It's kinda like Christmas! Need some buying advice ASAP!

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 28
    Yup, Applecare is a must!



    I start the job in 2 weeks, but I'm ordering everything this week. So I might have to get the dual 1ghz just because it's available now. Anybody else heard any rumors about the availability of the 1.25ghz?
  • Reply 22 of 28
    Hmm- If it stars in 2 weeks, theres no sense in BTO'ing the hardware from the Apple stor (website), because it takes quite a bit longer to get that stuff out. And if you're not BTO'ing it, then I'd suggest just driving down to an Apple Store (actual store) or CompUSA and just picking them up yourself..
  • Reply 23 of 28
    Well I've worked out my equipment budget and here's a brief list of what I'm getting. What does suck is that I actually have the money to get a 1.25ghz, but since I need it in less than 2 weeks, I have to get a dual 1ghz. I suppose I could have a worse dilema, eh?



    Dual 1ghz G4PM / 1gig RAM

    22" Cinema Display

    Kensington Turbo Mouse Wireless Pro

    Apple Pro Speakers

    Cobra 7200 80gig FW HD

    750 Zip Drive

    Lacie USB Floppy Drive



    667mhz TiPB / Airport Card / 768 Meg RAM

    Airport Base Station

    Kusumo TiPB Case



    UMAX Powerlook Scanner FW

    Phazer 6200N Color Laser Printer

    HP DesignJet 500PS Large Format Color Printer 24"



    Adobe Design Collection x 2

    Quark 5

    Toast 5

    Suitcase 10

    MacLink Plus 13

    Stuffit Deluxe 6.5

    Retrospect Workgroup Backup 5

    Norton Systemworks 2

    MS Office X



    And a bunch of other little crap. So what do you all think? Any more advice about anything I've mentioned. Thanks for the help.
  • Reply 24 of 28
    valisvalis Posts: 19member
    Alirght, I just graduated with a Printing technology degree. So I know a thing or two about what you need. First thing you dont need is and LCD display. Sure they're pretty to look at, but your a graphic designer your major concern is the color on the screen not the encloser it is in. I've tried to use color spectrophotometers to calibrate various LCD displays and honestly the 22" cinema display was the worst in terms of color. Not only is the color not right to begin with, but the same color (digital RGB values) apears different depending on where it is on the display (the upper left is different than the middle for example) and not just alittle, visually noticeable, thus unacceptable. So save yourself $700 and buy a 21" sony CRT, yes sony, I recomend the GDM-520 it's capable of 2048x1536 @ 85hz (if you want) plus the color is good. But also you should buy a spectorphotometer, they are expensive, but nice to have around, you can run a color managed workflow which is a big plus. The nicest one I've used is the Greytag Spectrolino, but it's like $5k if I remember correctly, but there are far less expensive ones that do a good enough job (look for one that will calibrate both your monitor and printers you should be able to find one for around $1k). Oh btw with the $700 you save getting a better suited monitor, you could buy a second 19" for pallets, etc, (I like to make the navigator window in photoshop real big on the second display, it's a real time preview of the entire image when your doing detail work on the main display and allows you to move around real quick, but that's an asside). You also need a printer. Here there are lots and lots of options which i'm sure your aware of. Big question is Inkjet or Laser. Inkjet will allow you to print a larger sheet, but laser is faster, cheaper per page, and less hastle (how many inkjets are natively postscript) Xerox makes a color Laser printer, that "lay" people can not decern from photographic prints. Xerox Phaser 7700, it's 22ppm 11x17, and it's currently available with a $1000 rebate, okay it's $7k to begin with, but you might need to clean your pants after you use it the first time. Hey it's faster than my current computer (it's got a 500mhz G4 in it).

    Where does that leave us. Scanners I guess. Now I'm guessing your gonna be scanning slides/transparencies most often. This is a tough call. It really depends on the quality of work your doing, i mean newsletters, or Mercedes car broshure. If your doing the ridiculously hight quality stuff, have your printer do the scanning, chances are they have a full time employee with thousands of hours of scanning expereince to do it for you, working on a $50k device. Your not going to be able to compete with that. But that doesnt mean you dont need a scanner, even if just for FPO's. Two mid-class scanners that I would recomend are the Umax Powerlook 2100XL high res, 12x17 scanning bed transparency adapter. etc. look it up for all the specs. The other one I recomend is the Epson Expression 1640XL, it's a bit more ($2900, vs $1300) okay double, but it's has a higher optical resolution (allowing you to do more of your own scans), and is faster. But Neither of these are really slide scanners, granted they are capable of it, but I've never seen a flatbed of any cost be able to rival the quality out of a dedicated transparency scanner. (sorry I know less about dedicated transparency scanners)

    Alright I think that's it for now. Feel free to contact me on IM if you want it should be in my profile.

    -val1s





    -edit okay i reread it once and fixed the major variations away from "english"



    [ 08-21-2002: Message edited by: valis ]</p>
  • Reply 25 of 28
    Wow, thanks for the reply. I was looking at the UMAX Powerlook 1100 firewire scanner, but the 2100XL has a lot more features, so I think I'll get it. I agree about the quality of flatbed slide scans. And yes I'll send all the high end scans out to a local scanning shop. Thanks for the tips.



    Here's my next dilema... convincing the Mac-hating IT dept. to help me set up a separate Mac network. Yeah for me.
  • Reply 26 of 28
    I aI have told my mom to sell her UMAX Astro 2000u becuase UMAX isn't ever going to offer drivers for there consumer scanners under Mac OS X.



    They are however going to be doing drivers for there Professional scanners for Mac OS X.



    Man your going to have one heck of a sweet setup. I am stuck on this Beige 266 MT for a good 24 months+. sigh.
  • Reply 27 of 28
    I place my order in a few hours. Man am I stoked. I have droppped UMAX in favor of Epson.



    So far the IT dept. has conveyed that they are researching how to ad the Macs to the network. Funny thing is that they said "no Appletalk". It scares them for some reason. IFAIK in OS X, the networking is just like UNIX or MS. Anybody?
  • Reply 28 of 28
    You'll be using OS X, right? If so, don't worry about AppleTalk. Jagwire gets along perfectly with PC/UNIX networks without AppleTalk. However, if you're going to boot directly into OS 9 (classic under Jagwire is not affected), this could pose somewhat of a problem, since OS 9 natively speaks AppleTalk.



    Oh, and what is your final order going to be?



    [ 08-23-2002: Message edited by: graphiteman ]</p>
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