Retrofitting a 3-axis VMC with DC servos - guidance needed

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08 Sep 2025 15:27 #334633 by tommylight
Z400, Z420, Z600, and probably Z440, Z620, Z640, Z800, Z820 should all do just fine, those 3 at the start i have tested over 20 by now. Also HP 8300 SFF are pretty good, i have maybe 6 or 7 in daily use on machines.
Dell Optiplex series are also good, 7020, 9020 and 980, these i have in daily use, several of them for several years, but they do tend to heat much more than HP ones.

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24 Jun 2026 14:04 #347304 by Japoo_Ness
Finally, after a long wait, the boards have arrived! Now I'm looking to buy the PC to control the machine. Checking all the models you shared before, I couldn't find any of them available in my country for under $700 USD.

However, I found two options: a Dell Optiplex 790 with an i5-2400, and another refurbished PC with an i5-4400 (the seller didn't specify the exact model, just that it could be an Optiplex, HP, Lenovo, or Bangho).

Which one would recommend? Both rely on integrated graphics. Is that going to be an issue in my case? From what I've read, a dedicated GPU is usually recommended, but I'm not sure if that's only for software pulse generation or if it's recommended for hardware-assisted setups too.

Thanks in advance!

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24 Jun 2026 14:47 #347306 by tommylight
Dell Optiplex 790 is still usable but needs at least 4GB of RAM.
Lenovo M93 with 4000 series CPU are also good, so if this is what you can get it is better than that Optiplex.
Fujitsu from that era are also OK.

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