I'm about to purchase a new printer.

I currently use an ender 3 pro and print in pla+.

I'd like to buy a new printer and I'm debating between the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 and the Flashforge Creator 5 Pro. I'll be adding a Creality Space Pi X4L as well to keep filaments dry.

The Elegoo is around $370 while the Flashforge is around $770.

The main question I'm trying to determine is how big of a deal supports will be. The Elegoo only has one hot end while the Flashforge has 4 that it swaps between. Either way I can print with multiple filaments, but since the Flashforge has multiple hot ends there's no risk of some pla sneaking in to a pa6-cf section of the print and weakening it. It would also mean no purge waste.

I'm wondering if any of you have pondered this type of thing or what you all think the way to go is. I'd love to not spend the $400, but at the end of the day I'll do it if it's worth the difference and I'd be setuping myself up for failure otherwise.

I've had the creator 5 pro for a few months. I actually upgraded from an Ender 3 pro as well!

I have not utilized the multiple hotend setup for supports more than a few times, but I print in multicolor pretty frequently. The couple of times I used it, being able to print support interface layers with PETG for easy removal was quite handy!

Honestly the biggest perk is that printing in multiple colors is super quick and doesn't waste a ton of filament. Pride flag color fidgets are a big hit, and I've given away so many of them! A color change takes a few seconds so it does increase print times but usually only by a few minutes total, unless it's a really tall print.

TL;DR: if you want multi color/material prints, the flashforge is a great!

Fuck flashforge. They’re anti-3D2A IIRC