Need opinions on RIP computers

[WI]

All the RIP stations in our shop are basically the same. 32 bit operating systems, 4 gigs of RAM, decent dual core processors.

Outside of the odd 30' mural that I've had to feed into a machine at 100dpi, I personally don't notice jobs taking too long to process .

In the opinion of anyone reading this, would there be any point to upgrading the machines we've got? Again, these are just RIP stations. We don't do any design on them.

My next issue is that we've got five printers, and a dedicated RIP computer for each printer. It was like this when I got here, and I think this is overkill. What kind of performance hit would we take if we ran two or maybe three printers off of a single machine? Aside from the occasional RIP station traffic-jam, would we even notice the difference? Has anyone had any problems with RIP stations crashing while running multiple machines?

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

What rip software are they using, some you can only run 2 printers off one computer.

Then again, if it aint broke why fix it?

 

[particleman]

All of my experience with running multiple machines off one computer is with Onyx and personally I feel like the software (Onyx) is the weakest link. When it crashes (and it will at some point) it will take down both printers if they are running. If you have complete faith in your rip and printer drivers it should work fine. As far as processing power, one PC ran two machines just fine.

 

[omgsideburns]

I've got no problems running onyx on an old AthlonXP machine, running WinXP with 4gb memory shared between video and system... Older version of onyx though. Never crashes or anything.. Actually the only time I had issues crashing was when it had two security dongles on it. Once I bumped down to just Onyx and no other keyed software it stopped crashing.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

We run 3 printers (Epson GS6000, Mimaki JV33 and a CET flatbed) off of a $700 off-the-shelf consumer grade HP machine from Best Buy. 2.8ghz AMD processor, 8gb RAM, Windows 7 64-bit and Onyx Productionhouse X10. Also runs the Summa plotter and streams music... Believe it or not I've only had it crash while ripping a file twice that I can think of in about 3 years.

We ended up getting that machine because my old beefed-up RIP computer crashed one night in the middle of a huge job and I ran and bought the HP as a band-aid fix until I could build a much better machine. But 3 years later it's doing the job just fine and I've yet to really think it takes too long to RIP anything, or multiple files simultaneously, and it's as stable as I've ever seen.

So if your current machines aren't giving you any problems and they're stable and not causing any production bottlenecks I wouldn't replace them IMO. If anything maybe if anything upgrade Windows to 64bit Pro and throw some more RAM in there, but that's probably not really necessary if each computer is only ripping for one printer. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[SightLine]

I'd have to agree with the above. What you have works well, it keeps things separated and they a dedicated machines. No need in messing with it.

I did recently upgrade our RIP. Also dedicated, runs just Flexi Production Manager but drives 3 printers and a cutter. Newish Dell PC. Had a few hiccups getting it all going again but working fine now. One quirk I ran into is we just downloaded the latest driver from Summa for the S160T cutter. Had to downgrade that driver. We discovered in the middle of printing something on the JV33 that if you poll the cutter for the material width with the newest driver, that will instantly cause Flexi to crash and close. Of course this aborts prints jobs in progress as a side benefit. Downgraded the cutter driver back to an older version and it works fine again.

Point is, be prepared for a bunch of futzing and fussing if you go and start changing things up. Its an interruption in business that you need to decide - is it really necessary?

 

[rjssigns]

5 printers with 5 RIP servers. Yup, that's about right. I'm a huge fan of redundancy.
We have one printer and one plotter at our shop, but have 1 main and 2 back-up RIP servers that can run everything.

 

[SignBurst PCs]

This is a good question and you have a few real-life answers.

In my opinion, I would need to know your production load before making any judgement or recommendations. I would lean towards a high-production scenario seeing that you have five printers, but that may or may not be the case. How many hours a day do those printers run? Are those computers running 24/7 or 8 hours a day? What is your risk tolerance? If a single RIP server went down and you had three of your printers running through it, how damaging would that be? There are many things to consider and balance here.

Again, just my opinion, but performance is a relative term and what works in one shop may not work in another. I really don't think that having 5 RIP servers (or RIP clients, depending on your RIP software) is a bad thing.

 

[choucove]

In terms of lowering the risk of downtime in the event of a computer failing, and improving overall efficiency of each system to handle the single workload instead of doubling up the rip jobs on a single system, I think the configuration you are using is probably the wisest. The downfall will come in maintenance and upkeep as well as licensing costs. Since you have five computers running five printers, instead of two or three computers, you will have more computers to keep updated on licensing which will be more expensive. Additionally, you have five computers that you must keep running and replace five computers on a regular roll-out schedule. This means greater cost.

However, since each computer is only running a single printer, it doesn't need to be quite as powerful, and thus your budget per computer will be reduced. All in all, you're probably looking at about the same cost to run five less power computers as you are to run two or three more powerful computers.

I don't know much about the computer system hardware you are running, but given they are currently running 32-bit operating systems with 4 GB installed, I'd say you need to keep in mind a budget plan to replace these computers soon. Yes, they are all up and running for you now, and there's no rush then to replace something that isn't broken, but it is also better to be planning for when you have to replace these computers instead of trying to quickly react to one or two computers crashed at the same time and your production line on those RIPs are completely halted.

We don't know which RIP software you are using, but it would be best to look into trying to get identical computer systems for all of your RIP stations to standardize. This greatly reduces administrative time as, if you have a problem and find a solution for one computer, it's pretty well guaranteed to work on all the others as well since they are identical systems. Additionally, any one computer can be moved to replace another if needed and new upgraded hardware or replacement hardware is compatible with all the computers that way.

 

[WI]

Lots of good thoughts and feedback here, thanks everyone. Redundancy came up a great deal, and I'll admit that I sometimes get a bit of tunnel vision and don't focus on the advantages of what I've already got in an effort to improve things. Again, I appreciate the feedback everyone.