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Author Topic: Choosing a second hand PC to run Mach3 ?  (Read 4316 times)

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Choosing a second hand PC to run Mach3 ?
« on: March 19, 2008, 05:20:33 AM »
Smoke test day is  getting closer for my machine.

Can I ask some advice on what PC to buy.

Is a second hand Pentium 4 1.8 GHz suitable to run Mach 3 ?

I will be running 2 parallel ports driving a 3 axis router.


Bruce
« Last Edit: March 19, 2008, 05:26:14 AM by MachBruce »

Offline Hood

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Re: Choosing a second hand PC to run Mach3 ?
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2008, 06:13:59 AM »
Should be fine, few things are to try and get as much memory as possible, try not to go less than 512Meg if at all possible although 256 would be ok at a push. Also try and avoid onboard graphics, some work fine but others can have issues.
Hood
Re: Choosing a second hand PC to run Mach3 ?
« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2008, 09:24:32 AM »
Sometimes a “good price” on a used PC turns out not to be so good.  I picked up a used Dell for a good price. (free).  I only had it powered on when using the router, everything ran fine for a few weeks. But when I did a job that lasted more than an hour it decided to power itself off in the middle of the job. Not fun. Did this twice, after the second time I put it on the street for Friday morning trash pickup. 

Here is an example of what I replaced it with.  (mine has an AMD processor) http://www.tigerdirect.com/email/wem1641.asp

I leave it running all the time and so far no problems.

For the price you cant beat it.  Ordered a lot of pc stuff from tiger and yet to have a problem.

Offline Hood

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Re: Choosing a second hand PC to run Mach3 ?
« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2008, 11:21:11 AM »
lovebugjunkie

Just in case this happens to you again the likely cause of your PC shutting down was probably the CPU Fan/heatsink not working at full speed or clogged with dust. If that wasnt the cause then likely it was the voltage regulators capacitors on their way out, if that was the case then looking at them you would see the tops bulging and possibly even some with electrolyte leaking out.
Hood
Re: Choosing a second hand PC to run Mach3 ?
« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2008, 12:17:58 PM »
Hello lovebugjunkie,
Are you using the onboard graphics with the Tiger unit, or which PP card did you end up with ?
Looks like a good deal.
Thanks,
RC
Re: Choosing a second hand PC to run Mach3 ?
« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2008, 03:58:32 PM »
Hi Hood and Overloaded

Hood, thanks for the info, I will make those checks if it ever happens to me again, I was so pissed the second time it powered down I put it in the trash and used my wife’s PC until the one from Tiger arrived.

Overloaded, I use the on board video, seems to handle Mach3 ok, but it is very bad if I try to look at a video using it. Very slow and choppy.  Since PCIe video cards are so cheap I been thinking of picking up one for it.