Mesa card selection help

Hi,

I am retrofitting my Emco F1P and decided to use LinuxCNC. First I tried to dry run everything using cheap steppers/drivers and a simple generic LPT BOB. I quickly noticed that I could not generate steps fast enough using only the PC so I started looking into Mesa Cards. There are a lot of cards to choose from...

Basically what I want to do is to run my three axis (possibly a fourth) steppers (plus endstops etc) and maybe in the future add scales to the different axis like MetalMusings did on his machine on YouTube.

It seems like the best way to go is to use an Ethernet based interface.

Any suggestions on a Mesa card that would fulfill my needs would be very much appreciated!

If somebody has done a similar or the same retrofit any info on steppers and the driver used would be helpful too.

Thanks!
 Anders 

what different have 7i96 E or T or S card, and what id different 7i96 or 7i76 card, i not understand, need found cheapen possiple mesa card to my old pc. 4-5 axis need and lot input more than old cheap 10$ paraller port card.maybe future adding axis screw top encoders. i not understand what different all cards have, 96S or 76 e and proto D version
were found cheapen 96S card. all have very expensive cards if think paraller card cost only 10$

Hi,
I am looking to develop a cnc project related to linuxcnc with Mesa motion control board ( like 7i96S and 7i76E). You had mentioned in the previous mail related to Mesa 7i96S + 7i84. I'm also having a plan to do that. As far as I understand, I need to get a daughter card for the extra inputs and outputs. However, I am a bit lost which daughter cards are compatible for both 7i76E 7i96S.Can you pls ping me.