Shopping for new plotter - any suggestions?

[LisaStacholy]

We're finally needing to replace our ancient HP450C.
Looking at HPT120, HP520 and HP790 (we only use 24" wide in house)
Critical items I see are memory:

256mg, 1gb & 8gb

and Print Drivers:
HPPCL3, HPGL/2 (with airprint) and HPGL/2 (optimized for autocad)

.
Does anyone have any experieince with any of these printers?  we're currently on ACAD LT 2012, and would like as smooth as a  transition as possible.

Any other factors we should consider?

Many Thanks~
Lisa

[pendean]

What kind of volume do you generate?
Are you only wishing to look at HP?
How much is your budget?
What region of the world are you in?

[rkmcswain]

I've used a T120 and generally speaking it's a pretty good value. It is somewhat slow and noisy, compared to more powerful wide-format printers. But I don't know about the speed and noise of what you're used to.

See also: http://www.cadalyst.com/hardware/wide-format-printers-plotters/hp-designjet-t120-18017   &  http://www.cadalyst.com/listing/31/wide-format-printers

[LisaStacholy]

check plots only.

24x36 max size

maybe 5-25 plots per week.

not married to only HP, but they sure have worked well so far.

I'm open to suggestions!

[LisaStacholy]

plotter is in it's own room, so noise doesn't really matter.

what price did you pay for yours?  how much are ink cartridges? paper?

biggest issue we had with the old 450c is when it would sit idle for a week, the cartridges dried out, and it was a major pain to reprime.

[rkmcswain]

Lisa, 

  I only had it for about a month to do the review for Cadalyst. Printer and ink prices (at the time) are in the review link above.

We do have a T1100 and a DJ4500 (and have previously owned a 650C, 750C, and several 1050Cs) and have never had any issues with the ink drying out.