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We all know that ?extended warranties? are a suckers bet. The company offering the warranty has done the actuarial analysis and calculated the probability of failure, cost of replacement/repair, the likelihood people will claim after a period of time, and etc. In short, an ?extended warranty? is by definition probably not your best investment unless you are particularly abusive to your belongings or fairly unlucky. Now the flip side. I had an nVidia PCIe display card in my computer. I say ?had? I do still have it, but it has ceased to behave like a display card and has started, in essence, to function as nothing more than a paperweight. I should have known that if the fan on the card got loaded with dust, and ceased to rotate, that the card would then, in turn, cease to display. Permanently. So, I found myself heading out to Microcenter last night to buy a replacement. I'm not a gamer and don't care about speed. All I do care about is that I can run dual monitors. It needs two outputs that can be displayed as one surface. I found the nearest equivalent. After instant rebate and a mail-in rebate, the end cost is $39.99. So, $40 dollars. At the register, I was asked if I wanted the extended warranty. Of course I said no. It was $19.99 for two years. Basically half the end-price of the card. The previous card, now a paperweight, was just over two years old. I would not have been able to get it replaced and even if I did, they would have the option of ?replace? or ?repair? which means they could send it back to the factory and make me wait. Even if I could have gotten a full replacement, for free, with no problems, Microcenter does not carry the card anymore. Again, I would have to wait for a replacement. So, if I pay $19.99 for the extended warranty, I'd probably never use it because if the card failed, I'd need a replacement sooner than I could realistically get one. Even if I could, at most, it appears I would have saved about $20 by paying $19.99 two years ago. Granted inflation is pretty stable, but I'm pretty sure that 2008 $19.99 is worth more today in 2010. It hardly seems worth the trouble. Then there's the question of dusting. Is it even worth dusting? ?Dustoff? or similar hydrocarbon sprays are bad for the environment. If you had raw compressed air, that would be better. Maybe a vacuum? The next question is how often would you need to dust and what is the total combined time? How much is your time worth? I don't know. Maybe I'll vacuum out the dust in this card next year. If I remember. If I even have the computer next year. I could be due for an upgrade......
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