To the first repliers I'd also add that you need to maneuver 4x8 on either side of a panel saw in order to load it. making the effective footprint sometimes 20 feet by 3 feet. I don't like the panel saw I have in the school shop, a track saw seems much smarter and easier to use.
Trevor Walsh
TWDesignShop
Just yesterday I visited my friend's commercial cabinet shop. He has both a Panel Saw and Panel Router on the wall. I asked him about both.
I own a Festool (with track) to do the same thing. My take is that if you do a lot of volume work, the Panel Saw on the wall is better. With my limited work volume, a track saw is ideal. If I did lots of this work, a Panel Saw would be worth it.
There are two kinds of verticle panel saws, the HTC type (you see them in Home Depots) that costs $1,000- 4,000 and the sliding carriage type made by HoltzHer and Strebig that start at $12,000. There is a big difference between the two in cut quality, accuracy and repeatability.
David
Actually with the smaller panel saws like the OP seems to be referring to you do need indeed and out feed space to rip.
I had a SawTrax panel saw and used it for breaking down sheet goods. My problem with it was not being able to get it tuned as accurately as I would like and not being able to achieve cut quality as clean as I would like. So I mostly used it for 1 or 2 cuts on a full sheet and then went to the table saw for the rest. I sold it and used my circular saw for the same job for some time. Then I bought a Festool for a different purpose, but it has taken over a lot of different tasks in and out of my shop. It's good for breaking down panels, but even better for doing angled cuts not so easy on a small panel saw. It's also great b/c I can bring it with me on installs.
Now if you get into the league of big boy panels saws like HolzHers and Striebigs it's a completely different story. Cut quality is going to be good and accuracy, (if tuned well), dead on.
good luck,
JeffD