suggestions for putting together a new PC for LinuxCNC

I am finally tired of chasing gremlins out of my machine. I want to start from scratch and redo the entire thing myself so I know whats going on.

Starting at the computer, what is the recommended Motherboard and CPU to use, any additional components? Not sure what the computer i was set up with is, i think an old AMD, but its struggling to boot, sometimes have to reset 4 times before it boots into linux.

Can linuxCNC be run off USB yet or is it still Pport only? Recommended BoB's for 3 axis mill setup?

Thanks for any advice/help!

USB is not an option (and never will be).
Current practical interface choices are: parallel port, PCI card, PCIe card, or Ethernet port. (I like Mesa's hardware)
I think most newer Intel boards work fine. A 4 core Celeron (fanless) or Atom (fanless) have worked well for me.

Okay, is Intel preferred over AMD for Linux? I ask because I have an AMD fx6300 cpu somewhere in the closet. Is it better to get a board with a built in Pport, or is the a good PCIe card to add on?

A friend has a router running off USB using that other control software is why i asked about USB.

Which Mesa BoB setup would you recommend?

+1 for your Fiero avatar, I used to do engine swaps on them before my physical health tanked Still have my choptop in the garage waiting for me to put it back together.

I'd love to find another '88. I rolled my '88 Formula the morning of my wedding day. Maybe some day if time and money allow. I still have that car in the pic, an '85 GT, out in the barn (and the remains of the Formula). I haven't driven it for years though.

I have an 88 GT T-top here right now, A kid from China wanted be to do an engine swap in when I feel better. He got sent back to China and is considering selling it. If i could afford it I would buy all his stuff for myself!

That pic was taken at the last auto-x I ran it in. The car is stock and in the pic the RF front tire is about an inch off the ground. Boy those early cars really needed a rear anti-role bar.

Ya, I added one to mine when i swapped the engine, made a Huge difference!

I Emailed Mesa, asking for their recommendations on a BoB, Their site is a bit hard to navigate when you dont know what youre looking for.

Do you want to control step motors or servos?
Will you have a lot of digital I/O? About how much?
Do you want to do this as cheap as possible with software stepping through a parallel port?
How fast do you want the machine to be? How high of resolution?
Do you want/need high speed encoder counting?

These are all questions you need to answer when trying to choose your control interface hardware.

this machine was put together years ago by a friend but has never been reliable and is a wiring mess. It uses stepper drivers, g201s iirc, and nema 23's on reduction pulley drive belts. Speed is not a concern, spindle is belt driven, eventuaully i would like to change to variable speed control. I have a mist coolant system, e-stop, and limit switches. It is a 3in1 mill/lathe. I have made a encoder disk for the lathe spindle and would like to set it up so I can thread, Thats all the I/O i can think of.

A 7i96 looks like a good option for a basic stepper machine. If you need more io a 7i76 plug-n-go kit or 7i76e would have about 3x the io.
store.mesanet.com/index.php?route=produc...rt=p.price&order=ASC
I've never used one, and I haven't seen a lot of discussion here about setting one of these up.