Windows 2000 Print Server

[DBarnes]

Is there a limit to the number of Printers that you can have on a print server. Like is there a formula (so many printers = this much memory and processing power)? I am just tring to figure out how much memory and processing power we would need for our new print server.

Thanks

 

[rbertram]

You are not giving much information to work on. As far as I know there is no formula because print jobs can very greatly in size.

I depends greatly on what you are printing. If all you are printing text type documents, you wont need nearly as much if you are printing graphics or desktop publishing style documents. The amount of memory the printers have is also a factor.

The best bet for is look at what you are printing, take the average file size, and the worst case scenario if everyone sends a job at the same time and add 256MB for the Server OS. This should keep you covered. Memory is cheap, so buy as much as you can afford.

In regards to the maximum number of printers that can attach to a server, what kind of connections the printers have? If they are all parallel, you probably wont get much more than 3 connected. USB printers can chained together. And if they are Ethernet printers, technically they are their own print server and workstations send directly to the printer and documments are queued on the workstation.

For processing power, if you are buying new equipment, pretty much anything sold these days will be adiquate for a print server.

 

[DBarnes]

These will be all TCIP network printers. All new printers with about 250 users printing just mainframe screen shots that are not big at all.

 

[CoolClark]

How many printers?

 

[DBarnes]

At the moment we have about 35 printers.

 

[CoolClark]

I'm running 30+ printers on a 500MHz P3 with 256mb and I haven't had a problem yet.

 

[DBarnes]

Thanks that is what I was looking for just an idea. I appreciate your info. If anyone else has anything to add please do.