I am using an old HP Designjet 330 A0 Mono. The higher the number the better the plotter.
Out of those you listed the 1050 is the best but the 430 would be the most economical. I did some research when looking for my plotter and HP are probably your best bet there are other makes but often they are more expensive.
The 430 is so much less expensive than the others, but it only has 4 mb of ram standard. Does one need to consider the others, really, if a small firm of only (6) people, only (3) of which draft, will be using it to plot only 10 to 15 sheets a day?
The 430 wil be fine for those needs. We are a similar size; the old 330 is still going strong after two years and even then we bought it as refurbished from an architects who'd had it for years. Maury is right, they are virtually indestructable (ours was banged about in a recent office move and still works!)
We are now sending more and more documents as pdf but you just can't beat a nice engineering drawing on paper.
I am leasing an HP Designjet 500. I'm on the 2nd of a 3 year lease.
The 500 is great....it plots up to 42" wide sheets.
I would recommend the 500 any day of the week.
I wouldn't worry about the cost difference to much. When I priced my plotter out the difference between the 430 and 500 was about $500. If you buy it outright, the cost difference will be negligable
Do you guys believe that it is worth the extra money to purchase the machine locally, or, should a person look for the best price on the internet? In many models there is a cost difference.
Absolutely buy local where you can get setup and support services included in the warantee period.
Our local distributor meets or beats the mail orders and he delivers, sets up and gets the cadd software functioning; includes 3 hours on site.
Definately buy it locally. Like Stress02 stated, most local distributor will deliver, install and make sure it working properly. Yoiu don't get that from a CAD store located in CA if you live in NY.
