No problem Greg, it was all related to the same make machine so I don't really see it as a hijack & if it's helped you at all then all worth it.
Worth keeping up with the forum anyway Greg if cnc is something your interested in, there are some very knowledgeable people on the forum who will help with just about anything.
My design computer runs on an AMD phenon x6 (blackbox) with 16 gig DDR3 & it runs windows 7, XP pro & windows 98 & all have been very stable. I use something called vmware player which creates virtual machines. People in the know say it is better than any of the microsoft virtual machines although I have never tried them myself.
Reason for that is down to software that I run. Inspire pro won't run above windows 98, adobe cs1 won't run above xp & I can't get drivers for my printer beyond xp.
Inspire has a parallel dongle which is recognised by the program when using the 98 virtual machine so gerber advantage may well work the same.

As for acrylic well they are a sign company so they will know where to get it or may already have it. What I used for my table was an old take away menu that came from a shop I did the signs for. The old menu was a board on the wall with external lighting, the new owners wanted a lightbox instead so the old board couldn't be reused in the shop.