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
>
>
>
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