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Need help. New drive/rip system

Hey all. I'm currently on working on a mac. It's what i learned on. So i am happy & comfortable with working on it. But in light of software releases and equipment / support that of witch 99% is pc. It's time to set up designated drive/rip station for 540v. Need help with set up / manufacture choices. leaning towards dell, possibly acer? What do i need processor wise
speed 2.8 gig- 4 gig p4 / xenon / dual core? ram 1g ,2g /video cart. Hd will be 80 or more. I run an ext. hd for file storage. I know there are a lot of options +.-'s. I'm looking for solid base suggestions. What are the realistic minimums. I don't want to under buy. I also don't want over kill. It's going to be a drive/rip station only. Your thoughts on minimum requirements would be much appreciated. software will be flexi pro/versaworks . Probably xp pro os . That's open for suggestions also .:thankyou:
 

Shovelhead

New Member
Do you want a Lambourghini.....

XENON dual core
160g HD
1 gig card
4 gig RAM

or a Corvette?.............

P4 3.0+
80g HD
512mb card
1 gig RAM minimum

they'll both get your to where you're going real fast....
but you can stick with the Vette and save a couple hundred large.
 

jayhawksigns

New Member
First off, go AMD, more power for you money, I don't know that dual core will actually do you any good with the rip software you will be using.

Go with at least 2gigs of ram, and get your memory in pairs, meaning if you want 2 gigs, buy two 1 gig sticks.

You don't need anything expensive for a video card, a 128mb card is over kill for a rip stationon. On board video would even work if you wanted to go real cheap, but you do lose some of your system memory for it.

And for the hard drive, it depends on if you try to archive your jobs, or delete them immediately after you print them. If you try to keep them for any length of time, the will eat up you disk space pretty fast.
 

JMDigital

New Member
You say a designated drive/rip station? Are you going to use it to just rip. or are you going to store work files there too? all the sugestions so far are great ones. The AMD/INTEL war is still going on. I currently use both and like both. I can tell you that if you are going to use it for file storage. Use WINDOWS 2003 Server, and the MORE RAM the better. If you are going to store files do some sort of raid.. 3 or 4 drives so they back each other up. You dont want to store 100gig of work files and have no backup. and also dont be in a rush to use wireless for the rip/server if you are sending a large file 200meg or so, you are going to want to run it over a gigabit network rather then even the faster wireless. My design computer is wired to the server and the other office computers are wireless..
 
This will be just rip

This system will be used for rip and size / profile color management. All file/jobs will be stored on external hard-drive. Just looking for something efficient to do the job. Pc ignorant. Always used mac.
No ferrari or lambro. The vette will be fine. really looking for the minimum. Still need a laminator. I don't want to waste money on junk or more than i need. You get what you pay for. Looking for a good reliable base.
 

Techman

New Member
First off, go AMD

If this was a gaming machine I would concure..
However, the Intel procesor has proven to be a better overall chip for engineering type work.

This is from first hand experience with dozons of machines at the Stennis test site and the DISA site.

As far as a good basic machine that you have no desire to tweak, push overclock, or modify then

DELL, DELL ,DELL

They run, and run, and run. The dell catches heat from the tweakers thus are not popular with that group because dells are not made to be tweaked. They are made to run out of the box..

By the way. Get the largest hard drive you can find. A pair of large ones would be better.

--techman
 

Bill Modzel

New Member
Have you looked for a Mac RIP?
I currently use PosterJet on my Powerbook to print to my HP5000. I also have a demo disk for a RIP form Caldera Graphics.

PosterJet is currently running in Classic therefore, my interest in Caldera. They keep promising an OS X update soon though.
 
Update

Dell Pen.D830 3GHz Dual Core
2GB DDR2 SDRam 667mhz 2Dimm
20"Ultra Sharp DFP
160 Gig HD 7200rpm
MS XP Pro
DVD/CD - RW 16x
Wireless Key&Mouse
256MB ATI Radeonx600
Thanks for the input!:thankyou:
 
This will be for rip. 2nd unit

Bill Modzel said:
Have you looked for a Mac RIP?
I currently use PosterJet on my Powerbook to print to my HP5000. I also have a demo disk for a RIP form Caldera Graphics.

PosterJet is currently running in Classic therefore, my interest in Caldera. They keep promising an OS X update soon though.
Have Flexi Pro for Mac 7.7v1 Made a bid on ebay for PC Flexi Pro 7.6v2 For 1000 less than asking price and the took the bid. Called Scanvec to verify and they check out. So now have design & output stations. Plus the PC version always release and update first.
 

Cadmn

New Member
I'm not a gamer but I go AMD probably built in my day 1000 AMD systems & 100Intel & AMD was best all around in service etc. I do not like the name brands because if there is a problem their tech support cost $$$$$ & is based in india need to replace a driver, etc. good luck getting an answer to what you actually have to find a driver for it. customer deleted his vid driver by ooops & cost him 50 to get one. I spent days asking what brand card they used in the system to no avail once I tracked down the brand using diag software I found it took secs to dl A driver for free. when I taught drafting the school bought several dell & if it was big problem they come right out but some things toook days & weeks. I say build it or have it built more bang for the buck & you will understand your system better MY.10 worth
 
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