StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I'm making a computer for my girlfriends mum and as shes gonna use it in her home office I’m thinking of getting her a laser rather than an inkjet. I’m thinking of getting her an Oki B4100 which gets good reviews and costs £83.99 from Ebuyer. Which seems about as good a deal as you get in the UK.

So is this a good choice, do oki make good printers and how often do you have to change the drum as they seem pretty pricey (more expensive than the printer infact)?

It depends what she uses it for.
If she prints mostly text and stuff, a laser printer is a good choice. If she'd be printing photos or likes it colourful, ink would be the way.

Alas, I have no idea how good that laser is but if your friend is primarily going to print text than a laser printer is a good idea. Inkjet consumables are a rip-off, even with third-party cartridges and refill kits.

I personally bought an HP LaserJet 6MP off of eBay.

I got given an HP Laserjet gL, which is AFAIK an older model. A friend who worked at a university said they were throwing it out, and all that was wrong was the continuous paper feed tray, I would have to feed it in sheet by sheet. I'm far more happy with the laser than I was with my older inkjet. The price of toner refill for laser is starting to be comparable to an inkjet and you get far more use out of it.

I currently own both a HP Photosmart 7960 and a HP Laserjet 1200 printer, so I'm semi qualified to speak on the subject.
My advice is this: Unless color is important and she's willing to pay for color, get the laser.

I use my inkjet only for photo printing and the laser is the workhorse printer.

I've had it for 4 years and printed 4641 pages according to the page counter. Toner carts are about $65 and I'm only on the first of the replacement carts I bought after I got the printer.

I'll only go back to using the inkjet as my default printer the day I can get 2500 pages out of a $65 inkjet cart combo instead of the 300 or 400 pages that you can currently get out of the inkjet cart combo.

The huge consumable cost different justifies the initial higher purchase price of a laser unless you are willing to pay for the color an inkjet offers.

Well I went for the laser, I'll probably have the printer for a week or so before she comes to collect it, so I think I'll have a bit of a play around and if I like it get myself one and keep my injet for photos.