From time to time an electronics company will create for us a deluxe model all in one multifunction center that sports both automatic duplexing and networking. The Brother MFC-8660DN is one of those special machines.
The beauty of having both networking and duplexing incorporated into your office printer is that the pampered feeling of being able to automatically print on two sides of a piece of paper is not offered exclusively to a sole beneficiary, but to an entire gang of employees, each one feeling like a king among men. Duplexing, when taken advantage of, can save a considerable amount of money spent on expensive office paper, theoretically cutting your usage in half, though maximum print speed will be slightly dampened. Then again, at 30 pages per minute max, speed should never serve as an issue with the Brother MFC-8600DN.
Quality also runs at high numbers with the 8600DN, with a 1200 X 1200 dot per inch maximum for printing, and 19,000 X 19,000 for scanning, interpolated. Optical scanning isn’t too shabby either, running at 600 X 2400 dots per inch, and includes up to 48 bit color. The unit also exports to a large quantity of different formats while scanning, including TIFF, BMP, MAX, JPG, or PDF and, as usual, Brother has included the handy “Scan To” feature that allows you to scan via dedicated controls directly to an e mail, image, OCR file, or, in this case, even to FTP format.
The fax capabilities should not be overlooked on the MFC-8660DN, due much in part to the 33.6K bps Super G3 Fax Modem which sends and receives at roughly 2 seconds per page, or 30 pages per minute. The 32MB of standard memory has RAM allocated for up to 600 pages of fax data for when your paper runs out and 600 pages come in, and if you find more pages than that coming in during an emergency, consider upgrading your memory to a possible 544 MBs. The unit has no headset, but it does allow for up to 340 auto dial locations, and up to 390 broadcasting locations, and these numbers are also upgradable with more memory.
The maximum copy speed matches the print speed, with 30 copies a minute, and if you find yourself having trouble hand feeding paper that fast, feel free to load a stack of up to 50 sheets into the handy automatic document feeder which should save you some time and paper cuts. The copy machine can be used as a stand alone unit, though on a networking machine this feature seems like it would rarely be used, unless the network goes down.
If the network stays up then the MFC-8660DN’s PC fax feature may come in handy. Units, such as this, with PC fax integrate your fax machine directly with your PC, so instead of printing a hard copy of your data, and then hand loading it right back into the machine, you simply transmit it through the fax line directly to your recipient who, along with yourself, will be amazed at the power of the Brother MFC-8660DN.
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