Do you work / design and print from the same computer (1 computer)?

[Unknown Member]

We have about 14 computers in our place.

Design work done from Studio Mac….

Rips housed on super fast PC and various other machine jotted around on workstation around the studio.

The most important computer is by the coffee machine which controls our music system…Can’t work without music

Many Thanks

[Pane Talev]

Hi James,

So in simple English (to a man who don’t know much about computers)- shall I keep the rip on a separate computer?

I have Summa D120 and Mutoh 1624 (if this maters)

[Unknown Member]

I would buddy.

Keep one computer for your design work and admin bits.

The other computer for RIP and production

I would say a good idea would be to set up google drive this way you can share a drive on both computers.

If your working from site you can access you drive and save files centrally

[Pane Talev]

Thanks for the advice James!

[Peter Wynne]

We have various computers dotted about, but it mainly goes as such…

Admin – Windows PC
Design – new iMacs
Rip – Separate Windows PC

It’s done this way as most designers seem to prefer Apple computers so we leave them to their iMacs. All our other staff (inc me!) prefer windows for general email and admin stuff so we use Windows PC.
The RIP software can be pretty heavy on the computers so we use a separate Windows PC to run Onyx on, just to ensure that nothing crashes!

Totally agree with James though… music is key! Working in silence is simply not an option!!

[David Hammond]

We design on iMacs

Admin, Accounts & Clarity run of a windows laptop (great as I can work from home of an evening)

RIP is a reasonably high spec PC

We also have a Dell server running Linux so everything is organised and shared between any machine, we used to use the RIP for that, but I like to keep it a separate.

[Phill Fenton]

I hope you guys are paying your licence fees to PRS for music and the other set of robbing b@stards? :awkward:

[David Hammond]

Out of principle we sit in silence :puppyeyes:

[Patrick Donaghey]

just bought a new pc to run the versacamm as the current one is on xp with 2gb ram and noisey plus it only works stiing sideways , ive just set up the new pc and am so happy i did,now i have all 3 pcs with 8gb ram icore 5 chips and a 2tb network hardrive it works for me

[Shawn Bentley]

i tend to do all design work on mac, save all files to external raid 6tb(2 x 3tb hardrives) ( saves to 3tb and mirrors to other 3tb as back up in case one goes down) then have both mac and external drive hooked up to network and run a separate stand alone printer pc with veraworks rip on to run printer only. hope it helps. also do Time Machine backup with another external drive so you will never lose work files.

[Pane Talev]

Thanks all.

I will leave the RIP to be on a separate PC and work / design on the Imac.

Cheers!

[Pane Talev]

Morning all.

I would like to update on this.

I did not like the idea of having Mac and PC in the office because they didn’t talk properly, i was getting confused, as I don’t know much about computer stuff, and I sold the Imac. I did buy an equally expensive Acer Predator desktop.

For nearly a year now and work, print and cut from 1 PC.

1) Emails and design work is done in Corel Draw and Illustrator
2) Sai Rip running on the same PC.
3) Cutting Vinyl with plug in with Corel and Illustrator.
(all of the above on 1 PC – No other PC in the room.)

Not a single problem in 1 year with PC freezing, crashing, etc.

[Philip Houston]

Hi Pane, I have a 27" iMac with a 24" dual monitor.
I run parallels for my flexisign and versaworks (both for PC’s)

Works perfectly.

[Martyn Heath]

I have a similar setup to yourself. Graptec and mutoh 1614.

I run 3 pcs, one for design and cutting. 1 only runs the rip. and the other one is for internet searching and music.

Ive always kept my work computers offline as in the beginning software was either playing up bacause of viruses or because of virus protection software.

[Neil Davey]

I design and plot using Flexisign on a 2011 iMac keeping it on OSX 10.8.5 and have another iMac running Ai etc and my accounts software. I then have an older PC running my Gerber Edge and Mutoh 1304 RIP and also have a more powerful up to date PC which runs Signlab and Flexi as well as estimating software. When I get time I’m going to retire the older PC in favour of the new model.

[Peter Johnson]

I used to work as a senior analyst in the IT sector and a lesson I learned (and always feel is important to remember) is redundancy (sorry for using the ‘R’ word).

The basic principal being, ‘Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket’. The biggest threat of using one machine only is what happens if it fails. It’s like backups. If you only have one set, what happens if those backups become lost/corrupted?

I have several PC’s for different tasks. All networked, pretty much all with the same software. One of them is high spec that I use for designing and RIP’ing. One is for printing off all of my orders, monitoring email and printing off all of my other paperwork. One of them controls the cutter (and plays the music), one is at the front counter so I can show finished and current projects to customers, and I am just currently setting up a new one to run my sublimation printer upstairs.

Bar the high spec machine, all of the others only cost me between £100 – £150. They also have Teamviewer installed so I can access any machine from work or home.

[Pane Talev]

@Peter Johnson, you are approaching this from a very good angle. I never thought about it like you said it. Thank you.