Newbie computer hardware question

[EddyCurrent]

I am about to buy a refurb' PC off ebay to run the router using Mach 3. I was going to go for an IMB Thinkcentre with flat screen monitor, keyboard and mouse. Anything to look out for when buying an old desktop to run Mach 3 for 3d routing? They seem to come with windows XP or 7 depending on how much you spend. Is one better than the other for running Mach 3.

If the machine breakout board has the parallel port interface then you need a PC that has a parallel printer port otherwise you would need more hardware.

[Neale]

...and to transfer files, the most convenient way is over a network connection but if your wifi network signal won't reach the outbuilding (and you can't run a bit of Ethernet cable to it) then flashdrive is fine. I do this a lot as my wifi signal is a bit flaky in the garage. The gcode files aren't that big, compared with the size of even a cheap memory stick.