What type of Computer do you Use?

[diarmaid]

I put this in Hand Tooling because I suppose its the most inportant hand tool for anything cnc but possibly overlooked because its so obvious.

So, I just splurged the price of a small car on a new LapTop! The Dell XPS 1710. I have jitters waiting for it to arrive Hope it lives up to expectations!

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...hs1&l=en&s=dhs

And I dont want to hear anything bad about Dell in this thread to dampen my spirits!

What types of computers are people using from the nicest least troublesome antique upwards?

[MrBean]

Hmmmm. Not sure I'd call it a hand tool, but I'm using an AMD 2.1 Ghz for the CNC in the garage. Also in the garage is a PII 450... Yuk, but it lets me tinker with stuff while the CNC ties up the other machine. For CAD, toolpathing and other more general stuff, I have two machines indoors. A 64 bit AMD 3400, and a 64 bit AMD 2800. Besides that, there is my server (AMD XP3000+). Oh and a laptop incase I need to use a PC while I'm on the toilet.

I hope you like your new Dell laptop. Too pricey for me. Does look the biz though.

Reagrds Terry.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by diarmaid And I dont want to hear anything bad about Dell in this thread to dampen my spirits!

Don't have anything bad to say about Dell. After all the batteries in them that burst into flames are made by Sony.

[diarmaid]

hehehe...true! and the batteries have been recalled so Im ok on that one I hope. You forgot to mention what your using Geof.

Im curious to know if anyone is using an Apple Mac? Can you even get compatible cnc software for Apple's?

[Geof]

Originally Posted by diarmaid hehehe...true! and the batteries have been recalled so Im ok on that one I hope. You forgot to mention what your using Geof. Im curious to know if anyone is using an Apple Mac? Can you even get compatible cnc software for Apple's?

What gives you the idea an ancient Luddite like me would use a computer?

On the topic of Apples and cnc in 1983 I built a three axis system which could position to within 0.01mm that was controlled from an Apple 2E through an IEEE488 interface. The Apple just sent a string of coordinates through the interface to the motor controller which then sequentially moved the X, Y and Z axes to that position. It wasn't G code but it was computer numerical control.

[ger21]

Dual Core Athlon X2 4400, 2 Gigs RAM, 7800GT, 74Gig Raptor + 160Gig SATA. Pretty fast.

[diarmaid]

Originally Posted by ger21 Dual Core Athlon X2 4400, 2 Gigs RAM, 7800GT, 74Gig Raptor + 160Gig SATA. Pretty fast.

Nice. It'd cost me over an extra €1000 to go 64bit. I had a bit of bad news today from Dell. They said theres some sort of manufacturing delay and it'll be the end of Sept before my order arrives.

Geof I didn't picture you as a grumpy old tree hugger

[Geof]

Originally Posted by diarmaid ....Geof I didn't picture you as a grumpy old tree hugger

Luddites are not necessarily tree huggers ... we just insist on using axes not chainsaws.

[diarmaid]

I take back my bad news about Dell. I LOVE DELL! It must have been a disgruntled employee on the phone trying to get me to cancel my order. And to think I almost did cancel! Anyway, my new laptop has shipped. Next on the list is the fee for my welding course, a new jigsaw, and some materials for my cnc router in that order.
L8rs.

[ger21]

Originally Posted by diarmaid Next on the list is the fee for my welding course, a new jigsaw, and some materials for my cnc router in that order. L8rs.

For the jigsaw, get a Bosch.

[diarmaid]

Was gonna go with the DeWalt DW331.

http://www.maxtool.com/cgi-bin/dbsea...,DB_CAT2=Dwjig

I was thinking bosche for the 36V Portable SDS Drill.

http://www.boschtools.com/tools/tool...175970&G=54650

[diarmaid]

XPS arrived today. So let me know what your using, everyone reading this must be doing it somehow and if your not using a computer then you should be a very rich person!