I use a Heq5 pro, 50mm mini guider with zwo 120mc ,canon dslr and an el chepo laptop not even a cd drive, but the really basic lappies have a great battery life between charges.
I just use the hand controller on the mount (I use a cat 5 network cable on the handset as the supplied one is too short) I cable only required, hand set to mount.
1 guide scope camera cable (the telephone look alike) goes to the guide port on the mount. The other guide camera cable (printer style) goes to a usb port, that's the guiding part done.
One cable only goes to another usb port from the imaging camera.
Only two cables to the computer and yes I get PHD guiding set up and running, minimize that, then get the imaging app (Backyard EOS in my case) running and start snapping pics. I can flick back to see how the guiding is going now and again.
I found Forrest Tanaka's video tutorials a great help,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW8NyT3r2LU