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worth getting apple care?

D

dazed

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 23, 2007
911
211
Im in 2 minds about this...On the one hand its nice to have a 3 year warranty on something so expensive but since so much of the internals may end up not being the original (and so not covered anyway) is it worth the expense?

How many people here get the apple care on their mac pros?
 
My own opinion is that it's worth it for mobile products like laptops and iPhones, but not for desktops. I figure the mobile products are subject to a lot worse conditions and stresses.
 
I don't have AppleCare, I like to work on my own machine and replace the parts myself if they go out, and I don't like taking my machine to let somebody else work on it. That's just me.
 
I ALWAYS get AC for my products, and yes for the Mac Pro as well.

See it this way, you pay $250 for the AC, which gives you 3 years of coverage. That's 22 cents per day, so nothing over the term of 3 years.

And you certainly don't wanna know what Apple charges you to replace broken parts in the Pro. It get very expensive!
 
I didn't get AC on my old G5 and I didn't have any real trouble. The superdrive went out and it was $40 and a quick fix.

I'll probably buy AC on my new 2010 before the first year is up. But I'm conflicted as there isn't a real Apple store in the entire state of AK. So it would have to be shipped to the NW.

The only time that I'd want to use AC is if something major like the main or daughter board goes out or the CPU....In that case AC would be useful, but how often does that happen? I don't know.
 
For a Mac laptop (esp one w/o a user replaceable drive), no question. It just paid for itself on my Wife's MacBook Air when the drive started to go south.

For the MacPro - not so sure. Most of the parts that are likely to fail between the end of the factory warranty and the end of AppleCare are user replaceable. Then again - if anything major fails, it is not like you can just run out and replace the broken part with newer off the shelf components. If the MB on my PC dies, I replace it with a more current spec one. If the MB on a MacPro dies, you pay out the nose for the exact same (old by now) part that originally came with the machine.
 
bzollinger said:
In that case AC would be useful, but how often does that happen? I don't know.
Click to expand...

Certainly not that often, but logic board or power supply failures have happened to users and getting either replaced by Apple is anything but cheap. New logic board for a thousand bucks or if you can find them a little cheaper if you do it yourself.
Power supply lies around $350 (DIY), add the costs for Apple to replace it and you're easily at 400 to 450 bucks.

Actually there isn't much more that is likely to fail in a Mac Pro, but the parts that can fail are expensive, as explained above. Of course ANY part can fail, but RAM and CPU failures are extremely rare.
 
In my case, I got AppleCare for my 2008 Mac Pro and the Cinema Display I bought with it (the Mac Pro AppleCare will cover a Cinema Display purchased on the same receipt).

My display was repaired twice, once in 2009 for a logic board replacement (which would have been covered under the original 1 year warranty anyway), and a few months ago when they gave me a new power brick (into extended AppleCare period). Also, I had my Mighty Mouse replaced for a dead scroll ball a few months ago.

Would the cost of the AppleCare have equaled, or have been less than, the cost of the repairs I've had so far? Possibly. If the prices of main logic boards are any indication, my first display repair might have cost a lot if it was out of warranty. In any event, the AppleCare gave me piece of mind that Apple would fix it. And, should anything else fail with the last few months of AppleCare coverage that I currently have, they'll fix that too.

Oh, and there's also the matter of my free MacBook Pro replacement after 3 years, thanks to AppleCare. :D
 
Transporteur said:
I ALWAYS get AC for my products, and yes for the Mac Pro as well.

See it this way, you pay $250 for the AC, which gives you 3 years of coverage. That's 22 cents per day, so nothing over the term of 3 years.

And you certainly don't wanna know what Apple charges you to replace broken parts in the Pro. It get very expensive!
Click to expand...

apple care for a mac pro is under 200 from real apple resellers. if you buy it in month 11 it is smart to do.
 
philipma1957 said:
apple care for a mac pro is under 200 from real apple resellers. if you buy it in month 11 it is smart to do.
Click to expand...

Even better. I'm not used to the US prices (HE price for my Pro was around £50 or so :D), so it was just a quick look in the US online store.

Anyways, almost 80% of all my Apple products failed over the years (repairs would have cost me about 5000€, AC for all my products about 500€ with HE discounts, so saved 4500€, thanks Apple!), which is why I'm more than happy to buy AppleCare anytime again.

Simply put, you're buying a computer and computers are not meant to last decades (especially Apple computers :p), which is why they are going to fail sooner or later.
That being said, you might be one of the lucky guys that never had an Apple product failure and never will have one, in this case you totally wasted the money for AC.
Your choice!
 
They didn't even offer AppleCare in 1995, and when the Power Supply went out on my PowerMac 9500/120 in 1996, I found a power supply, took apart my 9500 myself, and installed the power supply in the computer. I was just 13 years old, yet I was able to take the whole machine apart and install the Power supply myself and get my 9500 back up and running. I also replaced a screen on a PowerBook 5300 the following year myself, although the screen replacement was quite expensive. Again, this was all pre-AppleCare. Apple didn't start offering AppleCare until about 1999 or 2000.
 
also if I sell this mac pro in 18 months I will have 18 months of apple care on it. a huge reselling point.


If I don't buy applecare I would have to think about selling in 10 months and mention the machine can still be upgraded to applecare. selling it in the 18th month without apple care makes the machine more difficult to sell.


Picture yourself buying my macpro oct 2012. an ebay sale with 12 months left on apple care from a 700 plus perfect feedback seller is a no fear purchase. an ebay sale form the same seller with no apple care will make you hesitate .
 
I've bought AC on all my Apple machines since 2001 and mostly, I've had to use it on laptops. Slot-loading SuperDrives and system fans have been very common failures for me on the laptops.

The only time I've had to use AC on a desktop was on my old PMG5, where at one point it needed the CPUs and logic board replaced. But my current 2008 Mac Pro has worked without a hitch since the day I bought it in early 2009.

But I would lean towards still agreeing with the logic behind getting AC for desktops as well. The parts that are most prone to failure (logic board, PSU) are expensive repairs, mostly due to the cost of the parts themselves. The way I look at it is that a $250 AC plan costs 10% of the lowest-priced Mac Pro and obviously lower if you buy a higher-end model. Plus, they cover an Apple display purchased with the machine at the same time. Compared to many other extended warranties I've seen, this is not such a bad deal.
 
Apple Care Is Great - For Some Things

It's all about how likely is something to fail and what does it cost to fix if it does vs. not buying and taking the risk.

I think Apple Care is over priced, but they also treat you quite well when you have Apple Care on a product and I think on a good number of things it's worth it. I have Apple Care on my Core i5 MacBook Pro, both of our iPhones and my iPod Classic. These are custom devices that are not really user serviceable and if they break your pretty much SOL. They are also devices that get moved around, bumped and occasional in the case of the iPhone/iPod even get dropped.

But I have no plans to get the Apple Care on my Mac Pro (and I passed on the ACD as you couldn't pay me to use that monitor)... the odds of something going wrong on it are much less IMO than say a laptop, iPhone or even an iMac. The Mac Pro is pretty basic, a case, power supply, cpu, logic board, memory and optical drive. If your like most people in this forum when you get your Mac Pro you don't option it out with Apple but instead (smartly so) added in memory, replacement hard disks, etc. into the unit none of which would be covered by Apple care anyway. But even if you did buy all the guts from Apple (sucker) the odds of a static desktop that just sits and runs and never moves blowing up are pretty slim. Sure a logic board could fail and that would be expensive to replace without Apple Care but that type of failure is pretty rare.

About eight years ago I was hired as the technology infrastructure manager for a web and interactive design/development company. In addition to the 100 desktops and 20 servers I also had to oversee 45 Mac workstations (which we connected into our Active Directory network which was less than a blast)... In the three years I worked at that company, we had to get only three of the Mac's repaired, one was user error (left laptop on, put in laptop bag and cooked his machine), one was a goofy old Mac Cube, and only one Mac workstation had a problem and it was indeed a logic board. So out of 45's Mac's (of which 40 were workstations) so for me that is one machine out of over 40 that had an issue, and these were workstations that got used 10 hour days or more six days a week by designers and developer giving the machines quite a load. So at least in my experience the odds of something blowing on a desktop is quite low. I realize it's a risk I'll take but it's one I don't mind taking.
 
I had a iMac for 8 years and not one problem with it. I bought a MacBook Pro after xmas with no Apple Care, I'm not worried cause Apple products are so solidly made that it should last at least 3 years with no problems.
 
I've never purchased apple care or any other extended warranty ever. I've been burned a couple times, but I certainly consider myself ahead of the game currently. Stuff happens, but you wouldn't expect it to when you're buying quality products.
 
I always buy Apple Care for computers and every time it has paid for itself with the one thing that goes wrong during the three years. I'd say pretty much every repair is going to cost over $300. Plus, it covered my Time Capsule as a peripheral, which I had to replace twice under warranty. I didn't buy it with my Apple TV because it's only $99 nor with my nano that was $150. Clark Howard says you never buy the extended warranty unless the cost to fix or replace the item would be a huge deal.
 
as most defects on recent Mac's happen after the first year is over apple care is worth every pence or cent or whatever (depending where you are from)
and say for example you sell your
imac i7 27inch cost new £1808 after one year because you fancy the new i8 30"iMac or whatever
after a year you can still get very likely around £1500 for it , so the warranty is over , and with problems of the first generation 27"iMac's in mind say i would buy it from you and lets assume 2 month later the lcd panel breaks down , so i need a new one , if it has apple care no problem i can go in the next apple store and get it replaced at no cost at all and i am a happy second hand owner again

but if yours has no apple care and the lcd panel breaks down i still need a new one
but the panel alone cost £1000 roughly as mentioned in various postings about value for money in the imac, if i replace it myself ,so that renders the imac beyond economical repair , so i would have spend £1500 for something that if it breaks down i can throw it away and would be really p*@& off and possibly would never buy a apple computer again

but MacPros are the same some went through GPU's others through PSU's , so no i dont want to have to spend loads and loads of money for something that could have been avoided with apple care
 
dazed said:
Im in 2 minds about this...On the one hand its nice to have a 3 year warranty on something so expensive but since so much of the internals may end up not being the original (and so not covered anyway) is it worth the expense?

How many people here get the apple care on their mac pros?
Click to expand...

Don't let Apple's wording fool you. You are NOT paying for three years of warranty. You are only paying for two. The first year is automatically covered by Apple, hence why you have up until one year to make a decision whether or not to get Apple Care.

I personally did not get Apple Care because I purchased with a credit card that offers automatic, additional warranty, free of charge, on top of the manufacturer's warranty (product is completely replaceable). So, if you used a credit card, I would suggest contacting your bank and finding out what sort of built in warranty coverage you might have. My AMEX covers me after the manufacture's initial warranty expires so you may be covered already as well without having to pay another extra dime.

bzollinger said:
I didn't get AC on my old G5 and I didn't have any real trouble. The superdrive went out and it was $40 and a quick fix.

I'll probably buy AC on my new 2010 before the first year is up. But I'm conflicted as there isn't a real Apple store in the entire state of AK. So it would have to be shipped to the NW.

The only time that I'd want to use AC is if something major like the main or daughter board goes out or the CPU....In that case AC would be useful, but how often does that happen? I don't know.
Click to expand...

To counter than anecdotal experience, I purchased AC with my G5 and was glad did, as my Logic board was faulty (audio was always crackly). I believe cost to replace the Logic board was something like $800 or almost a grand :eek:

You may get a dud or you may not. No one can tell.

philipma1957 said:
dude j and r music world is a big time outfit. they sent me a sealed box in 1 day.
Click to expand...

+1 :)
 
You should get it, because if you have a major component die, you'll be sorry you don't have it.

As soon as my AppleCare expires I hop on the "buying the next revision Mac Pro" bandwagon. My 2008 Mac Pro is on deck to be replaced with a 2011 Mac Pro. Last year for the big guy.

(In the course of owning it, I haven't had any huge failures, but my graphics card has overheated and died. It's nice to have peace of mind and know I can get it replaced for free.)
 
Transporteur said:
I ALWAYS get AC for my products, and yes for the Mac Pro as well.

See it this way, you pay $250 for the AC, which gives you 3 years of coverage. That's 22 cents per day, so nothing over the term of 3 years.

And you certainly don't wanna know what Apple charges you to replace broken parts in the Pro. It get very expensive!
Click to expand...
I agree.

Though the cost of the boards in the 2010 systems aren't as expensive as the previous models, I can't help but notice the slippage in quality/increasing defect and failure rates (2008 PSU's and "buzz" issue in current PSU's certainly come to mind), and it seems the 2009/10 boards are now designed and manufactured by Foxconn, not Intel (based on a report of a user searching the manufacturer ID on a 2009 system that came up as Foxconn; '06 - '08 models were ODM'ed by Intel). :(

Considering Foxconn has a reputation for poor design and cost cutting, I'd think it's even more important now than ever to get Apple Care (odds of a failure are increased over past systems).

Take a look at HP's systems to get a clue as to how wonderful Foxconn is with product design and quality for system boards. :rolleyes: The slippage in QC isn't random, happenstance, or any form of "bad juju". :eek: :D :p
 
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