all-in-one laser printer for home - need advice

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vadim Igorev
  • Start date Start date
V

Vadim Igorev

Dear All,

I would like to purchase an all-in-one printer for home and cannot decide
between 2 models:

Brother IntelliFax 2820
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-IntelliFax-Laser-Machine-Copier/dp/B000816CE4

and

Canon imageCLASS MF3240
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-imageCLASS-MF3240-Monochrome-Printer/dp/B000EILTCQ

I'm mostly interested in reliability and minimizing costs of supplies,
while requiring acceptable fax and copying quality. Our desktop runs
under Vista Ultimate, but we can connect them to an older Win XP laptop too.

I have up to $250 to spend on the thing, are there any other models in
the price range worth of attention?

Thanks,

Vadim
 
Vadim Igorev <[email protected]> said:
Dear All,

I would like to purchase an all-in-one printer for home and cannot decide
between 2 models:

Brother IntelliFax 2820
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-IntelliFax-Laser-Machine-Copier/dp/B000816CE4

and

Canon imageCLASS MF3240
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-imageCLASS-MF3240-Monochrome-Printer/dp/B000EILTCQ

I'm mostly interested in reliability and minimizing costs of supplies,
while requiring acceptable fax and copying quality. Our desktop runs
under Vista Ultimate, but we can connect them to an older Win XP laptop too.

I have up to $250 to spend on the thing, are there any other models in
the price range worth of attention?

Thanks,

Vadim
Click to expand...

Let me tell you, Brother stuff at this level just absolutely rocks.

A much better choice would be the Brother MFC-7840N:

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-MFC-7840W-Multifunction-Wireless-Interfaces
/dp/B0016ZQ566/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1254519865&sr=1-1

wireless, document feeder with flat copy glass (a huge benefit when you
have a book or magazine to copy), color scan, scan to network, and all
the printing and faxing you'd need.

I've had its older brother, the 7820N, for a few years now. Brother
software absolutely rocks.
 
Dear All,

I would like to purchase an all-in-one printer for home and cannot decide
between 2 models:

Brother IntelliFax 2820http://www.amazon.com/Brother-IntelliFax-Laser-Machine-Copier/dp/B000...

and

Canon imageCLASS MF3240http://www.amazon.com/Canon-imageCLASS-MF3240-Monochrome-Printer/dp/B...

I'm mostly interested in reliability and minimizing costs of supplies,
while requiring acceptable fax and copying quality. Our desktop runs
under Vista Ultimate, but we can connect them to an older Win XP laptop too.

I have up to $250 to spend on the thing, are there any other models in
the price range worth of attention?

Thanks,

Vadim
Click to expand...

A $40 laser and about the same on a flatbed scanner would do it.
Should be suitable software to run faxes, though might have to hook up
an old serialport 56K modem. Probably need a weblink provision
upload, or specialty VOIP 125K modem to hit another fax, minor semi-
pain, as providers seem more into controlling dedicated "inhouse"
modems these days. Possibilities and alternatives, fun and grins, or
things to pull your hair out over on old-style rainy days. Most would
go with an all-in-1 push-button setup.
 
Let me tell you, Brother stuff at this level just absolutely rocks.

A much better choice would be the Brother MFC-7840N:

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-MFC-7840W-Multifunction-Wireless- Interfaces
/dp/B0016ZQ566/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1254519865&sr=1-1

wireless, document feeder with flat copy glass (a huge benefit when you
have a book or magazine to copy), color scan, scan to network, and all
the printing and faxing you'd need.

I've had its older brother, the 7820N, for a few years now. Brother
software absolutely rocks.
Click to expand...

Indeed, it seems to be much better offer for money, do not know how did I
overlook it. It has 111 reviews on Amazon with 4 out of 5 stars. Thank
you for this suggestion!
 
A $40 laser and about the same on a flatbed scanner would do it. Should
be suitable software to run faxes, though might have to hook up an old
serialport 56K modem. Probably need a weblink provision upload, or
specialty VOIP 125K modem to hit another fax, minor semi- pain, as
providers seem more into controlling dedicated "inhouse" modems these
days. Possibilities and alternatives, fun and grins, or things to pull
your hair out over on old-style rainy days. Most would go with an
all-in-1 push-button setup.
Click to expand...

somebody else already advised me against all-in-one, but being lazy
bastard I'll still go for it :-) Concerning my fax connection, I use an
older sipura 2000 box and plan to get a full-featured digital line
(currently it's an outgoing only without local number assigned) from
Diamondcard for a few dollars/year and see if I may be able to get my fax
running.
 
Vadim Igorev said:
somebody else already advised me against all-in-one, but being lazy
bastard I'll still go for it :-) Concerning my fax connection, I use an
older sipura 2000 box and plan to get a full-featured digital line
(currently it's an outgoing only without local number assigned) from
Diamondcard for a few dollars/year and see if I may be able to get my fax
running.
Click to expand...

I got my fax working on my VoIP line; the Brother handles it just fine.
I set it to "overseas mode, max compatibility".
 
Vadim Igorev said:
Very cheap, do not know what to do now - go for 7840 at Amazon or the
above model at Newegg.
Click to expand...

I couldn't imagine NOT having a flat glass to copy/scan with. A
standard fax machine feeder is very restrictive.

The best combination is a flat glass for handling books and photos and
miscellaneous pieces combined with a document feeder for handling stacks
of standard pages.

Hence, the 7820/7840 idea.
 
somebody else already advised me against all-in-one, but being lazy
bastard I'll still go for it :-) Concerning my fax connection, I use an
older sipura 2000 box and plan to get a full-featured digital line
(currently it's an outgoing only without local number assigned) from
Diamondcard for a few dollars/year and see if I may be able to get my fax
running.
Click to expand...

I hear you. Got two Diamond Supra units stored in boxes, new, from
when they were offloading them at $15 from CompGeeks (bottom feeding
site). Had VOIP w/ a small outfit locally, (10 years prior of dialup
service), but after two years VOIP got tired of them treating me like
an idiot (about their sending me pieces of crap for replacement
modems), and switched to a national/syndicated VOIP carrier. Whoa --
the "automated" procedure for 1st-time setup of their VOIP modem
connected to a service center in Manila, Philippines. (What the hell
is this, I was thinking) ...asked permission, I downloaded their
remote terminal software -- they took control of my computer and
flashed their modem for optimal settings. VOIP's reality today, nice
$15-monthly performance -- tho' do miss some aspects of a roll-your-
own independence from 56K dialup modems. I'll wait some months more
to start angling them for another modem - whatever it takes, a
backup. Bloody nightmare when I lose the inet with ties all over the
place. Btw - NewEgg should have a pretty good selection of reviews for
an all-in-one. ($250 sounds like $150 too high to me, offhand, for
inkjet flavored all'n'ones).
 
Flasherly said:
NewEgg should have a pretty good selection of reviews for
an all-in-one. ($250 sounds like $150 too high to me, offhand, for
inkjet flavored all'n'ones).
Click to expand...

Who in the hell was talking about inkjet AIO units?

We're talking lasers here.
 
Who in the hell was talking about inkjet AIO units?

We're talking lasers here.
Click to expand...

Ah, yes ... so we were. Perhaps no bottom end pricing and back it up
to $250 in that niche.
 
I got my fax working on my VoIP line; the Brother handles it just fine.
I set it to "overseas mode, max compatibility".
Click to expand...
Thanks for the hint, I eventually decided to go for MFC-7340 - saw it for
just $150 during weekend on Amazon, but today it is already $200, so will
probably hunt for it on eBay.
 
Ah, yes ... so we were. Perhaps no bottom end pricing and back it up to
$250 in that niche.
Click to expand...
Just a few days ago I saw the MFC-7340 model for $150 only at Amazon.
 
I couldn't imagine NOT having a flat glass to copy/scan with. A
standard fax machine feeder is very restrictive.

The best combination is a flat glass for handling books and photos and
miscellaneous pieces combined with a document feeder for handling stacks
of standard pages.

Hence, the 7820/7840 idea.
Click to expand...

Being able to scan books is crucial for me, great, now whole class of non-
flatbeds can be removed from my searches. I already said in another reply
I will probably buy an MFC-7340 - my AIO will be connected by phone
cable to Sipura VoIP box, which in turn is connected by cat5 to my
router, so I do not have a need in ethernet/wifi capabilities of the more
expensive 7820/7840 ones.
 
I eventually bought an MFC-7340, connected it through my DiamondCard.us
fax line and cannot be happier (at least for a while).

Thanks to everybody for their suggestions and especially to Mr. Shagnasty.
 
Back
Top