If I recall from (maybe?) the linuxCNC forums, it's also pretty crucial to ensure your motherboard has a suitable chipset if you want to do soft-steppers. I th

If I recall from (maybe?) the linuxCNC forums, it's also pretty crucial to ensure your motherboard has a suitable chipset if you want to do soft-steppers. I think the reason is that some boards have various non-maskable system interrupts that will play hell with your timing if you get the wrong board. grbl or similar (Machinekit on a beaglebone) seem like reasonable alternatives for motion control, but I'd prefer the flexibility that having a full PC gives you...just without needing a whole PC (and probably needing a few PCI parallel expanders to handle all teh other GPIO you need)