lm03_cif@UHURA.CC.ROCHESTER.EDU (Larry Moss) (04/17/91)
I hate to ask questions that have probably been asked many times, but I
only recently started reading this group.
I was asked to do some research into printers for UR Computer And Reserve
Library. Well, I have to admit that I haven't done much research aside
from what I've read on the net, but what I have read in other places
hasn't been particularly helpful so far, so even pointers to recent
magazine articles would be useful.
Currently we have 5 Apple Laserwriter Pluses on a network of roughly 60
Macs. Each printer does about a 1000 pages a day. Or at least they
were. Not surprisingly they're having trouble handling the load and are
starting to break down fairly frequently. We are now looking into
alternatives to Laserwriters. Actually even information (fact or
opinion) about the type of load newer laserwriters can handle would be
useful. We don't know if we want to continue with several printers on
the network like we have now or replace them with a high volume printer.
The big requirements:
must support the basic fonts that the laserwriter has. It was
just pointed out to me today that most users arent' going to want
to have several different Mac system disks with the fonts they
use in each different place they print on campus. I hadn't even
thought about that before.
must support appletalk.
can support a heavy load without having to worry about a large
repair bill.
One of the printers that I've heard good and bad things about is the
TI-micro XL-{17,35}. At university prices the XL-35 is $3209 with
appletalk, but only 1/2 meg of RAM. We would want more memory, but I
don't have a price on that. Does anyone have any experience with one of
these in a large network? Does it meet the font requirement I mentioned?
It's in the same price range as an NTX, so does anyone have any
preferences? why?
QMS also has some printers that might do what we need, but I don't have
much information on them. the PS-410 I assume fits in the same category
as the NTX and the TI. I guess I have basically the same questions about
that that I have for the TI. I also saw mention of the PS-2000 which is
designed to be a high volume printer. Any other information?
There were some other printers mentioned a couple of days ago that didn't
sound like they would be what I'm looking for. I suppose what would be
most helpful now would be information abotu other high volume printers.
More information about lower volume printers can't hurt, but we may
just stick with Apple stuff if that's the direction we go in.
Thanks,
Larry
--
lm03_cif@uhura.cc.rochester.edu / "I'm so tired... I was up all night
lmo3_ss@db1.cc.rochester.edu / trying to round off infinity."
lmo3_ss@uordbv.bitnet / - Stephen Wright