[JnC]

We just got our first refurbished 10v. It appears clean and works fine, we assume.
We installed 10.6 without a hitch and are ready to update.

We have a few questions:

1. We are used to all our Macs living forever. What should we expect here with the 10v?

2a. We did not purchase the 3 year extended warranty. Is it worth it to purchase the $190/3 year warranty offer we just received in the mail?
2b. Will Dell touch a mini with only OS X installed and Windows gone?

3a. Are we better off purchasing another 10v while they are still available as a backup insurance plan (a netbook is a great solution to our travel computer needs and much lighter than our iBook)?

3b. Will you wonderful experts here be able to continue to update the installers so we'll be able to put OS X on the newer Dell netbooks (is the 1012 working well yet?)

Thanks,
J

[holmes4]

If not mistreated, the 10v should remain functional for at least several years. The hard drive may fail over time, like with any computer, and the battery will lose its capacity. Macs aren't immune to failure. Typically with portable computers, physical wear and tear has more of an effect than component failure.

I don't see the point in purchasing another 10v - the state of the art advances rapidly and the 10v is really a 3-4 year old design, component-wise.

Who knows what the future holds for hackintoshing? Clearly there is a lot of interest in this and I'd expect efforts to continue. The 1012 isn't "working well" at this time.

[reflex]

Seems pointless to get an extended warranty on a hackintosh, 'cause if the unit fails, Dell may decide to send you a Mini which can't be hackintoshed.

I'd hold onto your money. If the 10v dies in a year or three, spend that money on a new netbook which can be hackintoshed. At that time, if you think a 10v is still the best choice for a hackintosh netbook, buy a couple on eBay (they should get much cheaper as time passes)

[JnC]

Originally Posted by holmes4

If not mistreated, the 10v should remain functional for at least several years. The hard drive may fail over time, like with any computer, and the battery will lose its capacity. Macs aren't immune to failure...

I'm hoping to get more than "several years" out of the mini.

In addition to our newer Macs, we have 3 "vintage Macs" - one over 24 years old and still going...We treat them well, take the laptops traveling, but always we are mindful of giving them special care.

Thanks for your other advice - we'll wait and see what the future holds.

J

---------- Post added at 05:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:02 PM ----------

Originally Posted by reflex

Seems pointless to get an extended warranty on a hackintosh, 'cause if the unit fails, Dell may decide to send you a Mini which can't be hackintoshed.

I hadn't thought of that - good point.

Thanks,
J

[holmes4]

The points of failure in any portable computer tend to be the things that move or get plugged/unplugged - especially the power jack. My son had a Compaq laptop that was just fine - except he had abused the power connector so much that it failed, and it was soldered to the mainboard, rendering the whole laptop junk. At least on the Minis, the power jack is on a small, replaceable board, but if you take care not to put strain on the connector, it should be good for a long time.

Components, such as capacitors, do fail, but you can't predict that. The parts that do tend to have known failure modes are easily replaceable (hard drive, battery), so that's ok.

[JnC]

Thanks for the information, Steve.