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Generally speaking, a faster computer will render fractals faster. But when comparing two systems, you may not always be able to test fractal rendering speed before making a purchase. Which brand of processor is best? Which motherboard? How much memory? The precise answers to these questions will depend on the specific fractal software you're using, but for the most part all fractal software shares the same needs. I'm going to assume that we're talking about x86-based systems, the kind that run Windows. Those of you looking for Mac systems have fewer choices, but that makes it easy: buy the fastest Mac you want. Now, on to "PC" systems. Processor This is the single most important component in any fractal rendering computer, since it's the part that actually does all the calculating. Faster is better, but at the moment, AMD's Athlon is roughly equal to Intel's Pentium III, MHz for MHz. That means a 600MHz Athlon is going to be about as fast as a 600MHz Pentium III (for fractals). You will likely find, however, that the Athlon processor is cheaper than the Intel counterpart. Sometime within the next few months, AMD is expected to release new versions of the Athlon processor which will address some of the issues that keep it at the same speed as the Pentium III. Once these new Athlons are available, they should be substantially faster than equivalently-clocked Pentium IIIs. Athlons are in high demand right now, so if you're shopping for a new system you might not find one. If you can't get an Athlon system, don't fret; the Pentium III is still a good buy and will not disappoint you. Chips to avoid: AMD's old processor, the K6. The Athlon is great, but the K6 is terrible for fractals. So is any processor brand besides AMD and Intel. These chips just don't have the floating-point performance of the Athlon or the Pentium III. Don't be tempted by the low price. Motherboard I really hate to mention this, because I imagine most of the people visiting this page won't be building their own computers, they will be buying a pre-built system. But in the case of the AMD Athlon it's important to mention that there is a substantial performance difference between motherboards. The "standard" Athlon motherboard is based on the AMD 751 chip; this works, it's reliable, but it's not as fast at some things as it could be. If you can get an Athlon motherboard that's based on the VIA KX133 chip, this is much better. These motherboards are scarce, though, so for now you're most likely to get one of these by buying a pre-built system. (Ironic, huh?) If you don't know what kind of motherboard is in the system, ask the seller. If you're buying a Pentium III system, there isn't as much difference between motherboards, so don't worry about it too much. Memory You can never have too much memory. Well, OK, maybe you can. But at a bare minimum, you want 64M of RAM if you're going to be running Ultra Fractal. The more memory you have, the faster the program can deal with multi-layer images, and that can mean quite a difference while you're building your fractals. If you can afford it, go ahead and get 256M of RAM. That way you can open other programs while working on fractals and not immediately have Windows churn your hard drive as it runs out of RAM. Video Card Those spiffy new video cards look really neat, and you might hear a salesman tell you it will make the computer faster. Well, in some ways, yes, it can. Especially if you plan on using your fractal computer for a few games. (Go ahead, I won't tell.) But when it comes to fractals, having a super-accelerated DDR 4x AGP video card with 128M of RAM isn't going to make a whole lot of difference, except to your pocketbook. If you get a video card that can do 32-bit color at at least 1152x864, you're doing fine. I'm partial to nVidia TNT- or TNT2-based video cards; the drivers are reliable, the Windows performance is great, and the picture is sharp. You'll do equally well with a Matrox video card. Monitor Don't waste time with anything less than a 17" monitor. Fractal programs will run at whatever resolution you want, but like any other graphics program, you need room for all your toolbars, windows, and knobs, in addition to the fractal image. If you can afford to get a 19" monitor, go for it—all that space will be put to good use. You also want to make sure that the monitor you get has a good picture. Generally, the cheaper monitors are cheaper for a reason: they don't look as sharp, they can't handle the refresh rates of better monitors, and they can appear very dark, even with the brightness and contrast adjusted. Try to avoid the cheapest monitors. Storage You need a hard drive to put all those fractals on. But when you start rendering dozens of true-color fractals at large sizes, you'll discover just how quickly all that space can vanish. So if you can manage it, a CD-RW drive (that lets you write your images onto CDs) is a great archiving tool. You can use it to back up the rest of your system as well. (You were going to back your system up, weren't you?) Wrapping Up The rest of the components in a computer system are up to you, and are based more on what else you'll be using the computer for besides fractals. This should give you an idea, though, of what kinds of things to look for in a fractal-generating computer.
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