I agree with both Brian and Joseph. I take the cheap approach to buying hardware. I am a LAMP developer and do not play games nor do any heavy duty graphics editing ETC. So I can get away with cheaper less powerful hardware. That is not so much an issue any longer. I bought my fist computer in 1986 and my first clone in 1987 - an 8088.... I have had one failure in all that time and it was a hard drive at work in around 1997 or so. I've gotten some really good deals on Black Friday and during back to school sales. For instance I was just at Walmart and they have a Dell laptop for $349. It is an i3, 4GB RAM, and a 1GB HD. I only buy when I find a really good deals. Several months ago Staples was offering a Dell with an i3 w/visualization and threads... 4GB RAM, and a 500GB HD. It was $399.99. It was a steal so I got it. It runs Mint and does visualization just fine. Could probably add more RAM. If you watch Staples, Ofc Depot, Dell... etc you can snag some really good deals. I was sitting with another developer a month or so ago and he had a MAC Book that probably cost around $2000.00. I'd be afraid to take that out of the house. In a nutshell I do not buy the warranty because it would increase the cost significantly. On 2014-08-31 14:34, Brian Cluff wrote: > I was going to write a long reply to this message, but Joseph wrote > almost exactly what I was going to say. > > If you treat your laptop well and carry it in a padded bag and don't > run it in harsh environments, you'll almost certainly not need it. > > I tend to get the insurance for my cellphones because they are > essentially little laptops (without the clamshell design that protects > the screen) that are run in harsh environments and aren't kept in > little padded bags. I've had to cash in on my cell insurance 4 times, > but I've only once had a laptop get broken and that was because it got > put into the back of a truck with a bunch of other stuff put on top of > it and it crushed it. Now I just make sure my laptop is put in a good > place when transporting it and all is well, and the money I've saved > from not paying for the extended warranty would more than pay for a > couple of laptops. > > Brian Cluff > > On 08/31/2014 11:27 AM, Joseph Sinclair wrote: >> I've never purchased an extended warranty for a computer. >> It's a form of insurance, so you can guarantee that, statistically, >> the cost is greater than the predictive (actuarial) cost of repair or >> replacement. >> given that gross margins on extended warranties for electronics >> (particularly computers) run in the 80%-90% range (which is why sales >> pushes them so hard), you can bet that your chances of needing that >> coverage are slim indeed. >> >> I currently have 4 desktop-like systems and 2 laptop-like systems. >> The youngest is from 2012 (Chromebook with an ARM CPU), the oldest is >> from 2009 (Desktop Atom CPU). >> My nephew took my previous oldest machine, an AMD Athlon single-core >> from 2004, and uses it to play minecraft. >> Over the past 20 years I've only had one machine (out of 20 or so) >> fail, and that was a cheap (Dell) chipset fan that failed after >> running 24X365 for 8 years. >> >> In my experience, the vast majority of laptop failures are because the >> machine was dropped or mistreated in some way. >> If you tend to toss machines around or drop them then I'd recommend >> purchasing a less expensive system or a desktop (or a ruggedized >> laptop if you must, but those are pricey). >> If you buy a laptop and just take good care of it, the chances of a >> failure due to parts or labor (for any tier-1 manufacturer) is >> essentially 0 for the first 3 years. >> >> BTW, one of the older machines I currently run is a System76 machine, >> one of the first Atom(330) based "Meerkat" boxes from early 2009. The >> CD failed (plastic spindle broke) about a year ago, but the box still >> runs just fine (I rarely had use for the CD drive anyway). >> >> I've run Windows in a VM on the Meerkat, but it's kind of painful to >> run Windows in a VM when the real chip is a tiny Atom 330... I've run >> Windows in a VM at work (but only when absolutely required to do so) >> on a Core i5 chip, and it's a lot more tolerable there (about as >> tolerable as Windows ever gets). >> >> >> On 08/30/2014 04:47 PM, Mark Phillips wrote: >>> For all of you System 76 users, do you recommend the extended >>> warranty for >>> 3 years? In other words, do you find you need this warranty, or is >>> the >>> standard 1 year warranty enough? >>> >>> I have never purchased a System 76 machine, and I am in the market >>> for a >>> new laptop. The 17.3" Kudu Professional looks like a good fit. >>> >>> Also, any issues running Windows in a virtual machine on these >>> beasts? >>> >>> Thanks, >>> >>> Mark >>> >>> >>> >>> --------------------------------------------------- >>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >>> >> >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >> > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss