Depends on what you turn. If you like doing big stuff the extra torque could definitely be handy. Mostly you'll notice it with larger pieces at slower speeds.
If you turn mostly spindles or smaller bowls I'd be surprised if you noticed much difference.
Also consider what you'll want for chucks/tools, no fun to have the lathe if you can't use it
.
I have a handful of tools from PSI (they're maybe not as cheap as the HF ones, but they seem maybe? slightly nicer) of which I mostly use:
- Benjamin's Best 3/8" HSS Bowl Gouge - $17. This is my go to bowl gouge. I also have a 1/2" but I use this one probably 80-90% of the time for bowls.
- Benjamin's Best 1" HSS Roughing Gouge - $21. This is my go-to roughing gouge
- Benjamin's Best 3/4" x 3/16" HSS Parting Tool - $15, yup its a parting tool
- Benjamin's Best 1" HSS Standard Skew Chisel - $19, reground to a lazy ) shape, works pretty good, needs frequent sharping. This is the one I might upgrade eventually.
I also have an 8 piece mini set I bought from Grizzly years ago (which I don't see anymore on their site?) for about $20, looks suspiciously similar to the $19.99 set from HF except I didn't get the larger skew but (I think) another scraper instead and from the reviews on the HF site the ones I have suck less. From it I use the 1/2" roughing gouge, 1/2" skew and (I think its a) 3/8" (could be slightly smaller) spindle gouge; if you just bought those stand alone you'd have nicer tools and most of what you need to start.
Note that I do have some other gouges, scrapers, etc... but I'd consider the above minimally equipped for minimal outlay.
Add in a chuck (yeah yeah faceplates are fine..) for another $100, a
mandatory not optional face shield (I have the Uvex S8510 Bionic Shield which is quite nice) for $35 and you're a bit over a couple hundred on top of the lathe just to get started.
Serious on the face shield, a couple of months back I had a piece of oak let fly bounced off of my face shield and landed way up in the rafters. At best I'd have gotten a split lip or broken nose, was pretty glad I had it on. Other people have died, even people who turned professionally a long time and were working on (for them at least) small stuff. High speed smacks to the noggin ain't no foolin.