Happy Holidays A_C_C
Looks like an interesting start. I never seriously thought about switching to DS.
The first versions way back were quite horrible to me. GUI and workflow were not my kind of logic, and I remember lots of crashes. Then I was on a Linux for some years. I got Poser running there (via wine), but DS wouldn't even install. Back on MS I'm on Poser 7 still, but didn't do a serious attempt since month
If I ever go the step learning a new software, it'd be Blender, I think, all in one
And yes, a new powerful machine would help, indeed