laser printer - which one?

[Warren Block]

On Thu, 24 May 2007, Gabor Kovesdan wrote:

> might be a bit off here, but I'm sure some of you have experiences with laser 
> printers. I would like to buy a (relatively) cheap laser printer with the 
> following requirements:
>
> - quality (I mean here, that I want to use it for a long time, thus it should 
> be of good quality and be robust)
> - has such a toner, *that can be refilled cheaply*
> - prints in good quality, speed and noise is not that important
> - should work under FreeBSD / Linux, not just under Windows
>
> As for the price, I'm thinking of 100 000 HUF (about 400 EUR) as *very* 
> maximum. The price is important, but the first point is more important at 
> all...I color laser printer would be cool if this amount of money is 
> sufficient for this, but a BW one is ok, too.

My suggestion would be a used HP LaserJet 4050, preferably with a 
JetDirect network interface.  I've used them as network printers for 
FreeBSD with excellent results, they're built well and cheap to run. 
Have not tried toner refilling, though.

You could probably buy a color laser with mostly-empty "starter" toner 
at this price, but replacing supplies could cost as much or more than 
the printer.

-Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA