iMac or Epson 3880

[giganten]

Hello.

Have hard time deciding if I should buy a new iMac or a Epson 3880.

Have thought about printing my illustrations and try to sell them, I am using a MBP 2007 right now and had it in repair 3 times to fix the graphics card (will it break again?).

I have 2 choices:

By the new base iMac 2011 21.5 2.7 GHz i5 model and print on my local printshop, and see if I manage to sell my illustrations and buy me a printer later down the road.

Or

Use my MBP and buy the epson 3880 and do the printing myself.


Thanks for your advice.

 

[robogobo]

buy the printer now, and get a used iMac when the MBP dies.

 

[Darth.Titan]

Sell your MBP while it's still fixed, then use that money to help purchase a refurb MBP or iMac.

That will put you in a position to buy your printer sooner.

 

[jljue]

I vote for selling the MBP as soon as possible and getting a newer iMac (or whatever you want) from a couple of years old used or no newer than an Apple refurb. Use the difference in what you would have paid for a new iMac and buy a new backup hard drive and possibly your printer. Unless you really need the full power of the Thunderbolt port, an older iMac would have been fine. If you were going to do your work on your older MBP, an iMac built within the last few years would be perfectly fine. Mac's don't lose value like PC's do, so you will have some money from the MBP resale. Depending on the condition, probably $600-800 on eBay, easily.

 

[bennyhenry]

Go for the 3880, there are half a dozen older model 2880's at my college in the photography department that get battered by students that have no idea what they're doing, and they're producing perfect images even after 4 years of everyday use.
The MBP should give you a few more years of use until it gives up the ghost, and buy then. Who knows what the specs are going to be like on iMacs then!