I'm in LOVE!!!

[DreamingRox]

Done.

[Elleth Faewen]

The warranty is an important factor in purchasing from the manufacturer or purchasing from Best Buy. I purchased my e-machines laptop from Best Buy and got their warranty. A week later while traveling in Las Vegas, my hard drive died. I had purchased an extended warranty, so I just took my laptop to Best Buy in Vegas and they swapped it out and gave me a new one. Without their warranty, I would have been shipping it (or just the hard drive) off to the manufacturer and waiting until another came, and I would have been without the laptop for a time.

So, put yourself in that situation. If your laptop dies, can you live without it for a week or two? If not, then get it from Best Buy with the warranty and have them upgrade it for you. If yes, or if the cost is more important than the risk of being without, then purchase from the manufacturer.

[lowcarbing4ever]

I totally agree

With a computer, especially new, get an extended warranty and if you want to customize it and add to it, let them do it; don't do it yourself. that way if something goes wrong, you are protected by the warranty and also their garauntee of upgrading it right (usually they give a "satisfaction garauntee" on not screwing it up!). :nod

E-machines....I have heard so many bad things about emachines! They have gotten better than the past 7 yrs but still, they have serious issues. After a friend of mine bought one and 2 months later it literally gave a pop and caught fire, my plans to buy one dwindled! :yikes They seem to always have the same problems with the hard drives, I see. This seems to be something they still have not fixed over the years.

[Elleth Faewen]

All computers can fail. The hard drive on the e-machines was my fault. I had it on the bed instead of the table and there was nowhere for the heat to vent. My Mom has had an e-machines for a few years without problems. The hard drive died on her Dell and they replaced it without even putting the Base OS back on. Once she got it put back on, turned out the driver to make her modem work needing updating before she could use her modem. They told her to connect to the Internet and d/l it. Since she couldn't use the modem to connect to the Internet, she had to go to a local library to get the driver. I was not impressed. Two batches of IBM's ago we had hard drives fail all over the place. This was thousands of laptops. Turned into a big legal issue because the vendor did not purchase the proper warranty they charged us for. One model Compaq laptop we ordered has had virtually 100% hard drive failure within three years. This was on hundreds of laptops. I've had a Sony VIAO workstation for a few years, and it will hang on boot for five minutes to over an hour, then it boots and works. I need to take it in before the warranty expires. I've purchased three computers by piecemealing them together at the computer show. I wound up eventually with one by putting together the pieces that still worked.

I guess my point is I've seen problems with every vendor I've dealt with. I go for the warranty and service so that when problems happen they can be easily taken care of. And I backup as often as possible.