Posts by Peter Miller5

Kenneth Jackson3 said:Sennheiser 201. A bit more than $67. At DigitalOcean it’s $63 but whatever. I guess nobody likes DigitalOcean.

It's not like people hate them, it's just that everyone seems to have had a bad run with them based on what I've seen on the forums. My neighbor actually got a phone from them and everything was fine, but man, if she ever actually needs to use a warranty, I wonder how that goes.

Picked up a Brother HL series for one reason only. It was the cheapest option out there.

When I crunched the numbers, it looked like my cost per page would be dirt cheap, which is basically the whole point.

The generic ink and cartridges are insanely affordable, so yeah, that’s it.

Getting $230 pages per set is a solid deal. I just hope it actually lasts that long—though honestly, even half that would make me happy. Since they claim a monthly duty cycle of 30,000, it really ought to hit at least 30,000 before the warranty runs out.

I'll check back in after a few months to let you guys know how it's holding up. So far, so good: it's fast and the prints look clean.

Kind of bummed it doesn't have Wi-Fi, but the massive savings on printing costs totally outweighed that. Plus, I can probably just share it over my home Wi-Fi so the other PCs can use it anyway.

At the end of the day, I just want my printing costs to be lower than hitting up a FedEx Office. How much I actually save probably depends on whether I get lucky with the printer and if I pick the right one, I guess.

Thanks a ton for the help. 👍

hehe, user reviews are pretty great 🤣

A buddy of mine has a Canon Pixma, which is basically the same deal as a Brother HL series—the Brother is just the newer model and prints slightly faster, but I don't really care about that. He burned through the starter ink and cartridges and now he's using generics (which work fine for both models). Didn't have any major issues besides some driver glitches once, but we fixed that in no time. He's happy with it otherwise.

Seems pretty clear: you print until it dies, then toss it because paying for repairs isn't worth it. I guess what'll happen first is the imaging drum wears out, either from paper jams or just from regular use since I won't be printing tons at once—just a few pages here and there throughout the day. And from what I gather, it tracks drum rotations (like you mentioned), and once it hits a certain limit, the printer just quits. That's a fix I wouldn't even know how to handle; I saw on a site that people try to swap out chips and stuff.

I mean, the real question is roughly how many pages will come out of this thing before that service light starts blinking.

Anyway, I've basically overthought this whole cheap "disposable" printer thing too much 🤣
But student money is hard to come by 👍

Thanks for the help regardless, I'll probably make a call on it this week. 👍

edit.

hehe, I was looking for reviews myself and ended up reading stuff from all over the place 😁 😁 😁
It's honestly tough to find decent printer reviews. There's almost nothing out there that actually answers the important stuff, like cost per page, durability, or if you can actually use generic ink and cartridges.

Thanks for the reply.

I was looking into whether that HP LaserJet has the drum built into the cartridge. Local shops here told me it’s all included in the ink and cartridges, so I shouldn't run into any issues there. Plus, unlike the Brother HL series, this one actually has Wi-Fi.

The ink is a bit pricier at $110/1500 pages, but I guess it's fine since I don't print that much. It's still cheaper than hitting up a FedEx Office where they charge me like $0.75 a page. Here, I'm looking at maybe $0.40 plus paper, which is decent for my volume. I calculated the cost per page based on the printer price plus two full cartridges.

The only bummer is there aren't any cheap third-party options. But honestly, I think the starter cartridge—which should do about 700 pages—will last me maybe 10 or 12 months. So I'm deciding between this or the Brother HL series. If I could just figure out the drum life, it would make the choice easy. If it lasts less than 3,000 pages, it's probably not worth it.

The Brother HL series has ink rated for $43/2200 pages, making the cost roughly $0.20 per page plus paper when you factor in the machine and two cartridges. That sounds great. But if the starter cartridge and even one refill don't hit that 3,000-page mark, then it's a bust. And yeah, I know in reality it'll probably be 500 pages less than what's on the box, but I'm going by the official numbers for now.

Need some advice on picking up a laser printer for the house. Just looking for a B&W one to run some scripts for class, docs, stuff like that. Nothing crazy, maybe 20-50 pages a month.

Found a few options:

http://www.office.xerox.com/printers...3040/enus.html
$133 price for the printer with the starter toner (700pgs)
price for a generic toner $43/2300pgs

http://www.office.xerox.com/printers...3020/enil.html
$153 price for the printer with the starter toner (700pgs)
price for original toner $110/1500pgs and $183/3000pgs
No generic option available

http://www.canon.com/for_home/product...nsys_lbp6030b/
$207 price for the printer with the starter toner (700pgs)
price for generic toner: $37/1500pgs

So, one thing I'm wondering about. These two Xerox models have a built-in drum that you can't swap out. Realistically, how many pages am I gonna get out of that drum before it dies? I guess if it goes, the whole printer's trash, based on what I've gathered. Also, does the drum lose functionality just sitting there, or only from printing? Because the printer might sit unused for like 2 or 3 months at a time.

The advantage with this Canon is that the toner actually includes the drum, so swapping the toner replaces everything—no worrying about the drum dying. But, the printer is maybe $20 or so more expensive than the Xerox 3040.

I'd go with the Xerox if I could get at least 5,000 pages out of it before the drum gives up, but I don't want it to burn through the starter toner and then force me to toss the whole unit; that wouldn't make much sense. If it lasts through at least two of those 2200pg generic toners, I'd be pretty happy.

I also checked out this Xerox 3020, and the toner looks huge, so I thought maybe it was an all-in-one cartridge with the drum, but I guess maybe not. Here's the toner:

http://s2emagst.akamaized.net/produc...174dea94d6.jpg

Not sure if that's a combo with the drum or what. Anyone know? The downside here is also that there isn't a generic toner available right now like the other two candidates.

For example, with that first 3040, this is the toner and there's definitely no drum included:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/shopperplus/...entre-3045.jpg

So yeah, if anyone can help. Basically

1. How long would that factory drum actually last if I went with a Xerox that has a fixed drum?
2. Does the Xerox 3202 replace the drum along with the toner, or is it just the toner in the picture? (if it replaces the drum too, maybe I'd grab that one despite the pricier toner, since 22ppm is actually decent enough for me)
3. Is it worth spending the extra $73 to just get the Canon and avoid the whole drum headache? (keep in mind that $67 matters more to my wallet if the Xerox hits at least 5,000 pages, since I won't burn through that quickly)