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OT:  Computer part prices


markboyce

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afternoon,

Ive just thrown away an old imagesetter which has been gathering dust in a corner of the office....

In the box was a price list showing how prices have moved on in the computer world.....

Dated: 4/8/1990

Upgrades available

4mb ram 16 MHz   £1,415

8mb ram 16 MHz   £2,795

12mb ram 16 MHz   £4,255

8mb 32 Mhz    £4,965

12mb 32 Mhz  £6,265

16mb 32 Mhz  £7,645

Super enhanced RAM   :bangshead:

8mb  £8,200

16mb  £10,720

Hard drive

20mb   £365

42mb   £1,065

91mb   £2,495

330mb £4,855

600 dpi plain paper laser printer  £8,830

Stand for printer                      £595  (essential due to its size and weight)

Machine cost us around £30,000 back in 1990.  Ebay?   :D

cheers

mark

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e-Bay is blocked here..... Which image setter is it (ECRM)? Were you using the old Hyphen RIP with it or something?

Mark.

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

e-Bay is blocked here..... Which image setter is it (ECRM)? Were you using the old Hyphen RIP with it or something?

Its a Varityper 4990. A good-un of its time and to be honest if its just simple text its still a good unit.  Main problem is that its a  hardware RIP thus its not much use in the modern world!

Registration is still perfect, only ever adjusted it when it was moved.

Ive still got a ECRM with rip which we still use for some jobs

cheers

mark

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Varityper made some stonking imagesetters in their time. Spot on registration, good enough for colour work and capable of matching some drum based imagesetters. All this from a continuous feed unit.

Thing is, I remember their old Marketing Manager almost boating about them being "the best kept secret".

:durr:

Tw@t! Your job was to tell the world how good they were... No wonder they went pop!

Anyway, have you thought about sticking a software RIP onto it?

Mark.

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I don't know for definate what can be fitted to your unit but all a RIP (Raster Image Processor) is doing is creating a bitmap from the PostScript code. The RIP will then dump the image down to the imagesetter via its video interface. The imagesetter itself is basically a dumb unit.

So... In theory, all you need is a decent RIP with drivers and an adapter to let it plug into your Imagesetter.

For example, the ECRM RIP you've got is probably the software based Harlequin RIP. This RIP has been used on various imagesetters, large format printers, etc... and OEM'd by various manufacturers... One of which is ECRM.

Might be worth doing a search and/or having a chat with a specialist dealer... If you want I could put you in touch with a couple of decent ones that won't fob you off.

M

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And to think you called my Saab boring and sensible.... *yawn* :p:D:D

It still is, it's just that this stuff is even wor... ZZZZZzzzzzzzz......

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afternoon,

Ive just thrown away an old imagesetter which has been gathering dust in a corner of the office....

In the box was a price list showing how prices have moved on in the computer world.....

Dated: 4/8/1990

Upgrades available

4mb ram 16 MHz   £1,415

8mb ram 16 MHz   £2,795

12mb ram 16 MHz   £4,255

8mb 32 Mhz    £4,965

12mb 32 Mhz  £6,265

16mb 32 Mhz  £7,645

Super enhanced RAM   :bangshead:

8mb  £8,200

16mb  £10,720

Hard drive

20mb   £365

42mb   £1,065

91mb   £2,495

330mb £4,855

600 dpi plain paper laser printer  £8,830

Stand for printer                      £595  (essential due to its size and weight)

Machine cost us around £30,000 back in 1990.  Ebay?   :D

cheers

mark

The good ole days... when we used to make decent margins!

Buzz  :p

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