Is there a recommended computer that works best? Used IBM and Dell computers are a dime a dozen
My experience with Dells are that they just plain suck as a PC for CNC via PP! They work fine if a SS is used.
You asked ....i just give "my" experience ....you be the judge.
I had a pc made up about a year ago, frankly even knowing what i knew, I realy couldn't define to myself a pc combination
that would guarantee a nice pc for cnc. So, I explained to the technician what it would be used for and he agreed to
find, swap out anything ( motherboard, power supply, etc) until it worked to my satisfaction. What a deal.......and offer!
Here is what i ended up with first the time and it was satisfactory. Very stable and close kernal speed and that was nice when doing the thread
testing.
- Asus motherboard - M2N68-AM SE2 ( this motherboard didn't have a PP port )
- 2 GIG Ram
- AMD 64X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ 2.7 Ghz
- Asus graphics Card - EN9600GSO
- Rosewill PCI pp card - RC302 ( a cheap card but it works fine )
I am sure there are a lot of combinations that are solid, and frankly, still can't say that there is an "ideal" computer to use.
Notice that it is not top of the line as i wanted to keep the pc cost down. No optimization or any other kind of crap was required.
I should of done this in the first place and applied the SS money towards it. The SS still has advantages in use, but, this pc has
provided excellent results and can run my steppers at the higher feed rates similar to the SS with the PP.
SO it's my dedicated pc for running my cnc machines. I would not buy a used pc today with the prices of available new pc's and would again
have mine built.
FWIW,
RICH
MODIFIED: NOT PUT TOGETHER IN SOME RETAIL STORE AND DEFINITELY NOT A DELL , HP, or AMD.