[SOLVED] How much memory is needed for modern printing?

[Dmarkojr]

So I tried searching around for info on this, as it's something I never thought of before. I don't know if I just wasn't typing in the correct formatting to appease the google gods, but I didn't have much luck. Any thread I found was from circa 2000, and dealt with setting a printer up for an office building. I'm mainly looking to print out pdfs I create for college assignments, but would like the option to occasional print out a black and white image. The pdf sizes can vary from 2MB a page, up to I've seen 7ish MB. Images can obviously go alot higher. Which leads me to my dilemma.
I'm looking at a few older laser printers ( I don't need color). Would the printer need to load the entire page into memory before printing, or can it pull a small chunk in at a time fast enough. Not sure if that's a per printer thing. On the low end is the Brother HL-2140 with 8MB of memory. Then at basically the same price as the high end, the HL-5340 with 16MB (can be upgraded). And the highest end a HL-5440 with 64MB and upgradeable.
I'm looking at older laser printers, as I want something that can print fast, and isn't going to randomly decide not to print. I've only ever used printers that were bought by other people, so this is new territory for me. I just know that watching my parents old inkjet struggle for 3 pages a minute with random jams is something I want to avoid on 50+page printouts. Thanks in advance.

 

[Colif]

For most black and white printers 32MB and 64MB of RAM is recommended. For most color laser printers, 128 MB of RAM is recommended.

Here are the minimum printer memory requirements for certain paper formats:

1. Single-sided printing letter, A4, legal - 16 MB
2. 11 x 17 in, A3 - 16 MB
3. Two-sided printing letter, A4 - 16 MB
4. Legal - 16 MB
5. 11 x 17 in, A3 - 24 MB

Here are the recommended printer memory requirements for certain paper formats:

1. Single-sided printing letter or legal - 32 MB
2. single-sided printing 11 x 17 in, A3 - 48 MB
3. Two-sided printing or duplexing printing: letter or legal - 32 MB
4. Two-sided printing or duplexing printing: 11 x 17 in, A3 - 64 MB

How to Determine Printer Memory Requirements and Upgrade Memory on a Laser Printer

Are you trying to upgrade your laser printer's memory? Read PrinterStop's blog on memory requirements to get the right info.

printerstop.com

So it depends what paper size you want to use.
16mb looks like bare minimum to me.

 

[BFG-9000]

Brother HL-2140 is a GDI printer so it doesn't matter how little memory it has--the host based driver processes the print job to essentially a raster fax which is sent to the printer.

HL-5340 and HL-5440 are not host-based, so how much onboard memory is required not only depends on the size and complexity of the print job but what printer language it is sent in. They support BR-Script 3, IBM PPR XL, Epson FX-850 and HP PCL6 emulation