Just one point about Applecare. In addition to extending the warrantee, it also extends free Applecare phone tech support from 3 months to three years. Without Applecare, after the three month free phone support, each call costs $50.
If you a sophisticated computer user, this may not be an issue for you. For a noob like me, the Applecare has paid for itself at least ten times over because of my need to get tech support as part of my learning process and when I have problems that I can't figure out how to fix.
As I said, this may not be an issue for you.😀