[cpac]

I (we) don't need color printing (we have access to an HP photosmart 1215 if need be) but we do need something to act as a workhorse printer. I'm a law student and print lots of cases, briefs, and the like, my wife is a consultant and will need to print out bunches of excel, word and similar files. I have an older TiBook, she's got an new iBook, both running 10.2.2

Factors that are important:

1) OS X compatibility (this is something less of an issue with the various gimp-print/CUPS options out there, but easier is always better)

2) Potential to network - ideally we'd be able to hook the printer up to an airport base station and print form either of our computers without having to connect a cable. I don't know that this is even possible however without at least an ethernet hub, and we could deal with connecting a cable to print if need be.

3) Cost - needs to be under $500 definitely. Less is better, but I'm wary of the $80ish printers that seem as though they'll fall apart if you do more than print a family christmas letter once a year

So thoughts? Suggestions? Bad experiences? Good ones?

All are welcome...

Thanks in advance.

[Back up 15 and punt]

As a law student you print, I suppose, quite often and in fairly high volume. I would recommend the HP Laserjet 1200. It comes with a toner cartridge that is rated at 2500 pages and prints at a rated speed of 15 pages per minute. Its font resolution is 1200 X 1200 dpi and cost about $400. This printer can accept a external print server, such as the Jet Direct 175x or the 170x which cost $200 and $150 respectively.

If this printer doesn't seem like what you want then you can step up to the Laserjet 2200 for which you will pay twice as much.

[KidRed]

I love my HP 940c for $150. It's very quiet, X compatible out the box and prints just as professionally as any Epson I've owned. I highly recommend it.

I got a gig PB last week, with airport, took it into the kitchen and printed from it no problems. Just open print center, there it was, select it and print.

[SimeyTheLimey]

I'm a law student and I have an HP 1200se. You would want the version that can be networked. It's os-X compatible, pretty quick, reliable, and has great text quality. It's also well within your budget so you can buy a spare toner cartridge. I would recommend this one unreservedly.

[OldManMac]

I agree with what Simey said!

[cpac]

thanks for the recommendations everybody. The HP 1200se seems to be the way to go. The best price I can find online seems to be about $400 - anybody know of anything better or of sales/promotions? I need to get an iBook at the same time, so I'm hoping i can leverage that with some retailer...

Also, any thoughts on buying a less-than-the-latest model HP? Do we know what the predecessor of the 1200se is and whether it might also be a (cheaper) viable option?

thanks again.

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by cpac:
Also, any thoughts on buying a less-than-the-latest model HP? Do we know what the predecessor of the 1200se is and whether it might also be a (cheaper) viable option?

thanks again.

I don't know which previous HP model you are thinking of, but some of the home printers had vertical paper feeders. In my experience they jam whereas my 1200se never has. They are also a lot slower. As a law student, you need speed.

[cpac]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
I don't know which previous HP model you are thinking of

whatever the predecessor of the 1200se was - going back a long ways that would be an HP laserjet 6 (great workhorse printer). Mostly I didn't know if the 1200se was the 2002 model and (e.g.) the 1200s was the 2001 model and the 1100se was the 2000 model etc.

[escher]

cpac: I'm in law school too, but I try to print for free at school.

In any case, I've heard nothing but good things about the HP 1200 series. You can get them to do PostScript, you can get a network interface and HP has a good history of Mac support. However, you should also consider the Brother HL-1470N ($466 at Amazon). For $500, you can get PostScript and built-in Ethernet. At ca. $700 the HL-1670N will add Duplex printing to the mix. As a print-crazy law student, duplexing will save you tons of paper and your back (becasue you'll have to carry less paper). See this thread on AppleInsider for more thoughts and suggestions on network laser printers.

I've come to realize that a good network laser printer is so valuable that I've considered buying a new laser instead of a new iBook. If your budget is limited, you should consider financing a duplex printer. In addition to saving your back, it'll save trees.

From what I remember, eCost has good prices on both HP and Brother lasers. Check MySimon to see if there are even better prices.

Escher

[escher]

PS: Check the Apple Store for Education for special lower prices on the HP printers!

HP1200: $379
HP1200N: $559

Escher

[escher]

Even better prices:

- Brother HL-1470 for $415 at eCost
- Brother HL-1870 (Duplex!) for $650 at eCost
- HP 1200se for $379 at eCost and
- my personal favorite: HP 2200DN (Duplex!) for $1049 at eCost (worth the investment IMO)

Escher

[cpac]

wow -thanks for all the info escher!

I really can't step up to the duplexing machine (I do use the reverse side of old drafts, etc. to save paper though, so there aren't too many green concerns).

So far it's looking like I'll be choosing between:

1200 -$379
1200se -$379
1200n -$559

couple questions for all you folks:

1) Any difference between the 1200 & the 1200se? I looked through hp's website, did the side by side comparison, and no difference was apparent.

2) Can I take an ethernet cable, connect the 1200n to an airport base station and then print from computers connected via airport? Or is there extra hardware I'd need to buy? (I assume I'd have to get something since the cable modem would be running into the Airport base station's ethernet port, but what would that something be?)

3) are the 1200 & 1200se upgradable to 1200n-like-capabilities?

4) any way cheaper than the $180 difference to make a 1200 or 1200se networkable?

again, thanks to all for opinions/information.

[aaanorton]

Originally posted by cpac:
Also, any thoughts on buying a less-than-the-latest model HP? Do we know what the predecessor of the 1200se is and whether it might also be a (cheaper) viable option?

Check eBay for a HP 6MP and an Asante AsanteTalk localtalk to ethernet adaptor. Here's a 6MP for 150 bucks (right now) ending in 6 hrs. An AsanteTalk will run you up another 50 or so. Works for me. Has been for years. I print to it from wired and wireless machines and can share it via OS X Printer Sharing. It's a great printer. Never had a problem with it. At some point, I bought memory for it bringing my total mem to 19 MBytes. Not quite as fast as the 1200's and 600 vs 1200 dpi, but still quick with excellent output.

I also recently bought a Brother MFC 9700. Very cool. Laser printer, flatbed copier/scanner and fax. And it has a document feeder. Mine has been relegated to being a simple fax/copier, but I recently d/l the drivers and may spring for the network board (about $240) for it. I haven't yet tried scanning with it, cuz scanners I got in spades. I may give this a whirl, though. There's a $50 rebate available for this now, bringing the price to about $420. Maybe you could get by sharing it til you can afford the network board? I mention this cuz I'm just guessing you do a fair amount of copying and faxing as well.
Sorry about the edits, but I keep remembering features on this beast... Did I mention it does manual duplexing and stack/sort copying?

[Back up 15 and punt]

Originally posted by cpac:
wow -thanks for all the info escher!

I really can't step up to the duplexing machine (I do use the reverse side of old drafts, etc. to save paper though, so there aren't too many green concerns).

So far it's looking like I'll be choosing between:

1200 -$379
1200se -$379
1200n -$559

couple questions for all you folks:

1) Any difference between the 1200 & the 1200se? I looked through hp's website, did the side by side comparison, and no difference was apparent.

2) Can I take an ethernet cable, connect the 1200n to an airport base station and then print from computers connected via airport? Or is there extra hardware I'd need to buy? (I assume I'd have to get something since the cable modem would be running into the Airport base station's ethernet port, but what would that something be?)

3) are the 1200 & 1200se upgradable to 1200n-like-capabilities?

4) any way cheaper than the $180 difference to make a 1200 or 1200se networkable?

again, thanks to all for opinions/information.

There is no difference between the 1200 and 1200se except in some situations you might get some different software in the package. And yes you can update the 1200se to have network capabilities but you won't save any money unless you use a print server that is non-HP. Trust me on this one I am vendor rep for HP. I would also recommend that you stay away from appletalk printers because as OS X progresses you'll find that Apple will begin to drop support for this technology.

[redjet]

gotta agree with back up, appletalk printers are dinosaurs unless you really need one. eventually everything will be ethernet/ip, especially if you will be going X soon.

the Hp's are nice and fast especially with extra ram and having the hp printserver makes networking easy.

that said the brother hl-1470n is a similar beast for approx $430 as opposed to $550

[aaanorton]

Hey wait a sec... I can lpr print (over ethernet on OS X) to my 6MP fine. Sure, it's a little more funky adding it to the Print Center, but it still works just fine. And if Apple does discontinue AppleTalk, you better bet that the lpr UI will gill get a nice aquafication. Don't get me wrong. I really like those new 1200's, but feature for feature (how many times do you really need 1200 dpi greyscale from a b&w laser printer?) the 6MP stacks up quite nicely for half (< half really) the cost of even the Brothers. Plus the 6MP, unlike the others discussed here, was originally designed for a true office environment. More beefy, yes? I mean I've never had a problem with this, and I've run all sorts of stock and odd-ball stuff through it. It's a champ.
However, if you're gonna go as high as 4-500 bucks, I would take a serious look at that Brother 9700. It really is a great machine.

Slightly OT

Back up,
I have a friend with a 1200 (in fact, I recommended it to her. Go figure). I'm trying now to help her network it. I was under the impression that only the HP-branded JetDirects would work. I picked up an older PC parallel port model off ebay (30 bucks), hoping I could use that. Think this will work? The thing is, she's in another state, so trouble shooting is a bit of a bore. If not, can you suggest a 3rd party unit I could get? Ideally she would like to print wirelessly from her TiBook to the 1200. I got her set up with an Asante router/AP already, so bridging AT won't be a prob.
Thanks.

[Back up 15 and punt]

Originally posted by aaanorton:

Back up,
I have a friend with a 1200 (in fact, I recommended it to her. Go figure). I'm trying now to help her network it. I was under the impression that only the HP-branded JetDirects would work. I picked up an older PC parallel port model off ebay (30 bucks), hoping I could use that. Think this will work? The thing is, she's in another state, so trouble shooting is a bit of a bore. If not, can you suggest a 3rd party unit I could get? Ideally she would like to print wirelessly from her TiBook to the 1200. I got her set up with an Asante router/AP already, so bridging AT won't be a prob.
Thanks.

It probably will work with a third party print server but I don't know of any that I have had any experience with. I cannot for the life of me know why it wouldn't work. Give it a try. I don't know of anybody else who builds a wireless print server but you can check the following web sites for recommendations.

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/

Good Luck.

[aaanorton]

Actually, I wasn't being clear. I don't need a wireless print server, just something I can connect to a 1200 (not 1200n) that will give me an ethernet connection. From there I can go CAT5 to the router/AP. The JetDirects are a little pricey.
I figured PracticallyNetworked will have info on these, but a personal reco is always appreciated. The last time I shopped for one of these was for my 6MP and it had to be LocalTalk'able, so I'm not sure what's out there. I had a feeling any old brand would work, but a HP rep told me different once (odd, huh?).
Thanks again and happy turkey.

[Back up 15 and punt]

Originally posted by aaanorton:
Actually, I wasn't being clear. I don't need a wireless print server, just something I can connect to a 1200 (not 1200n) that will give me an ethernet connection. From there I can go CAT5 to the router/AP. The JetDirects are a little pricey.
I figured PracticallyNetworked will have info on these, but a personal reco is always appreciated. The last time I shopped for one of these was for my 6MP and it had to be LocalTalk'able, so I'm not sure what's out there. I had a feeling any old brand would work, but a HP rep told me different once (odd, huh?).
Thanks again and happy turkey.

Any print server with a parallel port should work. Netgear, Linksys, Hawker all make print servers that address your needs. They run in the $50 to $80 range. I just don't have any experience with them to be able to adequately recommend any of them. And yes they are all hardwire ethernet servers.