Cheap Printer

Shamrock

Shamrock

Shamrock

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I'm looking for a cheap all-in-one printer for uni. Will be mainly used for document printing and copying/scanning so photo print quality isn't really that important.

I've sort of narrowed it down to the following two, but I'm open to further suggestions.

Both of these can be had for £40:

Epson DX4450 or HP Photosmart C3180

I've previously owned 2 epsons and both fell to the problem of leaving black marks on print outs even after several head cleaning runs, which apparently also drains ink. I have no idea what HP are like, but reviews I have read seem to either say its the best or the worst.

The epson cartridges are cheaper but they don't have replacement heads on them. The HP ones are more expensive and there aren't separate colours, only a single colour cartridge.

Any opinions?

Cheers
 
HP's are very reliable, but u will have to watch out for the cost of cartridges, as they ae normally a bit of a rip off. it will probably come with 336 & 342 cartridges. The colour 342 has 5ml of ink altogether (roughly 2 in yellow and 1.5 in both cyan and magenta), black 336 has 5ml of ink.

I would also buy the 338 black which has 11ml of ink and the 343 colour which has 7ml of ink(roughly 3ml in yellow and 2ml in both cyan & magenta)
 
I've seen 3rd party cartridges about. Epson ones tend to be cheaper whilst the HP ones are the same price but contain more ink than the branded ones.

Is it more of an advantage to have individual cartridges for each colour? Say if I ran out of cyan on the HP would I have to replace the whole thing despite having enough of the other colours?
 
Defn go for epson, cheaper running costs (using 3rd party cartidges)

as for your question, if the hp ink has one colour cartridge then yes you would have to replace the whoe coloour cartridge if one colour ran out.
 
Shamrock said:
I've seen 3rd party cartridges about. Epson ones tend to be cheaper whilst the HP ones are the same price but contain more ink than the branded ones.

Is it more of an advantage to have individual cartridges for each colour? Say if I ran out of cyan on the HP would I have to replace the whole thing despite having enough of the other colours?
Click to expand...

u can still use the HP cartridge, but it will change the quality of it's text then there could be streaking lines going through the text. 1 disadvantage is that if 1 colour runs it could just be that colour that has ran out the other 2 colours could be full, but u will have ot get a whole new cartridge.

Epson 3rd party compatables are good quality, but the print heads are expensive for epsons, whereas with HP when u get a new cartridge u get a new print head.

With HP refils the colour cartridges can be refiled with roughly the same ammount of ink they came with. With the 338 it comes with 11ml of ink, but refilled ones can get 15ml in, so it's normally more ink for less money
 
If you want cheap, go for Lexmark or Canon. If you want reliable, go for HP. Something in-between? Epson.
 
nickcardwell said:
Defn go for epson, cheaper running costs (using 3rd party cartidges)

as for your question, if the hp ink has one colour cartridge then yes you would have to replace the whoe coloour cartridge if one colour ran out.
Click to expand...

u don't have to replace the whole cartridge, it will work, but without that colour
 
I don't think I would ever buy a lexmark. Seems like A4 printer paper is more robust than the lexmark printers!

I am swaying towards the epson now. Running cost is definitely the most important factor for a poor student.
 
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