External HDDs, Printers, Speakers... your thoughts?

Ok, I need a new Printer, external 500GB HDD and some 2.0 speakers. What's good?

Printer: Has to be an "all-in-one" with Scan/Copy functions. It's mainly gonna be used as a scanner and for printing text, so built in LCDs and card readers are just bonuses, but colour and photo print quality will be taken into account. Also, small form factors and aesthetics all play their part. I don't really want to spend more than £100.

HDD: Must be FireWire compatible (FW800 preferred), and at-least 500GB. I've been looking at LaCie and WD, but Freecom do some cheaper ones (I have a Freecom HDD at the moment and am quite happy with it; are the LaCie/WD worth the extra?).

Speakers: Must be 2.0 (not allowed subs). I want decent quality audio, and decent volume, but they're only going to be used occasionally, so the cheaper the better.

Any thoughts? Want to recommend a product?

Thanks in advance; I'm really struggling here!

Levi said:

Ok, I need a new Printer, external 500GB HDD and some 2.0 speakers. What's good?

Printer: Has to be an "all-in-one" with Scan/Copy functions. It's mainly gonna be used as a scanner and for printing text, so built in LCDs and card readers are just bonuses, but colour and photo print quality will be taken into account. Also, small form factors and aesthetics all play their part. I don't really want to spend more than £100.

Click to expand...

I like Canon's AIO printer line. They use ink tanks which are inexpensive, easily refillable and you only need to replace one if you run out of a particular color.

HDD: Must be FireWire compatible (FW800 preferred), and at-least 500GB. I've been looking at LaCie and WD, but Freecom do some cheaper ones (I have a Freecom HDD at the moment and am quite happy with it; are the LaCie/WD worth the extra?).

Click to expand...

I would recommend a Seagate. All external hard drives are limited in performance by the external bus. So, the best criteria to base your decision on is warranty. Seagate offers a 5-year warranty on all of their hard drives.

Speakers: Must be 2.0 (not allowed subs). I want decent quality audio, and decent volume, but they're only going to be used occasionally, so the cheaper the better.

Any thoughts? Want to recommend a product?

Click to expand...

I don't have much experience with the current offerings, so I'll defer to other's expertise.

I agree with cwa, get a printer with separate ink tanks per colour. These three-in-one things are a bloody rip-off, so spend extra now and save later. And bear in mind that your requirements may well change after you've bought it.

Printer: the HP Photosmart 3210 is what I use and I love it. 6 separate cartridges, prints wonderful pictures, has an ethernet port for wireless printing, and more. It's a really nice printer.

Hard Drive: I have a LaCie and I like it a lot. If there is something you have and like, why not get another one?

Speakers: I have some Altec Lansing XT1 laptop speakers and they sound great, the deal with speakers is there are a million different kinds. I really like Altec Lansing, we've got 4 of their products and have been very happy with all of them. So anything they make I would definitely recommend, plus they are priced pretty well, www.alteclansing.com

cwa107 said:

I would recommend a Seagate. All external hard drives are limited in performance by the external bus. So, the best criteria to base your decision on is warranty. Seagate offers a 5-year warranty on all of their hard drives.

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I agree. I have two Seagate drives that works fine. Check out Maplin Electronics here in the UK, They have had some great deals on Seagate drives.

HDD: You could consider putting your own external drive together and save probably %15 to %20 on what you would pay for a pre-assembled one. You can even get exactly the same drive and enclosure a lot of the time and pay much less. In addition, it's not a complicated procedure to put it together.

brentsax said:

HDD: You could consider putting your own external drive together and save probably %15 to %20 on what you would pay for a pre-assembled one. You can even get exactly the same drive and enclosure a lot of the time and pay much less. In addition, it's not a complicated procedure to put it together.

Click to expand...

I've been looking at this option, but finding cases with FW800 wasn't easy, and the ones I have found aren't cheap (I can understand this as it's aimed at the Pro market).

I've managed to find the LaCie d2 Quadra for £100 though, while not as cheap as some others, it matches my d2 DVD-RW perfectly, so I'm gonna go with that.

PS. I was actually given one of these:



I've only used it for connecting my HDD to another Mac and upgrading the OS and am reluctant to keep it "always on" because of the lack of a fan or any form of protection against knocks. Do you think that would be a problem? Otherwise, I've already got a FW800 "enclosure".