Needing suggestions for a multifunction printer

[Duramas]

I don't know much of anything about printers, but I would like it to be priced under or around $200 and have good/cheap prices on ink. I am looking for a printer that has fax and scanner capabilities. I plan on connecting it through a usb print server or, if the printer can, directly to my router, but that is not necessary.

Thanks in advance. =)

 

[Zepper]

HP has some printers with separate ink tanks now and that would be the only that I'd recommend besides Canon. I think all the HPs have six separate tanks while the Canon AIOs have 5 and clone Canon tanks are cheaper than HP clone tanks but (at least for now) you have to transfer the chips from the OEM to the clone tanks on the Canons. They claim that they will have the chips cloned soon, but it took them over a year just to get the plastic tanks right, so I wouldn't hold my breath on the chips... Now if you care more about the scanner and fax part than the printing part, then Brother might be on your list. They have by far the best networking of any line of AIOs with sharing of all functions - stand-alone copying and faxing too (means PC doesn't even have to be turned on). You can usually get the top of their line for $200. or less. But their printed output pales in comparison to HP or Canon. Clone tanks for Brother are available.

In any case, I recommend separates. A good set of scanner, printer and fax modem will take care of it all - and perhaps for less money. You don't have to settle for mediocre on any of them to get the whole package. But you will have to leave the PC on to do faxing and scanning/copying.

Epson (2580 or 3590) scanner (off eBay for under $100.), Canon iP4300 printer ~$90 shipped from the Egg, and this is by far the best fax/data/voice modem I've ever owned (I guess Office Depot discontinued it - too bad, they didn't have a clue what a nice unit they had): OD100 by DLink about $24. shipped from this eBay listing. There is another with a starting bid of 99 cents ending in a bit over six days too. You can see my review of it here: http://www.techimo.com/reviews/ . In the modem section.

.bh.

PS: Newegg has free shipping thru Friday up to $20. per order - good time to buy heavy items like printers! Have to pay from a verified PayPal acct. to get the free shipping. See the thread in the Hot Deals section:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=1968598&enterthread=y .bh.

 

[you2]

The canon mp830 is popular. Newegg had it for like $209 shipped on blackfriday. Not sure how much it is now. The hp model C6108 . There has been some complaints that text is not black with this printer. Canon has a couple of new mp - mp530, mp6?0 (630?). I'm not sure which one if either has a fax. The 830 has the paper feeder (for the copier) if that matters.

The canon can print duplex the hp cannot but in duplex mode the canon uses the photo ink (something about the regular ink doesn't dry fast enough for duplex printing).

That's all I know - i've been looking at printers for a while but havne't purchased one. My sister has had hte canon mp780 (preivous model to the 830) for about 1.5 years and she's happy with it - at the time it was the only canon with fax - but i know one of the less expensive model (wihtout the paper feeder) has added fax.

The hp has network connect in addition to usb. There are 'R' models fo the canon with network connection but they are >> expensive and harder to find.

I haven't looked at the epson hence no comments on them.