Extended Guarantee, good idea or not?

Mrs_Bones

hello

I'm thinking of going halfs on a new pc tower from comet. The price of the tower is £342 and we could get an extended guarantee for another £119 which would cover it for 3 years in total.

Can I ask what the general opinion is re extended guarantee. I'm not very computer savy so think it may be a good idea for peace of mind should anything go wrong, but then with money being short, I could really put that £119 to good use elsewhere, so not sure what to do.

thanks for reading.

hethmar

Why are you buying it from Comet? Can you not buy it direct anywhere? What make is it? An extended guarantee wouldnt cover not being computer savvy, only the hardware.

DCFC79

List the spec, have you looked online as you might be able to get it cheaper or maybe a better tower for the same price as the comet 1

Mrs_Bones

To be honest it's because we looked at both PC world and Comet and this was the one we liked best and it was a bit cheaper then the one we saw at PC world. This one had a small compact tower which I fanced so that I could put it on top of the desk next to the monitor, which would help me. I got this information on the one we like off the Comet website but it's out of stock on line. It is an HP 3621 UK, I want it for doing my family history on and puting photos on, I don't play games on the computer.

Brand HP
Computer Type Compact
Processor Intel Pentium Dual Core
Processor model number E2200
Processor speed 2.2 GHz
Processor bus 800 MHz
Processor cache 1 MB
Memory (RAM) 3072 MB
Storage (hard drive) 320 GB
Storage (hard drive) type tbc
Personal Media Drive No
Operating system Windows Vista Home Premium
Application software Not included
Shared graphics No
Dedicated graphics 256 MB
Graphics type tbc
Optical drive Plays & records CDs and DVDs
Lightscribe technology Yes
S-Video output No
VGA output No
HDMI output No
Media card slots 15-in-1
USB 2.0 slots tbc
Firewire No
Built-in Bluetooth Not featured
Built-in webcam Not featured
Built-in TV Tuner No
Remote control No
Built-in Sound Card Built-in
Speakers Not included
Keyboard Not included
Mouse Not included
Built-in monitor Not included
Stand alone monitor Not included
Premier Collection Not included

Other features

Wireless networking
10/100 wired networking built-in
57 / 1.4watts :
in use/powered-down power consumption
Wireless networking

DatabaseError

extended warranty - NOT a good idea, PCs generally either break in the 1st week (I aim for 1st few hours - stresstests), or last almost forever.

in 3 years the PC won't be worth £120!

Not sure what you're getting for your £342, but I guess nothing much, but if it's just for browsing the web and the odd document I'm sure it will be fine. Like others here I'm a great believer in building your own, but the box shifters (pcworld, dell, tesco etc..) can be cheaper... though not imo better

DatabaseError

Mrs Bones...I can't find that PC on the comet website...could you link to it?
A bit hard to read the spec as 1 long list....does it say no operating system or software? or the more likely no personal media drive?
no monitor etc...
without doing the maths, ~£350+ for a basic E2200 machine seems a little high, but prices are on the rise..so it might be right

soul619

not bad for the cost but would expect a keyboard an mouse! dont bother with extended warrenty as dbe said in 3 years you wouldnt get peanuts for this! they go out of date so quick an if there gona break its in the first year so that would be covered under manafactuers guarentee!

extended warrente's are just were retailers especially the like of commet, currys or pc world make there money 999/1000 there not worth the paper there written on an if you spilled a drink or sumert into it im sure your home insurance would cover that!

http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=5C74&CategorySelectedId=11101&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11101&InMerch=1 - this one from dabs is so much better an you can downgrade to xp which is better than vista an its slightly cheaper!

or this one http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=5D72&CategorySelectedId=11101&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11101&InMerch=1 at £220 is perfect for what you said you wanted to do at over £100 cheaper! it has less storage but you can buy external storage if needs be but for what you said you wanted it for 160 which this has is good enough

hope this helps, sorry if its confusing at all

hethmar

Have a look at Dell online - go through quidco and get a cash back and also google for discount vouchers for them.

Database, its got Vista Home Premium OS

Have a look at the Inspiron on Dell - £349 with 19" flat screen monitor or £299 without a monitor - and dont forget the cash back you can get through quidco. Dell are also offering 3 years warranty for about £68

Components[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(1,%201)"]Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core E5200 processor (2.5GHz, 800MHz, 2MB cache)[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(1,%2011)"]Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium with Service Pack 1, 32-bit - English[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(1,%2030)"]1 Year Limited Warranty - Collect & Return[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(1,%2025)"]Microsoft® Works 9.0 - English[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(1,%203)"]1024MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512][/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(1,%205)"]18.5in S1909WN Widescreen Black UK/Irish (1366 x 768)[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(1,%208)"]160GB (7200RPM) SATA Hard Drive[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(1,%206)"]Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator 3100[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(1,%2016)"]DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(1,%204)"]Dell™ Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(1,%2012)"]Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Optical Mouse - Black[/URL]


Accessories[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(2,%2017)"]Integrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(2,%2018)"]No Speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(2,%2010)"]19-in-1 Media Card Reader[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(2,%2014)"]No Modem[/URL]


Services & Software[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(3,%2040)"]No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(3,%20463)"]No Accidental Damage Support[/URL]

[URL="javascript:to_page_mod(3,%20467)"]DataSafe Online Backup 2GB[/URL]



Also Includes
Resource DVD - (Diagnostics & Drivers)
English Documentation with UK/Irish Power Cord
D025016
Inspiron Desktop Order Uk
1Yr Limited Warranty - Collect & Return
Dell Internet Order



http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/desktops_with_nomonitor?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Quidco gives 3% cash back on Dell and Dabs computers

Mrs_Bones

DatabaseError wrote: »

Mrs Bones...I can't find that PC on the comet website...could you link to it?
A bit hard to read the spec as 1 long list....does it say no operating system or software? or the more likely no personal media drive?
no monitor etc...
without doing the maths, ~£350+ for a basic E2200 machine seems a little high, but prices are on the rise..so it might be right

Hopefully this link will work.

Comet HP 3621 UK

Fifer

Don't buy the warranty. Chances of the computer being worth the price of the extended warranty at the end of the normal warranty are slim and the chances of it breaking down and the repair costing more than the proce of the extended warranty are even slimmer. If it does break down after a year, use the £119 to buy a similar spec 2nd hand machine off eBay.

hethmar

Oh and when you get it Mrs Bones, join us on the Family Tree Forum - its free and there is so much to help you with your researching