Printer memory: How does it help?

[Eug]

I just ordered a Samsung M3870FW small office printer for my house.

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/printers/SL-M3870FW/XAA

It comes with 256 MB RAM. Is there ANY benefit of getting more RAM? The RAM modules are insanely expensive.

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/printers-accessories/ML-MEM370/SEE

It's a 512 MB module, that can bring the RAM up to 768 MB total.

What would I get by adding RAM? It doesn't seem to say much in the manual except that it speeds things up.

Does anyone know what kind of RAM module it is? All it says in the manual is that it's a DIMM. However, the OEM RAM costs more than the printer.

Some sites seem to list it as a DDR3 module, but without any other specs like timings.

I don't need to print 300 MB images on that monochrome laser, but I sometimes do get a large number of faxes at a time. Do they generally use that internal memory to store faxes if you run out of paper? It doesn't say in the manual.

 

[GlacierFreeze]

I think it has more to do with the amount of people potentially printing to it at the same time. IE: Big Corporation's shared office printer.

 

[Eug]

I think it has more to do with the amount of people potentially printing to it at the same time. IE: Big Corporation's shared office printer.

If that's the case, and nothing to do with fax storage, then it's irrelevant for me. This for my house, with maximum of maybe two people printing to it, and usually small jobs.

I need it more for receiving big faxes when I'm away from home, occasionally as many as 80 pages a day, spread out over maybe 5 fax jobs. It'd be nice if the printer could save these to that 256 MB memory.

I have no idea how much storage a received fax uses though.

 

[PliotronX]

Faxes I am unsure of but I know that a Ricoh chews through 10MB of e-mail attachment quite handily in color (~10pgs @ normal compression) which causes fun things to happen on default message sizes in virtual SMTP. I digress, in B&W for fax, I don't imagine it occupying a lot of space.

 

[Eug]

Hmmm... I didn't notice it before but now see in the picture it says DDR3, so that's confirmed.

Also, judging by the shape and notch it's a SODIMM. Hmmm...

Maybe I can find a cheap 512 MB DDR3 SODIMM somewhere and give that a shot. Seems rather hard to find though, I guess since not very many companies shipped DDR3 laptops with just 1 GB RAM (2 x 512 MB).

 

[iluvdeal]

I have an old Brother 1440 that's still in service which required a memory upgrade from the built in 2MB in order to print at the max dpi of 1200. For modern printers, I expect the memory size to only affect the size of your spool. For home use and where you just print 1 or 2 docs at a time, 256MB should be enough, I don't think it's necessary to upgrade it unless you have some spare memory laying around.

Side note on the Brother 1440, Windows 7 only supports up to 600dpi for that printer I think because it could adapt the resolution based on the memory installed like XP could do. I need to use XP or OSX to print at 1200dpi.

 

[Eug]

I stuck in a 1 GB DDR3 module that I had lying around. Printer won't initialize.

Put back the original 256 MB DDR3 module. Works fine. The manual states that 512 MB is the max.

Oh well, I was just curious. This unit probably has way more memory than I'll ever need anyway for home use. I note the consumer units have 32 MB to 128 MB.

 

[corkyg]

My venerable LaserJet 3000 required a RAM upgrade in order to print full size at higher resolutions. This is because lasers need to put the entire page in memory for printing. Inkjets spool the page a little at a time, so big memory is not always needed.

 

[billyb0b]

not worth the $$$ for your home printing needs

i have a HP LaserJet 1320 that is over 10 years old. it came orig with 16mb memory, i dropped a 64mb dimm in there for 80mb total. it helped with printing large docs, like pdfs. the jobs spooled much faster

i've printed 19908 pages on this printer with only 1 jam, and 5 mispicks. it's going strong and i'm keeping until the unit dies

 

[billyb0b]

I stuck in a 1 GB DDR3 module that I had lying around. Printer won't initialize.

Put back the original 256 MB DDR3 module. Works fine. The manual states that 512 MB is the max.

Oh well, I was just curious. This unit probably has way more memory than I'll ever need anyway for home use. I note the consumer units have 32 MB to 128 MB.

printers are really picky on exact part numbers. you def want to check documentation if you do decide to put in more mem

 

[fuzzymath10]

My venerable LaserJet 3000 required a RAM upgrade in order to print full size at higher resolutions. This is because lasers need to put the entire page in memory for printing. Inkjets spool the page a little at a time, so big memory is not always needed.

I had an old monochrome printer years ago and if I had too many graphics on a page, the bottom part would simply get cut off because of the lack of memory. I wonder if there are new ways (compression, etc.) to make this less of an issue with high res colour laser printers.

More memory can improve print speeds because if your memory can only hold a page at a time, your printer will pause before printing each page waiting for the next one to load. If it can process jobs faster than it can print, the extra memory prevents your printer from having to wait as it will clear out the buffer at the print rate while being fed at the processing rate.

 

[Cerb]

Large high-res documents could need added RAM in some printers, but I doubt it with 256MB.

Faxes often get stored in RAM, and too many pages could become a problem (but, today, if you run into that, you really should change out the device, or go to a software-based fax).

Large documents scanned to email can exhaust memory (error) and/or cause SMTP timeouts (seen that--with I think a Sharp, but don't quote me on brand--where it would scan a few pages at a time, building the document as it sends).

For complex vector graphics, RAM needs can increase with complexity (IE, CAD drawings). Whether laser or inkjet, host-side bitmap rendering is usually the best fix, and usually is an option somewhere (though may be in an odd place, with an odd name).

 

[Eug]

I had an old monochrome printer years ago and if I had too many graphics on a page, the bottom part would simply get cut off because of the lack of memory. I wonder if there are new ways (compression, etc.) to make this less of an issue with high res colour laser printers.

Maybe, but memory is much cheaper these days too. Well, not if you buy from the printer manufacturer though, as I've discovered as an end user. But it means that we no longer have to put up with 4 MB memory in our printers.

More memory can improve print speeds because if your memory can only hold a page at a time, your printer will pause before printing each page waiting for the next one to load. If it can process jobs faster than it can print, the extra memory prevents your printer from having to wait as it will clear out the buffer at the print rate while being fed at the processing rate.

I'm guessing now that probably from even moderate use home laser, perhaps 128 MB is indeed enough, even in 2015. Multiple high rez pages would fit in there. So my 256 MB is probably actually overkill unless I'm printing big long graphic heavy documents (something I don't do often).

BTW, this is their press blurb:

Robust ProXpress M3870 series feature print speeds of up to 40 ppm, powered by a Cortex™-A5 core processor and up to 256 MB of memory. High speed and performance enable businesses to accelerate document and image processing for increased efficiency.

I'm glad I moved up to this small office printer. This thing is way faster than any consumer laser printer I've ever used, both for printing and for warmup time. Warm up after power saving mode is less than 10 seconds, and first page printing is within a couple of seconds after that. If I don't let it go into power saving mode, 1st page printing is in a couple of seconds. And despite being an office-oriented printer, it supports AirPrint too, so I can print from my iPhone and iPad without registering for stuff like Google Print or using those annoying third party print apps.

Inkjet multifunctions were costing me a fortune in ink but up until now, the feature complete laser multifunctions had too high an up front cost.

 

[Eug]

Ok question answered. Yes, extra memory does help for more than just image processing and job spooling, at least with this printer. I spent a little while flipping through hundreds of pages of this printer's manual, and have discovered that some of the features only work with more memory installed:

For example, the printer has features for secure printing or stored printing. This requires either:

1) Extra memory OR
2) Use of the printer's built-in RAM Disk feature (which is limited to 16 MB max).

This is more useful for office printer in a multi-user environment. For example, a user can send a password-protected print job to the printer, which then gets stored in the RAM Disk. The job doesn't print unless the user shows up to the printer and types in his user name and password. Then the job prints immediately and the user can pick it up right away, knowing nobody else has seen it. Or you can just store non-protected documents in the RAM Disk too for later printing. Obviously if you have a big group who needs multiple stored print documents, the RAM Disk is a problem, since it's so small.

In addition, a few of the advanced print/copy features are locked out without the extra memory, such as job scheduling.

The machine does store faxes to memory if necessary BTW, but I don't know how much of the 256 MB RAM can be allocated to fax storage.

So yeah, the extra memory can be useful, but mostly just in the office setting.

 

[tcsenter]

I stuck in a 1 GB DDR3 module that I had lying around. Printer won't initialize.

That (and many other) Samsung printers take proprietary DIMMs that have either 16-bit or 32-bit wide memory bus and probably "device memory" DRAM chips, per the embedded Cortex/ARM processor. Basically same stuff that is used in routers or set-top boxes, except on a DIMM board rather than soldered to the PCB. PC memory is 64-bit wide bus (or 72-bit for ECC/Registered). Not worth it, especially considering you are paying for 512MB but only getting an additional 256MB over what you currently have.

 

[Eug]

Thanks. Interesting.

 

[Compman55]

On my color laserjet 4650dn, it came with a 128MB ram. I could not print a full color PDF without an error. I put in 512MB which made all the difference. I also put in an 80GB EIO hard disk to store print jobs on for replication or to print later on. Works like a champ. Gone are the days of these work horses.

Bottom line is, if you can print a full page without it sitting there processing the job, then you have enough.

 

[Eug]

Wow. How complex / big are your PDFs? I note the current lower end colour models have 128 GB or maybe less.

Does it matter if the printer is monochrome or not? I know current entry level monochrome lasers have only 8-32 GB.

 

[VirtualLarry]

On my color laserjet 4650dn, it came with a 128MB ram. I could not print a full color PDF without an error. I put in 512MB which made all the difference. I also put in an 80GB EIO hard disk to store print jobs on for replication or to print later on. Works like a champ. Gone are the days of these work horses.

Bottom line is, if you can print a full page without it sitting there processing the job, then you have enough.

Makes you wonder why modern laser printers don't just have a USB slot, to plug in a (semi-permanent) USB flash drive to act as a print spooler. When it starts failing, just yank it and plug in another one. Cheap storage. Or maybe an SD card. Either way, it would be an improvement. (Even Windows can do that, with ReadyBoost.)

 

[Eug]

I wouldn't want a USB 2.0 flash drive for my spooler. That would actually slow my printer down, although I suppose USB 3 would be an option going forward.

It should be noted that the higher end business printers have Gigabit Ethernet, which means the transfer rates to spooler memory can be over 100 MB/s.

But reading from memory is near instantaneous unlike with USB flash, depending upon the sizes of the jobs. Big jobs could add several seconds each if you went with a USB flash drive.