Hiya Jamey,
IMHO, if it works it's a good printer. However, from what I understand, Gerber doesn't support them any more. So, when it finally craps out, it's done.
The Edge II prints at a higher resolution 300x600 dpi versus the straight 300 dpi of the older model. Other than that, I believe they are the same - same materials, foils etc. You still can get support for the II too.
A couple more things, you need Gerber or other "sign" software to run it and a 15" sprocket fed plotter because trying to register the graphics on anything else would be nearly impossible.
Checkers