Applecare v. 1-year Warranty

[Deslock]

I thought you had to purchase AppleCare within the 90-day complimentary period if you wanted to extend it (but I'm a Mac-newbie so I could be wrong).

As far as whether or not it's worthwhile, most swear by it but some say it's a waste. I think it comes down to your specific hardware and situation. A user who is switching from Windows might find it handy when figuring out how to do something in OS X. Also, with laptops, it's nice because they can be more difficult to work on.

I'd say it's not as useful with a desktop, especially something as easy to access as the G5 iMac. But then again the 20" iMac is ~$2k and AppleCare is only $119 (educational price). An extra 6% for that much additional support and coverage is quite reasonable.

 

[wdlove]

I thought you had to purchase AppleCare within the 90-day complimentary period if you wanted to extend it (but I'm a Mac-newbie so I could be wrong).

As far as whether or not it's worthwhile, most swear by it but some say it's a waste. I think it comes down to your specific hardware and situation. A user who is switching from Windows might find it handy when figuring out how to do something in OS X. Also, with laptops, it's nice because they can be more difficult to work on.

I'd say it's not as useful with a desktop, especially something as easy to access as the G5 iMac. But then again the 20" iMac is ~$2k and AppleCare is only $119 (educational price). An extra 6% for that much additional support and coverage is quite reasonable.

A CPU and monitor purchased from Apple comes with a one year warranty. The 90 days is for phone support. You have up to one year to purchase the AppleCare. By waiting till the end of the year then you would miss out on six months of phone support. AppleCare will continue the warranty and phone support for the full three years. To me it is a very valuable service. I always purchase the AppleCare at the same time as my CPU and monitor purchase.