What to buy?

If you want something to just print without tinkering, the new Bamboos are what's hot right now, but if you want to learn and tinker with 3D printing, I wholeheartedly recommend Prusa. I followed 3D printing for years before finally deciding to buy one and I got a Prusa MK3S+ early last year and it has been a workhorse. So much so that I just bought a 2nd one a few months ago. You can buy the kit for cheaper and put it together yourself and you'll learn a lot about how they work. I've got tons of mods done to mine plus a printed enclosure for one and I'm working on the 2nd one. The main selling points for me is they are open source and Prusa the company and owner are really involved in the community.

They also run printables.com which is a huge repository of print files. Also Prusaslicer is their slicing software that works great. Lots of people use it even without Prusa printers. They can be finicky at times, but I think that's all printers really. Good thing about Prusa is everything is replaceable or printable and aftermarket mods are plenty. (Revo nozzles especially if you like to switch nozzle sizes often). I just like how open they are and how heavily involved in the community they are. That means so much more to me than a "just works" printer. If you do go with Prusa, they just came out with the MK4 which has lots of improvements. I'm also planning on picking up the XL sometime when I have extra monies. Shoot me a DM if you want to chat about it.

I’m eyeing this https://www.prusa3d.com/product/original-prusa-mk4-2/ as my second printer

For your first printer I would recommend getting something you can build from scratch if you have the time. You’ll learn about all the different parts of a printer so you have an idea of what to do when something goes wrong. Prusas are great in that aspect as they have wonderful documentation and assembly instructions and it’s easy to buy replacement parts if you need it, plus they’re pretty low-maintenance once built. In your price range I think the MK4 kit would be a good option, just keep in mind that assembly can take upwards of 10 hours depending on how fast you go.

However, if you want to buy something and just forget about it, one of Bambu Lab printers would probably be a better option. Their parts are more proprietary and you won’t get the same learning experience, but its dead simple to setup and use. (Not to mention incredibly fast).

Either way, you’ll be getting a solid printer that should last you for a while, so have fun and be sure to post here if you have any more questions!

in that price range you can get a bambulabs X1 carbon, which is an extremely high performance and high reliability machine. If you want to save a bit, the P1P is also really good.

I am a hardcore custom printer guy who loves building everything themselves, but even I have to admire this machine.

Don't listen to people recommending ender 3s or anything creality, but prusas are also a good option, if a bit outdated.

FYI. The Bambu P1P is currently going for $599 USD. It’s a core xy , with impressive print speeds, with an upgrade path to a proven multi materials solution.

Since you are placing it near an AC, you’ll need to print the side panels to partially enclose it. Lots of community upgrades available.

Good luck.

Owning a Bambu P1P, I would highly suggest an X1 Carbon. I started on the cheap bed slingers and have now moved on and will never look back.

Saw that you're already considering the Prusa Mk4, and that was pretty much what I would have recommended for your price range. Prusa machines are not cheap, but once assembled they just work. But since Prusa has an open ecosystem and open-sourced pretty much everything, you have complete control and choice on what software you want to use to accompany it, and you also can mod the printer to your liking if needed.

The Bambulabs printers some others mentioned are different in that they are a closed ecosystem. You get the printer as-is with very little playroom for modifications and the software side (slicer) is AFAIK also pretty locked down to what they ship with the printer.

For the slicer, as mentioned it depends on the printer. If you go with Prusa, pretty much any slicer will work. To name a few, PrusaSlicer, SuperSlicer, Cura...
If you go with Bambulabs, (AFAIK) you're restricted to using their slicer.
For designing your own models, there's also a plethora of programs available you can use for free. Be it CAD programs like Fusion 360, SolidEdge, OpenSCAD, FreeCAD, modelling software like Blender, or many many more.

What is your use case for the printer? That might help inform your decision.

A Prusa is a pretty safe pick and more or less fire and forget from what I've seen.

I have older printers that are reliable after numerous upgrades (including a new board and adding auto-leveling) for larger parts and a resin printer for detailed stuff.

I didn't try many printers / software to commend you recommendt one but I can say that I have used creality CR-10S and had 0 problems with it. I use Cura software because it supports Linux but it works on windows too

Whatever you chose I would make sure it supports klipper firmware. It is super growing and popular open source project and it can be installed on most of them.

For slicer, I use Cura because im lazy to get familliar with others, but dont worry about that you can always swich to another slicer whenever you feel like

Before I can recommend anything, I have to ask you some questions.

Are you wanting a printer that you will spend more time tweaking and modifying than actual printing? Or do you want something that just works right out of the box?

Do you care about it being open source and upgradeable?

What's your price range?

Do you want to print miniatures and other fine detailed objects?

I think something like an Ender 3 is sufficient for your use case.

I use a Prusa i3 MK3s+ and I love it, but Prusa printers are expensive and you can get more value from things like the Ender 3. If you want to go Prusa, you can get the Prusa mini.

Also, I've never had a problem with having my printer next to a window, maybe filaments degrade faster that way but I don't really know.

I use Blender for making models, and PrusaSlicer for slicing those models to send to my printer.

I don't think Blender is a good choice for 3d Printing but I just use it because I know it.

I highly recommend Prusaslicer though, and it works for a lot of non Prusa printers like the Ender 3.