I have been a Mac guy for a long time but I recently purchased laser engraver/cutter while Mac compatible, Corel Draw which is one of the recommended software graphics applications, isn't offered for Mac.

I now need a Windows computer, the only thing it will need to run is Corel Draw Home and Student edition via a ethernet connection to the laser.

What say you for an inexpensive Windows computer? I have no problem purchasing a used unit so long as it will run Corel Draw.

Is the device and software compatible with Windows 10?

Do you want a desktop or laptop?

About what price range?

I would not go too cheap as really cheap stuff tends to have inferior hardware and a ton of bloatware.

Usually there lots of good deals on Lenovo biz class Thinkpads refurbs for very reasonable prices.

https://www.newegg.com/Product...8000&order=BESTMATCH

Laptop would be better for space anyway. Price hopefully would be less than $500.

It needs to have a DVD/CD, I have a CD with with Corel Draw that I need to load.

How about using virtual computer software with the Mac? There's Parallels, VMware Fusion (my choice), and if you want "free," there's Virtual Box.

Or, also free, you could use BootCamp to boot your Mac with Windows.

Here you go, Lenovo Thinkpad T520, Windows 10, 4gb RAM, 15" screen, $174 shipped:

https://www.arrowdirect.com/le...0-pro-64-laptop-cam/

Maybe $30-40 to get it up to 8gb RAM.
$53 for a 250gb SSD Drive

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
How about using virtual computer software with the Mac? There's Parallels, VMware Fusion (my choice), and if you want "free," there's Virtual Box.

Or, also free, you could use BootCamp to boot your Mac with Windows.

I saw Parallels yesterday but didn't know anything about it, worth it?

Bought this model for my wife last year. I'm not a big fan of HP but the price was right for what she wanted. It's been a total work horse. There is bloatware on it but not an excessive amount. It took about an hour to get it all uninstalled. You can probably find a better price than my link by doing a bit of web surfing. I was just looking for an add with this computer because I knew it was in your price range.

According to the Corel Draw Home published System Requirements, most anything...

Win7-Win10, Core i3 or higher, 2GB RAM, 1GB HD...

Should be easy. Boatloads of PCs over the last decade are plenty capable.

quote:

Originally posted by sig229-SAS:
Laptop would be better for space anyway. Price hopefully would be less than $500.

It needs to have a DVD/CD, I have a CD with with Corel Draw that I need to load.

I have an older Dell Latitude laptop running Windows 10 that should fit the bill for everything you're looking for that's collecting dust in my office. I think its even got a newer SSD installed in it (will have to check on that to be sure). Email me if you're interested and I'll make you a deal on it. As a matter of fact, you can even have the computer bag it resides in.

I imagine you could find a whole lot of used/rebuilt/refurb desktops for next to nothing without much problem.
I have a whole bunch of IT clients with old ones just sitting around in their respective bone yards.
Some not terribly bad but just not up to their corp standards or whatever that could do decent job.
I'd also check with some small independent computer shops (if they are still around).
I am sure they could rustle up something.

if you don't buy online, check your local computer repair places,

I picked up a nice used T530 last year for $330. new SSD, windows 7, runs like a top

I think Parallels, Bootcamp (is that still a thing) or a VM or something similar is worth a shot. The system reqs for Corel Draw are not very high, so as long as your Mac is decent, there shouldn't be any overhead.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

quote:

Originally posted by sig229-SAS:
Laptop would be better for space anyway. Price hopefully would be less than $500.

It needs to have a DVD/CD, I have a CD with with Corel Draw that I need to load.

I have an older Dell Latitude laptop running Windows 10 that should fit the bill for everything you're looking for that's collecting dust in my office. I think its even got a newer SSD installed in it (will have to check on that to be sure). Email me if you're interested and I'll make you a deal on it. As a matter of fact, you can even have the computer bag it resides in.

Email on the way..

You could just boot your Mac with Bootcamp and run Windows natively. Macs make decent Windows machines. Or you could virtualize, as has been suggested. All you need to purchase is a Windows license.

before buying anything, what laser engraver?
I'd bet it's just making Gcode from the vector graphics, which doesn't matter MAC or Win. You probably don't need to buy anything, just learn what it likes (or replace whatever gcode generator it's using to something that works for you).

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
before buying anything, what laser engraver?
I'd bet it's just making Gcode from the vector graphics, which doesn't matter MAC or Win. You probably don't need to buy anything, just learn what it likes (or replace whatever gcode generator it's using to something that works for you).

We purchased Full Spectrum Muse laser, 45 watt, with rotary attachment, water chiller and exhaust You are correct, it runs on either platform but for graphics they recommend Corel D, I had Corel years ago and even though it has changed a lot I hope to learn it quickly

quote:

Originally posted by sig229-SAS:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
How about using virtual computer software with the Mac? There's Parallels, VMware Fusion (my choice), and if you want "free," there's Virtual Box.

Or, also free, you could use BootCamp to boot your Mac with Windows.

I saw Parallels yesterday but didn't know anything about it, worth it?

Yes, Paralels is worth it, in my opinion. Even better, VMware Fusion is very similar, usually the same cost, but VMware has two things going for it:

1. Parallels requires a separate license, pay a separate fee, for each computer that you install it on. Fusion's license covers all the Macs in your family.
   
   
2. I have owned both. I found Parallels' tech support to be pretty bad. Fusion's people were much more responsive.

Either of these will be maybe $79, sometimes you can find them for less. There are two FREE options, though.

1. Virtual Box does the same job as Parallels and Fusion, it's free. Downside is that it's not as "polished" in terms of set-up. I played with it for a bit, decided that the plug-and-play installation of Fusion was worth the cost to me since I had other things to do and limited spare time. If you have time to mess with it and saving seventy bucks or so is more important than the time investment, Virtual Box is worth a try.
   
   
2. Any of the virtualization products above will let you run a virtual Windows machine side-by-side with your Mac apps. If you don't need availability of both Mac and Windows at the same time, i.e. if running either Mac OS or Windows, but not both simultaneously, is OK with you, then the ideal way to go is BootCamp. It's free from Apple, and will allow you to install your licensed copy of Windows on your Mac. When you start the system, you can choose whether to boot into Mac OS or Windows. If you want the other, you will need to re-boot. The virtualization products, on the other hand, let you run both Mac OS and Windows at the same time.

If I were in your shoes, I would take a look at Dell.com and go to their outlet store. Lots of deals on returns and scratch and dent, overstock, etc. You can likely find models with SSD's which help speed things up significantly.

Here is an example but lots to choose from.

https://outlet.us.dell.com/Arb...dfM8IQvSsqy%2bFiHIoP

FWIW, I run Coreldraw on my MacBook Pro using Parallels. It, along with other Windows programs runs flawlessly.

quote:

Originally posted by cruiser68:
If I were in your shoes, I would take a look at Dell.com and go to their outlet store. Lots of deals on returns and scratch and dent, overstock, etc. You can likely find models with SSD's which help speed things up significantly.

Here is an example but lots to choose from.

https://outlet.us.dell.com/Arb...dfM8IQvSsqy%2bFiHIoP

That's a great resource and well may be exactly what I need.