeoning artist, and have acquired the V3, V4, V4.1, V4.2, and M3 models.  I've also spent countless hours browsing the content available for free and purchase, here, and on other sites, and have noticed that, with regard to freebies, the phrase, "You get what you pay for" is a little more apprapo than I'd like, so I plan on buying most of my content.

Artistically, my background is in classical guitar, poetry, and speculative fiction - all on a strictly amateur level.  I know next to nothing about 3D modeling, but am learning.    I've already started my first project, and am pacing myself in developing it by only working on it for up to an hour per session, per day, to avoid burnout.  Unfortunately, the more I read on message boards, the more confused I become, which leads me to some questions I have now...

1. I understand the differences between dynamic and comforming clothing, and that D|S is incompatible with the former, but I don't yet know how well conforming clothing works with various models.  I frequently see references to certain items of clothing being best suited for a particular model, such as Aiko, V3, and so on.  Does that mean putting... say... a skirt designed for V3 won't work with V4?  Or that a jacket designed for David won't work with Michael 3?  I'm planning on finishing the poses I'm developing, first, before clothing them.  Is that wise?  What kind of issues should I expect to run into when I clothe them?

2. I'm not expecting to have to work with any other software but D|S, but I often see lots of references to postwork being done in programs like Photoshop.  As my own skills improve, I'd like to reach a point where I can create highly detailed scenes that appear professionally rendered.  Should I plan on having to buy supplimental software for postwork?

3. Finally (for now), I use a PC with the following specs:

Dual Core Pentium D 940 3.2GHz CPU
ASUS P5ND2-SLI nForce 4 Motherboard
2GB DDR2 SD-RAM
500GB Hard Drive
256 MB PCI-E GeForce 7800 GTX

With what little of the project I've started, done so far, the file I've saved already takes about 3 minutes to load after I launch D|S, and I've got nothing more than two figures against the default white space in a relatively simple bose, with one of them snarling at the other.  Should I expect increasingly longer load times as I develop the scene?

Thank you.