Spend the extra $175 on apple care for macbook?

intogamer

Lifer
Dec 5, 2004
19,219
1
76
Exactly last year I received a white macbook as a gift. It's been through much wear and tear, still working. Over the lifetime it required a DVD slot rom replacement. Now there's a dead line pixel in the LCD. I am going to bring it to the Genius bar this afternoon.


I plan on keeping it, but upgrading the Ram and HDD is needed soon. I'm on 1GB RAM. and 80GB HDD. Instead spend the $175 on hardware upgrades? or Double the amount for 2 Years additional warranty and upgrades.

Macbook(GMA950) prices are already falling. Also, I would get the apple care from ebay for $175~


$800~ - Used price
$175~ - Apple Care
$150~ - Hard Drive and Memory Upgrade (possibly mini DVI > DVI adapter)

$1125~ - Valuation


I"ll probably need a new battery too?
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
12,089
45
91
I would get teh AppleCare. Mine has been going strong for 1.5 years now, and I didn't get it, so I realize that I am on 'borrowed' time so to speak, but I do wish that I had had the money before the first year was up. Just for the peace of mind, plus the realization that a new logic board is like $500 on ebay...
 

randomlinh

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,846
2
0
linh.wordpress.com
on any notebook, I'd get it. I had an old iBook, screen went funky, apple care saved me. old HP laptop, got the warranty... never had to use it. friend had a dell mobo fry, and had dells extended warranty, saved his ass.

i'd say it's worth it for piece of mind, and apple's support has been real good when I had to use them.
 

DnetMHZ

Diamond Member
Apr 10, 2001
9,826
1
81
I totally forgot that my 1 year was coming up last month and I missed it. I had 1 dead battery in my Macbook about 2 weeks after I bought it but other than that it's been trouble free, hopefully it stays that way.
 

intogamer

Lifer
Dec 5, 2004
19,219
1
76
I just called apple. They manually processed a RMA instead of having me going to the store. Didn't want to go out that far today.

i have a few hours to ultimately decide for apple car.
 

Illusio

Golden Member
Nov 28, 1999
1,448
0
76
I'd get it. I got it on my Powerbook and when the logic board died, it saved me a LOT of money.
 

erikistired

Diamond Member
Sep 27, 2000
9,739
0
0
i didn't get it with my 12" g4 powerbook and haven't needed it. i still have time on my macbook pro, i'm not sure if i will or not. it's a lot of money and i don't know how long i'll go before i upgrade.
 

intogamer

Lifer
Dec 5, 2004
19,219
1
76
I'm going to opt out on the Apple Care. The warranty is a huge percentage against the approximate value of the macbook. Plus the additional warranty would be useless on the hard drive and memory, as I'm buying quality replacements. The Core 2 Duo(late 2006) seems to be a good version. Regarding about the logic board, is that the motherboard? I would count on the x86 hardware to survive pretty good. The main concern is the LCD and motherboard(logic), but if either one fails, I can always sell it for an upgrade. It's always cheaper to replace after warranty expires, yet I could recoup a good amount back. Would one spend $500 on a logic board replacement when the macbook will be worth less than $800 by then?