I am thinking of getting a Brother PE 770. I am concerned about having to download a patch for my Vista laptop. Brother responded quickly to my concern about a patch. If I understand their email, by using the USB port to download patterns, no patch is necessary. So I assume if I use the PED Basic and use a memory card, then the patch is necessary. Is this right? TIA

You will not need a patch no matter which way you use it. You can either connect the machine to the computer and open patterns that way, save the patterns to a thumb drive, connect it to the machine and read them, or get PED Basic, save the designs onto a card and insert the card into the machine the read them. If you have the option of using a thumb drive that cost nearly nothing to bring the designs to the machine, I don't see why do the expense of PED Basic. Is not needed. You can still use preloaded cards produced by Brother, but you don't need PED Basic for that. The cards have the designs permanently loaded, and you just insert it into the machine. I prefer to buy individual patterns on-line. When I have seen cards I don't like or need every design on it and individual ones are very cheap at emblibrary.com. Buy them on the .pes format and make sure don't buy them bigger than your biggest hoop. You will have no problem.

Thanks for your reply! I will definitely use the thumb drive. Glad I don't have to buy the PED Basic. I like the idea of buying individual memory cards,too.

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the 770 and the 400? Walmart has the 400 and was wondering if I should spend the extra $ and look into the 770 instead.

I am thinking of getting this machine (Brother PE770).
How is it for the totally novice when it comes to these types of machine?
What about software upgrades, patches? I know you can get designs online, so that's no biggie.
I wanted one with a USB port, does this make things simpler? Instead of buying media cards full of things I will never use?