The way things are lining up, I'm hoping to purchase a fiber laser this fall. It's purely for hobby use (so, hard to justify, but somehow the wife is on board), so I'll likely be going with one of the budget units off of my favorite online auction site.

Is there any advantage to a 50W over a 30W besides speed/number of passes? I can stretch my budget if needed to get a 50W, but if the only significant advantage is shorter job times, well, I'm not that concerned with throughput. This is for a hobby, not a business. I haven't been able to find much information on the topic, but the little bit I have found has implied that a 30W can do about anything a 50W can, just with more passes.

At the moment I'm not totally sure what my core use will be. Likely some stainless steel and carbon steel engraving, maybe adding some flourishes to a few personal firearms (I'm aware, get an FFL before considering work on guns I don't own). You get the idea-- random hobby projects.