Quote Originally Posted by Davo242 View Post
its an old pc could be 7/8 years or older. is the motion control for the under powered parallel port ? im going to see about getting a newer pc made up on monday is there anything i should be getting in it that would be an advantage ie.. ports drives etc!!
I wouldn't waste money on buying a newer PC because it could be just the same. If your going to spend money and intend to use mach3 then buy an external motion control card.
External Motion controller will give you reliable system and higher performance. It will also allow you to use your Old PC because it takes much the work load away from PC. The parallel port is dead dieing technology best avoided.

I suggest before you go spending any more money that you do some research and learn more about Drives, controllers etc. It's all here on the Forum if you look. If not your going to waste money buying more rubbish or stuff that's wrong for your needs.

Which Motion controller depends on your pockets but if you can afford it buy one that uses Ethernet rather than USB. Komatis on the Forum sells Ethernet Smooth steppers which I would recommended.