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
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
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