When I mentioned a Prusa, I meant a brand spanking new i3 Mk3 - which has a lot of cutting edge features not found yet on ANY other printer, including my Ultimaker...It is vastly improved compared to previous models. It's almost unreal that they can sell them for $750/$999 kit/assembled. There are a LOT of knock off/clones out there with the Prusa i3 designation that are complete junk. It costs more to get them right than to just get a genuine one. Don't take my word for it....see what
Tom says about it. Is it 'the best' 3D printer? No...but it IS a good value for the money - especially if you are not sure if you are even going to use it yet.
It really all depends on what you want to do with it. Don't be fooled - 3D printing is both harder and easier in a number of way compared to CNC. You're going to need to be good at manipulating 3D meshes and make them watertight.
Rob - What do you aspire to do with a 3D printer?
Attached pics of model that was scanned & printed on a MK2 Prusa i3 @ .2mm layer height. About 190mm from the back of the head to the nose. Took about 25hrs. I like making parts while I sleep
Change nozzles and you can do even smaller things too...It's great for mechanical models too and of course, prototypes...or for just making things to mess with your dogs
-B