Overclocking a CPU has the potential to be a risky procedure. On one hand you can get significantly more performance out of your chip. On the other hand, you are bringing extra heat to the table, which has the potential to burn out your processor if you aren’t very careful. Intel might make your decision about whether or not to try overclocking an easy one by offering you insurance that protects against damaging chips.
Intel is calling their new CPU insurance the Performance Tuning Protection Plan. Five of their unlocked CPUs are covered under the plan, which essentially provides coverage for the case where you overclock your chip and the extra heat damages it.
The insurance can be purchased at any point within the first year after CPU purchase and it provides three years of coverage. If you purchase the plan and then burn out your CPU by overclocking it, Intel will simply replace it free of charge.
The price for coverage depends on the model you want to cover, but overall it seems like a pretty cheap thing to do. The pricing for the five CPUs currently covered is:
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
It is worth noting that you are only eligible for one replacement per processor and the coverage doesn’t transfer over to the replacement. What isn’t clear from the FAQ is whether or not you can buy the plan again for the replacement processor, although I would venture to guess the answer to that is no.
Do any of you folks overclock your processors? If you do, would you consider purchasing this? Let us know what you think in the comments.
