How fast of a PC is needed for trhe link?

[ken_rychlik]

I still don't have the issues worked out for the sb3.6.10, but it's a little better. I am thinking my pc may be to slow (800 mhz) I was wondering at the bot is my old pc going to be useless with the link or will it fly.

I have had ecabs on a design laptop that works well for the program, but I am just wondering about the shop pc.

Who had to upgrade pc's at the bot and what works well?

Thanks
Kenneth

[Gary Campbell]

Kenneth...
It seems that most of we existing users have been able to use our existing computers. I think Lorin posted about an extraordinarilly long nest time, but I am sure he is the exception.

Our shop comp is an older low powered unit and it does fine, but I did kick it up to a gig of ram (before the link)
Gary

[erniek]

A faster computer will generate the cutting file a lot faster. Not so important if you're just doing a couple of sheets but if it's 20+ sheets you could be waiting 20+ minutes. Also a slow computer will take longer when changing directions because the link doesn't make a 90 degree turn at a corner, it actually goes around the corner in a small circle, which on a slow computer can take 2 or more seconds per corner.

[dlcw]

Kenneth,

I would look on eBay for refurbished Dell Optiplex (I think that's the brand) computers. I bought one for $250 and it has a 1.6ghz processor, 4gb ram, 80gb hard drive, USB 2.0 Windows XP Home edition and it works great. It's a little slow with eCab software but most of that work is done on my quad core processor main computer (which eCab can still bog down). SB Link works great on the Dell Optiplex though it can also be a little slow calculating the cut file on a large sheet job. Like Ernest said a faster computer will calc a lot faster. I'm sure there are other venues for purchasing refurb'd machines, I choose this venue because the refurb'd computer has a 12 month warranty on it.

I happened to have a nice 19" LCD monitor, wireless keyboard and wireless mouse laying around so put them to use on the SB computer.

Don
www.diamondlakewoodworks.com (http://www.diamondlakewoodworks.com)

[erniek]

Another option would be to upgrade the motherboard, CPU and memory. I'm doing that at the moment and the cost is less than $180.00 for a 2.5 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo machine. A power supply may be in order as well if the old one isn't up to snuff.

[loriny]

It is actually my desktop which I design on that seems incredidly slow. It is getting upgraded soon. To run the link at the Bot I have a few year old T42?( I think)- IBM think pad. It works quite well.
Lorin