Electronics

[KCDiva]

I am buying my granddaughter a desktop Apple computer for Christmas\ college graduation. I rarely ever buy the extended warranties but this is pricey and I want to make sure we’re covered if she needs assistance with a problem. Hopefully it will be fine but just in case. It’s about $170 for 3 years. That dosn’t seem too bad to cover an expensive computer. I am asking for advise as many of you are far more informed than I am. Thank you. 

[AspenGrove]

Yes, AppleCare is well worth it.  I would not buy other third party waranties, however. Only AppleCare for Apple products. 

[grzbela]

I would do this...I don't do it for the smaller purchases such as an ipad or iphone but would certainly do so on a computer.  Lovely gift.  I hope she uses it in good health!

[godi]

Yes yes yes

[NickNack]

I'm on my second MacBook Air.  I kept the first one for six years before updating.  I didn't buy Apple Care for either one.  I have had questions over the years and called and always got help.  Once I spilled coffee on my first laptop and brought it to the store.  They helped me at no charge.

[Mz iMac]

@KCDiva  Since your granddaughter is still in "school" you can get AC for the student discount.

Yes it's well worth it for that "piece of mind."

[frankenfinch]

I do not have Apple Care. Apple will fix software problems at no charge. I'm on my second imac (6 yrs old) and the only reason I've ever taken it in was to do an erase and install the latest macOS. No hardware problems (knock on wood). 

I know Mz iMac mentioned on another thread that all desktops are entitled to FREE home repairs if one has Apple Care. So no need to lug it down to an Apple store if it needs repair or services. 

I'm pretty certain that imacs are built well so I didn't feel Apple Care was necessary. 

[FLGranny]

It’s worth it but be aware there is still a service charge per incident. Be sure to read the policy thoroughly.

[phoenixbrd]

I always purchase ( bought a lot of Apple Products) and I've always been grateful that I had it.  A must for me.

[gardenman]

For a desktop computer it's less important. For an Apple laptop I would definitely recommend it. Louis Rossmann has videos on fixing Macbooks and in more recent versions of their laptops they've started putting higher voltage and lower voltage pins side by side with no empty or grounded pin or pins between them. This creates a likelihood that at some point a higher voltage will jump to an adjacent low voltage pin and fry the CPU. It's not a smart way to design/build electronics. Apple is building their laptops to fail, so you need all the protection you can get for their laptops. Desktop computers tend to be built a bit more durably. Apple also does some interesting things with CPU cooling in laptops. I'm not a big fan of Apple laptops these days.