question for you techno guys

Don Baer

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I have an older "e machine" that was my wives desk top before I upgraded her machine and am thinking of using it for a dedicated shop NC computer so you guys running these system is the machine sufficient to get the job done. Specs are as follows Intel 352 processor, running at 3.2 G htz. It's got 512 Meg ram and a 1/2 gig hard drive.Presently it has windows XP. The machine will be dedicated to whatever I end up building.

Also I am thinking of going totally out of the windows realm and setting this machine up perhaps with Linux.Of course that means I will have to learn linux but oh what the heck in for a penny in for a pound as they say.
 
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Shop nc? Also, what is the motherboard brand/model number? I had one with similar specs that i just upgraded to a duo core with 4gb of ram for about $25

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I ran my CNC on Win98se with an older computer. Not a problem. Mach3 and CNC's really don't need much computer to run them.

My Larken 2424 Camtool is currently running on a computer with XP much like you have there.
 
Shop nc? Also, what is the motherboard brand/model number? I had one with similar specs that i just upgraded to a duo core with 4gb of ram for about $25

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Darren I am presently working on putting together the parts necessary to build a large 12"x10"x10" 3 D printer.It will need to run in 3 axis just like your CNC routers. There are 7 different ways to do 3 D printing the way I am using is called FDM or fused deposition modeling and is pretty straight forward and doesn't require a high powered laser or any such. You just need a 3 axis platform extruder to extrude the material instead of a router. Instead of cutting away mater you put material back.
 
I'd say boost the memory up a tad, toss in an SSD hard drive, maybe get a faster processor and install Linux Mint.

I'm loving Mint right now. I've got mine installed on a 256gb SSD Drive. Boots up fast and runs great.
 
Darren I am presently working on putting together the parts necessary to build a large 12"x10"x10" 3 D printer.It will need to run in 3 axis just like your CNC routers. There are 7 different ways to do 3 D printing the way I am using is called FDM or fused deposition modeling and is pretty straight forward and doesn't require a high powered laser or any such. You just need a 3 axis platform extruder to extrude the material instead of a router. Instead of cutting away mater you put material back.
Ah, take a look at the motherboard brand and model. I can look to see if it can run a faster processor.

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Ah, take a look at the motherboard brand and model. I can look to see if it can run a faster processor.

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well lets see first of all there a huge fan and heat sink on the processor. on the mother board is a stickers on the sticker it has BTGC6150FZX then a space and then it has AAD51032 300.
on the board it has D33025
i can take a picture of the board if it would help.
 
Yeah a pic would help confirm, but based on the last number the search was showing for the Intel board DG41RQ. Below is a list of cpus compatible with it.

http://processormatch.intel.com/Processors/CompatibleProcessors?componentName=DG41RQ

Here's the manual, according to it, it can handle up to 8gb of ram ($30 - $40).
https://downloadmirror.intel.com/17250/eng/DG41RQ_ProductGuide01_English.pdf

I'd gamble on a used processor off amazon or go down to Fry's and see what they have in stock for the processor. The duo core I just bought was $5 + free shipping off amazon. It was used and I got a bad one the first time. The guy sent me two more and one of those was bad, but not having any issues with the other.
 
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Are you trying to operate a CNC router - or a Space shuttle?

These machines are very low computer power users.

I don't know the inner workings of a computer, but I do now these machine really don't need much.

WOW - sounds like there is some heavy duty computer tuning going on here.
Personally I am just too yankee cheap to put any dollars inside a computer case if I didn't need to.

I was going to use an older box that I paid $45 for, but I went for the GOLD on the Osprey.

I have a $125 computer with none of the above running my Osprey, with no issue at all.

BUT - I am not a computer savy guy.
 
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Go grab Belarc system advisor and run it. It will tell you what you need to know.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Holy carp, Batman! It told me more than I wanted to know. My security benchmark score is 0.63 out of ten. When I started to look at all the failed items my eyes glazed over after a gazillion. How important are most of these things to a normal household computer? This is just a sample.

Capture1.jpg
 
I'm not sure, but I've run that thing on my systems a bunch and I've never seen anything like that.

What operating system are you running? Are you using an antivirus?

I like belarc because it collects important info like you microsoft license and activation key, as well as for other purchased software.

When moving to a new system it also lets you know exactly what you used to have installed, etc...
 
....What operating system are you running? Are you using an antivirus?....

Windows 7 Pro and Norton 360. Re: Belarc.com.... I like the system overview it gives you. All the important info about your system in one place. I think I'll run it on my old laptop, just to see if the components are able to run something more than XP.
 
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I found the following on one of the forums about system requirements for systems where the software is generating the step commands.
EMC2 and Ubuntu should run reasonably well on a computer with the following minimum hardware specification. These numbers are not the absolute minimum but will give reasonable performance for most stepper systems.


  • 700 MHz x86 processor (1.2 GHz x86 processor recommended)
  • 384 MB of RAM (512 MB up to 1 GB recommended)
  • 8 GB hard disk.

    So I should be ok but I think I will try to see if FRY's has an upgrade to the existing processor. What do ya think guys. I like the machine for a few reasons.

    1. I has a parallel port
    2. It's free
    3. If it will do the job I have already got part of the hardware for my system build.
 
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I found the following on one of the forums about system requirements for systems where the software is generating the step commands.
EMC2 and Ubuntu should run reasonably well on a computer with the following minimum hardware specification. These numbers are not the absolute minimum but will give reasonable performance for most stepper systems.


  • 700 MHz x86 processor (1.2 GHz x86 processor recommended)
  • 384 MB of RAM (512 MB up to 1 GB recommended)
  • 8 GB hard disk.

    So I should be ok but I think I will try to see if FRY's has an upgrade to the existing processor. What do ya think guys. I like the machine for a few reasons.

    1. I has a parallel port
    2. It's free
    3. If it will do the job I have already got part of the hardware for my system build.

Sounds like the current one will work, but I'd upgrade the ram, it's gotten pretty cheap to do.
 
Windows 7 Pro and Norton 360. I like the system overview it gives you. All the important info about your system in one place. I think I'll run it on my old laptop, just to see if the components are able to run something more than XP.

Might want to give Microsoft Security Essentials a shot. Most of the items in that list seems like the kinds of things M$ could clear up.
 
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