ELEGOO Neptune 3 Plus VS Neptune 4 Pro: A Beginner's Perspective

well look who decided to get into 3D printing so have you chosen a printer yet with all the choices out there I know how daunting it seems for you to narrow it down and decide which one to go with so how do you begin first you need to ask yourself this what do you truly need what is it you're looking for and what is really important to you and your current situation are you looking to do some large prints for cosplay or a speed your main focus how much space do you have to dedicate to a machine and what's your budget look like how much do you want to spend well let me tell you about two new machines that I got that as a beginner I find very easy to work with and won't break the bank first up is the large elugu Neptune 3 plus followed by the surprisingly fast Neptune 4 Pro and just a heads up I am not affiliated or sponsored by elegu in any way and all the opinions that I offer in this video are my own and not influenced by anyone now follow me on this next Point both printers are the same but different so what do I mean by this well first let me start listing out the similarities between the two let's start with assembly both machines get put together practically the same way foreign the interface on the touch screens are virtually the same so if you're comfortable using one you'll be comfortable using the other both printers are finally referred to as bedslingers but what does that mean well the bed moves on the y-axis and the print head moves up and down on the z-axis and side to side on the x-axis the design is simple and proven both come with dual gear direct drive extruders Pei magnetic build plates removable touch screen controllers filament run out sensors power loss recovery Auto bed leveling and an LED light bar most of these features used to be considered add-ons and upgrades now they're considered stock on almost any printer on the market and this is where the similarities end and they both Branch off to show their individual strengths for which they were designed first up the most obvious difference size the three plus has a print area of 320 by 320 by 400 millimeters while the 4 Pro comes in at 225 by 225 by 265 millimeters next they'll both have Auto bed leveling the three plus does 49 reference points with six manual knobs for fine tuning while the 4 Pro on a smaller build surface does 121 points with four manual knobs the 4 Pro also Sports a segmented heat bed it has a central zone for smaller prints and then an outer zone that will kick in if the print is big enough to need it it also has four additional cooling fans an overheat detection switch all metal guide rails and a nozzle LED light for some pinpoint lighting but the biggest difference between the two the firmware the Neptune 3 plus uses the tried and true Marlin firmware Marlin is everywhere for a reason it is highly compatible frequently updated and has strong Community Support the Neptune 4 Pro on the other hand uses Clipper Clipper while being pushed into the Limelight recently is not some new kid on the Block it's had its fair share of testing and refinement while not as old or as widely used as Marlin Clipper offers up the ability to do calculations at high speeds this results in way faster printing speeds how fast out of the box we're cruising at 250 millimeters per second compared to the pluses 60 millimeters per second now let's do some side-by-side comparisons print for print who does it better round one first up we're gonna go head to head with a print that elegoo supplies with each printer the Buddha and of course the four ran this print at lightning speed side by side comparisons show that both prints came out really good though round two next up is one of the most popular Benchmark tests for printers and filaments the benchy through its clever design the bench you will see how well your new printer will measure up again both prints came out really good and of course the 4 Pro did it way faster round three the next print I happened upon by accident intricate thin supports little spikes and prongs and a stand that needs to be unscrewed from the inside of the chalice and then screwed back into the base the torture trophy again the 4 Pro did it way faster but this is where the complexity of the print starts to take its toll on both printers first we look at stringing both prints displayed stringing between the spikes on the bottom of the cup the 4 Pro definitely had more though and speaking of the spikes the 4 Pro displayed better quality in shape while the three plus looked a little scorched the stands on both require channel locks to get the stand to Break Free the print from the 4 Pro though did not come apart easily and I thought I was gonna snap it off over getting it to break loose even then it did not screw back in easily for the three plus though it broke loose fairly easily and then screwed back in even easier final round finally something a little more fun with more intricate Parts this print is done in multiple pieces and requires assembly the gearbox three different sets of prints were sliced and guess what the 4 Pro did it faster though the three plus could have done it all in one go again both printers did a beautiful job and the prints look great until we get to assembly now some cleanup work was expected the pieces from the 4 Pro required a ton of sanding and cleanup I eventually was able to get the parts to snap together but they just wouldn't move [Music] oh sweet Jesus why don't you spin foreign the pieces from the three plus took way less cleanup work and everything fit together and moved as it should in a previous video I mentioned the Minchin beagle can which I love to use for time lapses after receiving the Neptune 4 Pro I realized that the mentioned beagle camera just isn't compatible with Clipper I reached out to mention inquiring about this and as of August 27th of 2023 they say that they're still working on that compatibility with Clipper so if you wanted to do time lapses on the Neptune 4 or the Neptune 4 Pro you'll need to find an alternative to the mentioned beagle camp so what do I think I love the Neptune 3 plus one reason is the print volume now that's the test print yeah I did it it's larger than the standard sizes but it still fits into smaller spaces in my office as the standard size printers I can do larger prints and have the option to upscale anything I want as well as printing smaller items it has great versatility along with great precision and print quality while being exceptionally quiet for its size this is the main thing that turned me on to the Neptune 3s my printers share the same space as my office that I work in for my nine to five job so being quiet is essential for when I'm on Zoom calls and trying to focus on my work so this is where the Neptune 4 Pro starts to have issues with my current situation this thing is noisy add-on for cooling fans and that makes it even noisier I can close the door and still hear this thing in the hallway so I would prefer to run it after work or on the weekends it is great at printing fast and the prints still do look nice quality wise however I think that it sacrifices a little bit of its Precision for the extra speed now that's not to say that these shortcomings can't be compensated for by making adjustments in your slicer the opinion that I'm giving is strictly based on how it comes out of the box with stock settings but honestly you cannot go wrong with either printer elegoo has done an amazing job catering to what your needs are and as of the filming of this video the difference in price is only 51 but if size and speed is what you truly want as of September 19th elegu has a four plus and a four Max available for pre-order let me know in the comments which one would you choose and if you found value in this video please give it a thumbs up and if you're new here I hope I've earned your subscription so once you choose your printer and get all of your test prints out of the way what will you create next thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Resin Dragon Studios

Views: 6,090

Keywords: 3D printing, 3D print, 3D printer, Elegoo, Elegoo Neptune 3 Plus, Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro, FDM, FDM Printing

Id: FRG3n-NfhLg

Length: 9min 42sec (582 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 01 2023