[Pc_Support] Re: Dell 3100cn Color LaserJet with PostScript and LPD for $329.40 shipped!

[Bryan J. Smith]

Brian Ashe <brianashelist at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Funny, I've been looking recently myself.
> (Note: I am not Bryan's wife.)

Now that's a thought I didn't want.  @-p

> I was looking at a $500 model and a $300 one.
> IIRC, one was some flavor of HP 2550.

Reviews say the Dell is a Fuji-Xerox design.

The 2550 lists a Motorola (PowerPC I assume, if not MCore)
264MHz and Postscript Level 3.  I think some of the
300-400MHz in other products are either ARM variants,
possibly Intel XScale (Superscalar ARM).  I want to say Xerox
is XScale now, but I could be wrong.  HP has traditionally
been Moto -- especially for the cheapy GDI approach/support
(i.e., "host driven") -- but they flop regularly between
products.

I was just happy to see something under $400 with a beefy
intelligence, amount of RAM and Postscript Level 3 in the
unit itself.  Dell is not shy, they put Linux compatibility
right the specification page.  They also state that the
network does LPD -- there is a $99 upgrade for printer-based
IPP, IPX/NCP and SMB support.  I'll just use LPD and handle
queuing at my real server if I need it.

> Had networking but I didn't look at RAM, etc.

As long as they work with MacOS X, they can't be "host-based"
-- at least not easily.  Most that do Mac also do Linux, at
least in the Lasers because they at least have PCL, if not
Postscript.

> I think it was PostScript. Looking online, toner for 2550s
> is $100 per color.

Yeah, the toner costs gets up there.  But thinking to ink,
it's not really any worse, and typically much better/more
economical.

> For $500, it probably ships with "starter rolls"--aka,
> half-empty.  (Or half-full, depending on your POV. :-) )

The Dell 3x00cn series uses 2,000 and 4,000 sheet BCYM toner
cartrides.  I bet they are only 2,000 as shipped, at least
for the CYM.  $95 for the CYM, $45 for the B.

The 5x00cn seems to cut costs more with 9,000 B and 8,000
CYM, specially on the black costs.

> The $300 model was, I think, from Brother, on sale at
Office
> Depot. (Not saying these are better, just giving you some
> background.) Hadn't yet gotten 'round to checking it
> out, just saw it in the Sunday paper sales flyers.

Yeah, I've been looking at DealNews regularly.  I mentioned
the HP Color LaserJet 2600N a few weeks ago and she wasn't
interested.  Then she came back later and said she was, but
after the sale was up.  I'm glad I waited because this Dell
is PS3/LPD with a real, on-board intelligence, whereas the
2600N was a host-based with limited/fixed RAM that probably
killed the high rate of color PPM.

> Sweet! Are these re-badged HPs? Where do you get
> consumables? Dell? HP? Searching CompUSA.com for 'hp
> 3100' I see only black:
>http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=50170019&pfp=SEARCH
> The same search at CDW comes up empty. I can't get
> through to dell.com right now. Have you priced
> consumables? What does it work out to, price-per-page?

Although I haven't "kept up to date" on all the latest
models, the price-per-page of just the black'n white versus
my current lasers was the "final selling point."

The black is 1.1 cents/page, add another half-cent for the
drum, for 1.6 cents/page.  The color is 8.2 cents/page, add
another 1.7 cents/page for dum, for 9.9 cents/page total. 
Not bad at all for that price point (with Dell's more
expensive 5100cn knocking a half-cent off black, about 2.5
off color).

My current best is my 6-year old Lexmark E310 (Postscript
Level 2), which gets 10,000 pages per $160 extended toner, or
1.6 cents/page not including drum.  The drum is rated around
20,000 pages, and I've just about crossed it.  Not sure how
much it costs.

My wife's current printer is a 3.5 year-old HP LaserJet
1220se (print/scan/copy), which gets about 3.1 cents/page,
not great at all.  Sure, the toners only cost $65, but I only
get 2,000 sheets.  Haven't hit the drum life, which is around
20,000 as well IIRC.

So this printer is definitely an improvement, just for
black'n white.  ;->

> FYI, I recently had the displeasure of going a couple
> rounds with some Apple customer (not tech) support
> people, all of whom had mild British accents. :-p 
> Same everywhere, I suppose. (Though Dell brought their
> Corporate support people back to TX, IIRC. Baby
> steps...)

Were they British?  Or were they Hong Kong-like British?


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Bryan J. Smith                | Sent from Yahoo Mail
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