Digital BW, The Print

I just called Inkjetmall to find out how much the 7000 driver would be as a 
stand alone (no cleaners, no inks) , and they told me it was unavailable that 
way. One had to buy the kit.
Having had  green problems and clogging problems with thier ink in my 1160, I 
felt that I didn't want to be forced into purchasing their ink for my 7000, 
as I know I am not going to take a chance with it again.
BTW,I now use the cone driver with the MIS FS in my 1160, and I have not had 
any problems. And I have saved a considerable amount of money to boot.
Has anyone been able to purchase just the RIP? Is this a new policy?
It's too bad, because his RIP  is great, but I am looking into Image Print 4, 
which sells for a lot less than Cone's kit. Image Print is working on an 
upgrade for the MIS VM Sepia inks to be included at no additional charge. 
And a friend of mine who deals with a company in CA. showed me a print of his 
done with another RIP which is soon TBA. It looked excellent, no dots, great 
tones! Only problem is it is being devised for MAC first! (problem for me, 
that is). And this one is suppose to be a lot less expensive than Cone's 
drivers. And can be used with a multitude of hex black inks.
So, has anyone seen any hextone prints made with an Epson 7000 using the 
Image Print 4 RIP?
Any comments welcome.
George J Kunze