Newbie computer hardware question

[irving2008]

A low-end Pentium 4 or Pentium 5 with XP is more than adequate for most small CNC machines. I used to use an IBM ThinkCentre 50 (P4) circa 2002-ish with 1Gb RAM and 40Gb disc.

[chris]

Thanks for the replies. I just had an email from Exel recommending that I stick with the DSP controller as the machine electronics are designed for that.
So. Looks like I need to learn how the DSP works instead. I will no doubt be posting lots of questions about that very soon. If anyone would care to explain the basics of CAM to DSP to router, it would be much appreciated. The guy I bought the machine off mentioned the need to run the DSP software in Windows XP, and use USB sticks of 4gb or less. The learning curve sure does look steep from down here.

Chris