Hi, Thanks for the advice. Really appreciate it.
A friend is giving me a Asus H61M-Pro which they're no longer using.
specs: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H61MPRO/


I've not bought anything else yet though so can always go the route of a cheaper older PC as you've said yes.


Not 100% sure on power saving features on that motherboard.. but as it would be handy to have a higher spec machine too in the workspace (I was going to do a dual boot system with XP & windows 7) I wonder if it's worth trying it to see.. or would you say it's an absolute no-go even with a controller?
Is there a way to test whether there will be problems with the board? DPC latency checker I've used before when testing for audio realtime performance. Is the problem related to latency?


I was looking into controllers yes. From what I've read from people's experiences with my machine, is that as is, the electronics are horrible however with a rewire with some shielded cable, all is well. Coming from an electronics background myself, I'm not afraid of getting stuck in with that type of thing.. (rewiring, building better PSUs, replacing chips etc etc) however if it's the case that it's still not 100% reliable, then I guess a controller board is the way forward..


I guess I'm a little confused on the way to procede..


I guess my questions are:


Shall I go ahead and try with the Asus board? ie. buy the case & cpu etc.
Is it worth trying the system with the controller that comes with it and improving it.. or jumping to a USB (or ethernet perhaps?) controller straight away without the headache?






PS. My intentions as far as CNC is concerned: At this moment in time, my main use for the machine will be to help me make prototypes of electronic gadgets I make. So my thinking is, initially I want to just use the machine to mark out the holes and then I'll drill by hand.. Then once I've learnt more, use it to drill the holes itself and cut the panels..then once I've got a good grasp, make PCBs too.
However, I have a hell of a lot to learn about it all, so am wondering if it's worth just going with something basic first before upgrading/modding to my specific needs...