New Intel Tunning Plan - Overclock Insurance

[Buckeye]

New Intel Overclock Insurance

http://click.intel.com/tuningplan/

Thoughts ?

Performance Tuning Protection Plan by Intel®


Plan Pricing
Customer Product Name Plan Price
Intel® Core™ i5-2500K $20.00
Intel® Core™ i7-2600K $25.00
Intel® Core™ i7-2700K $25.00
Intel® Core™ i7-3930K $35.00
Intel® Core™ i7-3960X $35.00

[Hondacity]

Its Intel's protection program from overclockers. Once you sign up. It means you're an overclocker (overvolting machine lol). They'll refuse warranty on your next other Intel purchases? I'm a little skeptical about this.

I'm sure Intel is getting more and more rma's because of overclocking. I know they know that their cpus are very reliable. With increased rma from overclockers. Having this program exposes who is that "overclocker".

[Manicdan]

Exclusions to Coverage. This Plan does NOT cover:

Any costs associated with the removal of the Eligible Processor and/or installation of the replacement, including without limitation, labor, damages to the system, downtime, or any consequential costs incurred by you, and in particular, any costs related to the removal or replacement of any Eligible Processor that is soldered or otherwise permanently affixed to any printed circuit board; OR
Damage to the Eligible Processor due to external causes, including accident, problems with electrical power, abnormal electrical, mechanical or environmental conditions, usage not in accordance with product instructions, misuse, neglect, alteration, repair, improper installation, or improper testing; OR
Any Eligible Processor which has been modified or where the original proprietary markings (trademark, logo or serial number) have been removed, altered or obliterated from the Eligible Processor; OR
Damage to any other component(s) within the system housing the Eligible Processor or the replacement processor.

[Buckeye]

There is a lot involved in this really.

Not everyone is going to see this link on Intels site and they will do what they normally do.. Lie
If you go through a plan this does not get tied to a CPU serial number. I buy 5x CPU's and 1 plan.

They should just add this onto the cost of every CPU really.

Advertisment of CPU's and now Intel Motherboards say something like... so easy to overclock your grand mother can do it. So people do and break them.
It doesn't say on the "outside" of the box that if you use this product as its advertised you will void the warrenty... unless you pay this new hidden fee.
All these new Intel motherboards that I saw plenty of reviews for in this last wave say nothing about overclocking voids the warrenty.

Last question... when some one buys a Xtreme Edition Unlocked CPU are they just going to run it stock ? No, the reason we buy those is to overclock them so just add that cost into the price of the CPU.

Intel still has much to do to work out this problem, but at least something is being done.

[Hondacity]

Its simply a trap for overclockers.

[Manicdan]

They should just add this onto the cost of every CPU really.

they already do, its called the K edition and costs about 20-30$ more so you can use the unlocked speeds.
might as well tack on this warranty at no charge for those cpus that also "magically" ended up being the same ones listed on this new tax

[Buckeye]

Agreed Manicdan

[basserdan]

So, this just seems like a pretty sweet deal to me. From this thread it seems like there's a lot of suspicion that it's a trap maybe, a conspiracy to log oc'ers for future warranty denials

Personally, I doubt it. I don't think this gives them any more of a way to prove too much voltage for future procs than they could discern from procs returned prior to this offer. Either they can tell or they cannot. I don't know how many chips are returned, over a year, from unabused failures (not oc'd). Aside from design glitches or known faulty batches, I'll bet it's relatively few. I mean Intel sells a butt-load of chips each year. If it's not obvious that the failure is from oc'n (in which case they'd have denied you anyway), I doubt they go back through their records to determine if you waranteed an enthusiast class cpu in order to deny you service, based on suspicion.

I think it's a pretty benign offer. You bought an enthusiast proc and if you really want to push it, we'll cover it for next to nothing. $35 on a $600 cpu for the freedom to be a less carefull when I push it sounds pretty damned reasonable. On top of that, you don't even have to buy it for a year. Basically, you get to test it out and see if you're even going to need it. I also think the fairly low cost shows Intel has little concern that you'll damage it before you find a stable oc.

I'm not one to buy warranties on all my electronics crap. They're usually stupid expensive (this will add up fast over the years) and I don't intend to use them outside of their design specs. Any failure should only be the manufacturers fault! It's as bad to me as shipping insurance, "I have to insure against your failing to do your very job"?

Am I naive?

[GripS]

I'd be curious to know what research was done to estimate how many people will elect to receive coverage vs. how many people who will end up using it.

I'm thinking it is NOT a trap and a pretty smart business decision that has multiple results. With this plan I believe intel will not only make a profit but they will also be able to potentially gather useful data on how to improve the durability of the chips.

I'm running on stock voltage so I have no plans to enroll. But for the heavyweights using phase and LN2 I think they'd be all over this.

[MisterMagoo]

I'd be curious to know what research was done to estimate how many people will elect to receive coverage vs. how many people who will end up using it.

I'm thinking it is NOT a trap and a pretty smart business decision that has multiple results. With this plan I believe intel will not only make a profit but they will also be able to potentially gather useful data on how to improve the durability of the chips.

I'm running on stock voltage so I have no plans to enroll. But for the heavyweights using phase and LN2 I think they'd be all over this.

You are only allowed one "Get out of jail free" card, and the replacement chip is not eligible for this plan. Most people doing LN2 runs have many chips to bin. I still got it a while back though, not worried about degrading chips and by the time I use mine I will likely get new stepping on the replacement to boot.