Frage Windows 7 or Windows XP?

Hello All

I'm considering buy one of these machines, probably a SC420, and I have two computers available that I could use with the machine, one installed with Win 7 and the other with Win XP. I'm just curious as to which would be best to use or is there no difference? Both machines meet the system requirements although the Win XP is the older of the two computers and is less powerful in terms of its memory and CPU speed. I would welcome any opinions from forum members on this question.

Sorry but I don't read/speak German (been using Google to translate posts in the forum!) so I would greatly appreciate English language replies.

Thank you

Neil

It propably also depends on the software-toolchain you plan to use.

If you have plans to buy the USB board together with WinPC NC there is no problem to use the old PC, because the only thing that has to be done by the SW (PC) is to send the file to the USB board which contains a mikrocontroller and takes over controlling the steppers.
This should be true for any solution which involves an external controller.

I run my Stepcraft with a Netbook and there is absolutely no problem even if I have the whole toolchain (LibreCAD, EstlCAM, WinPC) plus browser running while running a job.

If you plan to use Mach3 and the parallel interface it might look different, because here the PC is controlling the steppers and deviations in the timing affect accuracy.

Hallo Neil,
I use a older XP-PC (Esprimo P4) with mach3 solo for the SC (parallel).
For CAD, CAM and oher programs I use a second machine with Win7 at a diferent location and I transport only the milling-data with USB stick to the milling-PC.

Gruß
Helmut

Thanks for the advice.

I do plan to purchase the full version of the USB board with the SC, this does look like the best solution for inputing Gcode programs into the SC. Also occurs to me that it might be a good idea to keep the more expensive of the two computers well away from the SC machine to prevent damage from dust and swarf!

Best Regards

Neil