Refurb price drops

[artie67]

Anyone pick up a Refurb IMac since the recent price drop? 2.4 's at $849 for the "20 and $1049 for the "24 along the with drop of the 2.8 a couple weeks ago. What is the longevity of the Optiarc DVD burner? I read that Apple only replaces with same. I think Applecare is a must here.

[jdc]

optiarc is a sony burner

i dunno if the life of the DVD burner would be the first thing i would think about -- but i would imagine that it will last plenty long -- unless you are burning 500 DVDs a day?

several peeps bought the 2.8 for $1200, the best deal on any mac at any price going right now

[Black]

Mini-hijack here:
I think Applecare for a laptop is a no-brainer, but I paid $949 for a refurb white 20" going on a year ago-- is Applecare particularly crucial for one of these, in anyone's opinion?

[AlphaDog]

Black wrote:
Mini-hijack here:
I think Applecare for a laptop is a no-brainer, but I paid $949 for a refurb white 20" going on a year ago-- is Applecare particularly crucial for one of these, in anyone's opinion?

I got AppleCare on the 20" I bought in 2006, but I haven't needed it, and it's getting ready to have its third birthday.

Did you use a credit card with extended warranty? If so, I'd just go with that, unless someone pipes up with a problem they know about with the particular model you got. If I could predict the future, I would have saved the money I spent on AC for both the iMac and this PB. The only Mac I had to have repaired after the first year was the Pismo. Naturally I didn't have AC on it, but American Express was very prompt about sending me a check to pay for repairs. (And then it kept going for years without any more trouble.)

[Black]

Thanks, AD. I've looked at the fine print for my CC's extended warranty and there are so many exclusions, and there's so much paperwork I think I probably wouldn't bother. Aside from that, who knows how much longer Citi is going to be around.

[vicrock]

I look on applecare as cheap insurance - buy it on e-bay, and hope you don't need it. I don't consider myself hard on computers, but I have not had one in the last 5 years that didn't need SOMETHING fixed.

[Blankity Blank]

The 24" 2.8Ghz actually got a slight upward bump from $1,199 to $1,299. You can get one new in the box for only a hundred dollars more in the clearance section. The 3.06Ghz got a *big* cut from $1,899 to $1,599 though. It has the GeForce 8800 GS video card with 512MB of memory too. That may be the sweet spot now. Although I'm sure they'll be gone fast, if they're even still available.

There's a lot of nice hardware available right now if you're in the market.

[MacArtist]

Last time I checked on eBay; Applecare for iMacs was selling for $77-$87. That is very cheap insurance. $3-$4 a month.

I've bought Applecare off eBay for my Mac Pro, MacBook and iPod Touches. You easily save up to 50% off list price.

[richorlin]

I've always bought Applecare off of eBay. I bought a refurb 24" iMac a year and a half ago and I've had to have both the hard drive and optical drive replaced. Parts and labor would have come to almost half the price of the refurb unit. Certainly worth the $90 I paid for the AC. Oh, and thanks to info I learned here, I also used the iMac's Applecare to replace a four year old Airport Express that went wonky.

[SDGuy]

I thought this was gonna be about the $179 + 15% off deals that have been mentioned on other threads around here...