Warranting A Warranty

I got my Macbook Pro back from the Apple Store yesterday, and I'll be damned if it isn't a quieter running machine than when I first bought it. Thanks to the Apple one-year warranty (which was ready to expire exactly one month from when I brought the computer in to be repaired), what would have been over $1300 in repairs cost me nothing.

I'm not very familiar with the warranty policies of many other retailers, but Apple offers the ability to extend the warranty to a full three years up until the last day of the one-year warranty (for between $200 and $350). With the end of my warranty in sight, I decided I'd preemptively pay for any future repairs and extended the warranty. If I have a problem anything like what I just dealt with, the investment will have paid for itself fourfold.