It's probably not the million dollar question.... More like a $500 - x question. What is the best 3d printer for the price? However, that's a loaded question. So, I'll simplify things with some basic facts.

Budget: Looking to spend under $1000 unless convinced that spending $1000-$1500 is absolutely necessary to get the features I want.

Requirements:

1. Reliable 100 micron printing capability using PLA.
2. At this time I have no knowledge of ABS printing needed, not sure of why ABS would be needed, but want to keep things simple and stick to PLA.
3. Need to print a lot of small detailed objects. Definition of small: 2 inch by 2 inch up to 4inch by 4 inch and height will vary by up to 4 - 6 inch height.
4. If anyone is interested, I'm looking to purchase and print DragonLock dungeon tiles. (flooring and walls of dungeons, village houses, taverns, caverns, etc for Dungeons and Dragons.).
a. I could need upwards of 1000 pieces to complete a playable / usable set.
5. What I'm looking to print is all pre - designed in .stl files. The designer / publisher printed them at 100 micron using PLA on a printrbot pla and used that to showpiece the printed pieces. They look amazing.
6. Next, although I'm a technical person, I really hate spending a lot of time troubleshooting things. Do it enough at work, I don't want to do it at home, so I need an easy to use, easy to assemble 3d printer.
7. I would like to possibly print multiple pieces at a time, which sounds like could be done using software and a printer compatible with simplify 3d and setting up multiple pieces to print, using continuous or sequential printing techniques.
8. Needs to work unattended. If it truly takes 2-3 hours to print a 2 inch by 2 inch by 1 inch piece, then, I need to setup a print job and then go to work so I have money to print! HA!
9. If there's a way to get faster print speeds without reducing quality of the print and reliability of the print, then I'd be interested in paying a little more for that feature, but, from what I've seen this is more limitation of the science behind 3d printing and the materials used than it is of any specific printer.


So far, after numerous hours of reading reviews and looking at the many different models of printers, I like the reviews and simplicity of this one:QIDI TECHNOLOGY X-ONE

I admit there's probably many very good 3-d printers out there and they will continue to get better. If only I could wait another year or two, I suspect 3d printing will take off like a firestorm. That said, for the Amazon Sale price of $438 the QIDI Tech One seemed the best in both usability, reliability, and ease of use.

I'm open to most anything, looking for good strong support, and the above requirements!