Question About System 76 Hardware

[der.hans]

Am 30. Aug, 2014 schwätzte Mark Phillips so:

moin moin,

> 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 mostly heard good things about System 76, but have not purchased
from them.

> 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.

What's the opportunity cost for you? In my case, if I were to buy a new
laptop and almost immediately drop test it, I can afford to either go
without one ( work laptop is sufficient and I have a spare personal laptop
available ) or go get another one ( probably not to the same capabilities
as the first ). It might be financially painful to buy two laptops in
rapid succession, but I can absorb the cost if I really need to.

A few years ago as I was working unpaid for a startup, I could not have
afforded to buy a second laptop. Had I bought a laptop at the time, I
likely would have purchased the warranty plan because the relative cost
was more affordable. I did drop test a laptop during that time, luckily
I already had an equivalent spare on hand, so I didn't need to buy a
replacement.

Another point to consider is what your needs are. When I purchase hardware
I tend to buy beyond what I need because I want it to match my needs for 3
to 5 years. But, if I need to, I can do fine with something relatively
inexpensive and merely adequate.

Finally, if there are problems, can you fix them yourself?

Years ago my corporate thinkpad had a bad daughterboard that knocked out
ethernet and made USB unreliable. Thinkpads were generally rock solid, but
this model had a known problem. Had it been my laptop, I could have
replaced the daughterboard. Since it was corporate and corporate didn't
care, I bought a pcmcia USB card to go with my pcmcia ethernet and
wireless cards that I already had and fixed it that way.

I don't buy extra warranties for desktops due to this latter point. I can
somewhat easily fix those myself. Also, since they don't get drop tested,
they should be reliable out the gate and the manufacturers and retailer
should be confident in their product. Since I don't run a virus magnet, I
just need hardware support and the hardware should be reliable. That said,
I no longer buy the cheapest thing I can find, having been bit by cheap
stuff a couple times :).

> Also, any issues running Windows in a virtual machine on these beasts?

That shouldn't be a problem with current laptops.

ciao,

der.hans
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