For a laser printer manufacturer, GCC has an unusual history. Formed in 1981, the company originally developed enhancements for coin-operated video games such as Ataris Missile Command and also brought us PacMan. Three years later it shifted its attention to the new Apple Macintosh computers, with a range of printer products that included the QuickDraw laser and WriteMove portable printers. Somewhat belatedly, GCC has now decided to target the PC market with a modest range of mono lasers.

There are only five family members - two 12ppm desktop printers, a 20ppm large format printer and the top of the range Elite 21. Three versions are available, which all offer a maximum true resolution of 1,200dpi and that are fitted with a dual-speed network print server as standard. The base model comes with 16Mb of memory, while the Elite 21 DN, reviewed here, offers a double helping of memory and a duplex unit as well. Along with full network capabilities, the Elite 21 DN also has a Type B parallel port, an RS-232 serial port and a USB port thats only supported under Windows 98. Very few vendors have bothered to implement a USB interface on their departmental lasers, as it doesnt really add any value. In this type of environment, the printer will almost certainly be connected to a network to get the best use from it.

Installation is fairly straightforward, but you dont get any smart management utilities to help ease the burden. Web-based management is the order of the day, as the Elite 21 DN comes with an embedded HTTP server that can be accessed by a standard Web browser. However, you have to start at the operator panel and manually assign the printer an IP address before it can be accessed over a network. Once this is achieved, you can use GCCs Map utility, which searches the network for available printers and automatically loads the WebAdmin browser interface for the selected unit. All menu options available at the operator panel can be accessed and modified remotely and password protection can also be applied.

Installing the printer on our NetWare 5 network proved tedious, as the manual instructs you to load Novells NWAdmin utility. From here, you create printer, print server and print queue objects first and then take a trip to the printers Web interface and add the NDS (Novell Directory Services) tree and context before resetting the printer. To its credit, it worked first time, but management utilities such as HPs JetAdmin make NetWare installation a lot easier, and also offer a number of useful features that allow you to modify the NDS tree directly from the same interface. Along with many other printer vendors, GCC also provides a utility for direct peer-to-peer printing over IP.

The Elite 21 DN employs a Fuji Xerox print engine, and its chassis is virtually identical to that used by Epsons EPL-2050 and the Xerox DocuPrint N2125. The 80MHz PowerPC processor is comparatively slow, but the 32Mb of memory can be upgraded to a maximum of 256Mb, and as industry standard 72-pin SIMMs are used, you can shop around for the best price too. A single lower cassette has a 550-sheet capacity, while a multipurpose tray at the front adds an additional 100 sheets, or up to ten envelopes to the total.

We found the quoted print speeds to be reasonably accurate for text-based documents, with a 15-page test print delivered in 45 seconds for a respectable 20ppm. However, once you add a few large graphics, charts and heavily-formatted text the print speeds drop, as a 23-page DTP document was completed at an average of 14.5ppm at 600dpi, and fell dramatically to 6ppm at 1,200dpi. The duplex unit proved to be speedy though, churning out the same document at 600dpi in only 110 seconds at a rate of 12.5ppm. Text quality was up to scratch at 600dpi, but avoid the PCL driver for graphics, as the results using the default settings were far too dark and required a lot of fiddling with the density controls in the driver panel to remedy. Using the PostScript driver resulted in graphics with plenty of detail, minimal banding and smooth greyscales.

Physically, the Elite 21 DN looks unremarkable, but its low price tag makes it stand out from the crowd. GCCs management tools are comparatively weak, but when you add the 1,200dpi resolution and duplex unit, you have a well-specified and good value laser printer.