What's better - more warranty or more HD?

mr skillsmr skills
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
My parents are buying an iBook, and have asked for my advice. I would like them to buy it from John Lewis here in the UK, because they have an excellent free 2-year warranty that I have successfully claimed on in the past. The only thing is, they only have the basic 60GB hard drive available.



My parents' needs are fairly basic - photos, music, Word. My only worry is if something unforseen happens like they get a camcorder and want to edit their holiday movies.



So should I sacrifice the warranty for a larger hard drive? Or does anyone know of somewhere else that does a similar free warranty (they are not the sort of people who would ever pay for AppleCare)?



Anyway advice would be much appreciated.





Mr Skills.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    I am pretty sure that a 2-year warranty is writen into law in all of EU
  • Reply 2 of 9
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    I'm not sure if the iBook has Firewire, which you'd want/need in order to edit videos.
  • Reply 3 of 9
    mr skillsmr skills Posts: 144member
    ANDERS:

    Well, under UK law I can take it back if it is not as advertised or not 'of merchanisable quality' but that is not the same as a warranty. When my 2-year-old ibook suffered a hard disk crash, John Lewis replaced it no questions asked.



    SPLINEMODEL:

    Yes, the iBook does have firewire - although the video thing was just an example of how they might at some point need more hard drive space than I anticipated. Mind you, as one of my work colleagues just pointed out 'if they started doing video editing, they could just get an external hard drive for working on, and print it to DVD for viewing'. Maybe that's my answer...
  • Reply 4 of 9
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    If you need an example, I have a (gasp) 3 year old powerbook that has a 60GB HD. I have something like 5G of music and a LOT of graphics and 3D work still sitting on the disk, along with Tiger and all it's worth. There's >20G of free space.



    Video is a real hog though. I my opinion there's probably no iBook disk option that's well suitable for doing video work.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    mr skillsmr skills Posts: 144member
    Thanks very much for that reply, Splinemodel. In the unlikely event that they start doing video editing, it will only be simple holiday footage and stuff, and they could always do it on an external drive (I REALLY don't see them video editing on-the-move!).



    And since no normal use seems to use up that much space, I think I'll advise them to get the 60GB model from John Lewis. Apart from that, I'll just tell them to up it to 1GB to make everything nice and smooth.



    Mr Skills.
  • Reply 6 of 9
    toweltowel Posts: 1,479member
    In my experience, an extended warranty for a laptop isn't optional. Unless you can get an extra year or two worth of coverage under local law or from your CC company, get AppleCare.
  • Reply 7 of 9
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    every day you hold off purchasing hard drives, their prices go down per gigabyte, whereas the warranty option will usually stay the same price, so you don't save anything by waiting too long on extended warranties (and just risk losing everything to expensive repairs/replacement). warranties, liek insurance, are a tough pill to swallow, because you never want to have to use it, but you'll be thankful you got it. for instance, my wife's pismo powerbook had an extended warranty bought for it... she was at the end of a semester, managing grading, etc., and it dies... HARD. like replace motherboard kind of hard. it was three weeks before the warranty expired, for a three-year old laptop. would have cost as much as a new laptop to repair, but with applecare, it was sent to houston for repair/replacement free of charge, and back in our hands within 48 hours with no hassle.



    get the warranty.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    mr skillsmr skills Posts: 144member
    Thanks for the advice, everyone!



    I'm advising them to get it at John Lewis. If they run out of hard drive space, they can always back stuff up. But if they drop the iBook and break it (after the first year), they'll be screwed without a warranty... and it's free!



    Thanks!
  • Reply 9 of 9
    l'angelo misteriosol'angelo misterioso Posts: 39member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Splinemodel

    I'm not sure if the iBook has Firewire, which you'd want/need in order to edit videos.







    um...where have you been since like 2000 or something?
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