Recommendation on Cobalt - 4 CTP system?

[araquen]

Once more into the breach . . . .

We've quickly outgrown our Navigator/Lino 330 and are looking to go CTP. Our supplier is recommending a Cobalt 4 with "RIP and system." I'm not sure what the RIP is.

Does anyone have any thoughts, reviews warnings on the Cobalt 4?

As a side-note - are there any rude surprises I should be aware of by going CTP? Should I being preliminary consolations? My printer is really annoyed (I think he actually enjoys stripping and burning plates).

TIA

[tuff_gong]

We've had a cobalt 4 for 6 months now. Has worked fine EXCEPT trouble with the laser unit. The original laser has proven to be not powerful enough - tends to weaken after a while. All cobalt 4's will be retrofitted with a more powerful laser, but we're still waiting for ours.
Other than that, it's been a fine entry-level platesetter.
There is no proprietary cobalt rip. We run ours off Nexus, but it can be used with most any workflow that produces 1 bit tif files.

[craigp]

Use your exisiting Xitron Rip, but upgrade it first to the latest version and then plug this into the Cobalt. Make sure you get the 60mW laser with the cobalt.
I believe all Cobalts now ship with a 60mW any way, however do specify this.
Othjer than that the Cobalt is a very good machine that can be manual or fully auto.