Emco PC 55 mill conversion sugestions

Hello,

So i recently got a Emco pc mill 55 with original PC and controller board all all the software disks to go with it.
However it would fail to boot about 50% of the time and recently the HDD has given out. (CD drive also dead)
The system ran windows 98 with winNC.

I am faced with 2 choices
1. Rebuild the PC with vintage HDD (something around 1-10 gig IDE HDD) and reinstall the OS and all the software.
2. Replace the brains and use one of my more modern PCs (intel core 2 duo E8500 or E8600 rigs with built in parallel ports) and keep the original VFD and stepper drivers as they are 5 phase drivers and i dont want to replace the motors as i am on a budget.

The pros and cons im not quite sure of them all yet

PROs of a new rig are more stable and longer lasting hardware. More modern control software. Ability to run linuxcnc.
CONs Seems like the brain replacement costs can vary wildly between around 50$ and 5,000$. Unsure on what i will be gaining or losing depending on what part of the spectrum i choose.

PROs of fixing the original system is possibly cheaper as long as nothing else dies. I dont have to reconfigure any the software and will be setup correctly out of the box
CONs System may lose another part and if something like the mobo goes with its ISA slot finding a replacement will be costly.


My thoughts on the new machine was to use the E8600 dual core with 4 gig of ram and a 120GB SSD with no networking or audio enabled. Using the mobo parallel port to drive a breakout board. The break out board i was looking at is Breakout Board and maybe add a pci parallel port SYBA SD-PEX10005

So time for my question,

Do you guys think its a good idea to keep buying vintage used HDDS and PSU's to repair a machine this old?
Any one also running hardware this old care to comment or how long i could expect it to last?
Better to just build and go with the newer?
Is my hardware i picked out going to limit me in any way?

I am somewhat cost limited here so as much as i would love to go with some of the higher end cards for the new system i just dont have it in the budget.

the max was around 30ipm.

Just am still on the fence with this machine.
I know your right in that the new software will only get better and what i have now is out dated.

I think the main thing holding me back is the idea of going to linux. Not that it is bad just the idea of starting over and having to learn everything again.

I got this info from browsing the web and seems to be accurate.
From the documents I have, the original max feed rate was around 30 inches per minute on each axis. This was with a 2.5mm pitch ballscrew and a 2:1 belt drive reduction. Given this, the original motors were driven to a max speed of 609.6 RPM ( ((30 ipm * 25.4 mm/inch) / 2.5 mm/rev) * 2).
A full step is 1.8 but can be driven lower.

Could you explain the 50khz limit to me?
Is that the limit at the parallel port to send instructions?
So going cheap for now only limits my max ipm worst case?
Or I just turn down my microsteps and go closer to full steps and get more ipm is that correct and lose a bit of resolution?

Well, i decided to due both options.
I rebuilt the PC and got it running stock.

I came to the conclusion that it would be much better and faster to do a retrofit if i had a working system to probe out and learn from.

So i have ran into a bit of a snag that i think i have a solution to but not sure.

The system uses 2 signals 1 normal and 1 inverted signals for step and dir on all axis. (0v,5v)/(5v,0v)
So it uses 12 pins in total.
So i decided to use a Hex inverter ic to take and generate the other signal i need.
My only worry is that i feed the one signal directly into the driver board and then it goes to the hex inverter then goes back to the driver board to the differential signal input.

Do you think there will be any timing issues with the differential line being a tiny bit behind the other due to only using 1 ic?
I understand that i could add a non inverting hex buffer to equalize it but i dont have that part right now.