trying to decide...wait for new 7i76E or get 7i96S

If I understand correctly the 7i76E is being redesigned and may be available in the near future? But I see  that the 7i96S is currently available @mesaus. Other than the additional I/O of the 7i76E am I giving up much else? I could always get an expansion option later if I need more I/O.
The 7i96S seems a bit more flexible anyway with ability to do sinking or sourcing I/O too.

Just wondering if the new 7i76E is worth waiting for because it may have better performance or new features?

Rubes
p.s. I currently have a 5i25 and 7i76 on a lathe that I am pretty happy with.

[strike]Mesa 7i96S does not have a spindle VFD output for 0-10V, 7i76 and 7i76E do have that.
I think that is the only difference, besides I/O.[/strike]
And yes, having sinking and sourcing I/O is a very nice feature.
Edit:
Wrong info, Mesa 7i96S does have spindle VFD output, Mesa 7i96 had not. I have a 7i96.
Sorry for the mess.

The 7I96S _does_ have an analog spindle output.
(The 7I96 does not)

PCW wrote:

The 7I96S _does_ have an analog spindle output.
(The 7I96 does not)

Oh cr@p !
Sorry PCW, i must have a 7i96, apparently.
Corrected above.

Thanx...7i96S it is then.

We added 7i96S support to the 2.8.4 release specifically because it is actually available,

arg...now I need a new PC for this too
I had an old Dell series 3000 box laying around I was planning on using since I always heard "Linuxcnc will run on any old $25 garage sale computer". Guess those days are gone now too. I can load 2.7 on it but not 2.8.x since its only a 32 bit machine apparently. I'm limited to installing from the live CD since I am nowhere near smart enough to do it any other way.

Are you sure it is only 32 bit?

"The Pentium-4 2.8GHz released in November of 2002 was the last desktop 32-bit CPU."

It might be running a 32 bit OS at the moment, but unless it is very old it might well be a 64 bit CPU.

pretty sure.
when I try to load the 2.8.4 live CD it tells me;
"this kernel requires a x86-64 CPU, but it only detected a i686 CPU..."
I was able to load the 2.7.14 live CD though. But that won't support the 7i96S. right?

LinuxCNC 2.8 is supported back to Ubuntu 12.04.

You should be able to update just LinuxCNC and not the OS / realtime.

Install the 2.7 live CD then update to 2.8: linuxcnc.org/docs/stable/html/getting-st...dating-linuxcnc.html