RIP computer?

[-Fusion]

Hello!

I'm jumping in with both feet and have my VG-540 coming very soon. I need to set up my RIP computer and am a little stuck with what specs are really needed for it. I first was going to get a laptop but it looks like that might not be the best route. I know the minimum specs are listed on Rolands website, and thats a great starting point - but what should I be shooting for realistically? I'll be print/cut files from illustrator that are designed on Mac.

thanks!

 

[Pippin Decals]

Ill try to help , Im not sure what a vg-540 is , I have a different brand.. But i just had a laptop put together and i wanted it to have more than needed..Im running a 1 TB solid state drive. 16 gb ram and a quad core I-7 processor with a 2 gb graphics..You want to be able to open at least 2-3 programs with any lag happening on your computer.. go big as possible

 

[-Fusion]

Ill try to help , Im not sure what a vg-540 is , I have a different brand.. But i just had a laptop put together and i wanted it to have more than needed..Im running a 1 TB solid state drive. 16 gb ram and a quad core I-7 processor with a 2 gb graphics..You want to be able to open at least 2-3 programs with any lag happening on your computer.. go big as possible

I figured bigger would end up better/quicker when it comes to SSD & RAM, wasn't sure if I needed a huge processor. thanks for the help!

 

[FTS Designz]

Running a remote laptop as well for my rip station, SSD, and 8 gb ram. only programs on that machine is my rip and it works great

 

[DravidDavid]

CPU, RAM and your Ethernet card are going to be the biggest factors with your RIP station. I've recently put a rip station in to run three of our Roland printers. It's an i5-3470 @ 3.2GHz with 8GB of RAM and a regular old 500GB metal disk. It runs an SC-540, SJ-1000, XJ-640 and our brand new TrueVis VG-640.

I run it headless inside a rack and access it via RealVNC. I keep the VNC connection over the standard 10/100 port and use a 10/100/1000 card to talk to the printers so that communication with the OS isn't affected when sending large files to printers.

I got this machine second hand from a local computer store for $200. I'm sure you could find a similar spec'd machine.

I wouldn't recommend a laptop. and i5 in a laptop and i5 in a desktop are not the same. Heat is an issue with laptops and so is servicing them when they break. I'd recommend getting a mid size tower chassis and put it in the corner somewhere.

 

[ikarasu]

Hello!

I'm jumping in with both feet and have my VG-540 coming very soon. I need to set up my RIP computer and am a little stuck with what specs are really needed for it. I first was going to get a laptop but it looks like that might not be the best route. I know the minimum specs are listed on Rolands website, and thats a great starting point - but what should I be shooting for realistically? I'll be print/cut files from illustrator that are designed on Mac.

thanks!

What are you ripping? Huge 20 FT posters, road signs, etc? For ripping..does it really matter to you how long it takes to rip? For our workshop, we use an older pc. All files are on the network, so we rip via network, with a non-SSD HD. Road signs take maybe 10-20 seconds to rip... huge posters that are 10 ft by 10ft can take a minute or two. I usually rip as i'm printing, so it not being instant hasn't bothered me... Plus, it gives me a few minutes to browse signs 101 ;p Any computer will work, it all depends on what you want it to do. Try a computer you have laying around first... If this is your first printer, I imagine you wont be ripping so much in such a little time. Try what you have laying around, and if it's not good enough, then upgrade.

SSD (Doesnt need to be huge, just to store whatever files you want to rip). CPU, Ram, them are what matters the most. Are you going to be designing on this computer / editing files with photoshop / etc? Then you'd need a decent GPU, if you'd like that not to slow you down.

 

[danno]

Call Casey at SignBurst computers. 801-710-3167

 

[-Fusion]

What are you ripping? Huge 20 FT posters, road signs, etc? For ripping..does it really matter to you how long it takes to rip? For our workshop, we use an older pc. All files are on the network, so we rip via network, with a non-SSD HD. Road signs take maybe 10-20 seconds to rip... huge posters that are 10 ft by 10ft can take a minute or two. I usually rip as i'm printing, so it not being instant hasn't bothered me... Plus, it gives me a few minutes to browse signs 101 ;p Any computer will work, it all depends on what you want it to do. Try a computer you have laying around first... If this is your first printer, I imagine you wont be ripping so much in such a little time. Try what you have laying around, and if it's not good enough, then upgrade.

SSD (Doesnt need to be huge, just to store whatever files you want to rip). CPU, Ram, them are what matters the most. Are you going to be designing on this computer / editing files with photoshop / etc? Then you'd need a decent GPU, if you'd like that not to slow you down.

I will be ripping 1'x1' files that are usually 50-300mb each. I will print them 20-50 at a time - occasionally for personal use I may make a banner but not often. I will not be using the RIP computer to design or edit files, its just to run my VG-540.

I have been looking at some of the Desktops from Costco, usually i7 with 16gb RAM and a decent HD.

 

[pjfmeister]

We run our RIP on a dedicated RIP PC on the network. Old leftover PC but with lots of RAM (32gig).... I would spend more money on a topnotch network Router or switch to have better/faster/stabler throughput for sending large files.... A simple dedicated PC with plenty of RAM will get the job done other than inherent RIP software limitations...