I started out with a Bernina Deco. Over the years I have purchased more than $1000 worth of software designs for it. I will admit I have probably only used 100 of them. I had a Magic Box so that I could convert designs from other formats to PES which is the operating system that my Deco used. That became useless when I had to upgrade my PC. The newer tower doesn't have enough places to plug in the Magic Box even if it would read it. Since my Deco is more than 20 years old and well used I looked for another machine that would use the same software but also be able to use a USB stick. Since Brother held the original patent used in the Deco I knew that one of their machines would be compatible. Ironically I was able to purchase a new Brother PE780D for almost half what I paid for the Deco. It uses the PES format and can take a USB stick which means I can transfer designs from CDs to the stick and load them in the Brother machine. It also has the larger capacity 5 by 7 where as my Bernina only did a 4x4 design. The only thing I don't like about it is that the hoop loads on the opposite side which makes me unable to use the additional hoops I had purchased for my Bernina.
I am mentioned on this board before that I much prefer the stand alone embroidery machine to the combination machines that are out there. I can get a lot of sewing done while the embroidery machine is doing it's thing. You just load it and let it run.