OKI 3200 Colour Laser Printers. Any good?

Hi guys,

I plan on buying two OKI 3200 Colour Laser Printers for use in an infant school I look after. We have had so many inkjet printers die over the last year due to the kids. Found printers with crayons, pencils, staples, paper clips, sand, bluetak and play dough inside them! :lol: :lol: Frankly the teachers can't really be trusted to keep them out of harms way.

I want to have two decent quality laser quality printers kept OUTSIDE the classroms to serve as shared printers. They will be shared between three classrooms each. I already have two print servers I can use so all I need are the printers.

Most printing is will be drawings from 2 Simple, text docs from the teachers and photos. Photo quality is not a priority since the staff can use the inkjet in the ICT suite.

The OKI 3200 s only £155 from PC World Business and the consumables are reasonable. Anybody got any experience with the OKI 3200?

I have another school using the Samsung CLP-500 with an Axis 500+ print server that works fantastically and the ink bill for the school has reduced dramatically. The printer is now the main printer for Year 1 to Year 6.

Thanks :D

I would get a printer with a built in print server if you can. I tend to find that the addition of an external print server in some cases can prove to be problematic. That is unless you have experience with the combo your going to use in action.

just my 2p :D

http://www.oki.co.uk/fcgi-bin/public...lag=1&prid=532

I don't know about other peoples experiences, However we as a school have decided to go HP only as far as we can. Bad experiences with other makes / models of printers have made us change. We like HP so much so that we buy refurb's and know they will work http://www.laserink.co.uk/html/refur...pprinters.html is our main supplier. However since we haven't use any OKI recently I couldn't comment on your printers.

fooby

p.s Do you need network printer cards? They can be added to the HP 4000 series v.easily.

Edit:
P.S the HP 2600n is one we are v.pleased with so far http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en...51-446153.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChrisH

I would get a printer with a built in print server if you can. I tend to find that the addition of an external print server in some cases can prove to be problematic. That is unless you have experience with the combo your going to use in action.

just my 2p :D

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Hi Chris,

The 3200N (which has the built-in print server) is an extra £140 so I cannot really justify the spending when the head also wants me to buy interative whiteboards, more PCs, wireless kit, laptops etc (you know how it is :wink: )

I do however agree with you - I have used Netgear, HP and Dlink print servers and to be honest most have been pants, needing constant resets. I now avoid wireless print servers like the plaugh! The only print server I've used that has been FANTASTIC is an old cheap AXIS 5400+ print server which is used with that Samsung CLP-500 I mentioned earlier. It has been in for 1 1/2 years and I've not had to reset it at all. Fantastic peice of kit. Much better then the newer ones I've used. DLink seem to be okay, not had as many problems with them, but not as good as Axis.

The print servers I have laying about are DLink.

Dlink print servers... yuck I have several in the cupboard still in the wrapper from when I had them replaced for the (insert really big number here) time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChrisH

Dlink print servers... yuck I have several in the cupboard still in the wrapper from when I had them replaced for the (insert really big number here) time.

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You really know how to inspire confidence buddy! :P :lol: Had problems with the Dlink wireless print servers (not doing that again!) but the hard-wired ones have been relatively trouble free apart from a the occasion reset every few months.

I'm keeping an eye on ebay for Axis print servers. They cost a fortune to buy new, but I've picked up a few bargains in the past (as little as £5!!). Personally I think they are the best! Use them both at home and work and not one issue.

Never buy a printer without a print server built in (thats my advice anyway). I am also very happy with my oki, but its a 9300v2 so might be a bit expensive for what you want :P

If it has a print server, then afaik it can't be a winprinter either. I'm moving towards getting new printers with their postscript option too. Postscript. PCL and a build in NIC means it can be connected to just about anything! External print servers are imo rubbish.

We find that netgear Print Servers seem very reliable to us.

Chris

The problematic Dlink print servers I had that promptly got discontined had 2 parallel ports and one USB.