Multifunction printer for an office of 20

[vani]

I'm looking for an all-in-one to be used by about 20 people on a daily
basis. Order of priority: budget(~300$), build quality, maintenance
costs and then print quality. Wifi would be counted as perk, but it's
not bare necessity.
Currently considering these two: Canon PIXMA MG6150 and HP Officejet
4500.

 

[David H. Lipman]

I'm looking for an all-in-one to be used by about 20 people on a daily
basis. Order of priority: budget(~300$), build quality, maintenance
costs and then print quality. Wifi would be counted as perk, but it's
not bare necessity.
Currently considering these two: Canon PIXMA MG6150 and HP Officejet
4500.

Brother MFC-7840w
It better integration into a LAN environment and has WiFi
http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/modeldetail.aspx?PRODUCTID=MFC7840W

The HP software is too OS invasive. The Brother software is less invasive, light on
resources and more manageable. It fits well in you priority list and I can say that from
experience.

 

[Elmo P. Shagnasty]

I'm looking for an all-in-one to be used by about 20 people on a daily
basis. Order of priority: budget(~300$),

you're smoking crack.

Always remember, it's the cheapest man who spends the most.

Good ****ing luck. Be sure to come back here and tell us how well that
$250 printer did for you.

 

[vani]

you're smoking crack.

Always remember, it's the cheapest man who spends the most.

Good ****ing luck.  Be sure to come back here and tell us how well that
$250 printer did for you.

I have misspoken, the printer won't be used by 20 people on a daily
basis, it will be more like 3-5 clients per day because other
redactions have their own bw lasers.

 

[David H. Lipman]

I have misspoken, the printer won't be used by 20 people on a daily
basis, it will be more like 3-5 clients per day because other
redactions have their own bw lasers.

My Brother suggestion stands.

 

[Elmo P. Shagnasty]

My Brother suggestion stands.

I agree 100%. Get a Brother that does what you want--it might cost
$400, but still. Ink is cheap and readily available, and the software
rocks.

 

[David H. Lipman]

I agree 100%. Get a Brother that does what you want--it might cost
$400, but still. Ink is cheap and readily available, and the software
rocks.

The OP should be able to obtain the model I suggested around the $300.00 mark.

 

[Andrew Smallshaw]

Brother MFC-7840w
It better integration into a LAN environment and has WiFi
http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/modeldetail.aspx?PRODUCTID=MFC7840W

The HP software is too OS invasive. The Brother software is less invasive, light on
resources and more manageable. It fits well in you priority list and I can say that from
experience.

The last Brother MFC I installed loaded 80Mb of permanently resident
crapware. I don't consider that to be light on resources. What's
wrong with a bare print driver I don't know because it meant I'll
always avoid them in future.

 

[David H. Lipman]

The last Brother MFC I installed loaded 80Mb of permanently resident
crapware. I don't consider that to be light on resources. What's
wrong with a bare print driver I don't know because it meant I'll
always avoid them in future.

The MFC is a all-in-one and not a bare printer. Thus it has a TCP/IP Print Provider Port,
TWAIN software and fax interface and none is "crapware". It is light on resources as
compared to HP which is heavy on resources and highly OS intrusive.

I have setup numerous Brother MFC all-in-one devices and they are an excellent SOHO to
small business office automation resource.

 

[Andrew Smallshaw]

The MFC is a all-in-one and not a bare printer. Thus it has a TCP/IP Print Provider Port,
TWAIN software and fax interface and none is "crapware". It is light on resources as
compared to HP which is heavy on resources and highly OS intrusive.

A bare printer driver is a few hundred kilobytes. Let's be generous
and call it a megabyte. A TWAIN driver is around the same. The
TCP/IP stuff is by and large leveraging existing Windows facilities.
So we're talking about a couple of megabytes on disk. Not 80Mb of
memory resident bloat.

What's the rest of it? Well, Scansoft Paperport is one thing,
which for some reason loads itself in the background permanently
and provides fairly second-rate scanner support - even MS Office
Document Imaging is preferable. The other main thing is the "Brother
Control Center", whose primary purpose appears to be to grab keyboard
focus at random times (usually when you're not even using the
printer) to tell you that you are _not_ running out of ink.

I have setup numerous Brother MFC all-in-one devices and they are an excellent SOHO to
small business office automation resource.

I don't dispute that, they're nice little printers if you want that
sort of thing. I wouldn't rank a light default software load as
among their attibutes though.

 

[David H. Lipman]

A bare printer driver is a few hundred kilobytes. Let's be generous
and call it a megabyte. A TWAIN driver is around the same. The
TCP/IP stuff is by and large leveraging existing Windows facilities.
So we're talking about a couple of megabytes on disk. Not 80Mb of
memory resident bloat.

What's the rest of it? Well, Scansoft Paperport is one thing,
which for some reason loads itself in the background permanently
and provides fairly second-rate scanner support - even MS Office
Document Imaging is preferable. The other main thing is the "Brother
Control Center", whose primary purpose appears to be to grab keyboard
focus at random times (usually when you're not even using the
printer) to tell you that you are _not_ running out of ink.


I don't dispute that, they're nice little printers if you want that
sort of thing. I wouldn't rank a light default software load as
among their attibutes though.

Scansoft Paperport is an optional application and is NOT part of the Brother client
software.
The "Brother Control Center" allows you to access different apspects ot the MFC remotely
including configuring such things as the fax cover sheet. One has the option in not
enabling it upon StartUp.