[GadgetGuy]

I called Sonic Blue and I told them I was interested in the 4040 they said it was out of stock (yeah, I know) and said they had the 4080 and 4320 in stock. I said they were to expensive and the sales person came down $50 on the 4080 (plan working). I continued to whine and the price fell another $50 (success!). Making it $899.


I have two questions for discussion:


1) Is it worth paying a $200 or $300 premium for 80hrs over 40hrs especially when hacking and the wonderful SwapDV and are so much cheaper?


2) Is it worth waiting for the Replay 4504?

 

[whirly]

It all depends on how badly and how soon you want it. Since I already have my 4040 and have already upgraded it to a 4120, I would wait for the 45xx and then buy the cheapest one. A few hours and $200 will give you a 4160 out of any unit you buy. It appears that the 4504 will be roughly the same price as the 4040 was ($699) after you pay the lifetime subscription. So you need to decide if sooner is better and worth the price.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Did you have any misgivings about voiding your warranty?

 

[pu82]

It's all a matter of opportunity cost. Let''s say you bought a 4040 for $700. You upgrade it to 320 hours for say $500. You have a $2000 machine for $1200. If it breaks down during the warranty period, you can't have Sonicblue replace it. If it breaks down after the warranty period, they likely will have some exhcnage program like they do for the legacy systems, it might cost you $200-300 if you can put the original hard drive back. Worst case scenario is a breakdown during the in-warranty period. If that happens, just buy another 4504 for $700. Your total cost now would be $1900, still $100 better than if you bought a 4320 or 4532. It all depends on how much confidence you have in the technology's reliability.


If you want to start with a 40 hour, use it for a few months to shake down the components before you upgrade it. Most things that fail (except for the hard drive and other surge related issues) go down in the first few days of use. After several months, you may be in the clear.