Many thanks to you all for responding to my questions. To be honest the choice of boards is a little overwhelming for a newbie like me and I don't have a solid answer as to why I chose this one. It just looked like a reasonable card with a number of features that I could make use of.

If there is a cheaper card on the market that would get me started, is available in the UK and will get me started then I'm open to your advice.

Rob

PS - At present I see my machine having three axis with the usual limit switches, a standard router that I would like to be able to control from the Mach 3 software (however I would like the option to upgrade to a proper PWM controlled spindle later) and an additional relay for controlling a dust extraction device (probably an old vacuum cleaner for now).