Which PC for RIP? Help please.

[Peter Normington]

Warren it depends what you mean by slow, when it comes to ripping. regarding memory processor etc.

what you need is barebones, fast processor, max memory and a couple of reasonable sized hard drives in performance array, bare operating system only, with just the rip installed, but I am sure Dave will explain better, and how to achieve
Peter

[Warren Beard]

It is only for the RIP nothing else, I thought an off the shelf machine would suffice?

I have no idea what makes it rip faster and if it’s cheaper to buy a built one with just the basics (what ever those should be?)

Dave is just going to confuse me I think :lol1:

this is what I have at the moment with Xp

Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz
1 GB Ram
180GB Hard drive

[Bob Clarkson]

I wouldn’t worry, I’ve got no idea myself. In fact I just ask the kids what I need to do the job required. But the numbers you’ve just quoted are especially low unless it’s 5yrs old or more.

I know it’ll be frowned on, but I generally buy from Dell. I know a few people that build them, and a few shops that make them to spec, but with Dell, if it goes wrong, you get another one, that suits me more than dealing with shops etc. Think there’s about 2yrs warranty, by which time it’s superseded, so I’d just get another one if it went wrong.

[Chris Wool]

i think you can get carried away with this some extra ram in the 3 ghz machine and a bigger disk loaded with xp service pack 3 would do nearly as well as something costing loads more.
i rip first then print, by the time i have pressed rip, gone to the printer checked or loaded the vinyl, got back to the computer its ready to start printing.

just don’t connect it to the web and all that entails.

[Kevin Flowers]

Warren
you don’t want a celeron processor that is both your listed machines ruled out. You could go down the route of just increasing your memory to 4GB on your machine, subject to the motherboard being able to accept it. Can be done fairly cheaply, the processor in your machine is an adequate processor and most sign software isn’t multiple core ready so you don’t gain much by upgrading to a quad core etc. Windows 32bit only see’s 3.5 gb of memory although you may have installed 4 gb, but it will give a good performance step over the 1 gb. Do you have Versawork’s set to rip why printing, this does speed up the process. Hope this helps

Kev

[David-Foster-]

Warren
repeating what kev says. Try upgrading the memory and do a fresh install of windows and service pack 3. If the machine is just for the one task you can leave it just to do that.

If you want a new unit and the keyboard, monitor etc is ok you only need a new base unit. I would go to a local PC shop and get just the box built. Wouldn’t buy one from Currys or PC World unless you want the £70 part ex. You will have more than £70 worth of hassle with a Packard Bell though 😀

Depending on your budget and if your keyboard, monitor are fine… and you are a mac head 😉 get a mac mini! Run it with windows on for Versaworks, the beauty being you have a back up system for your main work machine. You can keep a full backup system on the mini. Run it as a windows machine but could boot it up as a mac, your main machine if you have a failure of your iMac.

[Warren Beard]

Thanks guys

my old (current) PC is over 5 years old. I rip first and then print as I’m not sure what would happen if it printed faster than it ripped 😕

All I would need is a tower but the computer shops locally (and one is a customer of mine) are useless, when this PC stopped working a while back (due to over heating from a dirty fan) I desperately phones and emailed around to get a new machine built for me, not one of them ever got back to me (they obviously too busy to need more business 😕 )

If my current one can be upgraded sufficiently then that’s fine, I just thought a new machine with faster processors and more ram etc would be better then a 5 year old machine but either way is fine.

Full specs of current machine are;

Packard Bell
XP Media Centre Edition (built in – no disc, has serial on side of tower)
Version 2002
Service Pack 2
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz
1 GB Ram
180GB Hard drive

Why does more hard drive space increase spreed?

cheers

Warren

[David-Foster-]

Hi Warren

More hard drive space doesn’t increase speed really, it is the actual speed and interface on the drive. The new kids on the block are SSD’s though. Solid state memory. No moving parts or disks. Think of them as a big USB memory stick. I am no expert, where is Dave Rowland when you need him :lol1:

I would try the memory upgrade first. I have a Pentium IV 2.4 PC and it has CorelDraw, Photoshop/Illustrator CS5 and it runs fine with 2GB Ram. The hard disk drive is the slowest part.

[Chris Wool]

as i understand it warren.
bigger disk = a big hole to work on a big file like trying to do a big layout in a small room.
if its 5 years old its about to give up and a new one will generally be higher rpm and a larger buffer. for around £40.
you could just format this drive and put the new ram in and see how you go.

[David Rowland]

hehe… the question is how fast do you need the RIP file to be ready? at present I am waiting a fair bit as it is creating 1GB RTL files quite often on our machine for any 2mtr sized prints. So as Peter said, RAID, Memory as well as processors (multi-core will help).

We are using a HP but appears to be dual Xeon based system

A new item that has appeared in technology, the SATAIII harddrive running with SATAIII Raid, I am still tracking down who can actually do this for some amazing transfer speed 🙂

I was going to suggest Dell Outlet but only see 1 machine… must be popular
http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/dfb/Des … &cs=ukdfb1

If I was looking at a desktop, the I would be thinking i3,i5 or i7 processors (might be i9 now) then look at the processor Ghz spec, ones in the 3Ghz area are normally fast, dont bother with SSD hard drives for this type of machine and anything that says RAID0 for RIP-DATA drives (NOT DOCUMENTS) (a d:\ and straight forward 7200rpm boot drive would be lovely.

All I got say is DELL! Great systems but crap support

You did say HP 3Ghz Processor, that isn’t too bad?!

[Warren Beard]

quote Dave Rowland:

You did say HP 3Ghz Processor, that isn’t too bad?!

so a bit more ram and an external hard drive should be enough for some extra speed?

[Bob Clarkson]

I’ve had four PC’s for Dell in total, and one time Dell sent me a £700 tower, it didn’t seem to want to work. I ran them, and they rang me back for a talk through.

I had the thing in bits all over the floor, then said hang on, this is brand new and I’m pulling it apart already, I’m not happy to continue with this.

They sent me a new tower, slightly upgraded to compensate for my trouble. I can’t imagine many smaller independent companies being that helpful.

Dell, as you probably know are now available at PC World, their customer service is limited in knowledge, but very good back-up once they realise your intent on resolving a problem. I’ve had lots of plasma TVs off them, sometimes four at a time, and they’re up for a deal. Not just on multiples, but one offs as well.

[Richard Urquhart]

Dont want to start a spec war but ! I have an xp comp with a 6 year old processor and 2 gb of ram, only used as a rip with versaworks, connected to my other high spec machine over a wired network, this runs completely fine even when ripping massive files

[Martin Pearson]

and so it should Rich, Warren’s existing machine should be fine if he throws in a bit more memory and removes all the other programs.

[Jason Davies]

same here we have a 5 year old laptop churning through files, stacked with Ram, but that is just pennies.

Jason

[Andrew Martin]

I use a shuttle x pc which is dedicated for the rip which has win2000 for the operating system and running shiraz rip v5.6… the processor is 2.80Ghz with only 512mb of ram… this setup is very stable and runs fairly fast in my opinion, although i plan to double up on the ram soon as i feel there is room for some improvement on ripping larger files.

[Warren Beard]

Thanks guys, I’m going to get some ram and stick it in to see how well it performs, sounds like it should be good.

cheers

Warren

[Warren Beard]

OK so it seems the maximum my PC can take is 2GB and I will have to replace all the RAM as I currently have 2x 512mb so will have to buy 2x 1GB cards to get full use and these are about £70 for the 2.

Is it worthwhile still to do this than upgrade to a new PC even if I try get one built?

cheers

Warren

[David Rowland]

yeah there is always complications

value for money? not sure if i can answer that one… when using it u might get that feeling of power…

[Kevin Flowers]

Warren
haven’t they brought out VW for Mac’s, or don’t that help

Kev

[David Rowland]

Don’t mention that there is two rips i know for macs

[Warren Beard]

but is this going to be a short term fix? I guess as long as file sizes don’t start getting bigger it will always be the same?

Maybe will just try it anyway, if it ends up a waste of money I will just have to make do for another year, it can’t be worse than it is now I guess.

cheers

Warren

[Warren Beard]

not for Mac yet, strange really, I wonder how many people who use VW work on Macs?

[Jason Davies]

Warren, RAM will do the trick. Unfortunately we have to use a PC for VW and Omega.

[David Rowland]

Oh versaworks… sorry I thought u was talking about a RIP 😉

[Stafford Cox]

quote Dave Rowland:

Oh versaworks… sorry I thought u was talking about a RIP 😉

:lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

[Stephen Morriss]

I have an 2 year old HP with a 1.16ghz triple core AMD Phenom processor and 2gb ram and it’s fine with Versaworks.
I quite often rip and get on with something else on the same computer (triple core helps).
Longest I’ve waited is near 1/2 hour with a 4m X 800mm print but most are a few minutes.

I actually hadn’t realised my processor was so slow but hey it works and hasn’t let me down, YET, 🙂

Steve