Prusa MINI+ which to order  

RE: Prusa MINI+ which to order

Theres no right answer. If you want to learn how the printer works and you like tinkering, the kit is a great option. If you want to get printing as soon as possible and are more interested in design and printing than working on hardware, then go for preassembled. 

I like the dual color accents (I reprinted mine in green and blue) but all dark is the more "professional" look. But it's a matter of personal taste. 

Sheets: get the satin sheet. It's what I use for 90% of prints. Works without fuss with any filament type. I haven't touched the smooth sheet in years and use textured only to get the look and feel of the original Prusa parts or for small game tokens where it creates a nice looking base surface. 

RE: Prusa MINI+ which to order

I'll just say I regret buying the part-assembled mini+, had I started off with the kit I probably wouldn't have encountered my first few showstopping failures, I certainly wouldn't have had that machine out of commission for as long as it was as I would have had a far better idea of what I was doing and exactly what each part was doing. As for sheets, get the satin as it's perfect for almost everything. I do occasionally have issues with cheap PLA and that is the only time I use the smooth sheet. Orange & Black looks great although the majority of my machine is filamentum mustard yellow ASA now.

RE: Prusa MINI+ which to order

I timed myself putting together the MINI+, took me 6:10. Prusa says 6-8 hours. It’s not worth it, to me, to save $30 to spend 6-8 hours, but it’s worth it for knowing how it went together so if something breaks, I know better how to fix it.

I like the orange and black, but I haven’t seen all black in person. What I like better is alluded to by @fuchsr, a dual-tone print in colors other than orange and black. Since I have my MINI already, I’m going to print a set of MK4 parts, probably in purple and yellow, before my MK4 gets here, and put it together with my custom color parts. Hard to do that until you already have a printer though, and I never felt like tearing my Mini apart just to change the colors of everything…

I’ve only used the satin sheet I got for PETG, it’s good for PLA and others too, but I figured since most of my prints are PLA I’d just use my PLA and put less wear on the satin sheet. But if switching types of filaments often I’d probably use the satin just to avoid sheet switching. That said, set up the sheet profiles in the menu and switching sheet types is really easy. 

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I recently had the same dilemma - I went with semi-assembled version with filament sensor (but now I wish I would get also Satin Sheet), and I'll explain my thoughts and decision below.
- this is my first 3D printer, and the fact that I need to fit it in to specific space made me get smaller model (and much cheaper compared to Mk4)
- filament sensor - nice to have, depends on how much you want to print, this is good if you know you will run out of filament due long prints. If you print a lot it really helps.
- black/orange - it is just a personal preference, not going to argue about colors 😉
- having experience with general tinkering (RC cars/drones etc) but lacking time I decided to go to semi-assembled version and I must say this was really good decision - assembly takes about 1h (or faster if you have a electric drill to screw things faster) and I was able to print within that hour. Assembling spool holder is actually much more time consuming than I would expect. Kit version would require extra time and effort to make things good (especially squaring the printer). 
- I went with buying PETG after reading some things about filaments, for now this is what I used from start and overall experience is very good (but  I need a dry box anyway and maybe in the future enclosure just to avoid dust and to be able to print ABS in the future)

- the only thing I wish I bought together with the printer is Satin Sheet - it works  great with everything like PLA/PETG/ABS - default PEI is super sticky with PETG, but for now I just had to decrease bed temperature by 10C and it is no longer an issue

RE: Prusa MINI+ which to order

Just one more thought on the topic of steel sheet choices:

There's really two factors to consider—adhesion and texture.

I would argue that the satin sheet rules supreme in the first category. You get great adhesion with pretty much any filament type, without fuss. 

As far as texture that the sheet imposes on the first layer is concerned… The textured sheet has the coarse pattern that you see on the Prusa plastic parts, which more or less completely hides the filament lines on the first layer. The smooth sheet provides the, well, surprise, smoothest surface, which I occasionally use if I have to fit some parts together for assembly. But the filament lines are very visible. Satin is somewhere in between. Lines are visible but not nearly as prominent as they are with the smooth sheet.