New computer recommendations?

[gpinard]

I use a Tiger Direct refurbished desktop. HP computer with a fresh install win 7 pro, no added anything only the fresh install of windows. comes with the network card to hook up the home server. I think the one I selected was about 225

[Michaelodunk]

There is a new app on the control panel in windows 7 its called performance information and tools you just click on it and it tells you where a bottle neck could be. My lowest score is on my is on my graphic card which shows up if I have a large sketchup file. I've tried autocad but it is pretty slow because of the graphics card. I'm using an
ACER laptop. I don't think computer speed is an issue for the bot its Autocad that will eat up the speed.
Hope that helps

[adrianm]

For the 'Bot I use older refurbished PC's. Nothing fancy is needed for a 'Bot as it's not a great hog of CPU. Just make sure it has 2gb memory as a minimum. There's no point in going over 4gb (if you're only running SB3) as it's a 32 bit program it can't use it.

For my laptop I run LXLE on older hardware as well. A £50 Dell Laptop (such as a D430) with LXLE will fly along compared to a couple of years old laptop on Windows.

If ShopBot ever produce a Linux version I'll run a control PC with LXLE. Seems to me that a downloadable Linux distro configured to do nothing but run a 'Bot would solve a lot of support problems.

The only real powerful PC I run is for Aspire, Sketchup and Xara where the horsepower is actually used.

[scottp55]

Jeff W. , Getting a lot of good information here and just reread the initial post and saw "Home" !
Is it also going to be a design computer. If so it changes a LOT. Even if only VCarvePro I noticed a HUGE difference in preview time between an old laptop and this new one in running previews of files and sometimes changing 1 toolpath to a slightly shallower cut in a multi-tool file meant a reset and a 10 minute wait on the old XP laptop.
Will this one be doing double duty with the machine AND design, Never regretted for a minute spending a little extra cash for control computer as I often design on the fly in the shop as new ideas Morph on me while cutting and sometimes have 2-3 different versions of VCP files up at the same time while proto'ing something new.
2 cents