Insurance payout - your opinions

BlastRadius · 16 Nov 2006 at 23:44

Hi all,

Well after 8 and a half weeks of having no PC (of my own) my insurance finally paid out. I had hoped for a cash payout but I got a custom built.

This is what I had:

A tower (generic)
Foxconn Mobo socket 754
AMD64 3000+
2 X 1G generic ddr400
2 Seagate Barracuda 160G
Antec truepower2 550W
X-Fi Extreme music
1 Gainward Bliss 7800GS 512mb (AGP obviously)
CD/RW
DVD/RW
Goodmans 17" TFT
Ran pretty good for what it was hadn't thought of upgrading until it leapt to its death.

This is roughly what I got, not too sure because the paperwork is lame:

An Asus Midi Tower (Loud twin fans front and back)
MSI K9N NEO Socket AM2 Nvidia 550 Chipset
AMD64 3800 (CPUZ shows it as an FX47?)
2 X 1G OCZ Platinum Pc6400 DDR2 800
2 WD Caviar 160G HDDs
1 Creative X-FI Fatality (lmao)
1 Hiper PSU (havn't looked at the rating yet)
1 BFG 7950 KO 512mb (meh!)
SATA DVD/RW
SATA CD/RW
17" BenQ monitor

Seems like a pretty good deal to me. Not sure on the X-Fi Fatality, the GPU isn't one of my favourites but seems pretty nippy. Case is as loud as hell though, the fans are being ripped out as soon as I can get some Akasa Ambers.

On the plus side I suppose all I need to do is buy a Conroe (e6600) and a decent motherboard and then I am all set to go.

I was so hoping to have the cash rather than a replacement but that seems to be a no go with insurance companies. Had a real battle getting anything out of them and the service I got was completely shocking.

Any thoughts?

Just Ran 3Dmark05 (free version) and got 9338. Big update from my previous rig, guess my drivers need updating though.

acharris · 17 Nov 2006 at 00:32

Not a pretty bad spec for a replacement, faster CPU with newer socket for future CPU using the 940, good quality ram, nice GFX, sata drives. The only thing I think was better in yours really were the HD's, as I like my Segate Barracudas. Also nice mobo as well.

Pretty good overall I think for what you had before. Fans are easy enough to change over though.

Anthony

SiriusB · 17 Nov 2006 at 01:15

Agreed, that's a pretty nice spec. Looks like someone in their "technical" department had a clue.

SiriusB

meghatronic · 17 Nov 2006 at 01:18

Can I ask what insurance company?

BlastRadius · 17 Nov 2006 at 08:24

Not sure I am allowed to say the insurance company. It is the one with the red phone as its trademark. :eek:

Am pretty sure that I will not be renewing my cover with them after all of the delays though. Still am happy with the comp, they even took the time to run all the cables out of sight and sheeth the ones that did have to show.

I never had my computer listed as a seperate item on my insurance; for the love of god people ALWAYS list your PC seperately.. you will save a lot of hastle if it all goes wrong.

glenimp617 · 17 Nov 2006 at 09:33

My mum got a cash payout mate and I built her something TONS better than what she had. They don't have a clue about anything IT related. They just contact their PC suppliers and state a value and they built you a machine for that price.

mikeymike · 17 Nov 2006 at 09:52

ive only ever had a laptop on insurance, it was identical to my old one cept it had a larger HDD by like 15gigs or something, seems the company i went with had a clue unfortunately

meghatronic · 17 Nov 2006 at 12:11

BlastRadius said:
Not sure I am allowed to say the insurance company. It is the one with the red phone as its trademark.

Am pretty sure that I will not be renewing my cover with them after all of the delays though. Still am happy with the comp, they even took the time to run all the cables out of sight and sheeth the ones that did have to show.

I never had my computer listed as a seperate item on my insurance; for the love of god people ALWAYS list your PC seperately.. you will save a lot of hastle if it all goes wrong.

N00b question but...

When you say list as seperate item - do you need to include all the components and prices (proof?) etc..?

SiriusB · 17 Nov 2006 at 12:26

Be good if you have proof of the components in case the PC is complete destroyed or stolen, but I don't think he means inform the insurance company of each component.

Basically tell your insurance that you have a computer you want as a named item and it cost you £xxxx.

Should anything happen you should be covered to around 1.5K i believe [depends on insurance company tho I expect]. You are also more likely to get a replacement worthy of your original since you told em how much it cost you. You will also have proof of components.

SiriusB

BlastRadius · 17 Nov 2006 at 20:18

SiriusB said:
Be good if you have proof of the components in case the PC is complete destroyed or stolen, but I don't think he means inform the insurance company of each component.

Basically tell your insurance that you have a computer you want as a named item and it cost you £xxxx.

Should anything happen you should be covered to around 1.5K i believe [depends on insurance company tho I expect]. You are also more likely to get a replacement worthy of your original since you told em how much it cost you. You will also have proof of components.

SiriusB

Spot on my man. Mine was not named hence why they kept trying to palm me off with the computer brand that sounds like smell.

They are very very stringent on their investigation too, kinda to the point where you feel guilty for claiming. Still I am quite happy just gotta use earmuffs until I can get some more case fans.