Chriscarp746

New Business Laptop

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Ok guys, I'm looking into a small decal/shirt business and it's only obvious that I'm gonna need a "good quality" laptop. I'm not looking to spend a fortune as I'm trying to 

keep my start up costs low. I've looked around online and I'm really not too sure about computers in this type of business. But I want something that I won't get easily 

frustrated because of lack of speed or what have you. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks

Chris

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So which part of the business is on the laptop?  It is always best to have your cutter on a designated computer,  away from all the  usual stuff that you want to surf on.   A lot of us stay back on XP computers.  I use XP with my Graphtec and XP back ups.   Cheap, all less than $100 including shipping.   You don't need a fancy new computer to cut decals. and XP is very stable.  

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7 minutes ago, MZ SKEETER said:

So which part of the business is on the laptop?  It is always best to have your cutter on a designated computer,  away from all the  usual stuff that you want to surf on.   A lot of us stay back on XP computers.  I use XP with my Graphtec and XP back ups.   Cheap, all less than $100 including shipping.   You don't need a fancy new computer to cut decals. and XP is very stable. 

Agreed. My cutter is running of a cheap 10" notebook with 20" monitor. Plenty for changes to designs and cutting. Even works great for new designs.

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like others above I recommend running the cutter on a computer not connected to the internet -that way if you get a virus or other milady it doesn't stop production.   many of us design on one computer and take the info via usb drive to the cutter computer that is totally isolated

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What are you using now for a computer?   I have 15"  Toshiba Satellites  XP. for cutting. Then I have a couple 17" Toshiba Satellites windows 7 to mess around on.  

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It's your money..I don't buy new computers.  too many great deals for under $100.. and those windows 10 updates are shutting quite a few down now.  See it about every week now.  Those people are coming in here for help,  They had a Windows 10 update, and then their cutters won't communicate with their computer anymore.  

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14 minutes ago, Chriscarp746 said:

to give you an idea on where others are at my latest design computer is an AMD 8 core, 64gb ram, 8Tb hard drive.   when you start designing for the printer file size goes way way up from the all vector graphics the plotters use that are more efficient files to store

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If you have that kind of money to spend on a computer....downgrade the computer and spend it on a better vinyl cutter..At least go up to a servo cutter.   Stepper and servo are night and day apart. The vinyl cutter is the source of your income.  not the computer.  Any decent computer will work. 

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1 hour ago, Chriscarp746 said:

...keep my start up costs low...

$800 is a lot.

I run my cutter with a Dell Latitude D520 that cost $60. (and has a built in serial port).

I paid ZERO for software (SignBlazer and Inkscape)

Vector graphics is not processor-intensive, I have never run into any lags or slowdowns. You are over-thinking this.

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Agreed with all above comments. Spend your money on a nice cutter and throw in a heat press for t-shirts. I design on a decent iMac but my cutter runs off an older windows laptop. Reason I do this is in part because while the cutter is churning out work I can be over on my main workstation doing something else as well as having a back-up if something goes down. 

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Second all the above comments.

Besides, with that laptop you would have to go buy an external optical drive if you wanted to buy any graphics collections.

 

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Am I understanding this correctly? That I should have a cheaper computer for cutter operation and that only. What about design software, wouldn't I need more ram

to run the software?

 too many great deals for under $100.      Where can I get a computer for under $100?

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Ebay   Craigslist, .  

Don't be looking for new computers,, Look back on 15" or 17  XP  or windows 7.  Check out the descriptions.  Ask questions.  Once you see 1 others show up at the bottom.   Look around for the $100   by lowest price.   Make sure they are not AS IS.   or no hard drive.  They are out there.   I prefer Toshiba,  as mine are all Toshiba,  So I only search for Toshiba Satellites XP. and others will come up also.   Look for them showing they are working.  Several sellers on Ebay fix computers and resell them.  Check feedback.  

 

 

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I am on a Windows 7 right now  17 " Toshiba  bought from Ebay about $150.      It has downloaded on it   Demo Vinyl Master,  Graphtec Studio, Signcut Pro, Signblazer, Illustrator CS2,  Flexidesigner10.and   Flexistarter 8.6.  Inkscape.  plus other stuff.    It used  284 GB  out of  449 GB   and runs just fine.   I use this computer to help people on here with their different file formats. 

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Scratch on the screen   $79 +12 shipping   

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Toshiba-Satellite-C655D-S5508-VISION-AMD-4GB-RAM/202125943468?hash=item2f0fa522ac:g:PVAAAOSwevlaEN~e

Look at some of Neweggs refurbished laptops.   many more than this. 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA8AD4ZB6475&cm_re=windows_7_laptops-_-9SIA8AD4ZB6475-_-Product

Or pawn shops.   There are many great deals out there.. 

 

My cutter was $3000 new,  2008, Graphtec  FC model.   I am still using a 2006 Toshiba  XP laptop to cut with.. Never upgraded anything on it. Have been cutting since 2006. I started with a Seiki vinyl cutter.   i replaced the screen, and keyboard over the years. but nothing else.. It still runs fine. 

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I also do not keep all of my designs on my computer.  i have an external hard drive for back up.  You want to back up your files many times.  I throw files off in Hotmail drafts.  In case I need them off this computer.  I burn them to several discs. and don't use the masters.  others use different ways to save files.  Thumb drives.  clouds.  

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Yep, got mine at a pawn shop.

I really wanted to run the cutter with true serial, not the flaky USB emulation. That narrowed my choices to older laptops with the integrated serial port.

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1 hour ago, slice&dice said:

Yep, got mine at a pawn shop.

I really wanted to run the cutter with true serial, not the flaky USB emulation. That narrowed my choices to older laptops with the integrated serial port.

Just a heads up slice - Hp has made business computers for the last few years that have serial for the medical industry- our prison health care got new computers and I was surprised to see the serial for their old ekg set up etc.  they are rare but out there

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yep, was running 10 before I bought my cutter. no problems that I know of with running 10. I have both VM cut and scalps4.  I believe the issues I have stem from my comp only having 2gb of ram. $180 dell laptop bought at BB black fri sale 2013  to surf net and use for email. lol.

I just purchased my upgrade lap top. so new I haven't turned it on yet.  I just saw some decent computers on sale for black fri at best buy last night. 8 - 10 gb ram for less than $500. if not mistaken ,saw 1 for $300 I5 8gb ram

  I sent @Primal Decals all kinds of sale ads while I was shopping for the replacement to get the ya or na. I ended up with an I7 7500 , 8gb ram 2 tb hdfor $500 and the way I like to buy 0 % interest card. lol

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46 minutes ago, Primal Decals said:

@cardudenc i believe he runs windows 10 with his cutter and i think he runs Scalps4pro and Ai as well. Check with him..

There has been 2 problems recently, about Windows 10 updates.  here is 1 from Nov 18th

http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php?/topic/54464-copam-2500-not-recognized/&tab=comments#comment-435771

 

 

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Dont buy a copam then i guess lol..   From what we found out on @cardudenc computer that when he updated his windows 10 it did mess up for a sec and then found out that the ports had gotten changed during the update So all we does was relocate them and problem solved. And hes running just fine with Vm and scalps ,But his primary is scalps now.

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