[cenutrio]

Hi guys,

We are setting up the computer hardware for a molecular biology lab (6-8 members). Figuring out the computers and hardware we needed was pretty easy, but now we need some feedback regarding printers.

Printers are gonna be networked, either through ethernet or wifi, (we'll have a time capsule back up system), and PC and Mac compatible. We think we need:

1. A capable fast black and white, two sides page, printing machine. Very frequently used, mostly to print article .pdfs

2. A high quality color printer capable of printing transparencies, with scanner (and may be) fax. This one will be used much less.

If both are same brand, better (support wise). Price is an issue, so its maintenance, and printing cartridges cost.

[Andrew Stephens]

wrong forum?

[hyteckit]

1. Fast black and white, two side page printing, and cheap per page cost.

Laser Printer.

I have a Dell 3100cn, older model, which works great with my mac. Has an ethernet port. Doesn't support Bonjour, but not really an issue. Is a color laser printer, but the quality of the color prints are not all that great if you want to print photos.

I believe there is a duplex module, which I don't have.

2. Thermal Transfer Color Printer? A cool Multi-function Inkjet printer for under $100?

I have a Brother MFC-420CN printer. Scanner, Fax, ethernet port. It even supports Bonjour! Not sure about transparencies, but it does have a card reader that is compatible with most flash memory use in current digital cameras. The ink for this printer can be found cheap for under $4 per cartridge:

http://www.inkwow.com/ink-cartridges/Brother/MFC-420CN/




Bonjour is an Apple protocol that makes setting up a printer easy without really requiring to set it up. Does that make sense?

[cenutrio]

Hi Andrew Stephens, I thought about it, but since what I need is users feed back about printers that they regard as good, I thought the lounge was ok to post it.

Thanks for your feed back hyteckit, I'm aware of the setting up of different printers in either Macs or PCs. It is important that wherever brand we go with, they support Macs too, just that.

The white & black printer that will handle 90-95% of the work load, needs to be really fast and capable of printing two pages per sheet. Our budget for that one is around 400-500 euros.

The color one needs to be able to print transparencies, good quality color pictures (mostly for slides shows), and a decent scanner system on top. Speed is important, so its cheap ink.

Thanks again for feed back,

[Peter]

Originally Posted by cenutrio 

Hi guys,

We are setting up the computer hardware for a molecular biology lab (6-8 members). Figuring out the computers and hardware we needed was pretty easy, but now we need some feedback regarding printers.

Printers are gonna be networked, either through ethernet or wifi, (we'll have a time capsule back up system), and PC and Mac compatible. We think we need:

1. A capable fast black and white, two sides page, printing machine. Very frequently used, mostly to print article .pdfs

2. A high quality color printer capable of printing transparencies, with scanner (and may be) fax. This one will be used much less.

If both are same brand, better (support wise). Price is an issue, so its maintenance, and printing cartridges cost.

1. A duplex laser printer. HP LaserJet P2015dn. $400. Try to get extra RAM.

2. Don't get Multi-Function Printers. They suck so badly.
Epson WorkForce 40 are good ($150) and have networking.

HP make great lasers, Epson make great colour devices, Xerox make great "workgroup" hardcore colour lasers. Canon have the cheapest ink. Epson have the worst drivers, but when they work the colour is fantastic.

[olePigeon]

Don't get a multifunction anything. They do everything mediocre, but nothing well. More importantly, if one function breaks, you lose everything while it's in the shop.

For both B&W and color prints, you should just get 1 good Postscript color laser printer. I'd recommend either a Xerox, Oki, or Canon, only because HP has a bad habit of using up all the toner even for just B&W prints.

Most stand-alone scanners have a Scan-to-Fax, or Scan-to-Printer option, so you don't really need it attached to the Printer.

[Doofy]

What about one of those Xerox solid ink jobbies?

[amazing]

Get a Brother 5250DN. Thru Costco, if you can, because their return policy is great. And be sure that you have the latest Brother drivers update from Apple (v 1.1)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1904072,00.asp

[olePigeon]

I'd recommend avoiding all Brother or Lexmark printers.

[amazing]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

I'd recommend avoiding all Brother or Lexmark printers.

Bad experience with Brother? Any particular model?

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by hyteckit 

I have a Brother MFC-420CN printer. Scanner, Fax, ethernet port. It even supports Bonjour!

I don't recommend the 420CN for office use. Is it even still being sold? Mine worked for about a year and then refused to print black anymore on any cartridge. It's a tiny MFC with decent output and even network support, but it will never stand up to office use.

[OreoCookie]

Since you did not mention Unix, I will assume that your color printer does not need Postscript.

It's very hard to give you advice on the bw printer unless you can approximate the total number of printed pages per year or month. And don't have too much faith in the numbers published by manufacturers.

At my department (we share the big printer among up to 15 people and we print at least 100,000 pages/year, probably slightly more. No el-cheapo printer will be able to sustain that abuse. It's also not so much about print speed anymore, even my humble laser at home crunches out 20 ppm (although that reduces to 6-8 duplex printed pages).

We got a LaserJet 4250 DTN (only because the 4350 wasn't available ), but I wouldn't necessarily recommend only HP. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but they had to replace the printer's mechanics after 10k pages or so.

Another option are one of the Kyoceras, the 3900DN or the faster 4000DN. You also want a second paper tray. For sure. And a service contract.

Regarding the color printer, this is easy.
For slides, nothing beats an inkjet printer, do not get a color laser, the toner particles are reflective and the slides darker and much less colorful. We got an HP OfficeJet K550 DTN to do that job. It only prints slides and very few articles with pretty pictures. People using Sun Rays at my department complain that it's not a Postscript printer, but hey, c'est la vie.

In essence, even a $200-$300 inkjet with network interface will do.

[cenutrio]

thanks guys this is fantastic feedback.

[mduell]

I'd get a color laser (HP LaserJet 2600(d)(n) perhaps) and a separate scanner ($100 perhaps).

[tooki]

I concur with Oreo. For transparencies, get an inkjet. I'm a big fan of Canon's inkjets, and they do have some networked all-in-ones with fax. Get a model that uses the individual ink tanks. An HP with individual inks isn't bad, either.



About the Xerox solid ink printers: they've got good print quality and outstanding print speeds. But they are not good for infrequent use, because each warmup cycle uses a lot of energy and ink. They're best used in environments where they will be used frequently through the day. (One of those printers' most unique features is that they can have ink added while printing so big print jobs don't get interrupted.) For transparencies, the solid ink printers have the same limitations as color lasers: even the color ink is opaque, so the pretty color transparency throws a nearly black and white image on the screen. I normally recommend them to clients looking for frequent FAST color printing of business documents; they look great for graphs and stuff, but are not for photo printing.

@OlePigeon: I used to be anti all-in-one, but in the past few years, they've started making AIO models that are based on the same high quality print engines as the standalone printers. In fact, most of the inkjet makers have really cut down on standalones, offering just a few models, while offering great all in ones at the same price as you would have paid 2 or 3 years ago just for the printer. The AIOs of today are not (all) the junk we had 5 years ago, when I wouldn't have been caught dead with one.

(I use a Canon MP970 networked AIO. It's a 7-color photo inkjet with individual tanks, integrated duplexer, 100Base-Tx ethernet, a CCD scanner with transparency cover, and a large screen with nice UI. It's fast and cheap to operate.)