applecare worth it?

[phibe1]

I am looking to purchase a MBP of the 15inch variety pretty soon. My intentions are to buy the lower end model w/ the HR AG screen. I am planning on also ordering this hdd for $90ish (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...e=hitachi_500_notebook-_-22-145-257-_-Product) and installing it since it ends up being much cheaper and I pretty technically inclined.

My question is... will this inevitably void the applecare protection? Or will they still cover stuff that goes wrong (except for the hdd of course).

I don't really intend to fraud the warranty by putting the stock hdd back in if something goes wrong, I rather just save my money and run the risk of potential failure.


Another question I ask is what should i expect being that I am a person who is coming from windows. What extra software will I be forced to purchase? (aside from MS Office)

Please let me know of your thoughts. Thanks in advance for your time.

 

[koruki]

HDD and RAM upgrade should not sway your decision as it does not void your warranty and the manual that comes with your new MBP has a section teaching how to do it.

I made the switch 2 years ago and would say Office is the only software you really need to bring over from PC but only if you use a lot docx or xlsx files as there are a lot of free solutions to open doc and xls files such as google docs etc.

Bootcamp was what held my hand in switching to Mac but I found I uninstalled my copy of Win XP from the Macbook pro quite soon as I never booted into it.

 

[paintballswimgu]

openoffice is a great office substitute as well.

 

[Gr80Likes2Boogi]

Yes, Applecare is most certainly worth it. Changing your HDD will NOT void your Applecare, assuming you don't spill your coffee in the case (and subsequently post here how unfair Applecare is for not giving you a brand new 17" BTO MBP for free, of course )

I would recommend iWork myself, since I have 0 problems being compatible with MS Office. I was a PC guy my whole life and MS Office has been a big pain to me. No problems with iWork.

One question, why 5400rpm?

 

[phibe1]

Thank you very much for your fast response !

My other question is.... Are SSDs worth it? What extra measures do I have to take if I do indeed get an SSD?

And incase I do not get an SSD, the harddrive I linked above will work with the MBP yes? (My assumption is yes, but I want to make sure.

 

[C64]

Well, the latest MacGeekGab podcast covered this topic. The Apple docs say you can change customer-installable parts without voiding the warranty. However, it would seem this is only true for the unibodies that have that latch you can pop off:

The newer ones are completely closed and you need to unscrew it until you can reach the parts:

So the question is, does Apple see the latter as "customer-installable"? My guess is no, but I might be wrong. I'd call Apple just to be sure though.


As for the software, the short answer is that for each Windows program there are 10 Mac alternatives that all work the same way or better. There might be a few apps that only run in Windows though, but mostly there's no need. If you're a gamer though, you might want to install bootcamp so you can boot into Windows. If not, and you need Windows for maybe 1 or 2 programs for which there is no alternative, it's easiest to install Windows as a Virtual Machine and run it within OS X. Depending on how much you depend on MS Office functionalities, you can also switch to iWork and use Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

 

[alphaod]

Are SSDs worth it? What extra measures do I have to take if I do indeed get an SSD?

Yes it's worth it. You can also opt for the optibay solution (search the threads on that via MRoogle—link is sig).

That allows you couple the SSD with a much bigger HDD.

No matter what you do, be sure to backup a lot.

And incase I do not get an SSD, the harddrive I linked above will work with the MBP yes? (My assumption is yes, but I want to make sure.

Yes, that's the drive that Apple installs if you pick the 500GB 5400RPM drive directly.

So the question is, does Apple see the latter as "customer-installable"? My guess is no, but I might be wrong. I'd call Apple just to be sure though.

As the instructions to upgrading the RAM and HDD are both in the user manual, yes it's customer installable.

 

[teachpro]

applecare worth it?

Yes, absolutely--on my last macbook, repairs would have cost me well over $1000 without it. Another worthwhile purchase is what is colloquially known as "spill and drop" insurance. Mine was an add-on to my renter's insurance and cost $30/year. After my prior macbook got dropped a couple of times (I'm a special ed teacher and sometime let my students use my computer--or at least I used to), State Farm sent me a check for $1853 to replace it.

 

[diablo2112]

So the question is, does Apple see the latter as "customer-installable"? My guess is no, but I might be wrong. I'd call Apple just to be sure though.

Customer-installed RAM and/or Harddrives in the new MBPs do NOT violate the warranty. This is obvious from the manual that comes with the new MPBs, since they have step by step procedures for doing just this. And just to make you super-comfortable with this observation, I had my MBP in the Palo Alto store today (2010 i7 model) in which I had self-installed an SSD drive. The manager there was quite interested, asked to see my machine, and showed him the bootup and app opening. I specifically asked about warranty issues, and he said I was covered, since replacement of the drive was allowed by the end user.

 

[Coleys]

As far as I have read apple care is a very worthwhile purchase, but I believe the best time to purchase Apple care is just before a year after the purchase ends to get the maximum coverage.

If I'm correct you get a year warranty regardless of apple care? Correct me if i'm wrong.

 

[ZTuned]

I've purchased Applecare with all of my previous computer purchases and continue to do so. Far too many times has the cost of the extended warranty been negated by some astronomically expensive repair (graphics chip taking a dump, screen bezel cracking, desktop GPU eating it). All of those repairs would have cost thousands to repair without the warranty.

So yes, it is worth it and relatively inexpensive when you consider how comprehensive the warranty is for three years.

 

[mdatwood]

As far as I have read apple care is a very worthwhile purchase, but I believe the best time to purchase Apple care is just before a year after the purchase ends to get the maximum coverage.

If I'm correct you get a year warranty regardless of apple care? Correct me if i'm wrong.

I believe that's correct. You need to make sure you buy it PRIOR to the original purchase date + 1 year or else they will not sell it to you.

 

[ttran88]

the optibay DOES void your warranty though so keep that in mind.

I use a crucial SSD and its super fast! 256 GB is enough for me to carry around and I have a separate portable harddrive to hold my downloads

 

[koruki]

I bought Applecare for my Macbook air and made full use of it however I never bought Applecare for my Macbook Pro but lucky for me I've had zero issues with it, it still runs perfect til the day I sold it. Hope the new Macbook Pro goes as smooth as I've yet to purcahse Applecare because i can still get it before my first year is up.

BTW I had to add what AMAZING resale value my last Macbook Pro was! blew my mind.

 

[alphaod]

the optibay DOES void your warranty though so keep that in mind.

Just if the issue you have is related to the optical drive (which isn't in your computer); also that's why you have to keep your old optical drive I guess.

 

[Sequin]

Is it a normal thing for a mac user to have to take their computer in to get fixed? I've always had a PC and have NEVER taken my computer to someone to get fixed. I've been unsure of bothering with applecare because of this reason :/

 

[koruki]

Is it a normal thing for a mac user to have to take their computer in to get fixed? I've always had a PC and have NEVER taken my computer to someone to get fixed. I've been unsure of bothering with applecare because of this reason :/

I don't think you will take it in more or less than a PC laptop. The other reason that you'd get Applecare is because parts are as to swap in Apple machines vs PC's. Also, its definitely worth it for laptops for Apple or PC if you ask me as they usually require more than a simple swap out of faulty hardware.

I've had 2 PC laptops before my Macbook Pro, the first PC laptop was fine, second one crapped out month after purchasing and it took (I kid you not) 6 months to fix! For my Macs, the Macbook Pro has been flawless, the Macbook air had an issue where the click button on trackpad was not clicking down properly, took it in and it was fixed by next day no questions asked. No bringing receipts etc etc.