OT: Any opinions of Dell 3110cn Colour Laser?

[John_Nolan@adobeforums.com]

I'm looking at this printer to use for my home office:
Mac OS X only, to be used for short run flyers, school projects and the like.

I've been using a HP 2550L, but the imaging drum is gone, and like so many printers, the cost of consumables makes a new printer attractive. The 3110cn seems to have good capacity toners (4000 page) in the box, in contrast to some others, like the low end Phaser 6120, which looks good too, but only comes with 1500 page toners.

Has anyone used the 3110cn on a Mac? Any others I should be looking at?

Thanks.

[Bob Levine]

I have the earlier model, the 3100. You simply can't beat it for the price.

Bob

[Fred_Goldman@adobeforums.com]

Bob,

How do gradients come out? I recently gave someone that had a 5100cn to print out a book for me that had gradients on the cha[ter cover page and the colors didn't graduate. It was just plane black and then white. And every page that had a blend came out blurry. I was very surprised because it is supposedly a Postscript printer. Since then I've been very reluctant to buy a Dell printer.

[Bob Levine]

You do need to set up the options correctly. I have mine set up for high
quality printing and the gradients are fine. They'll definitely band at
standard quality. I would also need to see how the gradient was built
before blaming the printer. An improperly created gradient will band on
any output device.

A note on high quality printing, you'll likely have to up the RAM. The
3100 came with only 64 megs. With the price so cheap I just threw in
another 512 meg chip.

I think the 3110 comes with 128 megs on board.

On OSX, BTW, I think you only get postscript printing. On Windows you
get a PCL driver, too.

Bob

[John_Nolan@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for that info, Robert. What kind of memory does it take?

[Bob Levine]

This kind:

[url]http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr%2BProductline=Dell%2B+Printers&m fr=Dell&tabid=AM&model=3110CN&submit=Go[/url]

Bob

[John_Nolan@adobeforums.com]

Thanks, Bob. I guess I could have found that out myself. Thanks for taking the time.

[Peter_Truskier@adobeforums.com]

John,

Have a look at the "Customize It" page for the printer on the Dell site. It looks like you can get the extra RAM from them for even less than a third-party - $65 for 512 MB.

[Bob Levine]

That is VERY unusual for Dell. I almost never take an upgrade from them.

Bob

[Peter_Truskier@adobeforums.com]

That is VERY unusual for Dell.




That was my impression too. That's why I thought it was worth pointing out...

[Fred_Goldman@adobeforums.com]

Bob,

Can I send you a on page PDF of the gradients that didn't print well with his printer?

[Bob Levine]

Sure. Click my name, go to my website, and then the contact page.

Bob

[Bob Levine]

Got it and a few simple settings in the printer driver gave me what I
think are acceptable results.

Bob

[Eric_@_MCA@adobeforums.com]

I recently had a client purchase a 3110, and it seems to give fairly decent results. It's certainly not about to give a Fiery photocopier a run for it's money, but for proofing, it does the job acceptably. Particularly when you factor in how much cheaper it is.

One possible gotcha on the Mac is that Classic has no idea it is there (unless you order the Appletalk/wireless/etc module). To print from Classic apps, you need to do a Print to Postscript and then open the Postscript file with Preview and print that instead.

[John_Nolan@adobeforums.com]

Thanks, Eric. I very seldom venture back to Classic, so that won't be much of an issue for me.

[Laura Hickle]

I am interested in buying this printer too, for home. And I never thought I'd ever consider anything from Dell!

My boss has a 3100cn now, and it does a very nice job. Photos printed on just plain paper on this printer look better than our little inkjet is able to do on glossy photo paper. (Our small HP DesignJet 20ps, that is. Our big HP5000 does a better job of course … but it's a large format proofing printer, and way too big — and expensive — for home use.)

He's got just the basic RAM in his though, so any very complex PostScript and it just hangs. If I get the 3110cn, I'll likely stuff it with as much RAM as it will hold.

It's good to know that the 3110cn will work with OSX. We currently only access our 3100cn through PCs, and I have Macs at home.

[Peter_Truskier@adobeforums.com]

I am interested in buying this printer too, for home. And I never thought
I'd ever consider anything from Dell!




You'd better hurry up as I think this particular deal only runs through today...

[Fred_Goldman@adobeforums.com]

Go through the samll business link, it's only $349:

<http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=3110cnsapp &s=bsd>

[Peter_Truskier@adobeforums.com]

Go through the samll business link, it's only $349:




Right, but it says the deal is only through 9/13/06 (not sure what time zone).

Also, I agree with Fred about using the business side. I had an absolutely horrible experience with Dell Home. I will never buy anything that way again...

[Bob Levine]

Small Business is the only way to go through Dell. I've gotten nothing
but excellent support for the very few issues I've had. Home can be a
horror story.

Note: You don't have to have a real business. Just call yourself ABC
Consulting and they'll sell to you.

Also keep an eye on [url]www.dealcatcher.com[/url], [url]www.gotapex.com[/url], and the users
find hot deals forum at [url]www.broadbandreports.com[/url].

I've found some tremendous deals that way.

Bob