Also, don’t forget whining. 
The VFD that come with these spindles allows you to change the RPM via the control panel if you desire and some even come with a POT build in for speed control. A fixed speed trim router will not work very well for aluminum milling with smaller endmills and such as the fixed high RPM of the motor is not always going to work well for you. For good results I would stick with the 65mm .8KW VFD spindle and use a good feed and speed calculate (tons of free apps) to set the right RPM for the job and Endmill you are using. Proper feeds and DOC will get you nice smooth results almost every time. Trying to push the X Carve or the Shapeoko to do deep DOC or super fast feed rates might work, but your finish will suffer and your work will look pretty bad in the end. Working with your toolpaths, feed rates and your DOC will get you great results that need little to no clean up for a finished products like these pics.
I run 2 drivers on the Y Axis on my larger mill. I use one Leadshine DSP driver for each motor. So 4 motors and 4 drivers. Now on the Shapeoko I run NEMA 17 motors and I use a TinyG. I run BOTH the Y Axis motors off ONE Axis (driver) of the TinyG after confirming with them it would work OK. I have logged countless hours on this setup with everything from PCB milling to Aluminum to Stone work and I have never had an issue traced back to this ( or many issues at all in fact).
The DSP drivers like LEADSHINE run the motor far smoother and with less wasted energy (which makes HEAT in the motor and causes issues). Some controllers like the TinyG and the PlanetCNC scan ahead on the Gcode and adjust settings for things like feedrate and such on inside corners to prevent slamming into a corner at high speed and causing an issue. But the Drivers as a whole are not doing this. They just send a smoother set of movements to the motor vs a plain entry lever driver. DSP drivers are worth their costs for me on my setups and I will never build a mill without them again. But they are very costly and add a good deal of costs to each of my builds. But for me, the price is worth it and I think you will love the smooth results you get with them. Sadly until you work on a system with them you do not really understand just how nice they are to work with.
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Has anyone built their Xcarve with Planet CNC controller/software package yet? I’m wondering what components I’ll need exactly …
Travelphotog, is this the Planet CNC driver you were referring to? I’m planning to use X carve standard nema 23 motors…or should I buy one of the two nema 23 sizes offered on the Planet CNC site ($50 more to buy bigger nema 23 from PCNC_). Lastly if I do get PCNC Nema 23 motors and Drivers with their Mk3/4 board, which power supply and output board do I need? Sorry to beat this to death but I’m swimming in options…my hope is to achieve digitizing probe ability to make 3D copies and reproduce them with my X-Carve, which for some reason seems to be an esoteric aim in the world of DIY CNC builds. If Inventables offered a turn key digitizing solution, (not just z axis homing probe) I’d be jumping for joy. The 3rd party controller board info soup has chirping cartoon birds circling my head…
OK I made it to the hotel and I am wide awake so I think I can get your questions answered and give you a hand. OK first off I would stick with the Inventables stock NEMA 23 motors. The others are nice but a bit much on the X Carve with a belt drive system as they will induce belt stretch at the level of output that would be of advantage over the stock motors so no real gain in performance there overall.
I did not buy the drivers I use from PlanetCNC. I went with the Leadshine drivers as at the time the only PlanetCNC driver offered were not powerful enough for the larger mill I was buying them for. Though the drivers you mentioned are powerful enough to power the stock NEMA 23 motors with ease (2.5 amp is stock I think and these go to 6 amp.)
OK on the power side of things… So if you go with the stock Inventables motors you can stick with the included power supply and be fine for the motors and driver boards. The PlanetCNC board will need another power supply which is a 12V supply. There 12V 15W one they sell is good or you can go with a good 12V supply locally. The controller board does not draw all that much power at all really.
Now when you ask about the “output board” Are you asking about this? 
It also needs the 12V power system and could use the same supply as the board with no issues. But my question would be what you are using the above output board with.
I understand what you mean about a digital probe in the small CNC world. There are not many out there and even fewer folks who own or use them. Your might be the first on the X Carve, but there is no reason it should not work just like it does on the larger mills.
What spindle are you planning to use for cutting and what type of stuff do you plan to cut?
I can relate about trying to understand all the options out there for controllers and such. I have plans to make all my mills into PlanetCNC mills but I have to finish the testing on the X Carve with the stock controller and the TinyG before i can switch it out since Inventables sent me the X Carve for that reason, to test out and make videos and projects about it on tings like aluminum, stone and steel and such. I am not used to the stock controller and jumping between a stock controller, a TinyG and a PlanetCNC controller is a bit odd to say the least. Also which touch probe did you end up buying ( or have you chosen yet?)
Thank you! that’s helpful already. I was looking at the wildhorse probe http://www.wildhorse-innovations.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=80 and the crafty cnc …Probe-It! Mach3 Wizard – CraftyCNC as far as the output board goes, I’m not sure… is that for spindle control? I’m still debating whether to go Dewalt 611 or VFD (65mm 800 watt) http://www.ebay.com/itm/water-cooling-800w-110v-cnc-spindle-motor-1500w-inverter-vfd-65mm-bracket-clamp-/161396875930?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item259400e29a wanting to cut 1/4" aluminum (1/2 in possibly), and hardwoods for guitar building. Touch probe is to copy necks and bodies of guitars for reproduction. Was going to order this week, as long as I can sort out electronics build plan…but broken belts and other complaints re X carve functionality has me concerned. Thank you for your help, I’m willing to be a guinea pig to some extent, as long as the mechanical side is solid. (Kevlar belts Inventables?)
http://deepgroove1.com/stainlessprobe/stainlessprobe.htm another probe that looks good, they say: “We found a combination of materials that: allowed us to make 10 million switch operation before any cleaning is needed”
I use the DeepGroove one they show at the bottom of that page (not Stainless) and it works very good with Mach3. If you look at the Rockler touch probe, it’s the same one for $125 less.
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is this for sale? I cant find it on the webpage?