if you're just getting started with 3d printing this may be a great place to start.
this is the latest installment of the Ender 3 The ender3 neo. and it's got some great
upgrades compared to the ender 3 pro. let's take a look at it on today's Filament Friday.
Filament Friday is brought to you by the generous donations of these patreon supporters. i purchased
the ender 3 neo on amazon myself for 239 dollars. i believe that's the retail price at creality.
this one is an ender three pro that i picked up at micro center. now i paid 199 dollars for this but
many people who are new customers get a coupon you can get one of these for 99 dollars. that's a heck
of a deal. but this still may be the better way to go for a beginner. let me explain. the ender
3 neo has many of the upgrades i've recommended in my videos that you can do to an ender 3 or ender 3
pro. the first one being the extruder top. the arm breaks on these things. it's plastic. it breaks
underneath. you don't see it. you get extrusion problems. i did a video to replace that with a
metal extruder top. this one already has it. that's 11 dollars to put that on this machine.
so there's part of the difference. another item i've recommended you upgrade your ender
3 or Ender 3 pro to is a glass bed. this is a very thin aluminum and a very thin bed material.
so when it heats up over and over this center can actually warp up or down. so the center makes it
hard to get a perfectly level bed. so that's why i recommend a glass bed. it's thicker. it's flat.
and it works great. but that's a 16 dollar increase on the cost of this.
it's already included on the neo. another item i've recommended people do to this machine is put
a silent driver control board on it. your motors will be quieter. the machine will be quieter.
and you'll get better prints. you'll actually get rid of the tiger striping that ends up
on the front of a benchy. right up here on the hull. well this one comes with it and that's a 39
dollar increase to this machine. another upgrade that i think is perfect for the beginner is this
auto level sensor. you can install one on this machine. you'll have to wire it. you'll have to
update the firmware. and then figure out the right bracket to put it in place. and it can be done.
i've done videos on how to install auto level on an Ender 3 v2 but to put it on this machine
takes some work. but you're looking at 39 dollars for the sensor plus the work. now many people do
it trying to get rid of that warp and it doesn't really work. because it does a nine point probe
or you can do a 16 point probe, but it really is just averaging things. you still have a spot in
your bed that the filament doesn't want to stick properly or it's you know too close. so the glass
bed is the way to go. and then once that's flat then auto level works great. so that's what this
has on it already installed. so let's just take it at face value 39 for the auto level sensor.
another little upgrade that they did is they put the heavy duty springs under the bed
to support that glass bed. and it actually holds the bed level once you get everything adjusted.
this has weaker springs so the vibration of printing can actually loosen those a little bit.
this holds a level much better. that's an eight dollar upgrade. pretty easy to do
but it's already installed on this machine. one final difference is the hot end.
this has extra fins. larger fins. for better cooling than this hot end. they both have the
ptfe tubing going all the way down to the nozzle which i don't like, but this one
has better cooling. i have noticed a slight improvement in print quality compared to this
so i'm liking this hot end a little better. but i'm not even going to say there's a difference
in cost. it's just different hot ends. this is the new one. this is the older style. i'm just going
to call it a wash for right now. everything else is pretty much the same. the original pros came
with a meanwell power supply. they no longer do that. they come with a creality similar version
.this has the same power supply. so that's no different .same base. same frame. pretty much
the same parts. a little different on the the brackets here but overall pretty much the same.
and they both come as a kit. equal to assemble. this one's no easier or less easy than this.
it's still a kit you got to put together. but it's not that hard. It'll take you about 35 to 45
minutes to put it together. i'll have a video on how to assemble one of these in the near future.
to total that up you get 113 dollars of extra features on this machine that you don't get
here. right out of the box. but if you can get this for 99 dollars and you spend 113 dollars,
you're still going to be under. you're going to be at 212 dollars versus 239. but then you've got
to do all the work. now if you like doing all that work great but if you're a beginner to 3d
printing i think you're going to find that very frustrating. so i would say this is a better
place to start if you're just getting started with 3d printing because everything installed.
including that auto level sensor which can be a real hassle to someone just getting started
with 3d printing. now in reality you don't have to upgrade this machine at all. you can take it out
of the box. assemble it. and use it as is. and i highly recommend if you get one, do that and learn
what your machine is capable of. but these little things that i've mentioned are going to get you
eventually. you're going to want to upgrade. and that's why i love that they've done this. they've
pretty much taken a lot of the ideas that i've said in my videos should be done to an ender 3 and
they put it in this machine. now if you've watched the channel in the past you know i recommend this;
the ender 2 pro as the perfect beginner printer. and i still really like it as a beginner printer.
it's lightweight. it's easy to pack away. it's got a side spool holder. it's got the silent drivers.
it's got belt adjusters. it's just it's a smaller bed. and because it's a smaller bed you don't have
to worry about that warping as much. it does have a plastic extruder so i recommend you replace that
but at about 169 to 179 dollars you're not saving a whole lot. but it's definitely a very nice
printer and i still like it. so either one of these would be a good choice. but if you want
the bigger bed you want to print bigger things this is probably the way to go. i've obviously
run some test prints but i need to do a lot more printing to really give you my opinion on that
but initially the print quality i'm getting is quite good. and the bed level? i'm really happy
with the auto level. it was easy to operate from the menu and i got a perfect bed level first time.
a couple links to this in the description below if you want to get one yourself
and do your own evaluation. if you like what i'm doing here maybe check out some of the
other videos popping up. if you want to help support the channel patreon is one way or just
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