Anyone been using an iMac for over 3 years?
 

If so, any problems with the hardware?

My 1st year of use is approaching fast, and I'm wondering if its worth me purchasing the 'applecare' which gives me a further 2 years warrantee on the hardware?

I dont need the 'online support' side of it. Just the warrantee, but then when I think I have a Sony VAIO laptop (A good make) that hasn't gone wrong in over 4 years... So whats the likelihood of mine going wrong ?

Did yours?

im on year 3 right now and havnt had a single issue

only thing I am noticing tho is that the harddrive is startting to get real sluggish and loud

so that is prob gonna fail soon and i dont think apple care covers that

Applecare certainly covers a hard drive, also, I always assume a HDD is not going to make it to three years old and swop out any that are that age for new ones.

As to the OP, I'd be tempted. Having got an iMac here that has just had the wifi card crap out on me.

I've been a mac user for more than 10 years. Currently have a mac pro for photo/video work and an imac for surfing the web. The only problems I have ever had (knock on wood) is hard drive failure.

okay....just looked over my policy book that i got when i first bought it.

Yes it does cover hard drive replacement at an apple approved repair shop. Most of your local mac stores can not do hard drive replacement so you will have to send it in to apple and it says it should be about 6 weeks to repair. They also can not save data for you.

3 years having this imac im ready for a newer one so if it was to die out now i dont think id mind spending the 1300 for a new one

It's insurance. If you aren't comfortable making repairs, buy the insurance.
The only time you'd be really screwed without it is if the motherboard or onboard video dies.

I've had a bad hard drive and power supply on a mid-2007 24-inch iMac. Replaced them on my own, though. Uses a regular hard drive and a power supply from a Mac parts supplier online.
I was able to upgrade the HD when I replace it on my own, which was nice.
The power supply blew because I was using a standard UPS, rather than one that generates a pure sine wave output (google "PFC power supply UPS") if you aren't aware of the difference.

If the motherboard had blown, I'd have bought a new iMac and moved on with work the same day using the Time Machine backup.

We've had about 7 iMacs over the years and they are largely reliable, but just like Toyotas you may find that you need to do repairs, no matter how reliable.

Chris, any Apple store will replace a hard drive in a day or so.

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Thanks for the input guys.

I think I'm just gonna go ahead and get it anyway. Working it out, its less than 20 pence a day (About 33 cents)

20 pence a day for peace of mind is nothing, and I dont mind paying it...

on my biz partners imac the screen failed after 1.5 years and along with that they also replaced the HD. on my macbook pro part of the backlight is broken after 3 years - if you ask me, from what i also read on apple boards, their stuff fails a lot considering how much money it costs. but they just announced a record revenue and profit...

going on 4th year..no problems...yet..but their will be and I'll be ready to trash it like that last one that lasted aprox 3 years..i'll never go back to MAC..they are not that "hot" brand anymore and no cheap software for them..pc are now slicker, cheaper, freeware...fuck it

I just had an hdd replaced under warranty at a small authorized Mac repair shop. Took all of 15 minutes.

I've had: iMac (still do actually at work), powerbook, macbook, macbook pro (currently on), powermac, and macpro.

Not had a single issue yet except the battery died on the powerbook about 3 years into it (it was plugged in and running 24/7 pretty much for those 3 years which their batteries weren't built for back then).

I definitely wouldn't worry about it, specially only after a year. I don't actually get applecare on any of my computers from them, it's insurance - and their stuff is usually great and doesn't die anyway (and sometimes if it does it's still covered under warranty).

both austin texas ones told me no they cant

I've been working on mine for over 3 years and it runs fine. I have never had to re-format it or anything. I always have about 8-10 programs running and has hardly ever crashed

in my desktop pc i have an 11 year old and a 6 year old hdd and theres nothing wrong with them... so hdd's can be used much longer than 3 yrs

Might be more important with a laptop. I've had a couple of Mac laptops fail with logic board issues in years 2-3. Consider putting stuff on an AMEX, they double manufacturer warranty.

knock on wood, been on mac since 1996 and have never had a comp die. I ran the shit out of my 600mhz imac, 1 Ghz emac, 1.9 Ghz imac and currently on my 3 Ghz imac.

I don't recall saying they *couldn't* be used past three years.

However all hard drives will die. 100% failure. No doubt about it. There are two types of people in this world, those that have had hard drives die on them and those that are going to.

But 11 years old! Jesus man! You're brave! :)

not sure how it is in the UK, but my motherboard went out on my 3 year old macbook pro a few months ago, took it to the apple store to get fixed. estimate was $1100, they fixed it for free. no idea why, but i had another friend have a similar situation a month later, same problem, fixed free. i think apple is trying to retain customers, and with some of the more expensive things they are eating it to keep customers happy

I never buy additional insurance/warrantee:2 cents:
If you buy it, You betting your equipment is going to break, the vender is betting it's not.

it's just a computer, if it breaks it was probably time to buy new one anyway :thumbsup

you guys are paying $200 for warranty for a 3 year old computer that is worth maybe $500? :error

BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT. BUY IT.

Shit happens and when it does it's expensive.

I was fucking with some cables and rearranging my stereo on my desk, I dropped the RCA cable coming out of my Mac, it bounced once and landed on my power strip, shorting out the sound card on the logic board. A one in a million shot.

1 butter fingers move cost me $700.

I've got a three year old iMac, and the only thing that has happened was HDD failure. I replaced it myself in about 15 minutes.

Also got a 3 year old MacBook Pro and a 2 year old MacBook Pro.... no problems of any kind.