Question About System 76 Hardware

Sun Aug 31 13:49:46 MST 2014

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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