DailyTech - Intel Offers Overclocking Insurance For $20-$35 on Core i5, i7 Chips

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Hardware Intel Offers Overclocking Insurance For $20-$35 on Core i5, i7 Chips
Jason Mick (Blog) - January 19, 2012 10:30 AM

18 comment(s) - last by rburnham.. on Jan 23 at 3:48 PM

Plan is in test phase, but may be somewhat redundant given chips' increasingly protective features

Intel Corp. (INTC) is pioneering an unusual policy -- condoning overclocking for a small fee.

Traditionally if you overclocked your Intel CPU you voided its warranty. But with Intel increasingly selling CPUs and chipsets with unlocked clock speed and memory bus speed settings, the company has followed in the line of some high end graphics card makers (and a handful of gaming systems builders), who have guaranteed warranties on overclocked devices.

Intel will offer warranties on the Core i5 2500K for a one-time purchase of $20 USD, on the Core i7 2600K or 2700K for $25 USD, and on the Core i7 3930K or 3960X for $35 USD. In exchange if customers damage their CPU by overclocking it, they will get a one time replacement.

The "K" and "X" notations on these chips represent increasing degrees of BIOS unlocking/overclocking freedom.

Any retail customer who purchases one of the supported chips has access to the new plan during this pilot phase. And buyers who purchase assembled systems from four custom PC vendors -- Cyberpower, Canada's Computers and Electronics, the U.K.'s Scan Computers, and Australia's Altech Computers -- will also receive the protection as part of their bundle purchase of select models.

The warranties may be a bit superfluous to all but most extreme overclockers, as Intel's CPUs and chipsets typically have factory resets to protect the system against thermal damage from overclocking. Some do override these protections, but it can be a difficult process involving custom BIOS, so for most the protection plan largely overlaps with existing hardware protections.

That said, the move is perceived as a boost to business, as it should help give some consumers peace of mind when buying from small shops, as the program contains allowances for small "mom and pop" computer builders who sell overclocked machines using off the shelf parts (the restriction on assembled systems only applies to large retailers who order their chips in bulk).

Everything you need to know about Intel's "Performance Tuning Protection Plan" can be found here, including legal Terms & Conditions and an informative (hopefully) FAQ.

Intel has also recently played with the idea of selling $50 processor "upgrades" which enable firmware locked features, such as greater overclocking freedom or slightly higher stock clock speeds.

Source: Intel

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Overclocking insurance?

By masamasa on 1/19/2012 11:08:03 AM , Rating: 2

Talk about an 'intended' cash grab. While they're at it, why don't they offer nut insurance, in case you fry your nuts while overclocking!

RE: Overclocking insurance?

By xti on 1/19/2012 11:19:36 AM , Rating: 3

they are selling thin air. they are gonna get more money from selling the "warranty" than the costs of taking dead chips from overclockers (who are a tiny, tiny part of the population)

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RE: Overclocking insurance?

By dubldwn on 1/19/2012 11:45:47 AM , Rating: 2

Plenty of folks fried their i5/i7 through overvoltage, or at least had it show signs of degradation. I dunno. I think it would be fun to push a new chip all the way to see how far you can take it, and then have them send you another one.

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RE: Overclocking insurance?

By ppardee on 1/19/2012 7:08:21 PM , Rating: 2

Yeah, but the amount you can overclock a chip varies by individual chips even within the same model. Overclocking works because the speed that they run at is the highest speed that most (like 99%) of the chips within the model will run at reliably. It is possible that you could overclock yours 30%, but overclocking mine by 5% causes BSODs. Just the luck of the draw. So you could fry a good chip by trying to push it too far (I've seen some crack at high enough speeds - not enough cooling) and get a dud that won't overclock for nuthin'.

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RE: Overclocking insurance?

By ekv on 1/19/2012 8:27:15 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Yeah, but the amount you can overclock a chip varies by individual chips even within the same model.

Granted there is variation, but ... the job of sites like AnandTech (et al.) are to do the dirty work for us. Let them fry a cpu (or three). If they find out their CPU can overclock X% under a given set of conditions, then yes I'll likely try that, with the understanding that YMMV [Your Mileage May Vary, except this is computers]. If I don't get X% then maybe it's a dud.

Every mobo I've tried in the last couple years will even suggest when I may be pushing a parameter too far. For example, one of my systems, an i5-2500K will do an insane OC, even on air alone, but I generally keep it at a mild OC [lower temps & power consumption]. Profiles are great for tweaking.

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RE: Overclocking insurance?

By Samus on 1/20/2012 7:58:42 PM , Rating: 2

I've heard of people killing CPU's, mostly early Bloomfield C0 chips like the i7-920. The D0's overclocked substantially better and typically the limiting factor was the x58 chipset.

Ever since the 60-series chipsets and Sandy Bridge, I haven't heard of a chip out-right failing.

However, there can always be fragmented damaged to a chip that is overclocked and overvolted over a long period, decreasing its stable clock speed. Over time, the stable clock speed could become lower than the factory clock.

So although a chip might not be completely dead, it is plausable that some people might take the opportunity to exchange a fragged chip for a fresh one after a year or so.

But the real question is...how does Intel know if you're overclocking a chip? Retail CPU's already have a 2 year warranty, right?

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RE: Overclocking insurance?

By ilt24 on 1/19/2012 12:28:07 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
they are gonna get more money from selling the "warranty" than the costs of taking dead chips from overclockers (who are a tiny, tiny part of the population)

Unless you think non-overclockers are going to buy the insurance; I'm not sure how what you say is possible.

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RE: Overclocking insurance?

By someguy123 on 1/19/2012 4:46:32 PM , Rating: 2

Why would anyone but overclockers buy this? The chips already automatically overclock within warranty.

This is a really asinine thing to complain about because out of spec overclocking normally breaks warranty. It's at the very least an option to get covered, which could be very useful for overclock happy enthusiasts with extreme edition chips covered in LN2.

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RE: Overclocking insurance?

By Reclaimer77 on 1/19/2012 12:31:47 PM , Rating: 2

So instead of giving kudos to Intel for officially supporting overclocking, we have to find a way to make them the bad guy?

It seemed like just a few years ago when I had to literally pencil a pathway by hand on my Athlon (or was it a K6? can't remember) to bridge two CPU pins so I could even get it to overclock. Fast foward to today, and man, it's no comparison! You even get insurance? That's awesome!

Cash grab? Even if some overclockers went for this, we're talking about people who spend tens of thousands on PC hardware a year in a crazy obsession. This isn't even a drop in the bucket.

These are people who buy the $1,000+ Extreme Editions and over-volt it to within an inch of it's life. You don't think $20 is better than buying an entire new $1k CPU? And make no mistake, when you're pushing a CPU that far past the envelope they can and DO fail.

Cash grab? Intel could probably raise their CPU prices by one cent across the board and make far more than this ever will.

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RE: Overclocking insurance?

By PrinceGaz on 1/20/2012 6:29:02 AM , Rating: 1

If you buy the $1,000+ chips, the insurance for them is at the $35 end of the scale, not $20.

Still, if you believe there is a greater than 1 in 30 chance of frying your chip within its useful life, paying $35 up front for a replacement makes sense. At least it does provided there is nothing in the small-print which invalidates the insurance should you do certain things to the chip (increasing the voltage beyond a certain predefined amount would be one I wouldn't be surprised to find).

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Seems like a bit of a con to me.

By Prime2515103 on 1/19/2012 10:45:40 AM , Rating: 2

I've never fried a processor in 16 years of overclocking.

If one did fry, could they even be able to tell if it wasn't just a defective CPU? I know back in the day graphics chip companies had a tendency to say that they can, but I doubt it.

This might be good for extreme overclockers I guess (LN2 etc).

RE: Seems like a bit of a con to me.

By GulWestfale on 1/19/12, Rating: 0

RE: Seems like a bit of a con to me.

By Flunk on 1/19/2012 12:37:12 PM , Rating: 3

From my experience with the i5 2500K it's one of the hardest to damage processors ever made. It if overheats it automatically clocks itself down. This is just pure gravy for them.

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RE: Seems like a bit of a con to me.

By martyrant on 1/19/2012 1:37:32 PM , Rating: 2

They can't tell. This is certainly just a cash grab. I have fried many processors, even the EE's that go for $500-1000, and have never had a problem RMAing them. In fact, it's common for extreme overclockers simply to go out and buy a new EE while they wait on the RMA and simply sell the RMA off to a friend (as the RMA comes in a retail box). I have done this with both AMD and Intel (remember the AMD FX-55? I killed that thing twice and got replacements) and have never got any flack from their RMA department or even a question about it.

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RE: Seems like a bit of a con to me.

By someguy123 on 1/19/2012 5:00:00 PM , Rating: 3

Wait...who's being unethical here, intel for giving seemingly arbitrary insurance, or you for destroying chips through overclocking and sneaking them past RMA?

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RE: Seems like a bit of a con to me.

By martyrant on 1/19/2012 11:00:09 PM , Rating: 2

Where and when did I claim to be ethical in my ways? Silly troll.

Anyway, when you are paying $500-1000 for a chip designed to overclock and you kill it by overclocking, I do not see an ethics issue. On lower end chips? Maybe, but let's be honest...are these companies ethical? No. I can recall a 5 year old reciting to me 'the golden rule' right now. You could debate this until the horse is ten times dead and beaten, but in the end, AMD nor Intel has complained about me giving them money and them honoring their product.

I have never tried to deceive them when replacing the chip, but there also (at least the last time I killed one) isn't a box saying "Did you overclock this chip?" to check off on the RMA form.

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