Oh maybe worth saying was the laptop has W2K on it, XP would need a bit more memory I would think.
 As for small PCs, I use the Via Pico on my lathe and mill, its (or was, not sure if it still is) the smallest mobo you could buy, it measures 100mm x 72mm and is not much bigger than the smoothstepper itself. Its a 1Gig embedded CPU and I have 1 Gig memory on them. Below is a pic of the one in the mills cabinet, arrow pointing to mobo and SS.

Hood

hood could you please describe the components that are in the picture and why you used them i am just really curious as there seems to be a lot of stuff there what appears to be a power supply seems to be bigger than everything else.
Thanks
archie =) =) =) 

Didnt get a notification for some reason so missed your question until now.

Ok black power supply is a standard PC power supply, could have used a miniature one suitable for the Pico mobo but I had that one so used it.
There  is the Via Pico mobo of course there is the SS and then a PMDX 122 BOB and below them is another BOB its an Acustep that Ed at CNC Building Blocks used to make.
On the side are relay boards to take the 5v and convert to 24v and then that is the connections below that for my servo drives. On the door is a DL05 PLC. The PLC makes easy integration of my servo drives and Mach and also allows safety features to be easily integrated, things such as the power drawbar not being able to operate if the spindle is in motion and vice versa, also makes it easy to add buttons on panels, FRO and SRO pots etc.

Hood

Hood